[kardashian007]

I cancelled my subscription in 2010: the streaming catalog was pitiful and mailing DVDs to-and-fro was just too inconvenient.

It's worse than a chicken-egg problem because it's a triple-ended market: users, content sellers and content owners.

Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Amazon, TPB, TV, theaters ain't the final word in content monetization (or lack thereof) and distribution (or also lacking). If say Netflix were to split up their business into b2c subscriptions and b2b2c fulfillment platform, more studios and others might opt to build their own marketplaces but use the fulfillment service... which strengthens Netflix's overall position and de-conflicts their interactions with studios because it turns them into potential customers instead of just adversarial vendors whom seem to want to charge too much for their catalogs. Let them find out how much it costs to build and promote a streaming subscription service, and then they may be more receptive to negotiating in reality.

[brianwawok]

Their self made content is where it's at.

Who cares about 100k old movies. Good stuff like House of Cards and Orange is the new Black and Stranger Things with no commercials?

[DarthMader]

Agreed. On top of that Netflix is by far the best platform for Marvel superheroes. Daredevil, Jessica Jones and now Luke Cage are quality shows that would not work as well on TV and IMO have been far more enjoyable than most Marvel movies. The extra 10 hours for these tv series afford writers an opportunity to build better villains, examine more themes and more surprises.

[detaro]

Different target groups though (IMHO).

"10 bucks a month for the knowledge that I can watch whatever movie I feel like right now" is a completely different value proposition from "10 bucks a month for access to new, well-made TV series, of which I might find 1 or 2 interesting at a time". Some people want the one, others prefer the other.