Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it • Hacker News Board

Re: Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

#111

Post by oneoff786 » Sun, May 22, 2022, 1:35 AM UTC

nverno wrote: post #23

thrill wrote: post #2

The quoted "competing exec" is 100% wrong when he says Netflix is making a mistake ending shows after three seasons. Shows need to be pitched and run for three seasons max, period. Everyone has a life other than the show that's "hot" for the moment, from cast to writers to the source of money - the viewers. Shows that get dragged out inevitably suck. And yeah, go to weekly releases.

I agree, milking shows usually ruins them. On the other hand, if they are great shows that last a long time you can gain a loyal audience. This seems to be how HBO has found so much success- Sopranos (never lost quality, even by the end), Curb, the Wire, etc. Although, GOT got milked out terribly. I think the hard part is just deciding which shows to drag on- and being based on a story that already has an ending help…

GOT had a lot of problems but dragging content out definitely wasn’t one of them

Re: Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

#112

Post by seibelj » Sun, May 22, 2022, 1:37 AM UTC

BoiledCabbage wrote: post #77

daenz wrote: post #53

>Its stock price collapsed by more than 35 percent Wednesday, erasing more than $50 billion in value in a single day. For people who want to be able to tax unrealized gains like stock, what is the plan for these kinds of events? Would stockholders receive a credit from the IRS when the valuation dips?

I don't understand why this is so often presented as such a difficult to understand concept. People pay property taxes every year on assets that change in value without selling (ie unrealized gains). Nobody seems perplexed by that. But can't seem to figure out how it works for stocks. Regardless of if you agree or disagree with doing it (which I'm not pushing for or against here), it's not a complex concept.

My house needs protection from the police and all manner of city services. Land is one of the more tricky elements of property to handle fairly and one mechanism is property taxes given there is only so much land in prime locations.

Hard for me to make sense of taxing unrealized gains. Not even France could make a wealth tax work, and they tax everything.

Re: Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

#113

Post by oneoff786 » Sun, May 22, 2022, 1:37 AM UTC

dragontamer wrote: post #11

I was expecting to see some discussion over Netflix's depreciation models, which is (apparently) over 5 years, 20% per year. While Disney (and other producers) do something like 90% depreciation over the first year, the famous "Hollywood accounting" that gets a lot of criticism. But "Hollywood accounting" might be closer to the truth than Netflix's model. 20% of the movie "Bright" (released in 2017, the Will Smith +…

That’s interesting. And probably astute. One off movies not part of a larger series have significantly shorter periods of relevance. It doesn’t make sense to spread it out over 5 years at all.

Re: Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

#114

Post by bumper_crop » Sun, May 22, 2022, 1:38 AM UTC

ThatPlayer wrote: post #107

bumper_crop wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consumers want high quality, entertaining content, at low cost, with little commitment, at any time. Prior to Netflix, there wasn't such an intersecting product. Now, Netflix has low quality content, but still has all the other stuff. Consumers see this, forget what life was like back in the early 2000s, and switch/sign up for several other services. It's where consumers spend their money that will result in this reg…

The issue is Netflix as it was is not sustainable. It's like plenty of VC startups, build the market at a cost, and then go down in quality so you can make a profit. Or sell the company. But they can't do that because it's already public. In fact that means earning reports and they've just recently turned cash flow positive. Like you say, consumers want high quality content. That costs money to make, and when Netflix…

I generally agree with you, though I would say now we are finding out if it's sustainable or not. Remember that for the past 2 years, TV Studios have been on lock down and the only stuff Netflix was really releasing was stuff that was nearly done before covid. Netflix has tons of cash that _they couldn't spend_, but now they can.

Re: Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

#115

Post by seibelj » Sun, May 22, 2022, 1:39 AM UTC

seoaeu wrote: post #100

daenz wrote: post #53

>Its stock price collapsed by more than 35 percent Wednesday, erasing more than $50 billion in value in a single day. For people who want to be able to tax unrealized gains like stock, what is the plan for these kinds of events? Would stockholders receive a credit from the IRS when the valuation dips?

The question is asked like it is some sort of gotcha, but there are clear answers for both the general proposals floating around: (a) wealth tax. Every year each household with over $XX million in net worth pays y% of the amount above the threshold in taxes. No refund if your net worth goes down in subsequent years. (b) treat unrealized capital gains as income. Each year you pay income taxes on the increase in the va…

If I’m a rich person and I’m forced to sell shares to pay the tax bill, which then harms pension funds and sovereign wealth by incessantly driving down the value of everyone’s assets, isn’t this problematic?

Re: Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

#116

Post by oneoff786 » Sun, May 22, 2022, 1:39 AM UTC

yalogin wrote: post #86

Netflix is not dead but they focused too much on the R rated content for grown ups and relied too much on algorithms for content too. The reason why cable and free television stays PG-PG13 is that is where the bulk of the population wants to stay. Watching television really is really a family thing even with the explosion of screens. Of course they unearthed and exploited the lack of content for grown ups but it’s ob…

I’m curious if this resonates with others. I’m not one to explore the catalog in depth but it definitely isn’t my experience. Most stuff seems solidly PG13 at a glance.

Re: Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

#117

Post by bumper_crop » Sun, May 22, 2022, 1:40 AM UTC

fluidcruft wrote: post #102

bumper_crop wrote: post #7

TV shows take about 2 years from greenlight to being distributed for Viewing. Cindy Holland was fired in September 2020, which means we will need to wait till this fall to see if the decision has improved the quality.

I don't know about that. Wasn't she was fired because she refused to green light piles of what she found to be low quality content and then the CEO got frustrated because he wanted quantity and decided to allow a bunch of other people to override her decisions?

I was under the impression she hadn't had any good hits leading up to the end of 2020, and enough misses caused her to lose favor. I can't really think of any great Netflix originals from 2018-2020.

Re: Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

#118

Post by afavour » Sun, May 22, 2022, 1:42 AM UTC

dhzhzjsbevs wrote: post #101

ramraj07 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it is a valid point, Id argue that Netflix could have survived this - they had billions of dollars to create original content, and then they did create it, but some how screwed it all up. There’s at best 1 or 2 good show and no good movie Netflix has made in years. And anything half decent they cancel mercilessly without giving it a chance. This is not just in the US. The comparison of original content quality…

Quoted post unavailable.

The idea that Netflix is failing because of identity politics is just ridiculous and doesn’t hold up to even the slightest examination. It’s just another reactionary talking point that feels right enough for people to not examine it.

Re: Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

#119

Post by seoaeu » Sun, May 22, 2022, 1:42 AM UTC

logicalmonster wrote: post #73

arrosenberg wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The holders would pay less in taxes when the valuation drops, why would they get a credit? Also, the only people who would be subject to those taxes are already extraordinarily wealthy, so who cares?

> The holders would pay less in taxes when the valuation drops, why would they get a credit? Perhaps you're not familiar with some of the proposals to tax unrealized gains or what this means. This means there have been serious proposals from so-called serious people to tax individuals when a stock they're holding goes up, even if they don't sell that. So somebody is making a point that nobody has made a serious propo…

Your “so-called serious people” swipe doesn’t exactly convey that you are making a good faith effort to understand these proposals…

Also, there no reason a middle class investor would have to sell all their stock to pay taxes. If the value of your portfolio doubled, you’d only have to sell between 7.5% and 10% of your holdings to cover the taxes (at the current capital gains tax rates).

Re: Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

#120

Post by sjtindell » Sun, May 22, 2022, 1:42 AM UTC

ramraj07 wrote: post #83

bumper_crop wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The consumers just aren’t complete idiots. The consumers kinda are the idiots here. They know what they like, but they have no idea why the content is getting worse. Why shows are being pulled. Companies that had their content on Netflix realized they were facing an existential crisis. Ever played Settlers of Catan and find out another player had 9/10 victory points? Everyone does everything in their power to not tr…

While it is a valid point, Id argue that Netflix could have survived this - they had billions of dollars to create original content, and then they did create it, but some how screwed it all up. There’s at best 1 or 2 good show and no good movie Netflix has made in years. And anything half decent they cancel mercilessly without giving it a chance. This is not just in the US. The comparison of original content quality…

I mean I don’t know about screwed it up. You can’t expect any artist to just consistently produce pure hits. The creativity seems to come and go, the zeitgeist and the cultural context matter so much. Nobody (except, I would argue, Marvel) is able to be really consistent with their art. They were always doomed to fail producing their own content.