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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

#361

Post by Freak_NL »

mjevans wrote: post #160
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…

The Industry can't get this simple message in to it's collective head: The convenience needs to be better and cheaper (including perceived risks') than piracy to win. These are the things they MUST do: * One payment, that's reasonable. * All the content from FOREVER accessible FOREVER in one place. Honestly, that's it for most people. For me they also need to... * Be DRM free so that it actually works on OSes that re…

It would be nice if this problem could be solved through cooperation rather than just hoping a unicorn will appear.

A flat subscription fee, perhaps with tiered pricing in terms of content resolution and number of concurrent users in a household.

Figure out some fair distribution key for the viewer's contributions. Newer content gets a higher slice of the pie to encourage investing in new content, but older content under copyright (like a 40 year old film) will still bring in some money, and it makes sense to make a back catalogue available.

Allow users to use their own clients if they wish (technically possible if you forget about DRM), and let enthusiasts create a user experience no platform has ever seen that can rival the ease of use of piracy (e.g., Popcorn Time, and similar services).

Start out as a conglomerate of big studios with a clear short to midterm business model, but aim to set up a non-profit custodian in the long term to handle the maintenance and development of the platform, and make it possible to represent any content owner in a fair way — because if you don't, you'll end up the target of anti-trust lawsuits.

This won't happen because of greed of course. Ah well, there is always piracy to supplement a Netflix/Disney/Whatever subscription and just pretend it does exist.

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

#362

Post by Gravityloss »

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…

With movies you can rent or even buy individual ones online. No subscription required. No packages. Why not for series too?

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

#363

Post by colemickens »

pok1poekpo12 wrote: post #94
colemickens wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

Good Example: Black Mirror episode where man has sex with his friend in Mortal Kombat. Is this really an interesting addition to the Black Mirror world? Accept gay people, alright, whatever; I still don't want to watch 2 people having VR chat sex.

And yet, I would (will?) likely be derided if I complained about every forced show of heterosexuality, in virtually every piece of media produced in the last many decades. I immediately think of the scene in the second Matrix movie, but that stuff is absolutely everywhere.

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

#364

Post by tjoff »

nickv wrote: post #280
atombender wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Because Music isn't TV or film. The vast majority of revenue for most artists come from live performances. It's not like the cast of Stranger Things can go and tour the world and perform a live Stranger Things inside stadiums. It doesn't work that way. Additionally, Spotify, especially, has done wonders for obscure discoverablity with Discover Weekly which incentivize smaller bands to support it (because again they m…

It doesn't follow that they need to be exclusive. It's just that exclusive titles are the best way to market your own service.

It is quite profitable if you are among the very few popular services. But now it's just a tragedy of the commons situation.

Yet again there is no practical way to watch a given serie/movie. Which is the whole premise of streaming services.

So yet again piracy gives you better quality with less fuss.

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

#365

Post by afiori »

ianai wrote: post #164
afiori wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

except if you publish it properly yourself, a company that would embrace torrents as distribution method and took care of putting it on the relevant site would effectively solve the trust problem that is inherent in choosing a torrent between many.

Why not just edit the video codecs to support calling out to advertisements? Maybe offer people the option to watch the ads at start, end, or usual positioning, too. There would be abuse, but if it were done correctly the abuse wouldn’t be more than current.

My first reaction would be video player support. You would almost need to force a plugin for that.

Something slightly similar could be to distribute an offline player that is the only one that can play your content and that enforces some kind of advertisement.

But I would be of the opinion that it is better to go all-in in this kind of pivots

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

#366

Post by topranks »

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…

Nobody wants “1 company to control all content.”

What we do need is something like the music industry has. Subscribe to Spotify, Deezer, Tidal. They all pretty much have the same stuff, with slight differences in UI and the odd exclusive to differentiate them.

That’s what they need to do - cross license. They can even have a delay before they do so for their own content or whatever.

Just the admin of subscribing to 20 different services is enough to make me subscribe to none.

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

#367

Post by TheLime »

SkyPuncher wrote: post #133
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…

I think Netflix is the perfect example of where being data driven completely fails. If you listen to podcasts with important Netflix people everything you hear is about how they experiment and use data to decide what to do. Every decision is based on some data point. At the end of the day, they just continue to add features that create short term payoffs and long term failures. Pennywise and pound foolish. My wife an…

I couldn't agree more. Additionally it feels that for each content that disappears Netflix is replacing it with yet another generic series whose formula has been repeated time and time again.

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

#368

Post by thirdsun »

lonelappde wrote: post #298
inetknght wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

And the silent 6) I want DVDs, but without the physical disc management and without the high cost and without the DRM that makes publishers feel safe distributing digital content.

Same here. I want Bandcamp for video.

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

#369

Post by xaedes »

conductr wrote: post #258
Alupis wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I'm going to search through a bunch of listings, and select a show that's part of a series, all just to have something on while eating a 20 minute meal, I feel like I need to have something good on that I'm committing too. On the other hand, if I turn on my cable box and Dog the Bounty Hunter happens to be on and halfway through an episode, I'll watch it until I'm done eating and be done with it. I don't actually…

Seems like they could use their content to create “channels” that essentially mimic a broadcast schedule

I am still hoping for this to happen.

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

#370

Post by gambiting »

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…

>>Why can't video be like music?

Because with music I literally don't care what I'm listening to. If famous artists left Spotify I couldn't care any less - I just want a playlist with "music" and that's good enough for me. With video, I don't want random TV shows - I want specific ones that interest me, and either they are available on Netflix or they aren't, the fact that there is 10k other shows does nothing to justify the subscription.

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