After ceremoniously becoming bedfellows in 2009, Criterion and Netflix are breaking up and they’re cutting Netflix off completely.. On the day after Valentines, no less. This comes after the shocking revelation that Criterion was involved with Hulu, with plans to let it have its entire 800 film fortune. Does this sound like a soap opera to anyone else?
But Criterion didn’t just leave Netflix a woman scorned. It added insult to injury with this zinger:
It has never been easy to find Criterion movies on Netflix – “Criterion” is not even a searchable term there. Compare that with Hulu’s willingness to develop a whole area of their site around us, brand the films associated with us, and develop the capability to show many of our supplements alongside our films.
Those be fightin’ words not seen since an episode of Jerry Springer. Of course, Criterion films won’t disappear from Netflix overnight; they’ll slowly dwindle down to nothing by the end of the year.
For Hulu, this shows that they’re not backing down in the streaming content war. And scoring the ENTIRE Criterion Collection while Netflix loses what they have is a huge win. For Netflix, you have to wonder what they’re doing right now on the streaming front. They don’t exactly have the newest movies available, because they claim subscribers are content with back catalogs. But then they go and let this happen, losing a chunk of films that’s arguably their best, quality-wise.
Congratulations, Hulu. I just found a reason to keep my Plus subscription. [Facebook]