Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable • Hacker News Board

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#101

Post by Jaruzel » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 3:32 PM UTC

henriquez wrote: post #63

Yarr harr fiddle dee dee… I canceled Netflix years ago on the heels of a previous absurd price hike. Somehow I still am able to watch all the shows I want. Weird!

OK I'll say it.... What are you going to watch when no-one bothers to make good TV anymore, because people like you don't pay for it, but watch it anyway?

I'm sure you are employed also, so how about I say 'hey I'll take and use your output, but I won't pay you for it' ? You'll be fine with that, right?

Pirating TV/Films that you can legally watch in your country is immoral, and left unchecked will lead to the overall decline in quality shows.

However... pirating a show (that you've been watching for a few years legally already) because for some dumb reason it's now no longer available in your country (I'm looking at you, Paramount+) is different thing entirely!

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#102

Post by jguimont » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 3:33 PM UTC

UnpossibleJim wrote: post #64

fullshark wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal taste agrees with this based on viewing their catalogue, but i'd like to see evidence that consumers agree, maybe the upcoming earnings report will show cracks in the foundation. Netflix has seemed pretty barren for a while and in trouble imo but then something like Squid Game becomes a global phenomenon and you realize that they have 213 million subscribers globally and likely a pretty good understanding…

Speaking of global, I have noticed that Netflix is one of the few who offers a variety of non-English/American targeted shows. There are quite a few Indian, Mandarin and Latino focused programs in their lineup, which I haven't seen on the other channels (except for HBO en Español). Could it be that Netflix has seen that they can't compete in a crowded market with "the big boys" (though their bank share might disagree…

Actually most countries mandate a % of local content from Netflix. So they sponsor, buy, produce shows for that country and make it available to the world to expend the catalogue. That is quite nice for smaller director/producer to get access to a global crowd.

I remember a local movie (1) that became, almost over night, the most watched movie in Quebec's history with more than 21M viewer. Quebec population is ~8M.

(1) https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-first-netflix...

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#103

Post by BeFlatXIII » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 3:33 PM UTC

stathibus wrote: post #71

rdtsc wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Technology is not the bottleneck at Netflix. The places where the product needs to improve are largely outside of the domain of engineering.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#104

Post by donohoe » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 3:33 PM UTC

Yes, but article calls out some big differences that the headline skips…

  even with Netflix’s recent price increase, 
  the company’s standard plan is still only 
  about half the price of a typical basic 
  cable plan and arguably offers more value 
  with no advertising and a lot of original 
  content that doesn't appear on TV.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#105

Post by lotsofpulp » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 3:33 PM UTC

flerchin wrote: post #39

Canceling is so easy. This future is the one I wanted.

Yes, these complaints ring hollow. I have access to almost everything exactly what I want, when I want, mostly on whichever device I want.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#106

Post by samwillis » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 3:34 PM UTC

hylaride wrote: post #61

samwillis wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

Stillwater and the new Snoopy show are quite good Apple TV+ shows for kids. But otherwise, Apple TV+ has been very meh. We only have it because we have the big bundle for the icloud storage.

Our kids love Snoopy.

To quote my wife though “I would pay for Apple TV+ just for Ted Lasso”. That says allot about how people look at these services.

Apple are treating their tv service the way they do their whole product range, small number of products but done very well.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#107

Post by wdb » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 3:35 PM UTC

Mindwipe wrote: post #87

wdb wrote: 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…

> I can understand that dubbed audio might not be available on other country Netflix' but the subtitles? Subtitles are absolutely limited by region by the studios as part of stopping people VPNing around to access titles that haven't been paid for in that region.

Don't think subtitles are the reason people would use VPNs ;) If VPNs are the problem than Netflix should do a better job blocking them

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#108

Post by lordfoom » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 3:36 PM UTC

dmitriid wrote: post #21

lofties wrote: 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?

'"The goal," says Sarandos, "is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us." '

That was Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer of Netflix in 2013, so they 'realized' at least a decade ago.

They've really pivoted amazingly from dvds to streaming other folks content to creating their own in the last 20ish years.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#109

Post by jitix » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 3:36 PM UTC

stathibus wrote: post #71

rdtsc wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I think Netflix's product is not software but content. I understand what you're referring to but if Prime Video's UX is any indication, content trumps software product quality in this market segment.

If I were Netflix I'd probably divest the technology side of the business (which is arguably the best in the market) and sell that "software product" as a white label streaming platform to the myriad of media houses across the world trying to get into streaming.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#110

Post by arnvald » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 3:36 PM UTC

stathibus wrote: post #10

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.

FAANG was coined as an acronym for best performing stocks in mid-2010s. Netflix has some of the top paid engineers in the world, but that's not why they're part of FAANG.