Does Netflix Give Enough Warning When Streaming Titles Expire?

Phil writes, "Have you noticed the fact that they give very, very little notice about titles that are being removed from streaming?  I'm guessing it is likely Starz calling the shots here, but I've noticed I never get more than a week's notice when something is going to be pulled.  That is very frustrating sometimes, especially when it's a series that I then either have to decide to not watch, or blaze through in the little notice they've given. 

Example: a friend told me about Spartacus: Blood and Sand a couple of months ago.  I haven't had a chance to watch it, so I added it to my queue.  Last weekend, I realized they said it was now "available until 8/20".  I was very interested in watching the show, so I had to commit some time to blow through all 13 episodes in 5 days (that's a lot more TV watching than I usually do), which is frustrating since one of the things I like about having Netflix is that I can watch things at my leisure."

What do you think? Does Netflix give enough warning as to when streaming titles will expire?

Comments

[RowdyReptile]

That's especially interesting for Spartacus, because the DVD/blu-ray isn't available yet (until Sep 21). It was *only* available for streaming. With other movies, when streaming expires you can still request the disc.

[Samuel]

It's also fun when you cram in all that time to watch the show before it expires only to find out the license to continue streaming was renewed...

[PS3 fanboi]

5 days - pfff...

I watched Spartacus in a single sitting one Saturday...

[vio]

Yeah, wasn't South Park supposed to expire? Yet I just checked yesterday and all seasons of the show are still streaming. Not that I'm complaining or anything.

[Eric Rosario]

Netflix does NOT give enough warning. I now use FeedFliks to monitor streaming expiration dates.

[Crow550]

I had to get through Spartacus: Blood & Sand too.

Which I must say the first couple of Episodes were lame. It picks up a lot in Episode 4 & on.

Anyways Netflix needs to give a 4-5 week notice!

[BP]

Anyone who watches "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" should probably be banned from having an opinion about anything.

Signed,
The Taste Police

[Dan Geiser]

The Netflix website might do a poor job of displaying the expiration in a timely manner but all of the information is most likely stored in the DB and accessible via the API. If you use a site like InstantWatcher which taps into the API you can see the current complete list of expiring titles.

[Scrivner]

"Anyone who watches "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" should probably be banned from having an opinion about anything.
Signed,
The Taste Police"

Haha. I consider it a guilty pleasure! ;)

[Knaldskalle]

It used to be that they gave a month's notice on when IW titles expired. People complained about that too, since a large part of the expiring titles would get renewed during that time (contract negotiations are like that) and people rushed to watch titles they thought would vanish, only to discover that the titles remained available.

And then of course, there were the titles that didn't get renewed and vanished while people were busy watching something else...

So Netflix changed their policy to only give a week's notice and now that's also a problem. What are they to do?

Instantwatcher.com lists expiration dates for all IW titles, for what it's worth.

[Dennis]

Well, FeedFliks isn't completely reliable, either. It told me I had six titles in my IW queue that were no longer streamable. But they are.

[Matt]

I watched the first episode of Spartacus and decided it wasn't worth trying to finish it in time. As others have said, InstantWatcher and FeedFliks are two ways to get advanced notice on when streaming will end.

[Tomguy]

That is why I did a Dexter marathon -- watching Season 1 and 2 in 3 days.

Netflix seems to give only about 7 day notice.

I peruse my IW cache about once per week to see what, if any, have been marked to expire soon. I move those marked to expire to the top of my cache.

It would be nice to have at least 2 weeks and even 30 days notice.

[Tomguy]

Anyone who watches "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" should probably be banned from having an opinion about anything.

Signed,
The Taste Police

By Jupiter's C*** !!!!

[Scrivner]

"I watched the first episode of Spartacus and decided it wasn't worth trying to finish it in time."

You can't judge the series on the first couple episodes. The first few are not very good but it gets alot better.

[dave]

IMO, not enough warning on expiring content.

[Mark Young]

One week is far too short of a warning!

I now monitor expiration dates through FeedFliks and, while it cannot be more accurate than what Netflix has in its database, it is better than nothing. (Yes, titles get renewed, or titles get pulled due to problems. But 90% accuracy is far better than no information at all.)

I ended up watching Jim Hinsen's The Storyteller and actually enjoyed that series because I saw it would be ending in a couple of months and I didn't know if I would have time to watch it if I waited, and it wasn't available on disc. Likewise with Sherlock Holmes: The Woman in Green (also not available on disc). My other soon-expiring titles are available on disc so I am not in such a big hurry to watch them.

But when streaming-only movies are about to end, if we have more lead time, we can catch the streams before they expire.

I had missed out on all of The Outer Limits: The New Series, except Season 1, because when I found out it was about to expire, there was no way I could watch the episodes in time; had I known a couple months earlier, I could have watched all the episodes. And that series, except Season 1, isn't available on disc, so Seasons 2-7 are unavailable at this time. :(

[jjfromnyc]

I have a full instant watch queue - I actually like it when a show or movie is expiring, because it makes it much easier for me to decide what to watch

[Roy]

From my perspective, it's actually sort of atrocious. That's basically because I do all of my interaction with the queue and movies via an NRD, so I don't even get warnings about expiration. As a result, I was about 4-5 episodes behind on Party Down S2 when, suddenly, noticed it dissapeared. Urgh.

Really wish we had some sort of way for NRDs to go "hey! You! This title's expiring soon!"

-roy

[Crow550]

Yeah like I said BP. The first 3 Episodes are lame.

Look I watched the pilot when it first came out. Thought it sucked.

Then waited Months later & watched half of Episode 2. Still wasn't into it.

Then again Months later I finish Episode 2 & watch Episode 3 as I keep hearing a lot of positive buzz. It was alright.

Then I watched episode 4 & got hooked. As that's when the show picked up.

[CJ]

What do you think? Does Netflix give enough warning as to when streaming titles will expire?

My experience is that anything related to Instant Watch is frustrating - titles disappear with little notice, sometimes for good, other times to reappear the next day. I'm hoping all those Netflix Engineers are working on a better interface for us users.

[let me close them]

your tags

[rorqualmaru]

Not even close to enough.

@Tomguy: Close your /b tag

[me.yahoo.com/a/1fK6C5oBttll_Y98j9jZlsMPtddfrtE-]

NO. Nor is it sufficiently conspicuous. We had been watching episodes of SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND once weekly as part of our ongoing commitment to culture and historical inquiry, then last night we tuned in for the 6th episode and -- poof!(or splat?!)-- it was gone. Neither of us ever saw an expiration date.

[Makewi]

It would be much better if the notice was closer to 30 days. The amount of time now is just not enough.

[Sam]

30 yes, 7 days no.

[Don]

I don't check my list daily or anything like that so few movies and shows disappeared before I knew they were going to be pulled. With Spartacus it was an unusual deal. Not many other cable network shows are available same night they air. So I honestly am surprised they kept it licensed for this long.

In situations like with Spartacus 2 weeks notice 3 months after the series ended is not that bad. Folks that have waited that long can load the discs on to their save list and stand in line to get it.

Regular items wish they gave at least 30 days or like was suggested some sort of notification that movies are about to expire. I am sure that they basically have a contract for licensing so if they have a 3/6/12/36 month contract when the show or movie is added say will be available until 00/00/0000 if contract is renewed or extended then the date can be changed. If a contract expires without notice for example when licensing is sold to someone and they decide to no longer honor the streaming agreement then that can not be expected and is understandable.

[golgii]

I'd love to see an "In Your Queue and Expiring Soon" setting that
- Pushes expiring streaming features to the front of the Instant Queue
- Separates them out into their own "Expiring Soon" category on the streaming player. (similar to the "Recently Watched" category)
- Displays queued expiring movie on the top section of the netflix.com homepage above the "Rate your Recently Watched..." section.

[psymn]

no, there needs to be a method to sort by expiration date or even including this information on the info page of each title.