Netflix’s Deal With EPIX Adds Less Than 300 Movies, None In HD

As a Netflix customer, I think it is great the company is licensing more digital content. But the deal they announced this morning with EPIX will only give Netflix access to less than 300 movies to add to their inventory. And while EPIX already streams a lot of their movies in HD via the EPIXHD.com website, (Hands-On Review With EPIX's Movie Streaming Service) Netflix will only be getting access to EPIX's movie inventory in standard definition and not in HD.

Neither company is giving out any details on when the content will be available on Netflix but you can take a look at the current list of 306 movies that EPIX has available by going to www.epixhd.com/all-movies. While rumors of the licensing deal are saying that Netflix will pay EPIX $1B over five years, I find that number hard to believe. Even if Netflix got access to all of EPIX's current inventory, they would be paying an average of $200M a year for less than 300 movies. That's an average of $650,000 per movie. That can't be right.