Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash • Hacker News Board

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

#181

Post by scotu » Fri, May 06, 2022, 4:30 AM UTC

solarhoma wrote: post #175

dillondoyle wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gen-z identifies as 20% queer. Each new generation is more willing/able to live their truth. Wouldn't surprise me if we land somewhere around 25-30%. In large part thanks to representation in shows and movies. The us is rapidly diversifying too in terms of race, yet still even more under represented in media. Glaad says only ~10% queer characters on broadcast, and was a decline from previous study. Specifically compa…

Is it truth or is it being force fed down children’s throats? How can the Western world go from a ~2% homosexuality rate to 20% in two generations? It appears we both have a different perspective on how we got here.

By having homosexuality violently oppressed, ostracized and ridiculed in the past, and slowly reversing that attitude towards it? People were literally criminals for loving people of the same sex...

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

#182

Post by deckard1 » Fri, May 06, 2022, 4:31 AM UTC

moomin wrote: post #113

The thing is, their strategy is fundamentally flawed. They understood they needed to build up a library, but their metrics chased subscriber uptick that said “Only the first two seasons matter.” So, with a couple of exceptions they’re building up a large library of cancelled shows.

exactly. They lose the trust of subscribers. What happens then is that no one wants to watch a new show because it's going to get cancelled. So people wait until more seasons or the show is entirely out. Which is also increasingly common. People are getting tired of waiting a year between seasons, when there are entire complete shows they could binge watch right now. So they wait. Which means Netflix never sees the season 1 viewers they need.

Some shows just don't hit their stride until two or more seasons in. Parks and Rec had a really rough first season.

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

#183

Post by sidm83 » Fri, May 06, 2022, 4:32 AM UTC

rchaud wrote: post #122

Spivak wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Increasing pop politics seemingly shoe horned into everything I'd turn on :( I know this is a tangent but it’s always sad to see representation treated as inherently political. Like this is the first time in my life I’ve ever seen mainstream shows portray wlw relationships. Or shows portray the reality of how common and casual sexual assault is. Or characters that that struggle with depression as more than just an…

The implication being that anything outside of the anodyne mainstream of cable TV must be a concerted effort to brainwash the public. Netflix has many problems, the big ones being that they lost old shows like The Office and Friends, which hurts retention. And they also kill off promising new shows after 2 seasons to save money on renegotiating cast contracts. If you read comment sections however, you'll get a very d…

There may be some truth in the "too woke for normie crowd" allegation. Earlier this year, much before the bad news went global for Netflix, Reed Hastings said this about experience in India during an earnings call:

"The great news is in every single other major market, we've got the flywheel spinning. The thing that frustrates us is why we haven't been as successful in India. But we're definitely leaning in there,"

The general opinion in India is that unlike Prime Video India and Disney Hotstar (Disney Plus' Indian avatar) which created a lot of good local content which served the interest of masses and hence achieved success, a lot of Netflix' local content mostly served the tastes of a sub-segment of the well earning, well traveled elite crowd (read "woke") from the bigger cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. Apparently this was because the local producers came from the same group and were not tuned to the tastes of the country at large (or even the affluent segment at large). Many of them have since been fired and Netflix India has also gone ahead and reduced monthly subscription for the standard plan to only INR 199 and a new mobile only plan for only INR 149 (~ USD 2). Has not made much of a difference in the past few months though.

Ref :

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-60108294

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/netflix-slashes-i...

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

#184

Post by ikr678 » Fri, May 06, 2022, 4:39 AM UTC

russelldjimmy wrote: post #165

Spivak wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if representation is fine what do you want it to look like? Because by your rules black people aren’t allowed to have fun fantasizing about being a pirate sailing the high seas in colonial England, a trans man can’t be in a WWII fiction fighting nazis, a woman can’t be in a medical drama about stopping the cholera outbreak. So if they can’t be key roles (i.e. important at all to the plot) minorities should be rele…

I agree with the other poster. It’s not relatable. No offence to the minorities. It feels like forced messaging to the rest of us. Why represent only minorities in race, ethnicity and sexuality? Why not represent people such as war widows, people with skin diseases, mental disabilities, people with above average heights, obese people, etc.? For those of us not living in the USA, it feels like cultural imperialism. “W…

Shows produced outside of the US are generally better on the diversity of appearance front. UK content particular is much more watchable for me, as actors are closer to regular people you'd see on the street vs the very thin, athletic, impossibly white toothed American casting ideal.

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

#185

Post by QuikAccount » Fri, May 06, 2022, 4:42 AM UTC

colinmhayes wrote: post #127

boredumb wrote: post #72

A pile of mid tier content that i'd flick through before exiting out after an episode Automatic previews Increasing pop politics seemingly shoe horned into everything I'd turn on Horrible comedians that were akin to ted talks/lectures or made for people who don't actually enjoy stand up comedy. Documentaries that were more ideological than interesting Signing and hiring ex politicians Searching is a chore and recomme…

> Documentaries that were more ideological than interesting I can not stand how every "documentary" on netflix is actually an extremely opinionated political piece or true crime. And I usually agree with the political opinion, it's just incredibly annoying and divisive, and really it mostly feels dishonest.

I hate to break this to you but that's all documentaries in general. Every documentary has the goal of convincing you of something.

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

#186

Post by bogomipz » Fri, May 06, 2022, 4:45 AM UTC

clpm4j wrote: post #98

Can this really be classified as a "crash"? They're a 20+ year old company, a hugely successful business, and likely to continue to be a major player in both entertainment & tech for the next decade+. Perpetual high growth is a fantasy.

Sure they've been a publicly traded company for 20 years but most of the first 10 of that they were mailing DVDs to people. They've really only been in the original content game since 2012 so just about 10 years. And the latest incarnation of Netflix a full-fledged Hollywood studio operating in a very capital intensive, competitive and increasingly crowded environment is even younger still. The history of Hollywood is littered with companies that have gone out business. It wasn't long ago that MGM one the oldest(1924) and most storied names in Hollywood went bankrupt.

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

#187

Post by sidlls » Fri, May 06, 2022, 4:46 AM UTC

solarhoma wrote: post #175

dillondoyle wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gen-z identifies as 20% queer. Each new generation is more willing/able to live their truth. Wouldn't surprise me if we land somewhere around 25-30%. In large part thanks to representation in shows and movies. The us is rapidly diversifying too in terms of race, yet still even more under represented in media. Glaad says only ~10% queer characters on broadcast, and was a decline from previous study. Specifically compa…

Is it truth or is it being force fed down children’s throats? How can the Western world go from a ~2% homosexuality rate to 20% in two generations? It appears we both have a different perspective on how we got here.

I went from being a straight guy with kids in a monogamous relationship to a woman, to an openly bisexual one with a family (that woman and our two kids) and a boyfriend. In large part I didn’t explore that other part of my life because I grew up in an era where things like my (very closeted, self-hating) dad talking about how faggots all deserved what they got and what happened to Matthew Shepard were basically unremarkable.

It’s amazing how far that kind of emotional and physical violence will go toward suppressing honest self-reporting of sexuality.

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

#188

Post by girvo » Fri, May 06, 2022, 4:52 AM UTC

boredumb wrote: post #72

A pile of mid tier content that i'd flick through before exiting out after an episode Automatic previews Increasing pop politics seemingly shoe horned into everything I'd turn on Horrible comedians that were akin to ted talks/lectures or made for people who don't actually enjoy stand up comedy. Documentaries that were more ideological than interesting Signing and hiring ex politicians Searching is a chore and recomme…

> Searching is a chore

While my Siri remote thing makes it a little nicer, the thing that drives me bonkers is searching for an exact title that I know is in their library and getting other results instead of it as the first few results items. Ridiculous.

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

#189

Post by solarhoma » Fri, May 06, 2022, 5:00 AM UTC

dillondoyle wrote: post #145

solarhoma wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It becomes a problem though when shows are catering to what 1% (or less) of the population looks like or is diagnosed with. This is what people are getting upset with. Representation is fine. But when every new show you turn on has half of the cast as a trans person, a non-binary person, and a whatever else it gets old. It gets old when historical shows and films have distorted facts or figures to, again, fill some q…

Gen-z identifies as 20% queer. Each new generation is more willing/able to live their truth. Wouldn't surprise me if we land somewhere around 25-30%. In large part thanks to representation in shows and movies. The us is rapidly diversifying too in terms of race, yet still even more under represented in media. Glaad says only ~10% queer characters on broadcast, and was a decline from previous study. Specifically compa…

No post body was provided.

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

#190

Post by onionisafruit » Fri, May 06, 2022, 5:01 AM UTC

flukus wrote: post #162

topspin wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just suffered through their Three Mile Island "documentary" yesterday while working on something else. Apparently Bechtel operates a hit squad in Pennsylvania and everyone in a 5 mile radius got severe cancer. Out of four hours you get about 10 minutes of meaningful detail about the incident; the rest is headline rehash you can get on the first page of a Google search, emotional personal stories and a lot of self pro…

> Out of four hours you get about 10 minutes of meaningful detail about the incident Most documentaries have always been very low on information density. Even universally loved ones like something from David Attenborough are mostly a collection of disconnected (yet amazing) film snippets with a bit of commentary over the top. It's only gotten worse as narrative has become more of the focus. There are exceptions, but…

Nature documentaries are a different beast from other documentaries. They are primarily about showing great nature footage. If you happen to learn something from it, that’s just a happy side effect.