New research shows just what we all suspected: Netflix UK has more TV shows available to stream than Lovefilm and Lovefilm has more films to stream than Netflix UK.
Plenty has been made of Lovefilm v Netflix in the year since Netflix launched in the UK. The services have been compared every which way and both companies have crowed about all the juicy exclusive deals they've struck, but there has been a dearth of reliable information about catalogue size - and quality.
Off to the 'flix
Anecdotally, it's always been obvious that Netflix has fewer titles available, and those that were there (at first at least) weren't really the highbrow art pieces or blockbuster titles that a subscriber may hope for.
But today's data, compiled by Oric, shows that Netflix UK now has 2,593 titles available - 1,668 of those are films, while 925 are TV seasons.
Lovefilm, by comparison, has only 589 TV seasons to stream (but one of them is My So Called Life so who's the real winner?) but offsets that with 3,284 streamable films, not to mention its huge catalogue of physical disc rentals.
Quality is harder to measure - not least because there's a certain amount of subjectivity to it - but Oric's data shows that Netflix has more film titles from 2012 available than Lovefilm. Make of that what you will.
The Yanks win
But both services pale in comparison to their US counterparts; Netflix US has a much more comprehensive streaming catalogue, which is 14,142 titles strong.
Amazon Instant Prime, meanwhile, offers its customers 13,185 subscription streaming films (and thousands more on a pay-per-view basis).
So we can draw two conclusions here, Brits. If you want a fully-rounded streaming service, 1. You need to subscribe to both Lovefilm and Netflix, or 2. You need to move to America. Your choice.
Via TechCrunch
