Live data from Hacker News

Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

interneteconomist.com

31–40 of 507 posts

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#31
post #7

It's all starting to get expensive. The content on Netflix keeps disappearing without warnings. Half the time you have subtitles in a limited number of languages. Also they now started adding games, why do I need to pay extra for games I never subscribed for or even want? Make it a add-on or something. For example, Netflix DE has subtitles but the Netflix UK won't have the same German subtitles available. Disney+ is…

Also the German subtitles are often very different from the German audio, apparently translated by completely different people. Makes it very annoying to watch with subtitles on.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#33
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the competitors can lean on a decades long backlog of hits that attract people. Netflix needs to build everything from scratch, and the cost of creating TV series is ridiculously high nowadays

I wonder what the percentage of old shows is in total watched minutes. I almost never watch shows or movies older than ~2 years or so. I'm sure that's different for kid's movies, but I think I'm not too much of an exception.

I'm this way _for Netflix_. HBO Max and Disney both have an awesome back-catalog of things to revisit, and I'm constantly finding myself watching an old 90s or 00s movie I had forgotten about on a whim, because it's there. The catalog is curated enough to focus on including good stuff, and HBO Max also has all of Batman: TAS.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#34
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what you mean by Global, exactly, but Disney+ covers all of North and South America, Europe, Australia, all of S.E. Asia, India, New Zealand, and parts of Africa (including soon South Africa).

Do they offer the same shows and movies in Europe as they do in the US though?

Does Netflix? Does anyone?

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#35

I said this again recently, but it's worth repeating: Netflix is on the very fast downward slope. Their catalog is wilting, the space is heating up with well-established competitors moving in and serving the precise content that Netflix originally built their brand on, and their efforts to fund a new catalog with new IP (and taking ownership of old IP) is destroying the business model that made them so appealing in t…

While I don't entirely agree with you I do think the price of Netflix is getting a little higher than the value we personally get out of it. Our personal breakdown this year (in the UK):

Adults in the house, we are quite picky but if we love it then we will keep watching:

  Netflix @£9.99: 2 tv shows, 4-5 films 
  Apple TV+ @£4.99: 3 tv shows, 2 films
  Disney Plus @£7.99: 1 tv show, Loads of movies
  Amazon Prime @£7.99: 3 tv shows, quite a few films, plus "free" shipping!
Kids (3 and 7):

  Netflix: They watch quite quite allot but we don't give them free access even to the kids profile (*see note)
  Apple TV+: Only 1 tv show, but haven't really explored.
  Disney Plus: All of it, I think they have "completed" it!...
  Amazon Prime: None
Disney is by far the best value for money for us as a family, Apple TV+ for us grownups is best value. I don't think we would get rid of any but Netflix is probably now the least value.

Point is, Netflix know from their retention metrics that you only need a couple of shows that a customer loves to keep them subscribed. Add in some content to amuse their kids and it's a done deal.

*Note: Netflix seems to still show image for adult shows in search results in the kids profile even if not available when clicked on, some of this images can be quite aggressive. Hence not giving the kids free access

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#36

Netflix is part of the FAANG acronym because they have all these highly paid engineers. Presumably those people have been doing something for the past 5 years in anticipation of being disrupted by Disney/HBO/etc. besides maintaining their CDN and tweaking recommendation engines, but it's not clear what - the product is more or less the same as it always was.

> besides maintaining their CDN and tweaking recommendation engines But engineers are not product managers tho. I think this is exactly what they were doing.

Product managers don't build things.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few things: First, Netflix' games have the same issue as Apple Arcade: the majority are ad-riddled trash. And Apple Arcade has App Store tie-in. Second, the global numbers are likely to keep Netflix afloat (the same way they seem to for Facebook), but stateside numbers are abysmal compared to emerging services [0]: Netflix boasts 74.02 million subscribers in U.S. and Canada, and HBO Max has 45.2 million domestic (g…

Wait, what Apple Arcade games have ads? Some of them have “formerly had in-app purchases” vibe, but no actual ads. I would guess Netflix’s stuff to be the same.

I'd have to look at my phone. I just know I installed some and got ads in the games, and it made me unsubscribe.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#40

I said this again recently, but it's worth repeating: Netflix is on the very fast downward slope. Their catalog is wilting, the space is heating up with well-established competitors moving in and serving the precise content that Netflix originally built their brand on, and their efforts to fund a new catalog with new IP (and taking ownership of old IP) is destroying the business model that made them so appealing in t…

Completely disagree. This is about power, they are raising the price simply because they can and people will stay on. They've got a long way to go to increase it before the elasticity changes.

The business model was never about being really underpriced, that was just a way to acquire customers.

Post reply on HN