Netflix Losing Hunger Games and More With Hulu Snagging Them Instead

Netflix’s losses are Hulu’s gains in the ongoing TV/movie streaming wars wherein no one is the winner—though especially not cable.

Yesterday, Netflix announced on its blog that the company’s movie deal with Epix is coming to an end, which means that the service will lose some high profile titles:

Meanwhile, we have decided not to renew our agreement in the US with Epix, the cable network, which means that some high profile movies including Hunger Games: Catching Fire, World War Z and Transformers: Age of Extinction, will expire at the end of September in the US. If you want to see them on Netflix US, now is the time.

While many of these movies are popular, they are also widely available on cable and other subscription platforms at the same time as they are on Netflix and subject to the same drawn out licensing periods. Through our original films and some innovative licensing arrangements with the movie studios, we are aiming to build a better movie experience for you.

Personally, I don’t feel a great loss with World War Z or Transformers, but those are just the big, currently relevant movies dropping off the map—there are surely others that aren’t horrible. But Netflix doesn’t think those movies are why you’re coming to Netflix anyway, and they’ve got more of what Netflix does best coming your way in their place. In other words, “We’re dumping them, not getting dumped.” Still, this will also affect future Netflix offerings as well, with them missing out on new releases from Epix, as well.

Hulu, on the other hand, is more than happy to pick up what Netflix claims not to need, and they’re a bit more inclined to drop some higher profile movie titles into the mix:

Recent hits from EPIX, including Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation, Interstellar, Selma, Top Five and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, which have never before been available on a streaming SVOD service, will become available on Hulu in the coming months.

At launch, blockbuster films such as, Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Trek: Into Darkness, World War Z, Wolf of Wall Street, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, Robocop, God’s Not Dead, and more, will become available to Hulu subscribers for the first time.

So there you have it. The only way to make sure you can watch everything continues to be paying for a bunch of different services and then still sometimes buying stuff on iTunes, Amazon, or Google. But at least you don’t need cable, right?

(via Gizmodo)

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