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The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

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Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#761

Post by dylan604 »

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.…

If you want to sugar to help the medicine go down...

Compare the current digital rental prices to taking yourself to the theater. While the digital rental rate is high, it is less than one ticket for admission. If you buy concessions, it only goes up. If you take someone else, it gets higher. That one digital rental starts to look less steep from this vantage point. That being said, I still don't do the digital rental.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#762

Post by throwpp034578 »

jbverschoor wrote: post #687

Well it's simple.. The movie industry almost killed itself, and now it's getting greedy again. More and more people are simply downloading again. Not because they refuse to pay, but because they refuse to pay for 6 platforms, and get annoyed by not being able to find where they can watch things.

I very recently downloaded because I just couldn't manage to acquire the movie I wanted to watch in any other way.

I looked for it in all platforms, Netflix, Prime, Apple TV, YouTube, Play Store, and it wasn't available in my country. I then connected to the US through a VPN and tried to buy it or rent it but my PayPal account didn't work because it isn't associated to the US. I finally found it in YouTube posted by a page that seemed official! But it had no captions... argh!

I wasted 2 hours trying to have anyone accept money to let me watch it, but got nothing. Then I tried torrenting and 3 min after I had the movie ready to watch and a captions file ready to add. In the end I couldn't finish watching the movie because it had already taken too long.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#763

Post by standardUser »

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…

It would be much worse if we were forced to buy the rights to watch a TV show or movie before we know if we even like it. I'd have a massive virtual library of half garbage.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#764

Post by gramie »

conception wrote: post #437
serial_dev wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't cancel Netflix yet (have been thinking about it as I find that sometimes I just watch it for hours, and it's kind of a waste of life). I can say for sure, if they introduce ads, I'm leaving, I won't pay for watching ads, sorry.

They've said they are introducing a reduced subscription fee with ads, not adding ads.

Yes, and cable TV originally ran without ads (because why else would you pay for TV?), but once they had a subscriber base they started playing them.

Bottom line: if they think it will improve the bottom line, they will do it.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#765

Post by dataflow »

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?

Note you're not just paying the marginal cost, you're also paying for the streaming infrastructure they invested in setting up.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#766

Post by 8ytecoder »

rhino369 wrote: post #500
OskarS wrote: post #60

The thing I find interesting with Netflix is how much they spend on content and what a terrible rate of return it has. Look at Apple TV+, they're absolutely TINY compared to Netflix in both library size and money spent on new production, but they have arguably more hits than Netflix. Like, since when has any drama on Netflix been as buzzy or as good as Severance on Apple TV+? When was the last time they had a comedy…

I think they've over-interpreted their viewing data. Seems like they concluded that viewers spend most of their time watching garbage filler, which is probably true. But they shouldn't presume that each viewing hour is equal to the next. I'll watch some garbage on streaming. But I'll make subscription choices based on flagship shows since everyone has garbage filler content.

Based on the cancellations of some beloved shows, I’d also say they give a disproportionate weight age to binging.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#767

Post by subpixel »

listless wrote: post #697
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…

My wife keeps throwing out “wokeness” as the reason and I don’t buy it. Yes, that shit is obnoxious, but I don’t care. If your content is good, be as “woke” as you like. I just want good shows. Bottom line is Netflix has too much competition from cheaper platforms with better content.

I have not dropped Netflix but I admit the virtue-signaling in the suggested content has made me stop giving the interface as much attention. The suggestions are crap across the board, and I assume in Netflix's interest more than my own, so I just search, and when I can't find what I want, I go someplace else.

Increasingly, I just go somewhere else.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#768

Post by syspec »

tyingq wrote: post #752
listless wrote: post #697

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife keeps throwing out “wokeness” as the reason and I don’t buy it. Yes, that shit is obnoxious, but I don’t care. If your content is good, be as “woke” as you like. I just want good shows. Bottom line is Netflix has too much competition from cheaper platforms with better content.

Some of it would be what it does to "suspension of disbelief". It's hard to get immersed in a show if it doesn't seem real enough.

Can you elaborate?

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#769

Post by standardUser »

ozzythecat wrote: post #474
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…

I cancelled because it’s not worth the time investment. Good shows are not only difficult to find, but Netflix will release a season or two and unreasonably no longer continue on, without closing out the story. They try to cater to a mass audience and use a large net, but then due to capital costs or whatever reasons, they force their customer to feel stupid for getting invested into a show in the first place. I miss…

"without closing out the story"

To be fair, that was the fate of almost every television show ever made. In fact, your entire first paragraph is just describing what we used to call "television".

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