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Netflix CEO may have missed the real reason why US subscriber numbers plunged

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Re: Netflix CEO may have missed the real reason why US subscriber numbers plunged

#101

Post by someexgamedev »

Cable subscriptions are a single subscription that gives you access to everyone's content. Netflix's digital innovation is that they did it at a tenth the price.

Now that all the content creators have realized the digital value of their content, it doesn't matter for Netflix whether those networks splinter it out into 20 different subscriptions or hide it behind 1 expensive cable subscription again. Netflix doesn't have that content so they lose either way.

Their only way forward is to become just another content network, OR a cable provider with the same elevated subscription cost. Whichever way they lean, the stock will tumble until they're in line with all their competitors. The gap has been closed.

Re: Netflix CEO may have missed the real reason why US subscriber numbers plunged

#102

Post by sundvor »

ryanianian wrote: post #51
sundayedition wrote: post #35

There is a lot of what I'd consider "noise" popping up on Netflix that they won't let me filter out. I don't care for most dubbed shows, and I haven't had any luck with any of the foreign imports. No way to filter them out that I'm aware of, so half of the "New shows" don't appeal to me I wouldn't give up Netflix for cable, it's more likely to be Prime only, or something with quality content that I wouldn't watch as…

Netflix is blatantly user-hostile. The UX is designed to get you to spend more time with Netflix, not to make you like it more. Many of the shows it suggests to me are not in english , yet the UX rarely discloses this in the description or (infuriatingly auto-playing) preview. Some people don't mind reading subtitles but I detest it - they could at least tell me the show is in German before wasting my time.

I personally cannot stand dubbed shows, but YMMV. It just comes across as way too fake. Also I attribute at least half of my ability to speak English well to the fact that NRK - and cinemas - in Norway never bothered to dub everything, unlike in Germany, France, etc.

I just wish for dialogue only English subtitles of English language content: I'm not deaf, I just can't always hear the mumbling if I haven't turned my good old Rotel 5.1 system to 11. I have no issues hearing (clears throat), (coughs), (rain falls) and (engine rumbling) .. yet I'm forced to see these using the SDH subs as none other are available. It's great that they are there, but we also need non-SDH subs.

Re: Netflix CEO may have missed the real reason why US subscriber numbers plunged

#103

Post by thrill »

qznc wrote: post #71
zadkey wrote: post #38

I think Netflix needs to invest in quality over quantity. I agree, its hard to find something I want to watch. There is definitely choice fatigue. If they had 1/3 as many shows but those shows were 3 times better. I am sure I would have no problem.

I'm back to a send-CD service like Netflix started with. I love this mode: I maintain a list of movies I'd like to watch. I have two of them available to watch in the evening. No Ads. No continue seduction.

Does it send discs from a series out of order? (I'm looking at you, Netflix!)

Re: Netflix CEO may have missed the real reason why US subscriber numbers plunged

#104

Post by isbjorn16 »

twiceaday wrote: post #96
markkanof wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better than Hulu that now shows us every commercial in Spanish. No one in my household speaks Spanish. The only thing I can guess is that I know ONE TIME my daughter accidentally selected the Spanish translation of one of her cartoons.

This is a guess but perhaps your subtitles are in Spanish, and you never use them so they are hidden?

Or perhaps some global preferences setting hidden in the shadows to the left somewhere

Re: Netflix CEO may have missed the real reason why US subscriber numbers plunged

#105

Post by bamboozled »

quicklyfrozen wrote: post #93
JTbane wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>People hated being locked into packages and this is basically the same thing - you need the "NBC" package for The Office or the "CBS" package for Star Trek. I can't be bothered to spend all that money. At this point it is very tempting to go back to good, old-fashioned torrents of TV shows.

It's certainly a hell of a lot easier to not have to think about where to find your favorites. And once it's downloaded there are (almost) never any playback issues.

It’s laughable to me that after all the years of investment and business development in these steaming services it’s still much, much, much easier to use p2p networks to get content you want.

I wonder if there would just be more profit in injecting advertisements in tv shows and distributing them openly using BitTorrent? Think of the size of the audience, yeah people will cut the ads out but a lot of people couldn’t be bothered.

Re: Netflix CEO may have missed the real reason why US subscriber numbers plunged

#106

Post by bluntfang »

throwaway_009 wrote: post #26

They started going downhill with every original show losing logical consistency after the 1st or 2nd season, political pandering instead of offering good quality entertainment. And the removal of the user reviews was a degrade, as they want to push bad shows to users and waste their time, instead of letting them make an informed choice. I hope they get disrupted because of their arrogance.

>They started going downhill with every original show losing logical consistency after the 1st or 2nd season

Is this any different than network shows?

Re: Netflix CEO may have missed the real reason why US subscriber numbers plunged

#107

Post by choward »

epiphanitus wrote: post #70
hyencomper wrote: post #7

I think Netflix has lost touch with their consumer base, with most changes such as removal of the rating system being universally criticized. I cancelled my subscription recently as I realized that while Netflix has a lot of shows, there is a dearth of quality content and the search function is not useful. With shows like Friends and Office leaving, there is not much to draw people who like leaving it on in the backg…

>> with most changes such as removal of the rating system being universally criticized Being a dinosaur, I remember when Netflix would let users write reviews for shows/movies they'd seen. Does anybody know why they discontinued their review system? Did they not want to deal with all the sticky content moderation issues?

I bet it had to do with losing content. If you review something and Netflix removes it you either lose that data or Netflix has to display shows they don't carry anymore.

Re: Netflix CEO may have missed the real reason why US subscriber numbers plunged

#108

Post by tzakrajs »

JTbane wrote: post #78
archey1 wrote: post #75

Netflix is just getting more expensive and less interesting to me. With all of the content I like being taken off to be hosted on network exclusive streaming platforms that I refuse to pay for - I'll probably eventually just cancel Netflix as well going back to the tried and true method of just buying bluray box-sets of the content I want to watch. Or piracy. I think the critical mistake that all these megacorps are…

>People hated being locked into packages and this is basically the same thing - you need the "NBC" package for The Office or the "CBS" package for Star Trek. I can't be bothered to spend all that money. At this point it is very tempting to go back to good, old-fashioned torrents of TV shows.

If you don't have private tracker access, usenet is probably best for speed and content availability since usenet providers have insane amounts of bandwidth to spare and there are publicly available nzb sites for searching usenet.

Re: Netflix CEO may have missed the real reason why US subscriber numbers plunged

#109

Post by tptacek »

marcosdumay wrote: post #87
tptacek wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate the auto-playing trailers too, but in the spirit of the kind of analysis HN is actually good at: auto-playing trailers seems like an extraordinarily straightforward feature to collect and analyze metrics on, and Netflix does not strike me as the kind of company that is utterly ambivalent about metrics, so "hating the auto-playing trailers" might not be the strong indication of loss-of-touch that it seems; like…

It extraordinarily difficult to use metrics to improve a UI aimed at entertainment.

It's not my claim that they've made Netflix more entertaining, just that it's likely made it more sticky.

Re: Netflix CEO may have missed the real reason why US subscriber numbers plunged

#110

Post by rhegart »

colemickens wrote: post #68
throwaway_009 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It just bothers me that they try to include a few tropes in every movie or show without it fitting in the story properly. As I said, if they maintain the logical consistency and in the context of a good story I don't mind some political push. But if it is in every show/movie, it just becomes repulsive.

I'm curious to understand what you're describing. Can you give an example of a Netflix show, the season and political trope, and how it detracted from the show's quality? And I'm definitely curious what you're imagining as you write out "repulsive".

Great- gay crossdresser from sex education is one of my favorite characters ever. Didn’t find it political at all and it just fit the story.

Bad- stranger things overly sexist men and the constant putting men down. Detracted from the show, annoying me.

Unbearable- Sabrina

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