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The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

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Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#911

Post by genewitch »

mqus wrote: post #714
eweise wrote: post #675

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about movies, but music streaming is awesome. I have a couple thousand CDs that are sitting in a closet somewhere. For a while I kept them as mp3s on a hardrive, copied other people's mp3s to build up my collection. But its still so limited. I love going through my favorite artists on spotify, listening to the less popular albums I never would have bought and discovering new artists.

That works until UMG etc start their own streaming services and take their content off spotify for this or any other reason.

I'd wager that UMG et al would be in breach of contract. I have to imagine they have an agreement not to "broadcast" in exchange for being paid license fees. Disney/ABC etc own lots of radio stations, and I doubt anyone really wants that legal battle.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#912

Post by genewitch »

thot_experiment wrote: post #684
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 pay for a handful of streaming services but that's only because they're decent for content discovery and ease of use. If there's ever anything on there that I genuinely like I just pirate it (Arcane most recently) because the UX of having files that just work everywhere is so much better than the alternative. I would happily pay for unencumbered .mkv downloads if my recent buying trends wrt bandcamp .flacs are any…

Blockbuster had web rental service for console games, which probably decreased piracy; Netflix used to have such a huge library with working subtitles it was pointless to pirate (nearly) anything.

Now, though?

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#913

Post by alot »

loceng wrote: post #857
beloch wrote: post #854

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've lost 200K subscribes... so far . The full effect of price increases will take time to fully play out, plus the effects of implementing commercials have yet to be seen. Also, it remains to be seen how other streaming services will respond. Will they raise prices and add commercials too? If Netflix becomes the one streaming brand most associated with actions hostile to their viewers, this could be the beginning…

This 200k subscribers number is missing the elephant in the room. They expected 2.5 million new subscribers. They didn't get those 2.5 million new subscribers and actually lost 200k, so they're technically -2.7 million subscribers. This may have also triggered an exodus of subscribers too, even if Netflix doesn't do anything additionally stupid to turnoff consumers.

They also guided that they expect to lose another 2 million subscriptions in the next quarter. The stock price collapsed because it appears the growth story may be over.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#914

Post by DubiousPusher »

maroonblazer wrote: post #904
edgyquant wrote: post #902

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like most content is dubbed foreign stuff now days, which I’m not at all into watching. The only thing they have at the moment I watch is Ozark and that’s ending on the 29th.

You're not interested because of the dubbing? Then just switch to subtitles. Or do you not have the patience to put up with subtitles? Despite what Hollywood would have you believe, there's considerable high-quality content coming out of other countries. I love that Netflix brings that to the U.S., otherwise I'd never know of it or be able to watch it.

It's funny because I used to sound just like you. But now I am much more sympathetic to the above comment. I spent a lot of my youth enjoying films by a bunch of foreign filmmakers including:

Ozu Bergman Fellini Suzuki Clouzot Bresson Kurosawa Mizoguchi Costa-Gavras Herzog Renoir and on and on

I especially loved the films of Jean Pierre Melville, Masaki Kobayashi and Anrei Tarkovsky. And yet, when I am done with a long day of work and chores, I cannot stomach anything with subtitles. Exhaustion plays a part in it. It just feels like work after a long day. And I wouldn't want to have that experience of any of the movies I loved back then, seeing them as a chore to be tolerated.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#915

Post by zmmmmm »

edgyquant wrote: post #902
bobitsaboy wrote: post #855

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely a part of it for some. Me, I cancelled due to the low quality of their catalog. A decade or so ago, they had a really strong library of media. Now they don't. What they spend their money on, I find to be severely lacking.

Seems like most content is dubbed foreign stuff now days, which I’m not at all into watching. The only thing they have at the moment I watch is Ozark and that’s ending on the 29th.

Actually dubbed content is one of the few areas where I would say Netflix has stolen a march on its competitors with some innovative practices.

Through Netflix I've been exposed to a huge back catalog of great content just because they were the first ones to invest in having it dubbed (I assume). Even though the dubbing is often pretty crude it's surprisingly watchable still and definitely better watching first tier dubbed content than second or third tier native language content.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#917

Post by srj »

accountofme wrote: post #860
zmmmmm wrote: post #775

All the handwringing over Netflix subscriber loss seems to be overlooking the fact that they raised their prices - significantly. Of course they could lose subscribers from doing that. But 200k subscribers out of 150 million? Combined with the end of the pandemic and sky high inflation meaning many people have less opportunity to watch and less money to spend. The fact they raised their prices something like 20% and…

Netflix has good points: best ui. Good library. Their bad points is what worries me for the service: poor quality of new content. I have not seen anything that wows me for quite some time at least for my preferences (SciFi). So maybe it is for Netflix (the sky falling) things that start as a trickle might end as a flood.

Check out "Dark". I can't explain it without spoiling things but there's a significant twist a few episodes in and it goes down a wild sci fi path.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#918

Post by TenJack »

beloch wrote: post #854
zmmmmm wrote: post #775

All the handwringing over Netflix subscriber loss seems to be overlooking the fact that they raised their prices - significantly. Of course they could lose subscribers from doing that. But 200k subscribers out of 150 million? Combined with the end of the pandemic and sky high inflation meaning many people have less opportunity to watch and less money to spend. The fact they raised their prices something like 20% and…

They've lost 200K subscribes... so far . The full effect of price increases will take time to fully play out, plus the effects of implementing commercials have yet to be seen. Also, it remains to be seen how other streaming services will respond. Will they raise prices and add commercials too? If Netflix becomes the one streaming brand most associated with actions hostile to their viewers, this could be the beginning…

My understanding is the commercials will only be on the lowest tier plan. Similar Hulu.

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#919

Post by downrightmike »

DonHopkins wrote: post #901
xyzzy21 wrote: post #852

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is certainly part of it. There are also those who are not happy with woke content and "Anything Silicon Valley/Tech" and are walking away. Disney has the same thing going.

Racist homophobic bigots hate "woke" content, but so what? Who wants those snowflakes as customers anyway, who are so terrified of being exposed to cartoons of Mickey Mouse and Pluto having steamy hot gay sex? Let them try to cancel culture and walk away from scary cartoon animal sex all they want. How's Trump's "unwoke" social network working out? https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/ted-cruz-mickey-plut... >TED…

He hopes in his heart of heart to not have to skip down to cancun to use grindr

Re: The bottom is dropping out of Netflix

#920

Post by abandonliberty »

jmyeet wrote: post #894
zmmmmm wrote: post #775

All the handwringing over Netflix subscriber loss seems to be overlooking the fact that they raised their prices - significantly. Of course they could lose subscribers from doing that. But 200k subscribers out of 150 million? Combined with the end of the pandemic and sky high inflation meaning many people have less opportunity to watch and less money to spend. The fact they raised their prices something like 20% and…

You focused on price and I think that's a significant factor. Where once Netflix was $8 not really that long ago, it's now $15.50, which is more expensive than HBO (and HBO Max with the merger has an even deeper catalog than it did in the HBO Now time, even though the HBO Now software and website was IMHO much better). What these media companies seem to want is for us to pay $100/month in various streaming services r…

When everything was bundled together, we complained about paying for things we didn't use. Unbundling was initially cheaper because it was just extra profit on the side.

Now, it's becoming the primary business model and has to stand on its own.

It turns out economy of scale is real, and we've lost it. Other people were paying for our content before, but not watching it. How does real public educational content get funded in this new world? Most of us probably agree that there should be quality, unbiased content.

Cashflow consistency has a value as well, so subscribing and unsubscribing creates a cost that needs to get covered by someone. Currently, the loyal subscribers.

I'm not saying things can't improve, just that many unrealistic, entitled attitudes exist. Content is better now than before as providers have to compete more to get subscribers, so the value is greater.

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