Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

vulture.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 491 posts

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

#161

Post by xref »

pcurve wrote: post #154
harha wrote: post #28

Netflix really had a value proposition a few years ago before all the other players came in. A good selection of rotating movies and shows, sharing accounts with a good model (# of simultaneously running screens). This was way better than cable TV and more convenient than torrent. Now it’s mostly quite mediocre content across services that easily cost $100+ a month, so we’re back to the old cable days in terms of cos…

I could be in the minority, but I'm perfectly content with just having Netflix. There's a long backlog of shows that I haven't had a chance to watch, and they keep adding new ones. Sure it would be nice if I had HBO max, hulu, disney, apple, but honestly I don't think I'd have time for them. How many hours of streaming video can a person possibly watch that one would find stuff on Netflix not adequate? Or is this mor…

Any reason you don’t do, say 3 to 4 months of each service so you cycle through 3 or 4 services in a year to see everything that interests you

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

#162

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

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

#163

Post by daenz »

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.

FWIW, the idea of paying taxes on a fluctuating property valuation has never sat right with me either. So you could say that I am perplexed by that. If I'm on some kind of fixed income, suddenly I might not be able to afford the taxes on the house that I bought 20 years ago and need to sell it? It's bizarre.

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

#164

Post by bob_roberts »

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.

No post body was provided.

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

#165

Post by asr21 »

Gys wrote: post #143
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…

> and no good movie Netflix has made in years That is very subjective. My wife and I really liked The power of the dog. And I am sure there are more. Also subjective: watching Netflix every day (I do not) will end up in watching below par stuff. No service will be able to produce that much high quality content for everybody’s taste.

It was a good movie, but not a great movie. I would be surprised if you would rate that movie in top 20 for the last decade.

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

#166

Post by 411111111111111 »

afavour wrote: post #118
dhzhzjsbevs wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I know multiple people which complained about it and made them unsubscribe (none from the USA, so these topics are neither interesting nor on topic for any of us)

It was definitely a contributing factory that's for sure.

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

#167

Post by petre »

fragmede wrote: post #152
sjtindell wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

HBO seems to be doing fine producing their own content so I don't see it as a foregone conclusion that Netflix was doomed to fail. They didn't have the back-catalog but they had the head start in online distribution and could have bought a studio or two as they have for video games in order to seed their back-catalog. I think a large contribution to their failure is Netflix cancelling shows after two seasons. If a sh…

> The other thing is their habit of releasing entire seasons at once

The Korean studios are quite smart with this. They release 1 or 2 episodes on a weekday just like Netflix used to with Star Trek Discovery.

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

#168

Post by isignal »

mdasen wrote: post #104
harha wrote: post #28

Netflix really had a value proposition a few years ago before all the other players came in. A good selection of rotating movies and shows, sharing accounts with a good model (# of simultaneously running screens). This was way better than cable TV and more convenient than torrent. Now it’s mostly quite mediocre content across services that easily cost $100+ a month, so we’re back to the old cable days in terms of cos…

I don't think you're wrong, but to over-simplify what you're saying: "Netflix took my $100/mo cable bill and $40/mo Blockbuster habit and turned it into a $10/mo fee. Now I'm not getting all that entertainment for the now $15.50/mo fee." Again, you're right: before the other players came to streaming, Netflix had an amazing value proposition. Why? Because "the other players" didn't realize that streaming would displa…

Very good points.

I’m not sure if there’s something Netflix could have done honestly. They had a technology moat with video streaming tech at a time when everyone else focused on cable but video streaming and streaming apps became a commodity over ten years or so.

To expect them to also become a great studio company when they started out with the tech moat would be a bit of Silicon Valley hubris. It works for a few like Amazon but even Amazon is facing similar issues where online shopping tech is now commoditized and rivals have better depth in retail itself.

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

#169

Post by chii »

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…

> they had billions of dollars to create original content

they had the wrong idea that original content is their strong point. It's not. It's disney's strong point.

Netflix should've used their dominant position to lobby for new rules to the game - prevent exclusivity of content! They should've lobbied gov't to mandate that studio productions of content be permanently untied to a streaming service, and be available to all players in the streaming space. Just like net neutrality, we might call this content neutrality.

Netflix is at it's core, a tech company that solves technical issues with streaming. They pivoted to content creation, and they aren't very good at it - sure they got a couple of hits, but they cannot possibly compete on this with actual movie studios that own IPs from a century ago to this day.

Post reply on HN