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The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

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Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#731

Post by password4321 »

assttoasstmgr wrote: post #719
ripe wrote: post #662

It's sad that we cannot own titles but are forced to rent them from these streaming services that can't seem to get their shit together. (Not blaming Netflix per se; this is a pox on all their houses). Used to be nice in the DVD days. I built myself a nice collection then. This was the idea behind digital rights lockers: UltraViolet, which Disney refused to participate in and which closed down in 2019, and its succes…

I still buy hard media (which makes me a Luddite apparently) because I consider it art and refuse to pay for digital media that is allegedly perpetual and then one day it goes missing because the wokes decided it should be memory holed. One of many, many examples: https://screenrant.com/its-always-sunny-blackface-episodes-m... Even things like iTunes Music Store which once claimed that all your past purchases are ava…

Do you have any little disc destroying demons around... oh wait, did I say that out loud? I meant little kids.

Discs are good for ripping then straight to storage (or mailing back to Netflix?) but that's about it.

It would be cool to have a shared database of binaries+commands to recreate scene rips from the discs. Or just following along with someone who knows what they're doing and doesn't go for one-size-fits-all compression.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#732

Post by rc_mob »

mcphage wrote: post #88
CamelCaseName wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 h…

Yeah I hate the author of this article

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#733

Post by disqard »

assttoasstmgr wrote: post #719
ripe wrote: post #662

It's sad that we cannot own titles but are forced to rent them from these streaming services that can't seem to get their shit together. (Not blaming Netflix per se; this is a pox on all their houses). Used to be nice in the DVD days. I built myself a nice collection then. This was the idea behind digital rights lockers: UltraViolet, which Disney refused to participate in and which closed down in 2019, and its succes…

I still buy hard media (which makes me a Luddite apparently) because I consider it art and refuse to pay for digital media that is allegedly perpetual and then one day it goes missing because the wokes decided it should be memory holed. One of many, many examples: https://screenrant.com/its-always-sunny-blackface-episodes-m... Even things like iTunes Music Store which once claimed that all your past purchases are ava…

I'm in your camp, but I think you used the antonym of the word you intended to: "ephemeral" vs. "eternal" :)

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#734

Post by sgarman »

danans wrote: post #322

I doubt most of the subscription loss is attributable to reasons that most HN types go on about (the rants about wokeness, not enough scifi, carousel UI, pirating etc...). What's probably going on is after after a few years of pandemic isolation and Netflix binging, the arrival of pandemic triggered inflation, and overall higher employment rates, people just have less interest, time, and money to binge watch longer f…

> Many are probably consuming shorter form content (like TikTok), or enjoying more time in public.

So Quibi was right! ;)

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#735

Post by rc_mob »

dehrmann wrote: post #266
bruce511 wrote: post #37

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…

This is also the end of the covid bump. People might even try to make up for lost time in the next year and leave their houses more than in 2019.

You are aware covid is not gone?

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#736

Post by noncoml »

CabSauce wrote: post #160
cercatrova wrote: post #101

It's easier just to pirate than keep up with all these streaming services. - You get the benefit of high quality (true 4k, not stream compressed "4k") and no buffering. - Plex, Radarr, Sonarr automatically downloads and categorizes your content for you, you can just sit back and enjoy your content. - Edit: Plex et al are not the *only* ways to download content, not sure why some replies are thinking so. I too can typ…

Sure. It's also stealing. And doesn't provide any money for future shows that you might enjoy. Don't get me wrong, I've done it for some things that I wanted to watch, but wasn't willing to pay for. But let's not pretend that everyone torrenting is a reasonable solution.

> Sure. It's also stealing

How about “owning” a movie but not being able to resell it or loan it to friends. What’s that?

Please don’t use physical item terms for digital items.

Stealing something from you implied you don’t have to have it after I take it.

It’s illegal and unethical, we agree on that. But it’s not stealing.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#737

Post by gh02t »

svachalek wrote: post #708
lostcolony wrote: post #673

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cost is part of the reasons those never really caught on, not just participation. The number of titles I (and I assume, most people) will watch enough to warrant paying $20 for is vanishingly small. Even $4 a rental is a hard bar to pass at this point with streaming competing. $1-2 to rent though? I'd be all over that. Weirdly, that's the cost to rent a physical disk at Redbox...but an on demand title anywhere is…

Netflix used to be an unlimited dvd rental service. It turned into the same thing without the mail step, so of course we stopped using it. I think if we had known what streaming would look like today, a lot of people including myself would have held on tighter.

Except back in the DVD rental days, Netflix could rent out basically everything instead of having to fight for exclusive content rights. You could subscribe to Netflix or go to Blockbuster but you could get the same selection more or less at either.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#738

Post by LVB »

svachalek wrote: post #708
lostcolony wrote: post #673

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cost is part of the reasons those never really caught on, not just participation. The number of titles I (and I assume, most people) will watch enough to warrant paying $20 for is vanishingly small. Even $4 a rental is a hard bar to pass at this point with streaming competing. $1-2 to rent though? I'd be all over that. Weirdly, that's the cost to rent a physical disk at Redbox...but an on demand title anywhere is…

Netflix used to be an unlimited dvd rental service. It turned into the same thing without the mail step, so of course we stopped using it. I think if we had known what streaming would look like today, a lot of people including myself would have held on tighter.

I let go of DVDs for quite some time but have re-enabled https://dvd.netflix.com recently. Good selection, plus the much slower act of selecting, receiving and exchanging is sort of a welcome restricted diet compared to the endless buffet over the past decade.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#739

Post by bogomipz »

ripe wrote: post #662

It's sad that we cannot own titles but are forced to rent them from these streaming services that can't seem to get their shit together. (Not blaming Netflix per se; this is a pox on all their houses). Used to be nice in the DVD days. I built myself a nice collection then. This was the idea behind digital rights lockers: UltraViolet, which Disney refused to participate in and which closed down in 2019, and its succes…

Not just that but it's sad we can't even just rent the titles we used to be able to rent from videos stores. There is no much content that is just not available and I fear it never will be. If you were fortunate enough to have lived near a cinephile type rental place then you probably remember how directors often had their own sections. You could browse Kurasowa, Orson Welles, Robert Altman, Godard ...

I remember looking at the Criterion Collection streaming channel not that long ago and what struck me was just how much of the Criterion Collection was not even available on their streaming channel.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#740

Post by lotsofpulp »

brimble wrote: post #728
lostcolony wrote: post #673

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cost is part of the reasons those never really caught on, not just participation. The number of titles I (and I assume, most people) will watch enough to warrant paying $20 for is vanishingly small. Even $4 a rental is a hard bar to pass at this point with streaming competing. $1-2 to rent though? I'd be all over that. Weirdly, that's the cost to rent a physical disk at Redbox...but an on demand title anywhere is…

I would do a whole lot more digital rentals if the prices weren't so damn high. How is it that it can be significantly cheaper to rent the physical disk than to stream the movie once? How can I watch 20 hours of stuff on HBO in 4k for like $10 or $12 or whatever that runs now for a month, but a single 2-hour movie is $5? It'd also help a lot if I didn't need a different "app" for every store, with its own player UI.…

> How is it that it can be significantly cheaper to rent the physical disk than to stream the movie once?

Price discrimination or price segmentation is the technical name.

If you are selling an identical good which has near zero marginal cost to reproduce, then the way to maximize your profit is to sell it to each person for the maximum they are willing to pay.

Ideally, you want to sell (or rent) the same movie or tv show or song to someone willing to pay $5 for $5, $10 for $10, and $1 for $1.

In practice, it is logistically infeasible to target each and every person’s maximum price, but you can try to target populations as a whole. For example, grocery stores with no discount to people who are willing to pay more, versus giving out paper coupons or online coupons to those willing to spend time to save money.

In media’s case, I am assuming that the media sellers are betting the people willing to buy online are willing to pay more, on average, than people willing to go through all the trouble of renting a physical disk.

At least in my case, it would ring true. If I really wanted to see something, I would not care about paying $5 in the moment on my TV and start watching in seconds, rather than remembering to get and dealing with a disc from a Redbox kiosk for $1. But there are people who would want to save the $4, and so the content sellers are able to get $5 from me and $1 from the person using Redbox (although they are also losing sales from people not willing to buy at $5 online, and not willing to pay $1 at a Redbox, but the bet is that population is smaller than the total of the other populations).

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