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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

#171

Post by eikenberry »

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.

But there is a difference in that you aren't locked into things the same way you were locked into cable, where it was all or nothing. You can subscribe and unsubscribe to different services at different times as you wish. Given you get all the content available during your subscription why would you stay subscribed to all of them all the time. Just subscribe to the ones that have the shows you want to watch at that time and cancel all the rest.

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

#172

Post by rossdavidh »

So, I am reminded of a point in the "early" (that is, early as a consumer venue) internet, when there was a lot of great content, but no good search engines. It did not send people back to pre-internet sources, nor do I think the current situation will send people back to their network broadcast channel. But I think there is a real problem, which is that there are more and more good shows, and no more hours in the day. It feels...a bit like too many companies chasing any finite-sized market. It feels like just before the crash.

It's hard for the world to ever admit it, especially the U.S., but maybe we don't actually need to have this many shows?

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

#173

Post by ojhughes »

noelsusman wrote: post #152
isbjorn16 wrote: post #77

My problem with Netflix isn't the slate of shows and movies it has in its catalog. It's definitely not as nice as it used to be, but there are a jillion and a half shows and movies out there. My problem is that Netflix has taken note that we watch anime a few times a week, which doubtless means we want every single band/carousel/whatever to be about anime. New Anime, Critically Acclaimed Anime, Popular Anime, Watch i…

To be fair to them, everyone is failing at this. Recommendation algorithms, once held up as a crowning achievement of machine learning, have turned out to be terrible at their jobs. Amazon, Youtube, Netflix. None of them have it figured out.

YouTube seems to be a lot better than the rest. I consistently get good music videos queued up, it is great for discovering new music

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

#174

Post by dragonwriter »

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…

> I think the critical mistake that all these megacorps are making is that people don't actually want to pay for a bazillion streaming services.

That's not a mistake they are making; they are all aware of that. They just want the other guys to be the ones that die first.

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

#175

Post by noelsusman »

atombender wrote: post #168
noelsusman wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course people would rather pay $10 a month to access everything, but that's just not sustainable. Look at Netflix's own financials. They got into content creation and they're now deep in debt despite their massive subscriber base. I also don't get why everyone is clamoring for one company to control all video entertainment distribution. Isn't that what we hated about cable? Didn't we beg for the ability to pick an…

People aren't asking for a single distribution channel in the sense of a single monolithic company owning all the IP. They do want (1) convenient apps that aggregate, such as Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video, and (2) a way to get all the content without having to pay lots of individual companies (I'm subscribing to around 5 streaming services myself). Why can't video be like music? Spotify and Apple Music aggregate pr…

This is a good point, though Spotify hasn't been without its bumps. It has lost money almost every year and substantially reduced the total amount of money artists receive from people listening to their music. Artists have been forced to find alternative revenue streams to remain solvent, and it has taken a hammer to the "middle class" of musicians.

All of this has been great for the consumer since we get cheap music, but if we want to port the same system over to shows/movies then we need to think through the implications of reducing the total amount of revenue that content creators get from people watching their content. Where are the alternative revenue streams? You can't take a TV show on tour.

It's definitely possible, theoretically, but I'm not sure it's possible at a price point that people actually want to pay. Making video content is orders of magnitude more expensive than making music.

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

#176

Post by throwaway_009 »

bluntfang wrote: post #106
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?

True, I have spoken to a lot of people and there seems to have been a lot of political propaganda in every Netflix / Hollywood movie / show / even music videos. I am so tired of the ideology shoved down the throat that I stopped watching anything these days. I just want a good story.

I fear it will get worse because of the vertical integration and monopoly of the entertainment business, they can keep making bad movies and people will keep watching them because there's no other choice, in turn increasing the monopoly.

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

#177

Post by hanklazard »

noelsusman wrote: post #147
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…

Of course people would rather pay $10 a month to access everything, but that's just not sustainable. Look at Netflix's own financials. They got into content creation and they're now deep in debt despite their massive subscriber base. I also don't get why everyone is clamoring for one company to control all video entertainment distribution. Isn't that what we hated about cable? Didn't we beg for the ability to pick an…

Or check out DVD.com (old-school Netflix) if you’re looking for selection. It’s way better for movies and TV shows if you’re willing to wait a few days.

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

#178

Post by Alupis »

noelsusman wrote: post #147
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…

Of course people would rather pay $10 a month to access everything, but that's just not sustainable. Look at Netflix's own financials. They got into content creation and they're now deep in debt despite their massive subscriber base. I also don't get why everyone is clamoring for one company to control all video entertainment distribution. Isn't that what we hated about cable? Didn't we beg for the ability to pick an…

> They got into content creation and they're now deep in debt despite their massive subscriber base.

I've found that while Netflix has some decent original content - the overwhelming majority of it is garbage and totally uninteresting.

Sometimes I feel some of the Netflix Originals where mothballed from normal venues, so Netflix picked it up, failing to realize why nobody else wanted to produce it in the first place.

As just an example, I was a huge fan of Arrested Development - but continuing that show where it left off after ~10 years of not being on air... it just didn't "have it" anymore...

And... when I search for a movie, it seems about 90% of the time they don't have it. Instead, they recommend a bunch of Netflix Original's that totally aren't what I'm looking for.

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

#179

Post by elihu »

adrianmonk wrote: post #117
isbjorn16 wrote: post #77

My problem with Netflix isn't the slate of shows and movies it has in its catalog. It's definitely not as nice as it used to be, but there are a jillion and a half shows and movies out there. My problem is that Netflix has taken note that we watch anime a few times a week, which doubtless means we want every single band/carousel/whatever to be about anime. New Anime, Critically Acclaimed Anime, Popular Anime, Watch i…

Once upon a time, Netflix gave away $1 million to contest winners in an attempt to get the best recommendation algorithm they could ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix_Prize ). Now the recommendations are just not that great. It's like they're not trying too hard because they are comfy in their market position. I have never watched any anime at all (really not my thing), but Netflix keeps recommending it to me de…

Perhaps their recommendation engine is working as designed, but it's tuned for some other metric besides maximum viewer enjoyment. For instance, rankings might be influenced by the royalties they pay, or the likelihood that you'll recommend a Netflix-only show to a non-Netflix-subscribing friend.

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

#180

Post by corford »

sho wrote: post #88
throwaway082729 wrote: post #19

There's nothing worth watching in Netflix now. I find myself spending more time on Prime Video where I can find richer content through Prime movies and subscription channels like HBO, Starz and PBS (for British murder mystery shows). Moreover, Netflix is getting its recommendations for me completely wrong. Without user reviews, I've no idea if the content is good. I'm not going to waste my time watching some random s…

> Netflix is getting its recommendations for me completely wrong As far as I can tell Netflix has no "recommendation engine". I have never noticed any correlation between the kind of show/movie I like and what it displays; it seems completely random, well, with a bias towards self-made content which presumably costs them less in licensing - almost all of which is made-for-TV level garbage of no interest to me in any…

>I genuinely think I could write a better recommendation engine.

They'd have paid you for it back in the day :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix_Prize

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