Live data from Hacker News

Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

torrentfreak.com

321–330 of 940 posts

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

#321
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Streaming also had no ads which is now gated behind even more pricey plans.

Low price and no ads were two of the main selling points to ditch cable (along with stream whenever you want). We reached the point were price is almost as high as cable was (with the standard 4-5 subscriptions), and we have ads. This is not a surprise to most though, the question has always been when would it happen.

No ads used to be the main selling point of cable, decades ago, which goes to show that advertising is a cancer and will thoroughly corrupt and consume every communication medium over time.

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

#322

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…

Maybe it's me but consider the content on these streaming platforms which seem to me as a mix of syndicated shows and romantic action films. Where exactly people find value in tv tropes and expensive camera work is something only the producers in Hollywood can answer, pirating is a means to an end and by that I mean, most of it is so shit that it's not worth the price on the label to do the reasonable thing and pay for it.

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

#323
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.

I mean, stealing is always easier than paying for something.

Thats not true in even the most trivial sense. But the rise of piracy correlates strongly to not cost, but availability.

Granted charging $1 per song is a little egregious as well

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

#324
post #31

I have one point which I really feel exemplifies the entire Netflix experience: before you sign up, they do not give you a list of what's available to watch. Seriously, check out their website. It's basically a landing page which says "give us your money". The prices aren't even displayed. There is no list of shows, save for a few measly screenshots of featured/well-known titles. There is a search box which lets you…

Well this approach (the part about not listing the shows/movies carried) worked just fine back in ~2012 when Netflix had pretty much everything.

These days... not so much.

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

#325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I directionally agree, I don't know how to reconcile this with antitrust. I wouldn't want Netflix to be the one company with all the content, with no competition. I guess what would be better is if all content was available on all the streaming providers, and then they'd compete on platform quality and price.

I do. There needs to be one international company who is co-owned by all these media companies. They need to "nationalise" streaming amongst themselves. That way users only have to pay one streaming service, the content is available in every country, the rightsholders are paid fairly by the content consumed instead of these never-ending monthly fees for one show and ignoring the rest of the library. If they don't do…

That is exactly what Hulu tried to be initially.

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

#326
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.

I mean, stealing is always easier than paying for something.

I'm sure you yourself can come up with counter-examples for that.

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

#327

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…

>"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."

I am more than willing to pay for content subscription assuming they have everything under one roof and no ads. Pay for cable like service - fuck it. I'd rather watch the paint dry.

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

#328

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

Both my streaming boxes (Amazon Fire Stick and Xfinity Flex) handle that for me. I press the mic button on the remote, say what I'm looking for, and they tell me my options. Typically that means they tell me which paid services it is on (Netflix, Max, Peacock, etc) and offer to launch the app for that service, which free with ads services it is on (such as Pluto or Freevee), and show my options to buy or rent it.

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

#329

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 b…

At least for now, I'm still sharing netflix and amazon prime video with my parent who live in a different country 10,000 miles away.

The day I get a message stopping me from doing that is the day I cancel my subscriptions.

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

#330
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…

Steam really did this for games for me and somehow hasn't stopped working for me yet. Maybe Netflix should ask themselves how Steam competes with bootlegs and what they might do like it.

Steam really works because it remained a private company. Once you go public, it's a slow descent into madness.
Post reply on HN