Netflix CEO may have missed the real reason why US subscriber numbers plunged • Hacker News Board

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

#281

Post by adventured » Sat, Jul 20, 2019, 2:10 AM UTC

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…

> 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

I generally agree with that. I don't care about one platform at all. I'll pay up to ~$30 total per month for nearly everything (TV + movies), whether that's on one site or spread across four.

With the way things are going, it looks more likely that I'll just frequently turn subscriptions on and off. That's the routine I've found myself in the last year or so. I might watch some shows on HBO or Showtime, then when they end for the season I kill the subscription. I might maintain one central subscription, such as Prime (which makes it easy to add and remove other 'channel' subscriptions). This seems to be how a lot of consumers are behaving now.

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

#282

Post by belltaco » Sat, Jul 20, 2019, 2:18 AM UTC

pault wrote: post #217

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…

Yes! That has driven me away from YouTube and Netflix recently. I know there is an ocean of content out there but when I sign in all I see is the same dozen shitty recommendations that I have no interest in! I watched one comedy special a year ago and my feed is half stand-up comedy now.

On PC you can click on a icon near the video on the home page and say that you're not interested.

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

#283

Post by tolmasky » Sat, Jul 20, 2019, 2:21 AM UTC

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 am fine paying everyone is whatever convoluted ways, but I'm not OK with this translating to a miserable UI experience. At least TV had a single interface. I don't want to manage apps for shows, and have to search within apps or learn different menu trees for each different app, etc.

I think there is nothing wrong with wanting to charge me for exclusive content, packages of content, whatever you want. But do not then it actually harder than just channel surfing.

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

#284

Post by Rapzid » Sat, Jul 20, 2019, 2:22 AM UTC

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…

For me it's comedy specials. I don't even like them that much, but they have been plastered all over my home screen for nearly a year. Since they took away ratings and reviews I have to use other sites to try to find good stuff to watch.

I've been watching a lot more Youtube recently oddly enough. Youtube does a better job of giving me a mix of videos for my interests, and there are a number of great vloggers out there across a lot of my interests posting weekly+ content.

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

#285

Post by OkGoDoIt » Sat, Jul 20, 2019, 2:24 AM UTC

inetknght wrote: post #211

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…

> 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 and choose what we actually want to pay for? Now we finally have that and people instantly want to go back? Why? 1) I don't want to pay for content I won't watch. 2) I don't want to be required to pay for content I won't watch in orde…

Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft all offer paid rentals of nearly anything, on a per movie, episode, or season basis. So what you are asking for definitely exists. It’s just priced disproportionately high compared to the streaming packages that are popular these days.

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

#286

Post by jm4 » Sat, Jul 20, 2019, 2:27 AM UTC

tedsanders wrote: post #122

There's something I don't understand, but I'd like to. Most of the criticisms of Netflix I see fall into two buckets: One common criticism is that Netflix is worse than regular TV, because having to actively choose a Netflix show is more stressful than regular TV, where you can just turn it on, sit back, and relax. The second common criticism I read is that Netflix is annoying, because as soon as you turn it on, it s…

The autoplay nonsense doesn't solve the first complaint and it's hostile to what I would guess is a significant segment of viewers which is why you hear the second complaint. The UI has written descriptions of content. I could be in the middle of reading that and then it's replaced by some autoplay trailer with audio that doesn't even match up with the video. Assuming I even want the autoplay interface, which I don't, the implementation of it is horrible. What's up with that music? It's like the musical equivalent of stock photos. And if it's a show with episodes it's virtually guaranteed that you will have to click a back button or something to stop the trailer so you can get to the right episode. It basically guesses wrong every single time.

I went from watching Netflix almost exclusively to hardly watching at all. I may put it on if I already know exactly what I want to watch and can navigate to it quickly enough that the bullshit autoplay won't make me think differently before my show starts. It causes anxiety trying to browse through content fast enough to see what it is before the trailer starts. If I pause for just a second or two due to some distraction or whatever then I lose the opportunity to read the description and I'm bombarded with a trailer. When that happens I can't click away fast enough. If my wife starts talking to me while I'm browsing I often find myself exiting Netflix so I don't have that garbage in the background. I would have canceled a long time ago if my wife didn't binge watch those Asian novela shows.

I feel like the people making decisions about these things at Netflix are making them based on bad data. I keep paying every month so I must be happy. I'm not. I give more money to your competitors now than I give to you. I wouldn't give you any at all if my wife didn't want to keep Netflix and that's not a debate I'm going to have for $10/mo or whatever it costs. So I keep paying and some data geek gets to look good for the subscription numbers or engagement even though I went from loving your product to loathing it. I would go back to loving it and cancel the other streaming subscriptions if there was an option for me to switch back to the old interface.

Edit:

Someone else who replied to you said something I thought was interesting about the autoplay.

I think the other difference is that if you’re flipping channels, you’re tuning into what the channel is actually playing, not an endlessly repeating ad for the channel. It’s getting you to the experience you care about as quickly as possible.

This. I read this and it clicked. Browsing Netflix with the autoplay trailers is a lot like if you were flipping through the channels on broadcast TV and every single channel was showing a commercial. I experience a similar kind of frustration when I use Netflix.

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

#287

Post by joegahona » Sat, Jul 20, 2019, 2:31 AM UTC

pault wrote: post #217

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…

Yes! That has driven me away from YouTube and Netflix recently. I know there is an ocean of content out there but when I sign in all I see is the same dozen shitty recommendations that I have no interest in! I watched one comedy special a year ago and my feed is half stand-up comedy now.

This happened to my friend too. I shared a link with him of a Youtube guy who analyzes classic rock songs, and my friend's entire recommended feed was overtaken by this guy for weeks. My feed isn't nearly that sensitive. I think you and him are in the same experimentation bucket or something.

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

#288

Post by remarkEon » Sat, Jul 20, 2019, 2:34 AM UTC

Waterluvian wrote: post #136

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…

Are box sets still batshit insane? It didn't make sense to me to pay $120 for a week of binge watching.

I own The Sporanos, The Wire, and Breaking Bad in box set. I have The X-Files somewhere on DVD, too.

For shows that are, essentially, an art form it's sort of worth it.

But you bring up an interesting point, because there are shows that have come out that are on par with e.g. The Wire or Breaking Bad during this steaming age (Chernobyl most recently, and maybe Game of Thrones for some - though I never got into that one). It's hard for me to think that I'll ever "buy" newer shows on hardware.

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

#289

Post by deegles » Sat, Jul 20, 2019, 2:44 AM UTC

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…

Why is it not sustainable? Because of content licensing fees. If video content was treated (i.e. regulated) like radio with a fixed price per minute then there would be competition for one stop streaming services instead of walled gardens.

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

#290

Post by mixmastamyk » Sat, Jul 20, 2019, 2:44 AM UTC

Netflix is finally facing some decent competition, and in response, they've been raising prices. :-/

I understand they need their own content, but they've already got more than I can watch. I'd prefer more quality and sticking with shows over quantity and higher prices.