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

Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

torrentfreak.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 940 posts

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#81

Post by Silhouette »

skeaker wrote: post #23
bawolff wrote: post #10

> Piracy also threatens to damage our business, as its fundamental proposition to consumers is so compelling and difficult to compete against: virtually all content for free,” Netflix writes. People emphasize the "free" part, but it really is the "all content" part that makes piracy wins. Especially if you are not in the USA, often specific content isn't available at any price. Even if it is, its split across 5 billi…

Yep. This video is played for laughs but I was shocked to learn how much of it was true and not just satire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvhv7bgmz64 Content being fragmented and constantly coming and going is a massive problem for users. Netflix used to be the go-to to find just about any given show or film, but has become a mystery box where the contents change on a near-daily basis. Piracy is reliable and simpl…

Thank you for sharing that. I didn't make it to the end because I actually was laughing out loud so much that I was starting to hurt but those first 2 minutes were great.

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#82

Post by boring-alterego »

gchamonlive wrote: post #56
api wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are no longer under zero interest rates. Things have to actually be profitable.

Isn't online streaming profitable? Does it absolutely need ads and granular channel subscriptions to be profitable?

They have to be continually profitable every quarter, and they have to show growth quarter over quarter or the value of the company will take a major hit, which will impact how much capital they can loan for future projects.

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#83

Post by rascul »

It's almost trivial and largely automated to get torrents of just about anything I want to watch for free, without ads, often within an hour of it airing or being released.

Make legal video streaming easy and reasonably priced and I'll give you more money than Comcast or Hulu ever got from me. Ideally, some all in one service that all the content producers use where I can very easily buy and download an episode, season, series, or movie. Or maybe subscribe to a show or channel. Also, no commercials. And no disappearing content, or country filtering. Don't do this bullshit where I'm paying you money to get abused because I won't. Also a video player that doesn't fight me because it seems like some of them do.

It'll never happen. These companies will never cater to the consumers paying them as long as they can abuse their customers and get rich instead.

Netflix may be slightly better in some areas than some of the other streaming services but they have almost no content I find interesting so I won't even bother.

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#84

Post by bawolff »

bojan wrote: post #18
bawolff wrote: post #10

> Piracy also threatens to damage our business, as its fundamental proposition to consumers is so compelling and difficult to compete against: virtually all content for free,” Netflix writes. People emphasize the "free" part, but it really is the "all content" part that makes piracy wins. Especially if you are not in the USA, often specific content isn't available at any price. Even if it is, its split across 5 billi…

Now, it doesn't just work. You need to download the thing, find the right format, get it to the TV in one way or another, hope that the subs are good. Compared to that, it's the streaming that just works. Except when it doesn't.

You're being downvoted but i think you have a point for non techies who want to watch things on their tv. Like i don't think my parents would be able to figure out how to pirate by themselves.

But the world is changing. Plenty of people watch primarily on their laptop or phone

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#85

Post by bawolff »

xattt wrote: post #42
beart wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software has completely automated all of these steps. The only barrier is the initial set up, which a non-technical person can figure out over a weekend.

Don’t say the quiet part loud. There will be enterprising individuals that will take the piss out of our convenience by commercializing it.

Haven't they already? There are people who sell modded versions of kodi with everything setup.

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#86

Post by UtopiaPunk »

jwells89 wrote: post #46
bawolff wrote: post #10

> Piracy also threatens to damage our business, as its fundamental proposition to consumers is so compelling and difficult to compete against: virtually all content for free,” Netflix writes. People emphasize the "free" part, but it really is the "all content" part that makes piracy wins. Especially if you are not in the USA, often specific content isn't available at any price. Even if it is, its split across 5 billi…

Delayed availability also bolsters piracy. In the age of the internet, people don’t want to watch foreign shows weeks or months after they’ve aired in their country of origin, but within mere hours of original airing so they can ride the global wave of discussion after each episode. A six month delay for example will completely miss the bulk of the show’s online relevance and even a week is enough to seriously dampen…

Piracy also solves the opposite problem of "old" movies and TV shows disappearing from streaming services. Especially since many things are exclusive to streaming platforms with no physical release, after they're removed from a streaming service, piracy is the only way to view such stuff.

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#87

Post by api »

facialwipe wrote: post #68
api wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon Prime and Apple TV are easy. Just rent the movie. It’s a few bucks like video rental shops back in the old days. You can also buy, though only Apple really allows downloading of bought content.

It’s a few bucks like video rental shops back in the old days. Of the top 10 in Apple’s current Top Movies Chart in the TV app, 3 cost $5.99 to rent while the other 7 are $19.99 to rent.

Inflation adjusted that’s about right. It was like $4 to rent a new release in 1993.

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#88

Post by lolinder »

kylebenzle wrote: post #78
dgfitz wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course this is 100% the correct reasoning. When I was a broke college kid I pirated all the things, and at the time wished, when I could afford it, I’d rather just pay. When I could, I did, for years. Now we’re back at the path-of-least-resistance is pirating.

This is HACKER news, our central ethos is (should be) all information wants to be free. Sad to see the desire to pay for content is getting upvoted.

This is "Hacker" news for a bunch of independent definitions of "Hacker", and for most of us the definition isn't "breaks into computer systems and leaks stuff on the internet".

For myself, when I think of the hacker ethos I think of Stallman and the GPL, which is explicitly designed around the idea that information can be ethically sold as long as you're actually selling it [0]. It's free as in freedom, not free as in beer, and under that philosophy being able to pay for services that respect your rights as a free human (which most current streaming services don't) is a desirable end state, not something to be condemned.

> Many people believe that the spirit of the GNU Project is that you should not charge money for distributing copies of software, or that you should charge as little as possible—just enough to cover the cost. This is a misunderstanding.

> Actually, we encourage people who redistribute free software to charge as much as they wish or can. If a license does not permit users to make copies and sell them, it is a nonfree license. If this seems surprising to you, please read on.

[0] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.en.html

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#89

Post by al_borland »

facialwipe wrote: post #68
api wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon Prime and Apple TV are easy. Just rent the movie. It’s a few bucks like video rental shops back in the old days. You can also buy, though only Apple really allows downloading of bought content.

It’s a few bucks like video rental shops back in the old days. Of the top 10 in Apple’s current Top Movies Chart in the TV app, 3 cost $5.99 to rent while the other 7 are $19.99 to rent.

Generally speaking, the ones that cost $19.99 to rent are still in theaters. The price will drop once they are out of theaters and a more normal home release. This wasn’t an option in the days of video rental shops.

If a family, or even just a couple, was going to go to the movies, buying popcorn and drinks, it’s not cheap. $19.99 is still usually cheaper than going out.

I remember when they started doing this. I think it was a response to theaters being closed during the pandemic, but could be misremembering slightly. Beyond that, I think the general idea was that people have nice big screens and home and don’t feel the need to go to movie theaters anymore, so this gives people an option to see new releases in the comfort of their home. The extra cost is for the early home access.

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#90

Post by al_borland »

upupupandaway wrote: post #61
api wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon Prime and Apple TV are easy. Just rent the movie. It’s a few bucks like video rental shops back in the old days. You can also buy, though only Apple really allows downloading of bought content.

But they don’t have the show or movie you want, then you have to sign up somewhere else.

The rental options from places like Apple and Amazon typically have a much bigger library than the streaming options. Unless it is a movie or show specifically made for another streaming service, it is probably available as a rental.
Post reply on HN