Netflix removing 1,794 titles from streaming catalogue, licensing agreements expiring

Netflix will drop 1,794 titles from its streaming library this month due to the expiration of licensing agreements with several studios, according to Netflix content cataloguing site InstantWatcher.

The Netflix streaming service is currently available on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita handhelds. Content slated for removal includes 15 seasons of Comedy Central's South Park, older classics horror movies and early films from the James Bond franchise. Slate reports studios with which licensing deals are ending include MGM, Universal and Warner Bros.

A representative from Netflix confirmed with The Verge that titles would start to be removed soon, and that the decision to let the licensing deals expire is part of the company's strategy to become an "expert programmer" rather than a "broad distributor."

"The vast majority of the titles that expire on Wednesday are older features that were aggregated by Epix," a representative from Netflix said in a statement. "We recently added many great, more recent titles such as ParaNorman (Universal), Hunger Games (Epix), Safe (Epix) and Bachelorette (Weinstein). Tomorrow we will also add MI:2, among many other titles.

"Netflix is a dynamic service, we constantly update the TV shows and movies that are available to our members," the spokesperson added. "We will add more than 500 titles May 1, but we also have titles expiring, this ebb and flow happens all the time."

Warner Bros. noted on Twitter that titles being removed from Netflix will not appear on the Warner Instant Archive steaming service right away. Last year Netflix also removed a sizeable amount of content after its agreement with Starz expired.

A full list of content scheduled for removal can be found on InstantWatcher.