I think the perception in Hollywood is that the libraries of the major streamers have substantially decreased over the past few years. Part of that has to do with the regular cullings of titles from services such as Max.
I recently asked the folks at Parrot Analytics if they could provide some data on the comparative changes in library size at the top eight subscription-based video services and the results were fascinating. Here is what they reported, although for technical reasons they were unable to provide data right now for Paramount+. The changes cover the period from Q1 2022 through Q1 2024 and include only the libraries in the U.S. versions of the various services:
Netflix
- Film (-2%)
- TV (+ 18%)
- Film (+ 34%)
- TV (+ 28%)
- Film (+ 14%)
- TV (+ 34%)
- Film (-8%)
- TV (+ 10%)
- Film (+ 4%)
- TV (+ 25%)
- Film (+ 74%)
- TV (+ 45%)
- Film (+ 138%)
- TV (+ 166%)
A lot of these shifts make sense once you think about it. Apple TV+'s movie library expanded so much because it has begun licensing outside movie titles, albeit on very short-term deals. Likewise, adding content from Hulu onto Disney+ likely had a big impact on the latter's overall library numbers.
One thing pure numbers don't tell you is the types of library titles. While Max's TV library continues to grow, I suspect that a deep-dive of the specific titles would find that the regular addition of reality shows from WBD linear networks helps to mask an overall drop in scripted programming. And it's notable that their film library has shrunk slightly.
I suspect the growth in the film library at Peacock is partly due to the addition of Hallmark Channel titles. But I'm not sure what is happening at Hulu that led to the slight shrinkage of its film catalog.
As a reminder, I previously reported that the library of Discovery+ has dropped 18 percent in the same period, according to Parrot Analytics.
