Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated • Hacker News Board

Re: Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated

#171

Post by netwanderer3 » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 4:02 PM UTC

crankylinuxuser wrote: post #125

blahblahblogger wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> cinema is having its most successful years ever, so clearly many people are enjoying the films Hollywood is putting out. Is that really true or is it just films like "Avengers" who make Hollywood's balance sheet look better than ever? I'm not entirely convinced that the film industry can survive without giant blockbusters like that. You might say that there's always been blockbusters, but although I don't have any…

Some people I know in film have told me the following: A lot of films that would have US pull no longer get made. That's because the US is at most 300m people, and there's billions more that aren't reached. Whereas any movie made now needs to have international trends. So you end up with comic books made as movies and tv shows. They have been tested in print, work with other cultures, and make money hand over fist. T…

That's an interesting take on the quality issues of these recent films. It's true that you sort of have to dumb down your content if you aim to make it popular for a wider population. If the movie plots require a bit of thinking or the use of brain resources then most viewers probably will not get it.

Though I understand Hollywood has always been about about making profits, but in the end this will only lead to more movies simply being treated as a tool to generate revenue rather an outlet for creativity and great story telling, which was exactly what made them great in the past. In that perspective, there's no difference between a movie and a piece of commercial software.

Big explosions and FX effects are not elements that make a film great as they do nothing to connect deeply with the audiences on a human level. They are shallow, cool and awesome for five seconds but that's about it. The more you watch these films, the more you become like the population they want to target.

No wonder books are still selling so well today.

Re: Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated

#172

Post by dractori » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 5:08 PM UTC

sonnyblarney wrote: post #66

40acres wrote: post #22

I don't think piracy will come back as streaming becomes more segregated, people generally will go with the legitimate market over illegal means as long as the fiction is under a certain level. Most Americans would rather pay an extra $15 a month for streaming that to pirate content and go through the "hassle" of getting that pirated content on their TV. How many non-tech people do you know who can mirror a PC or lap…

True, but they won't pay $15/month x 5 different services. Netflix is already iffy in terms of content/quality, without some blockbusters, then it's really kind of b-films and bad tv, the occasional great show. Disney et. al. may not produce enough content to warrant $15 themselves. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. They should take note however, that we are 'done' with commercials.

Amazon Prime Video recently added a whole section of content that is free but has ads. Seems to work for Crackle also.

Re: Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated

#173

Post by gamblor956 » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 6:25 PM UTC

paganel wrote: post #124

romanovcode wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also the garbage comic book BS they put up every 6 months. Noooo not recycled garbage at all. /s

I wish that Hollywood still made movies for the the 30+ non-geek audience of which I am a part of, I almost literally fell asleep during the last Avengers movie. There are some gems here and there (the last two Peele movies) but they are getting really far and few between.

Hollywood released several hundred movies last year. In theaters.

They simply didn't advertise them as much as they did the blockbusters, because advertising is very expensive and most films are capable of making back their production budgets but not the advertising budgets (which can equal or even exceed the actual cost of making the movie, see e.g., Solo which was considered a loss because of the amount Disney spent advertising the film).

Re: Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated

#174

Post by bitcoinmoney » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 7:48 PM UTC

miki123211 wrote: post #85

bitcoinmoney wrote: post #29

Most people dont know but you can get P4S (plex for share) where you pay (or free) someone to get added on their plex library. Some of these servers have CDN and have 90+TB storage with automated requests system. Thousands of shows and movies. You can also get IPTV, which is basivally cable TV through internet for 10$/month. 5000 channels. You ask how its possible? Basically fly by night companies redistributing cabl…

Some tech-savvy people in here (Poland) also use cardsharing. Basically it's normal, satellite TV, but they don't get a legal card and set top box from the provider. Instead, some shady company hosted in the Netherlands buys them in bulk, puts it in some special module and lets multiple people use them. It's apparently one card per 3 or 4 subscribers at a time, not one card per household. Haven't tried it muself but…

How much are the costs?

Re: Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated

#175

Post by dbancajas » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 7:57 PM UTC

AngryData wrote: post #52

40acres wrote: post #22

I don't think piracy will come back as streaming becomes more segregated, people generally will go with the legitimate market over illegal means as long as the fiction is under a certain level. Most Americans would rather pay an extra $15 a month for streaming that to pirate content and go through the "hassle" of getting that pirated content on their TV. How many non-tech people do you know who can mirror a PC or lap…

I would agree in the past, you needed something like a dedicated media center PC. But these days it is cheap as hell for an old PC, or laptop or smart phone that can handle video just fine. Even a new computer device is pretty damn cheap to have just for your TV. Also, everyone is assuming people are downloading torrents for their media piracy, but everything you can find on a torrent website you can easily find on a…

maybe just get P4S (Plex for share) and you can get all of that for couple bucks a month. Literally cheaper and no hassle compared to running your own setup.

Re: Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated

#176

Post by dbancajas » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 7:59 PM UTC

vageli wrote: post #68

voidwtf wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that now they want us to have a cable subscription to watch all our normal shows and a network specific subscription to watch our favorite shows. Look at what they’ve done with Star Trek as an example. They’re going hard on the content gating and distribution channel diffusion. Literally to the point where Plex+Radarr/Sonarr has become the go to for content I’m already paying for through my cable/Netfl…

> The problem is that now they want us to have a cable subscription to watch all our normal shows and a network specific subscription to watch our favorite shows. Look at what they’ve done with Star Trek as an example. > They’re going hard on the content gating and distribution channel diffusion. Literally to the point where Plex+Radarr/Sonarr has become the go to for content I’m already paying for through my cable/N…

surprised you didn't know radarr. haha.

Re: Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated

#177

Post by Retra » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 8:41 PM UTC

CJefferson wrote: post #87

netwanderer3 wrote: post #74

Nobody has mentioned the real problem is that most Hollywood movies these days are recycled garbage. People are probably going to switch from Netflix over to Disney+ once it is launched. Once Netflix is gone, Disney+ would then jack up its price to $40/month. I think we have all seen this movie too many times before.

I'm disappointed, but not suprised, to see this post so high. Despite all the ways of watching films at home, cinema is having its most successful years ever, so clearly many people are enjoying the films Hollywood is putting out.

Couldn't that be illusory? There's more people watching films now than there ever has been before. And if there were only one film released this year, it would surely break all the records because nobody would have anything else to watch. That wouldn't mean that film was the best film ever. A larger number of more diverse films could generate more total income and offer more satisfaction, but it would be much harder for them to break records.

Re: Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated

#178

Post by miki123211 » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 8:55 PM UTC

bitcoinmoney wrote: post #174

miki123211 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some tech-savvy people in here (Poland) also use cardsharing. Basically it's normal, satellite TV, but they don't get a legal card and set top box from the provider. Instead, some shady company hosted in the Netherlands buys them in bulk, puts it in some special module and lets multiple people use them. It's apparently one card per 3 or 4 subscribers at a time, not one card per household. Haven't tried it muself but…

How much are the costs?

around 75zł (around $20) for a 90-day package that offers the two satellite providers in common use, with all channels and PPV events unlocked. A premium TV package with just one of those would be around 120 zł (around $35). Basically all TV that you could ever want over here. There aren't any channels not on one of those two. Everything is paid via bitcoin and you only use the internet to transmit the keys (which are small enough to work well on dial up), so throttling, tracking and flaky connections aren't really that much of an issue. The only downside, and a big one, is that you need to find and purchase an appropriate box (around 200zł or so I've heard) or an extension card for your PC. Then you need to configure everything, install some plug ins, use an english interface, upload a config via ftp etc. I'm only vaguely familiar with the process myself, as I haven't ever set something like that up, but it's definitely not for the sort that can't tell a search engine from a web browser. Bitcoin is also a hassle. That's why no one really uses it, I guess.

Re: Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated

#179

Post by Retra » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 9:21 PM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #9

Causality1 wrote: post #2

For me it's a simple equation that has as much to do with time and hassle as it has to do with money. I'm not going to juggle five different monthly subscriptions. I'll pay Netflix for their decent original content and all my old favorites like Star Trek. I'll buy a month of Hbo every couple years to catch up with them. I'm not going to pay $200 for a cable subscription and I'm not going to pay for Netflix and YouTub…

Am I the only one who doesn’t threaten piracy when I don’t get exactly what I want for the price I want? Is it really that unusual to not take things that you shouldn’t? I mean if Hulu doesn’t have a movie I want to watch I’ll just watch something else, I won’t go take it because I feel entitled.

What you call entitlement, I call a vice. You don't build a business model upon a framework of addictive & memetic psychology and then blame your customers when they feel entitled to it. That entitlement is the whole point. Most of us would be better off watching less TV, and we realize that, which makes it hard to justify spending more money on it.

Re: Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated

#180

Post by vageli » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 9:21 PM UTC

dbancajas wrote: post #176

vageli wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem is that now they want us to have a cable subscription to watch all our normal shows and a network specific subscription to watch our favorite shows. Look at what they’ve done with Star Trek as an example. > They’re going hard on the content gating and distribution channel diffusion. Literally to the point where Plex+Radarr/Sonarr has become the go to for content I’m already paying for through my cable/N…

surprised you didn't know radarr. haha.

I have been lucky with not having to tweak anything in my setup for a few years besides adding/removing indexers. Definitely need to check radarr out!