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Netflix's New Chapter

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Re: Netflix's New Chapter

#51

Post by devmunchies »

b112 wrote: post #10
no_wizard wrote: post #7

I'm gonna attempt to break this down: - Netflix has 5-6 Billion USD free cash flow, and because they got what debt they do have under favorable terms, they are positioned to retain most of that free cash flow - Disney, Comcast (Peacock), CBS/Viacom and other media corporations are saddled with debt, and are all losing money on their own independent streaming businesses. Likely untenable in their shareholder model - T…

HBO / Netflix merger FTW?

I think Netflix is better served getting exclusive rights to top IP that differentiates them from others. They don't have many memorable brands that people would buy a T-Shirt for. Like a $5B deal for exclusive streaming rights to all Nintendo IP (think live action Zelda, animated Mario Kart series for kids, Metroid series for adults, etc).

Re: Netflix's New Chapter

#52

Post by pastor_bob »

no_wizard wrote: post #7

I'm gonna attempt to break this down: - Netflix has 5-6 Billion USD free cash flow, and because they got what debt they do have under favorable terms, they are positioned to retain most of that free cash flow - Disney, Comcast (Peacock), CBS/Viacom and other media corporations are saddled with debt, and are all losing money on their own independent streaming businesses. Likely untenable in their shareholder model - T…

I can see them 100% getting into podcasting and picking up Joe Rogan when his contract with Spotify ends.

Re: Netflix's New Chapter

#53

Post by at_a_remove »

I wonder if the time isn't ripe for a kind of "meta" service.

Essentially, one group provides the content, branding, some kind of licensing data structure describing date ranges and countries, and so on. An abstracted look and feel. Another service spits out the app and has the streaming infrastructure.

The apps produced would have the benefit of reaching many, many platforms and so deduplicate a lot of the work getting something to work on a Roku, or a Firestick or a Chromecast. This could open up the door to a lot of smaller groups and allow them to focus on obtaining, curating, and producing content, their specialty.

Netflix could be that platform. Of course, they would have to be their own clients first, learning how to abstract the Netflix app, going over their databases and adding columns to various tables, marking all of their content as ContentID = 1 or something. Once they got through that exercise, they could reach out to the smaller providers who are struggling.

Re: Netflix's New Chapter

#54

Post by madeofpalk »

darth_avocado wrote: post #21
zamadatix wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don't understand is how e.g. Disney+ is losing so much money. It's Disney's content, has an enormous userbase, and somehow is bleeding billions?

> It’s Disney’s content That is partly the problem. You spend hundreds of millions to make blockbuster movies and then release it on Disney+ in a few months for free (or sometimes directly). That costs money. Add to that over reliance on only Disney content creates two problems: 1. You can’t have enough new content every month, subscribers therefore don’t keep the subscription year round. 2. You have to pay money to…

On top of the... 'opportunity cost' of not licensing out content that otherwise would have went to Netflix, ABC, whoever.

If previously Disney made Daredevil and 'sold' it to Netflix for $1m (hypothetically), but now you're holding that back to stream yourself, you've got to account for that missing $1m somehow.

Re: Netflix's New Chapter

#55

Post by wheelinsupial »

JacobDotVI wrote: post #32
enumjorge wrote: post #12

Sort of an aside question, but the article praises Hastings ability to execute: > To say that Hastings excelled at execution is a dramatic understatement; indeed, the speed with which the company rolled out its advertising product in 2022[...] is a testament that Hastings’ imprint on the company’s ability to execute remains. Is there a place where one could read details on what made him so great at execution?

He wrote a book called Blitzscaling regarding how to execute: https://www.amazon.com/Blitzscaling-Lightning-Fast-Building-... The book Netflixed (mentioned in the article) is likely also a good source: https://www.amazon.com/Netflixed-Epic-Battle-Americas-Eyebal...

I think the book Blitzscaling is by Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn. Reed Hastings wrote No Rules Rules https://www.norulesrules.com/

Re: Netflix's New Chapter

#56

Post by scarface74 »

no_wizard wrote: post #7

I'm gonna attempt to break this down: - Netflix has 5-6 Billion USD free cash flow, and because they got what debt they do have under favorable terms, they are positioned to retain most of that free cash flow - Disney, Comcast (Peacock), CBS/Viacom and other media corporations are saddled with debt, and are all losing money on their own independent streaming businesses. Likely untenable in their shareholder model - T…

The bear case for Netflix is once again the “DropBox problem”. Streaming services is becoming a feature not a product.

When Disney creates a movie. It can monetize the movie across its entire “flywheel” - movie theatres, video on demand, licensing to third parties, toys, theme parks etc.

It’s streaming content has already made a billion in the box office before it ever hits streaming. Streaming is additive.

Netflix paid millions of dollars just for the rights to the “Knives Out” sequel for instance only to make a pittance in limited release and then go to streaming.

The same is true for the other players.

That’s not even to mention Apple, Amazon and Google who are playing a completely different game.

Re: Netflix's New Chapter

#57

Post by cptskippy »

ribosometronome wrote: post #35
jedberg wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This also fails to account for the strength of HBO Max (very strong sub numbers) It's important to note that those numbers are very juiced. For example, my HBOMax comes for free with my AT&T internet (still). I've never paid them a dime directly. When they first started they were basically giving away accounts like crazy to get growth. I think they also gave free accounts to their cable subscribers. So while their…

Netflix comes free with T-Mobile Magenta plans, I think Comcast includes some sort of premium Peacock subscription. I don't know that AT&T bundling it would be much different than the other services bundling, would it?

I think the difference might be that to leverage the Netflix through T-Mobile you have to actively sign up for Netflix or switch to T-Mobile being the payment processor. Where as with the AT&T/HBOMax deal, you just login to HBOMax with your AT&T credential.

Interestingly, we're not on Magenta but one of the earlier plans so the OnUs benefit is for the HD teir of Netflix. As I said above, T-Mobile becomes the payment processor on the account so when I upgraded to 4K my T-Mobile bill went up a couple bucks to account for the difference.

Re: Netflix's New Chapter

#58

Post by scarface74 »

darth_avocado wrote: post #21
zamadatix wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don't understand is how e.g. Disney+ is losing so much money. It's Disney's content, has an enormous userbase, and somehow is bleeding billions?

> It’s Disney’s content That is partly the problem. You spend hundreds of millions to make blockbuster movies and then release it on Disney+ in a few months for free (or sometimes directly). That costs money. Add to that over reliance on only Disney content creates two problems: 1. You can’t have enough new content every month, subscribers therefore don’t keep the subscription year round. 2. You have to pay money to…

That’s not entirely true. Disney+ is partially losing money because of “transfer payments”. Disney+ has to “pay” Disney studios the market rate for the right to stream a movie. Of course the money mostly flows up to Disney. But from an accounting standpoint, Disney+ can’t say it’s profitable by getting movies for free from Disney studios and cause Disney studios to lose potential profits they could have made elsewhere.

There are also revenue share agreements that are involved with actors. That are still taken into accounts

> You can’t have enough new content every month, subscribers therefore don’t keep the subscription year round

That’s not strictly true either for kids content. You can keep recycling content to kids for years and kids will rewatch the same thing.

Disney has been making money off the same animated content for over half a century. To a first approximation, no one cares about Netflix’s back catalog.

Re: Netflix's New Chapter

#59

Post by SteveNuts »

tootie wrote: post #47
phphphphp wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Content is expensive to produce. Disney+ is not just a streaming platform for existing Disney content, rather, Disney produce content for it. Likewise, Netflix spends most of its money on content, operating the actual platform is comparatively cheap.

Yeah, D+ is churning out an enormous volume of what would be considered prestige content at other services. All the Star Wars and Marvel shows are star-studded and larded with top-tier visual effects. And some of them aren't really getting a lot of viewers from what the rumors say.

I mean their best bet seems to be to license it out to other companies but that would defeat the purpose of having D+ in the first place.

Seems they've backed themselves into a corner

Re: Netflix's New Chapter

#60

Post by svachalek »

at_a_remove wrote: post #53

I wonder if the time isn't ripe for a kind of "meta" service. Essentially, one group provides the content, branding, some kind of licensing data structure describing date ranges and countries, and so on. An abstracted look and feel. Another service spits out the app and has the streaming infrastructure. The apps produced would have the benefit of reaching many, many platforms and so deduplicate a lot of the work gett…

Years ago we joked that someday there would be a service like that, and they would call it "cable".
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