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Netflix is turning into cable TV

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Re: Netflix is turning into cable TV

#81

Post by imgabe »

fullshark wrote: post #41
imgabe wrote: post #7

It's not even doing a good job of that, though. The other day someone mentioned the 1990 movie "Taking Care of Business" with Jim Belushi and Charles Grodin. It's a pretty unremarkable movie, but I remembered liking it as a kid for whatever reason and wanted to see it again. Of course, it's not on any of the four streaming services I pay for (I'm outside the US so ymmv). And why? Why is the studio hoarding access to…

Odd argument, in the heyday of cable TV you had no control over what you could watch, it was just whatever TNT/TBA/USA decided to air that night. Not sure how your anecdote indicates netflix is doing a bad job at being cable tv.

True, the on-demand part is better, but I'm mostly talking about the breadth of the catalog. Turner was able to get broadcast rights to a whole bunch of movies that the studios didn't really know what to do with. This is partly why The Shawshank Redemption is now one of the most beloved movies of all time. It was pretty lackluster at the box office, but then in the late 90s and 2000s it was just on TV all. the. time. A lot of people who might not otherwise have watched it got to see it.

On demand is not that helpful if you don't want to watch any of the things that are available.

Re: Netflix is turning into cable TV

#82

Post by TMWNN »

text0404 wrote: post #78
killjoywashere wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can erase the past, you can control the population by influencing their collective memory.

are you implying that the collapse of mom and pop DVD rental stores is part of a plot to manipulate society?

Maybe not directly. But killjoywashere makes an interesting point. My understanding, for example, is that the official Saturday Night Live clips on YouTube have been silently edited to remove "problematic" skits.

Re: Netflix is turning into cable TV

#83

Post by jimt1234 »

addled wrote: post #73
jimt1234 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly why I miss the old, neighborhood, mom-and-pop DVD-rental store. The place near my apartment back in the early-2000s pretty much never removed anything from the shelves, so you could find almost any movie ever made. You just had to wipe the dust off some of them.

Same, except the one in my hometown hadn't even thrown out the VHS tapes yet. There were still aisles full of early 80s movies in their faded, original edition boxes that had probably been there since the store first opened. I remember finding "Breakin'" (the original, not Electric Boogaloo) in like 2003 when I was still in high school. The owner was a pretty cool dude, I remember apologizing for returning some chees…

You had me at "Breakin'". That owner is the coolest guy in your hometown. LOL

Re: Netflix is turning into cable TV

#84

Post by TMWNN »

MostlyStable wrote: post #47

Sometimes I wonder what our media landscape would look like if exclusive licensing deals were prohibited. You still own your IP, you can sell it, but whatever price you set, it's the price that anyone who is interested in your product is allowed to buy. I'm not sure how this would interact with companies that both create and distribute content. They'd either be forced to come up with a price, or else maybe that combi…

What about the opposite? Any content, once published/distributed/broadcast in the US, that is not made readily available to the public going forward loses copyright protection. This includes revisions.

* A film, TV show, sound recording, book, or any other copyrighted content must, once made available for public purchase, always remain available. If the only streaming service willing to pay to stream your movie has the smallest market share, too bad; the market has spoken on the value of your content. An ebook can fulfill this purpose for a print book; streaming can fulfill this purpose for a theatrical or physical-media film. But it must be available to maintain copyright.

* As michael1999 suggested, compulsory licensing should apply; if Netflix wants to pay the same amount of money as the above-mentioned small market-share streaming service for the film, Netflix must be allowed to do so. The film's rights owner can demand more, raising the price for all, but if every outlet refuses, the film immediately goes into public domain. This process is reversible, but it would set a ceiling to prevent the owner from setting a ridiculously high price to prevent its availability.

* If a Blu-ray of a film or TV show has excised or modified scenes for whatever reason, and the original isn't also made available (whether on a different "theatrical cut" release, or as a different cut on the same disc), the entire original version immediately goes into public domain.

* If NBC posts Saturday Night Live skits on YouTube that have removed "problematic" scenes[1] without explaining the differences—a diff file, basically—the entire original skit loses copyright protection.

Separate issue, but also very worthwhile:

* Streaming services must make all data regarding their content available in some standardized format. Consumers should be able to use one application to access all content they have access to. The creator of SmartTube (a very nice YouTube-compatible player) should be able to add the appropriate API support to search for and play Netflix/Prime Video/Disney+/Paramount+ content.

EDIT: The above applies to software, too. Legalize abandonware!

[1] Something I understand already happens

Re: Netflix is turning into cable TV

#85

Post by Tagbert »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #51
foolfoolz wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

one company (netflix) delivering the majority of streaming content wasn’t “digital streaming freedom”. you enjoyed the price compared to cable. it went from $100+/mo to $10/mo and now the price is going back to where it was to get a similar content experience

> similar content experience You mean 5 channels of shopping, 1 channel for black programming, several in Spanish, 10 news channels all with BREAKING NEWS, sports channels that I don’t watch, kids channels that I don’t want, reruns of Law and Order and COPS, 1 or 2 female-oriented channels like Hallmark, reality TV, cooking and baking TV, America’s Bachelor… No thanks. I’ll keep my $100/month.

No, you’d still end paying that but in subscriptions to several streaming services and then some extras to rent or buy shows that are not freely available anymore. In the meantime those other channels that a smaller number of people watched just get cancelled.

Unbundling was never going to make watching cheaper unless you limited the shows you watched and were lucky enough that they shows you wanted were available on the same services.

Re: Netflix is turning into cable TV

#86

Post by djkivi »

imgabe wrote: post #7

It's not even doing a good job of that, though. The other day someone mentioned the 1990 movie "Taking Care of Business" with Jim Belushi and Charles Grodin. It's a pretty unremarkable movie, but I remembered liking it as a kid for whatever reason and wanted to see it again. Of course, it's not on any of the four streaming services I pay for (I'm outside the US so ymmv). And why? Why is the studio hoarding access to…

I remember visiting the UK in 2000, and there was a movie on TV that looked familiar, called Filofax. Me and my friends eventually recalled it was the movie called Taking Care of Business in N. America.

Interestingly, looking it up just now on Wikipedia it appears to be the first screenplay JJ Abrams wrote.

Re: Netflix is turning into cable TV

#87

Post by imgabe »

djkivi wrote: post #86
imgabe wrote: post #7

It's not even doing a good job of that, though. The other day someone mentioned the 1990 movie "Taking Care of Business" with Jim Belushi and Charles Grodin. It's a pretty unremarkable movie, but I remembered liking it as a kid for whatever reason and wanted to see it again. Of course, it's not on any of the four streaming services I pay for (I'm outside the US so ymmv). And why? Why is the studio hoarding access to…

I remember visiting the UK in 2000, and there was a movie on TV that looked familiar, called Filofax. Me and my friends eventually recalled it was the movie called Taking Care of Business in N. America. Interestingly, looking it up just now on Wikipedia it appears to be the first screenplay JJ Abrams wrote.

It is! It also had Gates McFadden (Dr Beverly Crusher) and John De Lancie (Q). A surprising amount of Star Trek crossover.

Re: Netflix is turning into cable TV

#88

Post by em-bee »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #11

I'll always have some sympathy for Netflix because they were effectively first. I remember waiting patiently for Netflix to arrive in Australia, and then as soon as it did arrive, a flood of competitors decided to "me too" into the party. They were too afraid to be first, so I've stuck with Netflix out of respect for their blazing the trail. The competitors such as Disney and Paramount have caused the enshittificatio…

netflix is also the only independent streaming service i am aware of. i am not interested in services owned by apple, disney or amazon or any major film studio.

Re: Netflix is turning into cable TV

#89

Post by midasuni »

imgabe wrote: post #7

It's not even doing a good job of that, though. The other day someone mentioned the 1990 movie "Taking Care of Business" with Jim Belushi and Charles Grodin. It's a pretty unremarkable movie, but I remembered liking it as a kid for whatever reason and wanted to see it again. Of course, it's not on any of the four streaming services I pay for (I'm outside the US so ymmv). And why? Why is the studio hoarding access to…

In the U.K. I can rent that with a couple of clicks for £3.50 from half a dozen stores including Apple, Amazon and youtube. Inflation adjusted renting the vhs in the 90s cost £5.90.

Re: Netflix is turning into cable TV

#90

Post by GaryNumanVevo »

coder543 wrote: post #14

I just want a 4K Originals Plan with 1 screen. Features: - Only Netflix Original content (in 4K) - 1 screen, since password sharing isn’t allowed anyways - No ads - No WWE - No smartphone games - No licensed content (which seems to be mostly 1080p anyways), since I can watch that elsewhere I will offer $14/mo, at most. Why should I be forced to pay for a bunch of stuff I don’t want or can’t use? This is why I don’t h…

It's insanity. I can't even watch 1080p content from most streaming providers on my desktop. It's always capped to 720p on Chrome/Win11. And even when a service offers 4K, the bitrate is abysmal. Trying to watch Dune via HBOMax you can see color banding and blocking throughout the entire movie.
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