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Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

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71–80 of 507 posts

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#71
post #58

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.

> Presumably those people have been doing something for the past 5 years in anticipation of being disrupted A lot of cool technology, no doubt. Unless they start writing scripts, directing, acting, editing it might not help. It’s a bit like if a hospital had a really cool IT department, highest paid engineers, latest database tech and hardware. But it’s not enough, as their surgeons are not as good as ones from the o…

Where I come from, engineers are there to build things that make the product better.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#72
post #22
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).

>Disney+ covers all of .. Europe.. nope, not available in my country and it is clear from their list too: https://help.disneyplus.com/csp?id=csp_article_content&sys_k...

I was including those countries where it has been announced it will be launching soon, so perhaps you are in one of those.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#73
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).

Disney+ is only available in Singapore and India, not sure why you're saying it's everywhere in South East Asia https://www.bestvpnfordisneyplus.com/blogs/when-is-disney-pl... https://help.disneyplus.com/csp?id=csp_article_content&sys_k...

>Disney+ is only available in Singapore and India, not sure why you're saying it's everywhere in South East Asia

That's incorrect.

>Disney Plus Malaysia officially launched on 1st June 2021, making streaming Disney+ movies and series more accessible and worth the purchase in Malaysia. After Indonesia and Singapore, Malaysia has become the third South East Asian country to get Disney+ as Disney Plus Hotstar in collaboration with Astro Malaysia.

It is also available in Thailand, but Philippines is only announced to be coming soon.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#74

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…

They definitely have challenges but Netflix does have three original shows at the moment that I am watching and they are earning my subscription with.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#75

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.

I agree with your point. Netflix is in the custom content business. If anyone is confused about that and thinks their engineers will ultimately make or break the business, a rude awakening is inbound.

The Netflix tech lead, if it matters much at all at this point, is perpetually shrinking. There's only so much that shuffling what-to-watch-next algorithms on the Titanic deck will do for you. Disney has an epic amount of money to throw at anything they want to, so do Apple and Amazon. Netflix stands zero chance of keeping a magic lead via a couple thousand very highly paid engineers; there is only so much those engineers can do to make a difference, only so much to optimize in that product, and they can do absolutely nothing to bolster the biggest value proposition: content wins out.

I've been a Netflix subscriber for a very long time. I can't name anything they make that I care about or have watched recently. I can't name a single mega show I permanently associate with them (like I might the Sopranos with HBO etc). I agree with most everyone else in this thread, Netflix is first on the chopping block, because their content sucks. A streaming product has to be exceptionally bad to lose in the market if you have superior content (with a reasonable price); the largely tech superior streaming product that Netflix has had isn't going to be enough to beat their competition unless their content is stellar too.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#76

If Netflix increases their price, than so can their competitors. And many people are now subscribed to multiple services instead of just one. In practice, this is not a 2X increase in 10 years — it is 5X.

Ye Netflix subscribers are paying more for less.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#77
post #8

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…

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

That’s why they don’t always create from scratch. Netflix originals doesn’t always mean they commissioned and produced a show/movie

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#78
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netflix needs to realize, if it hasn't already, that it's not a technology company, but a production company.

They realized it three or four years ago when big players started pulling content. Why do you think they've been investing so heavily in their own content?

Investing in their own content would not support them being a technology company.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 am the opposite. Almost none of the new Netflix content appeals to me, but I watch re-runs of things like The Office and Seinfeld.

Ha ha, I'm a bit like you but I instead scour YouTube for even older shows like "Route 66" or the old "You Bet Your Life".

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#80
Typical startup play: charge almost nothing for a decade or longer, then raise prices or reduce offerings later on after killing almost every competing offering in the world. This time, there are still several competitors left though. One day these services that aim to replace cable will be basically identical to cable but more expensive, or else there will be a bunch of walled gardens

It’s like YouTube will the ad spam. YouTube wiped out every competitor who played ads or tried to monetize. Now that it stands on their corpses with a monopoly, they are pushing subscriptions and ads extremely hard, sometimes 3 ads in a 15 min video now

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