Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Netflix Flexes

stratechery.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 177 posts

Re: Netflix Flexes

#151

Post by rospaya »

2bitencryption wrote: post #25

My takeaway from Bird Box is that if Netflix wants to make any of their original content one of the most-watched media events of the year, they can do it, regardless of the quality of the content itself. All it takes is for them to slip it in to people's "custom, curated" lists at a higher frequency, and maybe do a little subtle social-media engineering on Reddit/Facebook, and bam: instant box office smash of a deriv…

> The idea is that Netflix was able to coerce more than half of its subscribers to watch this film.

How is this different from any other Netflix show/film? They can pay for marketing and force it to be recommended for all users, but that's about it. The difference is that Bird Box had a lot of viral potential and turned into a meme because of its content, not external factors.

Re: Netflix Flexes

#152

Post by mlthoughts2018 »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #144
mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You start by saying you don’t want a unified interface where you can get exactly the content you want, then your very next sentence is that you want a single unified interface to get exactly the content you want. It sounds like you specifically do want a single interface for a la carte content (note: this has nothing to do with ownership vs restricted access), and you currently achieve something like this with a comb…

You’ve misread my comment. The unified interface part is not what I objected to. I explicitly do NOT want to pay a la carte. I understand what you’re saying about only paying for what I consume and not paying for any irrelevant content. And yet, I prefer a subscription, even if the total cost is higher. I don’t want the cognitive overhead of constantly trying to decide if it’s worth a little bit of money to purchase…

> “I don’t want the cognitive overhead of constantly trying to decide if it’s worth a little bit of money to purchase or rent a specific piece of content.”

But you already engage with this decision-making overhead when deciding what to watch and not watch. It’s built into any viewing system whether it’s all-you-can-watch after entry in a portal or not.

Also I hardly believe you never purchase on-demand content at all, especially since no combination of subscription services currently covers everything, and large chunks of content still can only be purchases in an on-demand fashion.

Re: Netflix Flexes

#153

Post by V-2 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #122
wutbrodo wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The expression "Time suck" doesn't just mean "takes a lot of time", or people would be complaining that eating is a time suck. It has a connotation of wasted or unproductive time (where "productivity" is defined personally, as loosely as you like). A useful analogy might be junk food: 600 calories of potato chips has exactly as many calories as 600 calories of a balanced steak dinner, but the former is less filling a…

> A useful analogy might be junk food: 600 calories of potato chips has exactly as many calories as 600 calories of a balanced steak dinner, but the former is less filling and nutritious. The former also takes two orders of magnitude less space, time to prepare, time to eat and time to clean. :). Also tastes better. Personally, I interpret "time suck" as something that sucks time in, i.e. you may have "allocated" X h…

> Also tastes better.

Seriously? I'd take a good steak over potato chips every single time.

Re: Netflix Flexes

#154

Post by V-2 »

happybuy wrote: post #98

All the signs indicate that Netflix has become a user hostile company that is prioritising ongoing user engagement and stickiness over their users needs. It's starting to remind me of another company which at one point in their evolution prioritised user engagement over everything else – Facebook. Once this occurs, it is a long slippery slope which leads to a series of user hostile internal decisions which ultimately…

> Algorithmically modifying the poster frames / thumbnails of shows to be more appealing to users. Again promoting engagement and misleading users of the true content of the show.

But it's not necessarily "misleading". Eg. if I like actor A and you like actor B, and both are starring in the movie, showing us two different posters with actor A and B respectively doesn't really mislead neither of us. With posters it's always "blind men and an elephant" anyway.

For what it's worth, I recommend the RateFlix extension for Chrome. It augments Netlifx UI by showing IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes ratings next to the titles. It makes it much easier to dismiss most of the trash.

Re: Netflix Flexes

#155

Post by wutbrodo »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #122
wutbrodo wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The expression "Time suck" doesn't just mean "takes a lot of time", or people would be complaining that eating is a time suck. It has a connotation of wasted or unproductive time (where "productivity" is defined personally, as loosely as you like). A useful analogy might be junk food: 600 calories of potato chips has exactly as many calories as 600 calories of a balanced steak dinner, but the former is less filling a…

> A useful analogy might be junk food: 600 calories of potato chips has exactly as many calories as 600 calories of a balanced steak dinner, but the former is less filling and nutritious. The former also takes two orders of magnitude less space, time to prepare, time to eat and time to clean. :). Also tastes better. Personally, I interpret "time suck" as something that sucks time in, i.e. you may have "allocated" X h…

> The former also takes two orders of magnitude less space, time to prepare, time to eat and time to clean. :). Also tastes better.

Well sure, and throwing on Netflix take less time and mental energy than playing music, reading something challenging, working out, or any of a million other things that most people would personally say is a more productive use of leisure time. This seems in accordance with my metaphor.

I think you may have assumed an indictment of eating junk food from my comment, while there was none. I eat it myself occasionally without any (or at least many) qualms. But it's something that you'd ideally minimize, in the same way that one would for things considered a time suck.

> Personally, I interpret "time suck" as something that sucks time in, i.e. you may have "allocated" X hours for entertainment this week (but who truly allocates this?), but with Netflix, you find yourself spending 2 * X this week, an increase from 1.5 * X the last week.

Hm, I get where you're coming from, but I don't think I'd exclude something that takes a constant, large amount of time from the category. I also am not sure I'd include things that I find fulfilling, like working out or reading, even if their time commitments surprised me upwards.

(fwiw, junk food only tastes better if you're used to it: I find healthy food way, way more palatable, with the only exception being when I'm drunk or high).

Re: Netflix Flexes

#156

Post by Yptur »

nojvek wrote: post #107
giancarlostoro wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And some of them are pretty damn good depending on your interest. Theres a few decent mecha ones at least. I am sure they will eventually land the rights to a solid winner. I do like the end result too lots of subs in different languages and I feel like they dub it in different languages too. The best of both worlds for any type of anime fan.

Any good Anime you recommend ? I loved Violet Evergreen. It was very well done as an animation. The others are “your lie in April”. That legit made me sob. I usually don’t get that emotional. (Although not a Netflix original).

I feel like Castlevania is a really cool take on Anime. It has a different style than the usual Anime and the fight scenes are amazing. I was surprised it is actually any good.

Re: Netflix Flexes

#157

Post by oarsinsync »

V-2 wrote: post #154
happybuy wrote: post #98

All the signs indicate that Netflix has become a user hostile company that is prioritising ongoing user engagement and stickiness over their users needs. It's starting to remind me of another company which at one point in their evolution prioritised user engagement over everything else – Facebook. Once this occurs, it is a long slippery slope which leads to a series of user hostile internal decisions which ultimately…

> Algorithmically modifying the poster frames / thumbnails of shows to be more appealing to users. Again promoting engagement and misleading users of the true content of the show. But it's not necessarily "misleading". Eg. if I like actor A and you like actor B, and both are starring in the movie, showing us two different posters with actor A and B respectively doesn't really mislead neither of us. With posters it's…

> > Algorithmically modifying the poster frames / thumbnails of shows to be more appealing to users.

> But it's not necessarily "misleading"

I suspect GP was talking about when Netflix was accused of displaying different posters based on race in an attempt to manipulate and mislead[0]:

> Rather than showcasing its two white leads, the poster for Like Father instead suggests to some subscribers that there are major roles for African-American actors Blaire Brooks and Leonard Ouzts

[0] https://news.sky.com/story/netflix-deceiving-black-users-wit...

Re: Netflix Flexes

#158

Post by yboris »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #77
gh02t wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netflix has also been pushing anime/anime-style originals. I think this is a pretty interesting strategy, anime is relatively cheap to produce and is niche but has a huge fanbase worldwide.

And some of them are pretty damn good depending on your interest. Theres a few decent mecha ones at least. I am sure they will eventually land the rights to a solid winner. I do like the end result too lots of subs in different languages and I feel like they dub it in different languages too. The best of both worlds for any type of anime fan.

Kill la Kill and One Punch Man are phenomenal!

Re: Netflix Flexes

#159

Post by grawprog »

Yptur wrote: post #156
nojvek wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any good Anime you recommend ? I loved Violet Evergreen. It was very well done as an animation. The others are “your lie in April”. That legit made me sob. I usually don’t get that emotional. (Although not a Netflix original).

I feel like Castlevania is a really cool take on Anime. It has a different style than the usual Anime and the fight scenes are amazing. I was surprised it is actually any good.

I was really disappointed in the second season. It felt like it suffered from the usual problems of the second season of a lot of netflix originals I've watched.

For castlevania in particular, the art and animation really declined between the first and second season, the tone and atmosphere seemed totally different and the story just kinda went offs the rails.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first season, it was one of the best video game adaptations i've seen but the second season just didn't quite do it for me. It just felt rushed and cheap.

Re: Netflix Flexes

#160

Post by lh7777 »

Semaphor wrote: post #146
lorenzhs wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My TV's Netflix app doesn't have an option to disable the auto-playing trailers, or even just their sound (short of muting the TV). It's quite annoying.

ah, okay, that makes sense. Though to be fair, that sounds like a shitty app (one of many reasons I have a dumb TV).

Are you able to disable auto-playing trailers, or are you just using the web interface or a smartphone/tablet that don't have this feature in the first place?

I have a recent AppleTV, which doesn't have any way to disable auto-playing trailers. Same for my previous STB (Roku). This is a somewhat new feature, so some older STBs and Smart TVs don't have it, but that's just because they can't be updated to the latest version of the Netflix app.

You can disable auto-play next episode across all interfaces and devices in the settings on netflix.com. I just wish there was an equivalent switch for trailers.

Post reply on HN