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Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

hollywoodreporter.com

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Re: Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

#81

Post by rmatt2000 »

sytelus wrote: post #34

This is great insider reporting! Most people have no clue how shows gets selected and blame “wokness” for troubles at Netflix. In reality, the cost-cutting high-volume risk-averse leadership took over initial leadership of opposite nature. Transition from “ gut-driven, risktaking, maverick culture” to “prudent and frequently indecisive” is exactly the story of many other areas. Well put.

I think the "woke" people watch TV too. The problem is that there are not nearly as many of them as social media makes it appear that there are.

Re: Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

#82

Post by jdmichal »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #54

Netflix created the bad but successful template that the other streaming services followed: own the streaming platform and the content -- and now they're suffering for it, and so are consumers. As a consumer, I don't want to have 5 different streaming services with subs coming and going depending on what shows happen to be in season. I'd rather choose to subscribe to one of various streaming services that in turn let…

I'm amazed that people didn't see this coming as the end game of the "cut the cord" transition... This was always where it was going to end up. Netflix proved the concept, but it ends up that having an early-mover advantage doesn't matter when you don't own your product, just the platform. But of course what people are actually paying for is the product. And it's been shown time and again that people are willing to put up with "good enough" platforms as long as it has the product they want.

It's the downside of all "content platform" plays. There's nothing stopping a new platform from taking over YouTube or Facebook or Twitter. All it takes is the actual content producers moving to a different platform and poof there it goes.

Re: Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

#83

Post by rmatt2000 »

ghaff wrote: post #6

This chart [1] was making the rounds a while back. Whether you totally agree with its methodology or not, it certainly suggests that many people consider a huge swath of Netflix' content average at best. And for someone like me who doesn't watch a huge amount of video, that's not a great look. Tastes differ of course but my tastes aren't that out of the mainstream. And I'd rather a streaming service had a modest numb…

Is anyone else's OCD triggered by the x-axis on that chart?

Re: Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

#84

Post by wombatpm »

francisofascii wrote: post #37
sliken wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because people want to watch the leading shows in their area of interest and not have to pay 10+ services $10-$20 a month. As it gets increasingly hard/expensive, not to mention the bickering between services and platforms and services and markets to watch them on, customers are resorting to piracy as a way to get the content they want.

Agree with this sentiment, but if they consolidate, the price may go from $10-20/month to $20-40/month. And then we are back to cable.

But without the 50 shopping channels

Re: Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

#85

Post by lou1306 »

AlbertCory wrote: post #3

> One of Holland’s last projects for Netflix was The Queen’s Gambit, an expensive period piece that sources say was mocked as “Holland’s Folly” by some in-house. According to sources, Bajaria and her staff were dismissive and even unpleasant to the team that worked on it. What a hellscape to work in. I got on Netflix very briefly, just to watch that show. I can't think of any reason to get back on.

Every studio has had similar blunders. Disney expected The Lion King to fail and Pocahontas to be huge.

Re: Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

#86

Post by cmrdporcupine »

dmitriid wrote: post #68
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #54

Netflix created the bad but successful template that the other streaming services followed: own the streaming platform and the content -- and now they're suffering for it, and so are consumers. As a consumer, I don't want to have 5 different streaming services with subs coming and going depending on what shows happen to be in season. I'd rather choose to subscribe to one of various streaming services that in turn let…

> Netflix created the bad but successful template that the other streaming services followed: own the streaming platform and the content Netflix was basically forced into this template when major content owners started pulling out and creating their own services.

Sure, absolutely, I could probably rephrase to make that clear, I don't think it was their "fault" per se, but a result of the asymmetrical power relationship between content producer and streaming service.

Re: Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

#87

Post by barbazoo »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #53

If anyone from netflix is reading, the reason I don't watch as much as I used to is because of the automatic previews. I used to just leave netflix open all day and randomly pick things when I felt like watching. I can't do that anymore. Though I do really appreciate how easy it is to suspend/cancel. I'll be back for stranger things, but who knows how long I'll stay.

There is a setting, at least on some devices, "Autoplay previews while browsing on all devices", would that fix your issue?

Re: Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

#88

Post by slowmovintarget »

autoexec wrote: post #63
omegalulw wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about other people, but finding something to watch on Netflix is frustrating, there's so much poor quality shows. The recommendations are not good (tbf that's most streaming services) and there's no option for granular filtering. For example, I hate dubs, I would like to pick shows where the original audio is some particular language, I don't get why that isn't there? In contrast, on HBO Max / Disney+, u…

I agree, netflix might be too embarrassed by their catalogue to show people a simple A-Z listing of everything they have, but I'd absolutely watch netflix more often if they did. Scrolling through the same shows I'm not interested in over and over across their multiple random/useless categories takes up way too much time. Every so often I'll go to search and enter random 2-3 letter combinations because I usually find…

I have to wonder how much of this is to favor cache hits for streams over picking the bytes up out of storage. That is, if a bunch of people are streaming a show, it's easier to add a few more and reuse the edge cache. Most viewers won't go beyond the recommendations, so the back-catalog pulls are less frequent, and less pressure on the infrastructure.

Total speculation, though.

Re: Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

#89

Post by barbazoo »

dmitriid wrote: post #65
paxys wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can turn them off

And then you can't play trailers. Though Netflix insists on playing on random clips instead of trailers anyway.

I don't think so, you can still go to "Trailers & more" and watch the trailer.

Re: Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

#90

Post by jra_samba »

avl999 wrote: post #73

One thing I appreciate Netflix for is atleast they are willing to do the bare minimum and give me 720p on Linux. I am also an Amazon Prime subscriber but Amazon is literally forcing me to pirate their shows because they refuse to serve more than 480p on Linux. Was trying to watch Jack Reacher last weekend and the quality was so bad that it was probably 360p, gave up after 3 episodes and ended up torrenting the season…

Of course the irritating thing is that all of their consumer devices are internally Linux as well, including the FireTV's that happily stream Amazon Prime in 4K.

So it isn't like they can't do it, just won't.

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