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Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

hollywoodreporter.com

291–300 of 416 posts

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

#291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that your hypothesis is a possibility. But, what type of advantage does identifying as LGBTQ provide that is not in being a heterosexual?

Over representation and privilege, eg, easier admissions to college or hiring. We haven’t ended bigotry, but under the guidance of Democrats and Leftists, created a new system of bigotry — using euphemisms like “equity”. Which is the same reason White students lie about their race. https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/education/57...

The underlying principle of equity is a decent one though. The problem is in how it's implemented: using a person's self-declared identity as an indicator of disadvantage, rather than their actual material conditions.

For example if universities would take factors like poverty and access to educational resources into account, rather than using racial identity as a inaccurate proxy for this, they'd likely achieve more equitable outcomes, in helping talented but disadvantaged individuals gain access to higher education.

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

#292
I find the whole premise of this article kind of funny. I don't think Netflix is in anywhere near as much trouble as they're making out. I don't think the content strategy is anywhere near as important as they're pretending either. What Netflix is running into is just normal business - they're very large, so it's possible they are at the peak of their TAM in lots of markets, their competition is strong because they're so successful other people have allocated capital to compete in the market, and the macro-economic trends have gone from incredibly favourable to less favourable. This has nothing to do with Lupin or Queens Gambit.

It's an interesting story, quite clearly heavily informed by Holland, but just because Hollywood types don't like Netflix coming in and stopping on their industry doesn't mean Netflix is actually doing the wrong thing, and I don't think the current turn around in the stock price tells us anything about that strategy.

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

#293
post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They chose quantity/cheaper over quality/expensive. The problem with this approach is that people don't stick around for low quality shows. It would have been more expensive for the immediate term to spend more on shows and earn less profits. But now, they spend less and lose even more . Once they are on this downward spiral, its going to be really hard to compete with Disney. Netflix may really go the Blockbuster wa…

Do they know off the cuff which will be quality? The commission-in-bulk strategy reminds me a bit of YC expanding the startups in each batch, to maximise their chances of unearthing diamonds. And might be hard to avoid when you are increasingly targeting multiple continents.

> maximise their chances of unearthing diamonds

By diamonds, I am assuming you mean popular shows. Quality and popular tend to be correlated, but not always. Bad quality scripts can sometime be successful (e.g. Fast and Furious / Transformers, but these are not cheap either), but I think those are usually the exception and not the norm.

Given 1 high quality script vs 2 low quality scripts with the same total price, I would rather fund the high quality one. Although the high quality script has equals less choices for the customers, I know there is higher likelihood they might like it and would come back to watch again and again. There is almost certainly not the case with low quality scripts.

The script writing is the only variable that they can control. So why give it up just to throw a bunch of shows on the wall and see what sticks? You already know the script is not good, even if it is cheap. What are the chances your customers will like it?

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

#294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As well as still being used as an offensive slur against gay people and thus not really an appropriate term to use in these sorts of discussions, 'queer' is so ill-defined that it could include pretty much anyone if they feel like it, regardless of actual sexual orientation. For example, 'demisexual' people are included in this categorization, even though all it means is that a person prefers to form an emotional bon…

> Who are not a marginalized sexuality by any means. Heterosexual couples are underrepresented on TV due to institutional bias against them. That’s the definition of “marginalized”.

Are they really though? People are generally considered heterosexual by default if not stated otherwise, and most TV shows don't reveal this aspect for most of their characters or performers.

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

#295

Netflix is always recommending to me the same shows, day after day, week after week. I've passed over them many times. When will Netflix give up on them show me something further back in their catalog? This seems like a no-brainer to me. I get bored with scroll scroll scroll to look past them.

Probably you are more enjoy scrolling than watching. I realized it for myself when I bought a lot of games but never "have time or mood" to actually play them. Sometimes this also happens to content on Netflix. I don't have enough cognitive power to process another setting or just not feel entertained by a show in the middle of it. Lucky I have my wife and sometimes follow her recommendation because she is so excited about this stuff, so I want to share her emotions.

Wrote this and feels like I sound a little burned out.

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

#296
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…

1080p Firefox extension for Netflix seems to work on Linux.

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

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel this is just true for every non-Ken Burns documentary I've ever seen and I find it kind of annoying. They always seem to have some axe to grind and just do anything they can to support that biased thesis with no room for caveats or shades of gray.

I think this is more a feature of people flocking to more shallow documentaries, which pushes them up the recommendation funnel. Icarus was fantastic, for instance, but of potentially limited appeal (which is a shame, as it touches on a lot of topics of broad interest from doping in sport to political intrigue).

Icarus was absolutely amazing. I expected a subversive feel-good investigation of doping in cycling, but got something even more fascinating and disturbing.

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

#298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But all consumer device were vetted with quite often drastic DRM. Those that no one will install on their computer given the choice. So it's Linux technically, but not in spirit, hence a different proposal.

But you don't even have that choice. I'm OK with running binary blob drivers on my Linux machine (if they work).

And since I'm running a reasonably recent GPU, it could be conceivable that all decoding is done on the GPU itself and sent directly to the monitor, which supports HDCP.

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

#299
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

UK produced shows are going the same way though. Inter-racial families, asian/black detectives and police chiefs, people living in million pound homes despite having average income jobs, etc.

Maybe it's me but this doesn't represent regular people I see on the street?

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

#300
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…

1080p Firefox extension for Netflix seems to work on Linux.

this is not the way
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