Live data from Hacker News

Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

bbc.co.uk

691–700 of 763 posts

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#691

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That also means reducing the wages of employees, people not whinig is the only shimmer of hope we have at keeping the economy the same when we emerge from this. Sure, I can't go to my gym, but if we all cancel now, there won't be a gym when I am allowed to go again. At the same time my income might, at some point, also be affect. But, as it is now it is not (yet), so I'll keep it going. I have to admit I did cancel m…

If your gym won't be able to re-open after this thing is over, it only shows the quality of management of the gym as well as of the government. It should not be your burden to bear and build a buffer for them for their mistakes. Someone higher up pocketed all the profits while things were good and is now not ready to invest that money back into it to keep it afloat and that's THEIR problem. They have the money, let t…

In many areas, the gym business was very competitive, and the profits were very small, if any.

It may be that whoever has the deepest pockets survives and others go out of business.

I guess the question is how long they have to bleed money until the customers come back.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#692
post #611

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He probably was around when the standard was defined. It's amazing this is taking 30 years to replace IPv4.

The transition is definitely taking a long time, are there additional reasons for delaying the switch to IPv6 other than the mitigation of the problem with NAT/private networks?

It requires cooperation from perhaps fifty thousand organisations (there are 45k ASes that announce more than one prefix, and I'm guessing that there may be 5k software vendors). Some of those have orgcharts that aren't very friendly to this kind of change.

Adding to that, even clueful places may be held back by one or more vendor or provider, all of which need to have working v6 support before you yourself can deploy it.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#693

There seems to be a big divide between two groups: One is of the mind that we should be empathetic and since it's not a lot of money, people shouldn't complain. The other is of the mind that, Netflix can certainly take those actions but shouldn't pass those costs on to the consumer. I'm in the second camp. In Holland, all the big gym companies still charge their memberships even though the gyms are closed. Since they…

I guess I am in a third group that feels that the mob-mentality has taken over. If Netflix indeed decides to just go with this, I too will think they should be called out. But unless I've missed something, they haven't communicated anything about that yet, positive or negative. The outrage right now to me looks like people shouting at firefighters "who's going to pay for that waterdamage?!" while the fire is still ac…

Yeah, that's a very fair addendum. My line of reasoning was based on the proposition that Netflix would roll with that.

If they don't then that would invalidate the proposition, rendering all that stems from it moot.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#694

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If you don't get what you pay for, then suck it up." Remember some Netflix clients pay MORE to enjoy higher quality. If Netflix artificially limits that quality, no matter the reason, then they shouldn't be charging that full price. Netflix is getting the best part of it: charging the same money, paying less for bandwidth, and they excuse themselves because the EU asked them to do it. It's the ISPs that should be so…

We pay for schools and our children stay home. We pay for street maintenance and we're locked in our houses. We pay for government and elections are being postponed. We pay for healthcare and people are not getting the care they need. We keep paying, because if we stop after the epidemic there won't be schools, there won't be road maintenance companies, there won't be a functioning government, there won't be hospital…

Because compulsory taxes that pay for a public good are exactly the same as a private company where users may elect to pay for one of several tiers of service.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#695

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I am in a third group that feels that the mob-mentality has taken over. If Netflix indeed decides to just go with this, I too will think they should be called out. But unless I've missed something, they haven't communicated anything about that yet, positive or negative. The outrage right now to me looks like people shouting at firefighters "who's going to pay for that waterdamage?!" while the fire is still ac…

I agree with you that maybe we should wait to see how this plays out before we judge their actions. I've never had a situation yet where waiting for a more lucid picture was a bad move.

Unrelated but I love this 'I've never had a situation yet where waiting for a more lucid picture was a bad move.'

Good advice in general.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#696

I've been having major internet issues lately (Seattle area), have had 4 techs come try to figure it out. Yesterday's tech finally correctly diagnosed the problem as happening before the connection reaches our home but was unsure of the cause. He called his supervisor to investigate, and they found that the capacity for our neighborhood's node was nearly at 100%, while ideally it should always be under 80%. Fortunate…

Around the time you posted this, my internet in Seattle was down for near around 12 hours yesterday. I'm not fond of my ISP, but that's unusual even for them.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#697
post #552
post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ISPs have been under that pressure for decades and dragged their feet because they had monopolies to protect them. Getting pity for them when the proverbial fecal matter hits the fan is a big ask IMO. On Netflix’s side, they sure are in a hard place, I’d wish govs. would foot part of the bill, as it’s directly helping people stay at home.

I think it's times like this where the government should just sigh and once this is over, come back to have a very stern conversation with ISPs. Unfortunately internet is critical infrastructure, and kicking and screaming "this is bull" doesn't help alleviate traffic. I'm in Europe, I'm kind of "wtf?" about this, but I get it. I'd rather have lower quality netflix than a broken internet where I can't work from home a…

This position is flawed IMO.

We postpone the hard conversation to get through the crisis. Then after the crisis the hard conversation never happens.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#698
post #630

There seems to be a big divide between two groups: One is of the mind that we should be empathetic and since it's not a lot of money, people shouldn't complain. The other is of the mind that, Netflix can certainly take those actions but shouldn't pass those costs on to the consumer. I'm in the second camp. In Holland, all the big gym companies still charge their memberships even though the gyms are closed. Since they…

Hard to draw a line, but there's a key difference between Netflix & gym memberships/restaurants/… for me: Gyms are forced to close, and are losing money in the process. As a consumer, I can sympathize with the situation. Netflix is having issues because they are thriving , not because they're having a hard time.

Also, I want my gym to be open after this crisis so I am still willing to financially support them until I potentially lose my own income.

Especially for local brick&mortar businesses I do not understand the, in this context, egocentrical "why should I pay you for something I cannot use" mentality.

Nobody here asked for this crisis and we should all support each other as much as possible. People lives are already being destroyed by the necessary measures taken.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#699
post #639

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two or four euros per month. Call the army! I would start a class action suite. /s This stupid selfish attitude is not helping. Netflix will probably issue a statement that they will refund all those affected. And if you don't like it, downgrade! You probably have plenty of time if this is an issue for you.

If two or four euros is so little as to be entirely negligible, and if anyone who would care about throwing such a small amount of money away deserved to be ridiculed, why does Netflix ask for it? They could just let the customer keep the money since it doesn't matter, right? If fact, everyone could just send me this silly sum that doesn't matter and they shouldn't complain about.

Exactly, this is less than a single one of the overpriced Starbucks coffees that those same people probably purchase without spending a single thought on it.

Being empathetic to these measures is the right call, although I do find that much more important for brick & mortar businesses than Netflix.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#700

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If you don't get what you pay for, then suck it up." Remember some Netflix clients pay MORE to enjoy higher quality. If Netflix artificially limits that quality, no matter the reason, then they shouldn't be charging that full price. Netflix is getting the best part of it: charging the same money, paying less for bandwidth, and they excuse themselves because the EU asked them to do it. It's the ISPs that should be so…

We pay for schools and our children stay home. We pay for street maintenance and we're locked in our houses. We pay for government and elections are being postponed. We pay for healthcare and people are not getting the care they need. We keep paying, because if we stop after the epidemic there won't be schools, there won't be road maintenance companies, there won't be a functioning government, there won't be hospital…

Do you work for netflix or something? these are some heavy comparisons you're making. Netflix is a premium service and they charge a premium rate for it! 15 bucks a month could buy Disney+ too ya know ;)
Post reply on HN