Netflix Lands Content Deal With CW For Reruns

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Another interesting shakeup in the home theater market lands on our doorstep with word that Netflix has wrangled another content deal, this time with the folks out at the CW. And with that content deal comes a lot of familiar, and fairly recent, content.

This deal limits itself largely to slightly older (and some very, very recent) television shows on the popular youth-oriented network like Secret Circle, Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, and what amounts to fully 700 hours (almost one full month’s worth) of other content. The agreement is set to run for fully four years after each show makes its network run, so while some content will be available starting this Saturday, other episodes won’t actually make it into Netflix’s quiver until as late as next year.

This underscores an interesting premise in the streaming video market as well: while studios have been fighting Netflix and its all you can stream for one price plan as far as movies go, television vendors have been substantially more interested. Why? Because with some delay built in, they can get their up-front advertising taken care of on cable, and let the fallback handle other customers. Plus, for those who miss episodes but don’t have DVR capability, providing the episodes on a service like Netflix allows people to get caught up and not lose interest in a series because they can’t quite grasp what’s going on as they missed last week’s episode, and that leaves critical chunks of the current plot absent.

What this could well mean for Netflix is that they’d manage to find a measure of success limiting themselves to streaming in television, putting them in competition with Hulu, a competition that they might well win. They could carry on with movies in DVD, of course, but considering the success they’ve had in television, they may want to stick to that.

But what do you guys think? Would Netflix be more or less attractive if it no longer streamed movies, but rather streamed television episodes? Either way, we want to hear from you, so head on down to the comments section and tell us what you think!