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Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

torrentfreak.com

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

#121

Post by ClassyJacket »

aqme28 wrote: post #8

I have found myself pirating more and more. Netflix and co aren't just losing on the available content and the price, the actual browsing experience is far better on the illegal streaming site I use.

I stopped using Netflix when they introduced that "feature" that you were never allowed to look at a menu in peace - it would always play the show you were looking at, behind the menu, with sound on, and there was no way to turn it off. It made the site unusable and I eventually gave up on my subscription.

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

#122

Post by torstenvl »

Not that hard to compete against. Just stop being assholes.

If Netflix didn't raise their prices at more than double the inflation rate, and didn't crack down on password sharing, and didn't deactivate devices of deployed military members, and didn't keep cancelling and censoring content, maybe they wouldn't have this problem.

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

#123

Post by heavyset_go »

PlutoIsAPlanet wrote: post #9

Streaming became popular because it was easier than piracy and better than TV (watch anywhere, on demand, pickup where you left off etc). Streaming is no longer easier than piracy, why pay for 8 different services and have to waste your time figuring out whats on what when you can just have one service for free, even if its illegal, and have it all under one roof. The services have taken the piss and now they'll get…

I think the cable TV model was a mature business model for extracting the most amount of value possible from paying viewers before they choose to leave.

Every streaming service will converge to what cable TV is like: paid channels, maximum amount of ads, additional premium content, attempts at lock-in, exclusive licensing of content, etc.

Not adopting the cable business model is leaving billions of dollars on the table, so it will happen.

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

#124

Post by bo1024 »

mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #27

The streaming space desperately needs consolidation right now. Every rights holder having their own service has killed a lot of the convenience because you'll now need several different services to go through an entire TV show, for instance. And also because all services other than maybe Netflix have garbage software for your various devices. Because every service also has to support 8 different platforms. Video play…

Consolidation, or interoperability.

Somehow any radio station can play any song they want (or seemingly any), for a standardized set of fees. And there is plenty of competition among radio stations. Couldn't we get the same setup for on-demand streaming of music and video?

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

#125

Post by spike021 »

I haven't pirated in a while. I was happy to pay for some platforms.

The problem is that pretty much all of these services say you get 2 or 4 or however many screens and now they're tightening viewership to within the same household. If I'm one person I'll never need to use 4 screens at once, so why can't I share them with a few family members who live elsewhere?

And on top of that, you get plans that never had ads before now starting to add them (i.e. Amazon Prime Video). So I'm paying the same or more (as prices continue to be increased) for the same base level of content with additional annoying cruft.

With all the extra complexity like this, it's easier to just pirate and maybe set up a server I can just give relatives access to.

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

#126

Post by liotier »

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…

> The killer feature of piracy is thar it just works, not that it is free

Especially as piracy has its own costs: VPN (French authorities do detect bittorrent), storage, some Jellyfin or Kodi host, some time to manage the whole *arr setup.

The moment legal access to a whole world's worth of movies becomes cheaper and easier than that, piracy becomes unattractive. That was the way Netflix was perceived in its golden age... No longer.

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

#127

Post by RiverCrochet »

ESTheComposer wrote: post #103
al_borland wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be curious to know what percentage of pirated movies are actually watched. I think a lot of people download things because they are available and might look interesting, but then never watch it. Does the steeling happen when the content is acquired or consumed? If someone isn’t going to watch it, even when it was free, did they steal anything? With a chocolate bar there is a physical good that could have been…

It doesn't matter how many times you can sell the same item. If someone spent time and money producing something, no matter how small, and they dictate they want $x for you to own/consume it, then you are stealing if you don't give them $x for it. In terms of "when" it's stolen re downloading vs watching, I would say when you download it personally as you now have access to the content without paying.

> If someone spent time and money producing something, no matter how small, and they dictate they want $x for you to own/consume it, then you are stealing if you don't give them $x for it.

Not quite. It's not stealing unless they are deprived of the original item (this is not to be confused with the money they think it is worth if they sell it or "sell" it). What is happening is copying, not stealing.

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

#128

Post by ESTheComposer »

RiverCrochet wrote: post #127
ESTheComposer wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't matter how many times you can sell the same item. If someone spent time and money producing something, no matter how small, and they dictate they want $x for you to own/consume it, then you are stealing if you don't give them $x for it. In terms of "when" it's stolen re downloading vs watching, I would say when you download it personally as you now have access to the content without paying.

> If someone spent time and money producing something, no matter how small, and they dictate they want $x for you to own/consume it, then you are stealing if you don't give them $x for it. Not quite. It's not stealing unless they are deprived of the original item (this is not to be confused with the money they think it is worth if they sell it or "sell" it). What is happening is copying, not stealing.

You are depriving them of revenue, it is stealing.

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

#129

Post by RiverCrochet »

ESTheComposer wrote: post #128
RiverCrochet wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If someone spent time and money producing something, no matter how small, and they dictate they want $x for you to own/consume it, then you are stealing if you don't give them $x for it. Not quite. It's not stealing unless they are deprived of the original item (this is not to be confused with the money they think it is worth if they sell it or "sell" it). What is happening is copying, not stealing.

You are depriving them of revenue, it is stealing.

I have $1000. Currently, I am not giving it to you, and am therefore actively depriving you of this money. Is this stealing?

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

#130

Post by ewoijfawoifj »

It'd be easier if their UIs weren't absolutely terrible, and missing basic functionality.

There's no simple "mark watched"/"mark unwatched"? I can't have multiple playlists, just one "My List" that gets randomly reshuffled? Who knows where my "Continue Watching" row is going to be on the main page, because it sure isn't at the top! etc...

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