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Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

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Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#171

Post by pessimizer »

Jaruzel wrote: post #101
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 overal…

There's nearly a hundred years of good tv, and more than a hundred years of movies.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#172

Post by yonaguska »

arch-ninja wrote: post #127
discardable_dan wrote: post #2

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…

I cancelled my subscription shortly after they started getting rid of small-time films and started producing their own content; the two reasons were (1) I don't like businesses that can't cooperate with others and (2) their own content sucks and likely continues to suck to this day because their KPI is "how many people watched >1s of this?" and not "did we allow passionate, talented people to do work they are now pro…

I actually surprisingly enjoy their international content, Dark, Squid Game, Vikings, etc- but their American content does suck. It also comes off as too preachy/propaganda-ish. If I was actually the one paying for the account, I simply wouldn't subscribe.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#173

Post by cm2012 »

tptacek wrote: post #144
OskarS wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As far as I can tell they've succeeded at becoming HBO. Have they? Have they really? As far as I can tell, nothing that Netflix has ever done in-house has ever come close to the best of the cable channels. Like, The Witcher is fine, but Game of Thrones it is not, neither in quality nor buzz/cultural significance. House of Cards is no Succession and Ozark is no Breaking Bad. Nothing they have could even come close t…

Discussing only on the merits of their content, and stipulating that this is neither here nor there with respect to Netflix's long-term prospects vs. HBO: Breaking Bad isn't an HBO show. So I assume we're just asking, "has Netflix produced any world-class content". The answer to that is yes. The jewel in their crown, their "Game of Thrones", is clearly Stranger Things. It's undeniably successful, each new season a cu…

Plus Arcane which is in the top 20 tv shows of all time on IMBD.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#174

Post by treis »

ghaff wrote: post #98
adventured wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I won't say a streaming platform is a commodity at this point but it's close. Others may disagree but I don't really find a meaningful usability difference between Netflix, Disney+, and Apple TV+. They're a studio with a streaming platform.

I do. Netflix always works for me and I don't think I've ever found a bug. HBO Max on the other hand routinely fails to stream with an error and has lots of UI bugs. Little things like if you're watching a show and go to the episode list there's no way to change seasons.

That said, it doesn't matter much because HBO's crappy app is the only way to watch their content so I put up with it.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#175

Post by KingMachiavelli »

I really hope Netflix proves everyone wrong. HBO and Disney+ may have a huge advantage but neither seems interested in the tech side. Disney+ may be OK now (it's been a while since I checked) but HBO Max seems to be extremely inconsistent when it comes to streaming quality. Even new, popular shows like Euphoria on HBO Max are only 1080p with a bitrate so low that the frequent, dimly lit scenes are a blocky mess. At the same time, AAA movies like Dune stream in nearly Bluray quality. Meanwhile even dumb reality shows on Netflix still stream with suburb quality.

IMO assuming Netflix doubles down on original content which seems to be the assumed direction, they have two strategies. Strategy one is to produce/distribute content that is developed outside the US where production is much cheaper and existing production companies have less of an advantage. Partnering with local, smaller production outfits is probably a good strategy.

Strategy two is to use their tech advantage to lower the cost of content production. I'm quite surprised that we haven't seen Netflix create a Holodeck-esque production method. The Mandalorian (Disney+/Holodeck) and The Witcher Season 1(Netflix) have somewhat similar production costs per episode at ~$15M and ~$10M respectively but The Mandalorian had significantly more and better CG then The Witcher so clearly the Holodeck method has a lot of benefits and cost savings.

That said Squid Game only had a total budget of ~$21M, although a lot lighter on CG, strategy one offers a more cost savings.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#176

Post by ghaff »

nikanj wrote: post #8
discardable_dan wrote: post #2

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

Yeah, although if you're older and don't rewatch a lot of content the backlog doesn't really help a lot--especially if their older movie catalog is thin.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#177

Post by Semaphor »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #59
discardable_dan wrote: post #2

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…

I wouldn't write them off yet. Disney, Apple and Amazon seem the only real competitors as this is a game of scale. Disney is even more content limited and better for kids. Apple never got it right, cant see them fixing it now. And Amazon stuffed it between their mixed model where half the stuff you want to watch has extra fees + generally limited inclusive content, though the prime membership might buy that back. Bot…

> Wild card is sport, that can be attractive and sticky if someone merges that in.

Amazon Prime Germany has been showing me adverts, that they have soccer/football games (not sure what league or if there is an extra cost associated as I don’t watch sports), so they are at least in some regions already there.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#178

Post by Asmod4n »

croon wrote: post #117
jbluepolarbear wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What Apple Arcade games have ads? The whole point of arcade is to provide ad-free games.

They are games designed for ads/microtransactions, but those parts cut out, usually leaving a grindy mess with no shortcuts (paid or otherwise). I won't say every, but most games that aren't designed as pay-once are just elaborate dopamine slot machines, with no winners. The exceptions are few.

Apple Arcade games can’t have Ads or IAPs.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#179

Post by asimpletune »

jitix wrote: post #109
stathibus wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 acro…

I wonder if the money they'd earn would be worth the cost of helping their competitors?

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#180

Post by fleddr »

I too notice the drastic decline in content quality.

I normally watch one episode per day of...something. Before, this relatively low usage meant I got to watch pretty much only excellent shows and could barely keep up with them.

Now, even with this low-ish usage I'm struggling to find the next show to watch. I already have to dig deep below my standards. I can't imagine what garbage heavy users are watching.

There's this general trend towards pulp content. No imagination, proven formulas, terrible writing, shallow, woke and "safe".

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