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

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#211

Post by Ottolay » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 4:46 PM UTC

samwillis wrote: post #184

redm wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised YouTube isn't on your list. We having streaming services, but my kids mostly watch YouTube.

Absolutely no YouTube for our kids, just don’t trust it, not even their kids app. Too many stories of bad content. Here in the uk we have the joy that is CBeebies and CBBC, so have iPlayer (and all the other kids BBC apps) on iPads for the kids. The only other one we let them have free reign on is Disney+, I’m sure this will change for the older one soon.

Wish there was a way to block everything and whitelist allowed channels. There are some really quality ones but there are also a bunch of really creepy content, even in the kids app.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#212

Post by t_h_r_o_w_away » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 4:47 PM UTC

I stopped using Netflix when their catalog went from a rotation of decent movies and TV series to a pile of house produced content that shoves irrelevant content at me.

Something about Netflix produced shows seem too crafted by marketing types. It's like a committee comes up with a list of attributes for a show that are just the right amount of woke, edgy, trendy, and demographic evenness. The result is a simulacrum of a TV show, like it is in an uncanny valley. It looks and smells like good content but it just isn't.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#213

Post by ghaff » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 4:47 PM UTC

rurp wrote: post #199

ghaff wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may be true but network TV regularly killed TV shows early in their run too--often in the first season even.

True but networks have a severe time slot constraint, in addition to the same production costs as Netflix, so it's a lot more understandable. Maybe my perception is off but Netflix seems even worse about killing new shows after 1-2 seasons, which is pretty ridiculous IMO. Netflix seems overly reliant on small scale KPIs at the expense of the overall experience. Of course it's possible that they know exactly what they…

I don't know the numbers but Netflix probably kills shows faster.

>Of course it's possible that they know exactly what they're doing and I'm just far away from their target consumer.

Maybe. So long as a show doesn't get canceled at a completely unnatural point, I'm actually fine with just a couple seasons a lot of the time--especially with the historical network model of 20 episodes per season or so. And, conversely, by the time a show hits 4 or 5 seasons I'm done with it even if it's still pretty solid. I'm just tired of it.

There are a bunch of network shows I liked that stayed pretty good but I just stopped watching them at some point.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#214

Post by fluidcruft » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 4:47 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…

Yes, for example I like that Netflix has a variety of French and German shows.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#215

Post by imbnwa » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 4:49 PM UTC

mgkimsal wrote: post #137

rchaud wrote: post #116

The golden age of Netflix was when it had a full library of other networks' shows. It was completely unsustainable at $8.99/mo or whatever it was back in 2013-15. The price of the brick went up each time renewal discussions happened, and the rights holders were planning to set up their own networks anyway. What I didn't anticipate was how fast Netflix would dump AAA content and replace it with a deluge of B and C gra…

> The halo effect that "Netflix Original" used to have thanks to shows like House of Cards... It wasn't even 'original' in that it was a UK series years earlier. I understand they made changes, and, IIRC, milked it for a lot more than the UK series. But that wasn't... "original". Good original series though. There's likely more good UK stuff Netflix could mine.

We talkin Peaky Blinders and The Last Kingdom? Anything else?

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#216

Post by t_h_r_o_w_away » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 4:49 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.

No post body was provided.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#217

Post by cableshaft » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 4:51 PM UTC

michaelt wrote: post #157

newsbinator wrote: post #50

> But Netflix’s quarterly subscriber growth is now slowing in spite of spending more money than ever on content To me the problem is the content. They now seem to produce shows for particular niches that are never my niche. Some of these extremely expensive shows are laughably low quality on all fronts: story, acting, stylistic choices, cinematography/direction... everything. Take the new Cowboy Bebop: it's obviously…

> Half the tentpole movies of the 80s, 90s and early 2000s were my niche, so it's not as though I'm a difficult audience. I know what you mean - but is that Hollywood, or is it us becoming grown-ups? I mean, it's possible all movies are aimed at the tastes of teenagers, and the reason Terminator 2 and Robocop and Die Hard seemed like great movies is because I saw them when I was a teenager. The innumerable superhero…

You had to choose those three movies as movies that only seemed great as a teenager? I'd argue they've aged better than a lot of movies from that time period and I'm pretty sure I don't hold the minority opinion there.

Hell, I got tired of adults making nonstop jokes and references to watching Die Hard as a Christmas movie on Facebook just a month ago.

Here's what I would consider a better list:

https://screenrant.com/80s-action-movies-notoriously-bad-goo...

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#218

Post by donkarma » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 4:51 PM UTC

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…

shouldn't have moved from Netflix then, not my issue anymore

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#219

Post by adgjlsfhk1 » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 4:52 PM UTC

J253 wrote: post #203

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…

> Netflix is on the very fast downward slope I definitely don’t disagree with this, but here’s a question for people: if Netflix used their original content budget to instead procure existing content like they originally did, would this save them? This is obviously complicated with everyone creating their own streaming service to charge for their own content, but I’d certainly be happier with Netflix if I had a much…

the problem is no one will sell to them.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#220

Post by tumblen » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 4:52 PM UTC

inanutshellus wrote: post #192

redm wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised YouTube isn't on your list. We having streaming services, but my kids mostly watch YouTube.

Youtube is pretty magical. It has everything, even in the "kid zone". Which also means I can't leave them unsupervised for 30 minutes and come back. If I do, my kids will've gone from educational video about the rain forest to sponsored video to toy videos to slime to fart jokes to music videos of bikini-clad bimbos to steamy romance videos to ... Anyway it's just too much work to curate youtube for a child, IMO. For…

The other thing we find with our 3 year old is that he can have his tablet and watch movies or shows on Netflix/VLC, etc. and it's pretty much all positive.

But he always prefers YouTube and when he's using YouTube, he mostly watches 3-5 minutes of something before getting enticed by another thumbnail.

At times when he's had free reign to YT, it really seems to drastically affect his general attention, patience, temperament and even ability to sleep (he wakes up super early asking for his tablet).

Once we cut it off hard, he goes back to normal.

We don't really believe in complete abstinence of those sorts of things (I think it will just make him even more sensitive to those algorithms in the future) but being aware of the effect, reducing YT and prioritizing actual movies/series has made a noticeable difference.