I'm glad to see some really good Cartoon Network content becoming available online, but I'm disappointed that it's an exclusive contract. These competing streaming services are becoming no better than cable, if you have to subscribe to several just to watch your favorite shows.
The thing to remember is that all of these "services" are not services. They're businesses. And the difference there is that businesses want you to enjoy them and sponsor them, because if you do not then they die and people's lives change. Exclusive contracts are by far the most valuable- but that doesn't mean that Netflix and Hulu are "no better than cable." Netflix and Hulu you 100% decide what you watch (well, Hulu has commercials, but pretty close to 100%). With cable, you probably watched, what, 2% of what they offered? And the rest of the time it was useless? I think a lot more consumers need to stop looking at these things as rights. Netflix will let you watch every episode of your favorite shows in whatever order you want, and let you pause whenever you want with no advertisements. That would make your head explode 10 years ago. I mean that. Imagine if this happened in the 90's and you heard someone say "this is no better than cable!" You would wonder if they had seen cable. I don't mean to sound rude, but I think that you're taking for granted what is an offer, not a service.
I think Netflix learned some lessons over the last couple years. A year or two ago they got burned by the big studios who demanded enormous compensation to license their content. Then, the whole "qwikster" debacle infuriated a lot of its customers. Early last year (I think) Starz pulled their lineup from Netflix. So, they mused that if they got into the content business they can cut out the middle men in studios/production companies and not pay more licensing fees. Logically, this is really the only way they can stay in business with ~$10/month subscription fee. They will have to become a content creator in their own right to make it work. I'm not saying this is the best way for this to happen, but I honestly don't see how else Netflix can keep doing what they're doing.
It seems like Netflix is still able to land exclusive content deals for past seasons of popular shows by offering slightly more than their competitors. Even the most tight-fisted producer/distributor will take Netflix's money over no money. Unfortunately for Netflix, there aren't too many independent production studios left that aren't owned by distributors with existing contracts. Netflix needs to offer a better deal to the producers of the next hit show than they can get from a broadcast network.
This is true, the only other streaming service I think of is Amazon Plus, so for now that aren't that many players. The thing that frustrates me the most are distributors like HBO. I love HBO shows...almost all of them really. But guess what? I can't watch a single fucking episode of ANYTHING unless I sign up for their premium cable package OR INDIVIDUALLY buy each season or TV show collection on my own. Would it not be better for HBO to simply license its content out to services like Netflix instead of locking their stuff up in a vault? I don't know, I guess I'm not their accountant either though.