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The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

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Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#81

Interesting analysis. I find it interesting that so many people spend so much time watching tv in the first place. Growing up, I was one of those people but about a decade ago I lost interest in pretty much anything on television. There are certain shows that I will watch on occasion that get me hooked, but I usually struggle to find anything that is actually worth my time and end up just turning the tv off after sur…

I only use Netflix and Prime, and both feel really stale to me. It's all "content" - good to very good production values designed to fill a gap and appeal to a demographic. But very repetitive and production line, with no passion projects, nothing too arty or quirky, nothing outside of the box, no surprises. Some of it is quite watchable, but none of it is exciting or fresh. It's all some combination of stock soapy c…

I guess this is the cons of being such a data oriented company. It requires guts to think beyond ROI when you have so much infos about your users and their habits.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#82
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love HBOMax content but the technology is a nightmare. Constant buffering that makes shows almost unwatchable, which I cannot understand since I have no problem with Netflix, Prime, Hulu and Disney.

I don't have buffering problems with any streaming services. Perhaps your ISP has congested peering with their network.

Im not a technical network guy, so I don’t know, but the fact that it doesn’t affect any other streaming service leads me to blame HBO.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#83
> a year-long subscription at a discount — 10 months for the price of 12, for instance

That doesn't sound like very good deal to me, I'd prefer 12 months for the price of 10 or pay as you go for minutes/hours of actually watched content. Though Netflix has so much trash it's not really worth paying for. Had it for many months and hardly watched anything there.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#84
post #21

The entire TV/movie streaming industry is pushing the world back to a cable-like one, and that's already pushing people back to pirating. There are a lot of people who were content to pay for a couple services, but even without any sports, you can easily be paying for 3 streaming services for ~$60, just to get content that used to be on Netflix (plus whatever's been released since). Once you add one or two sports, yo…

> The entire TV/movie streaming industry is pushing the world back to a cable-like one, and that's already pushing people back to pirating.

Downloading video content for your own consumption is not technically pirating in many EU countries and it's perfectly legal (not so much uploading/hosting it). While in same EU countries would be already torrenting (distributing) it illegal, so you are safe only with DDL.

But yeah, fragmentation of market killed it for end consumer.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#85

Interesting analysis. I find it interesting that so many people spend so much time watching tv in the first place. Growing up, I was one of those people but about a decade ago I lost interest in pretty much anything on television. There are certain shows that I will watch on occasion that get me hooked, but I usually struggle to find anything that is actually worth my time and end up just turning the tv off after sur…

I don't watch stuff unless it has ended and is reccomended by someone who watches shows I generally enjoy. Here's my pitch for the golden age of TV, though most of these are from a few years back. Most on HBO. The Wire The Sopranos Generation Kill The Deuce Treme Show me a Hero Luck The Expanse Sillicon Valley (not actually that funny but like a documentary of our field) Mad Men

Yes. Though stepping back a little further, I'd add (with some qualification):

24 (which perhaps opened my eyes to TV overtaking film in new ways) Lost Buffy

And then further still:

The X Files This Life (UK only?)

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't "watched television" in over 20 years. At the same time, the internet (YouTube to a large degree) has crept in to steal away my time. I am thankful though that YouTube sucked so bad for so long because I spent a lot of time with my kids when they were young, reading to them, biking with them, taking them on road trips. Cutting the cord was the idea when my first daughter was born - to have the kids grow up…

I'm in the same boat, I cut the cord in 2008 and truly feel that my kids had a better experience as youths. Having cable tv in a hotel was a huge deal for them, although they didn't really understand commercials.

Ha ha, yeah my kids were shocked by the repetition and onslaught of commercials. "How does anyone watch this?" they asked. Yeah.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#87
post #57

Netflix always had a terrible business model dependent on transient properties of the media environment. I thought from the beginning they were not masters of their own fate (remember Redbox's hack to get around publisher restrictions? Weird streaming windows even from the streaming era's earliest days?) and once they started spending the big bucks to try and stay afloat it was clear they were doomed. They were only…

> They were only in "FAANG" to make the acronym funny.

https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-faang

See “The origins of FAANG”. At some point, presumably because it is a catchy sounding acronym, people started using FAANG to mean large tech companies, or large tech companies with very high payrates.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#88

I see a lot of focus on the "lost 200 000 subscribers", but less acknowledgement that they kicked 700 000 Russians off the subscriber list, meaning they actually grew by 500 000 subscribers (still well short of wall streets expectation of 2.5 million.) So in one sense it's a one-time drop, not a trend. Does Netflix have more competition than before? sure. Is it growing as fast as before? no, especially as they reach…

> So in one sense it's a one-time drop, not a trend. But it is a trend, they said to expect a 2 million subscriber loss in the following quarter.

You're right, but the article posted includes statements like:

> Two hundred thousand subscribers did not suddenly quit their subscriptions and start using their friends’ passwords.

That implies the author thought this was a natural subscription drop and not a result of losing 700k subscribers in Russia. I'm not sure I have any confidence in their predictions about the future, since they're so clueless about what's happening today.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#89
post #57

Netflix always had a terrible business model dependent on transient properties of the media environment. I thought from the beginning they were not masters of their own fate (remember Redbox's hack to get around publisher restrictions? Weird streaming windows even from the streaming era's earliest days?) and once they started spending the big bucks to try and stay afloat it was clear they were doomed. They were only…

> They were only in "FAANG" to make the acronym funny. https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-faang See “The origins of FAANG”. At some point, presumably because it is a catchy sounding acronym, people started using FAANG to mean large tech companies, or large tech companies with very high payrates.

I suppose it’s MAAMA these days, much as I’d prefer MAGMA

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#90
post #28
post #21

The entire TV/movie streaming industry is pushing the world back to a cable-like one, and that's already pushing people back to pirating. There are a lot of people who were content to pay for a couple services, but even without any sports, you can easily be paying for 3 streaming services for ~$60, just to get content that used to be on Netflix (plus whatever's been released since). Once you add one or two sports, yo…

Why not just have one streaming service at a time? Each has an absurd amount of content so just switch it up every few months. You get to watch everything and it’s super inexpensive. Sports are trickier of course.

This is what I do. When the "to watch" list of shows I got recommended or am otherwise interested in watching on one of the services gets a few items on it, I buy a month of subscription and immediately cancel. Then watch the stuff during the month, and some time later get another month of a different service. This has been working great for the past couple years.
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