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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

#131

Post by jowea »

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…

The part about Titanic being split is a joke, right? Right?

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

#132

Post by zug_zug »

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 used to try to go 100% online rental (primarily amazon rentals if I didn't want hassle). I figured it was hard to argue a 3.99 rental was any worse than blockbuster.

So on vacation I tried to airplay mission impossible from amazon rental to the TV, and the screen just went black for copy-protection. So I refunded my rental and torrented it instead.

I don't usually torrent, but sometimes the ecosystems put it squarely in my self interest.

(Also, for whatever it's worth I have netflix active about 1 month a year because I find their recent content so unimpressive, but perhaps I'm not the target audience)

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

#133

Post by ESTheComposer »

RiverCrochet wrote: post #129
ESTheComposer wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

You're using a false analogy. You're trying to make a parallel between not paying for an item/produced good and simply not giving someone money in an attempt to downplay not paying for created material.

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

#134

Post by MostlyStable »

heavyset_go wrote: post #123
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 tab…

I'm curious where the equilibrium is. There is some portion of people who will not torrent no matter what. Either because of lack of ability or moral views, or some other reason.

There is a second set of the population that will never pay for media, or at least not more than very trivial amounts. Either because of lack of ability to pay, not thinking it's worth it, or not believing there is anything wrong with piracy.

Then the is the third group that will happily pay for content when it is reasonably priced and, perhaps most importantly, easy and convenient. If it's too expensive or too difficult/annoying, they will pirate.

The size of this third group dictates where the equilibrium is. If it's very small, then media will always converge in the cable style maximum extraction. But if that second group is large, then the cable model might lose more money than it gains by pushing consumers towards piracy.

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

#135

Post by paulcole »

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…

> 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

1. My time isn’t valuable so who cares if it takes 6 minutes to figure out where to watch Magnum PI.

2. I know I shouldn’t do illegal things so I don’t do them.

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

#136

Post by adamomada »

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.

You are stealing... what, exactly?

(It’s not stealing any thing at all)

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

#137

Post by jowea »

ta8645 wrote: post #60
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…

If Netflix had seen themselves strictly as a distribution service, they might have taken an open-to-all, low-margin, high-volume approach, which had a chance to become ubiquitous and unassailable. Basically, they could have been the Cable-over-IP provider for everyone. But it's a lot harder to get there, from here.

Did this not work because Netflix didn't want to or because the producers decided they wanted to do distribution themselves?

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

#138

Post by dgfitz »

orwin wrote: post #108
dgfitz wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never equated “hacker == free” ever. In that save vein, no, all information should NOT be free. I sincerely reject your entire premise.

I think information should be free as in freedom, but have a cost that should be paid (in time, money...), is this a better for you? (I disagree with GP BTW).

Many hearts, I am the GP.

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

#139

Post by Strom »

SurgeArrest wrote: post #63

Netflix has a problem that the front page is now filled with "B-rated" rather than "A-rated" content for more money than before. The amount of content that they spent money on in the past is hardly discoverable, genre search is barely exposed in the interface. You have to rely on 3rd party sites to find links to category selections, say Epic movies based on true events... good luck finding what they have in this cate…

Yeah but if you always have to spend a lot of time finding something to watch, then that shows up in their analytics as increased engagement. Allowing you to remove garbage would make you spend less time in their app.

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

#140

Post by pquki4 »

UtopiaPunk wrote: post #86
jwells89 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In addition, piracy ensures that the "original" version -- whether it was released on DVD, Blu-ray or streaming platform -- is "always" there (as long as someone is seeding). These days streaming services take down 50-year-old content because of racial prototypes or other politically incorrectly content given what (some) people believe in 2024, edit them or never put them on the shelve again. If all they do is to add "content advisory", consider yourself lucky.

This is one of the most stupid things that have happened.

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