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Netflix Long Term View

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Re: Netflix Long Term View

#91

Post by drawkbox »

Eventually, as linear TV is viewed less, the spectrum it now uses on cable, fiber, and over-the-air will be reallocated to expand Internet data transmission. Satellite TV subscribers will be fewer and more rural. The value of high-speed Internet will increase.

This is something that has always bothered me, internet bandwidth only takes up a small amount of spectrum in place of channels and the cable companies could cut lots of channels and improve broadband dramatically. The days of someone dictating what you watch and at what time are over, why all the spectrum hoarding.

Even when I got my first broadband cable connection, one of the first on the node in Chandler in 1996, the cable guy said it only used the space of 2 channels for internet data and the rest for broadcast/cable channels.

Re: Netflix Long Term View

#92

Post by MichaelGG »

solutionyogi wrote: post #4

Winning moments of truth We strive to win more of our members’ “moments of truth”. Those decision points are, say, at 7:15 pm when a member wants to relax, enjoy a shared experience with friends and family, or is bored. They could play a video game, surf the web, read a magazine, channel surf their MVPD/DVR system, buy a pay-per-view movie, put on a DVD, use a piracy service, turn on Hulu, or launch Netflix. We want…

Hah! Countless times I open up Netflix, scroll through endless lists of garbage, that even Netflix suggests I will rate 2 stars, then give up. On the Android app, "My List" doesn't appear to work. I used to pay for Netflix literally for recommendations (had a DVD-only sub, never queued DVDs). A good recommendation engine is easily worth $10/month for me.

Oh, then I finally pick something. And it starts, playing with subtitles in Portuguese because I'm visiting Central America, and Netflix apparently took language lessons from Feynman. Audio's in English, but screw my hearing, I've gotta go read another language. Even on titles with the "Netflix" brand on them, same crap. Or the subs are crappy.

So I give up, load up put.io, and in a few seconds I'm streaming HD on my big screen, Chromecast, or phone. (Unlike Netflix, which streams low quality for several minutes before popping into HD hopefully.)

Re: Netflix Long Term View

#93

Post by samspot »

jader201 wrote: post #39

Maybe it's just me. But one thing about linear (live) broadcasts -- and this also applies to an extent to live radio vs. mp3's -- is that there is just something engaging about watching a program that you know other people, at that moment, are also watching. It's also missed when watching a show that you DVR'ed, after the fact -- like the series finale to Lost, or the Super Bowl. If/when live broadcasts are completel…

I get what you are saying, but for me that experience went extinct years ago. Nobody in my circles watches anything live, and if they do, they don't talk about it within earshot of me.

Re: Netflix Long Term View

#94

Post by MichaelGG »

guiomie wrote: post #2

"we should strive to have the best in each category" ... this is certainly not happening in Canada.

For a few bucks you can get a proxy or VPN in other countries. Pretty essential when traveling since Netflix cannot even keep their UI in a single language when I go on trips.

Re: Netflix Long Term View

#95

Post by ColinCochrane »

slig wrote: post #71
lukifer wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I experience this phenomenon on a less immediate time scale: in the days following a new episode of Breaking Bad, etc, there is discussion and camaraderie with other fans. With the "binge-only" model of House of Cards, that same social experience is not possible.

> With the "binge-only" model of House of Cards, that same social experience is not possible. Maybe that's why they're releasing just one episode/week of their new TV series "Better Call Saul".

I think that's because Better Call Saul is originally broadcast on AMC, which airs it weekly.

Re: Netflix Long Term View

#96

Post by MichaelGG »

Igglyboo wrote: post #64
Animats wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since the online catalog started shrinking, the DVD division is more useful. The DVD rental business has first-sale-doctrine rights; Netflix can rent those DVDs even if the studio doesn't like it. They don't have that right online, and have to cut a deal each title.

Yes but are people still using it? Personally I don't really care how big of a catalog they have, I'm not going to wait 2-3 days for a movie to arrive.

Use the DVD system to recommend, then torrent? That's isomorphic to having Netflix drop the DVD into a block device and letting you access it over a long cable, so you shouldn't have any ethical issues.

Re: Netflix Long Term View

#97

Post by schnevets »

I wonder if Netflix is preparing to offer services to studios/businesses as a contingency plan. Their infrastructure seems to be amazing, especially compared to the bug-riddled Hulus and Crackles of the world. I don't have cable, so I'm not sure how it compares to HBO Go and other studio-centric sites, but it can't be easy to maintain those kinds of services. Maybe we'll see a future where studios leverage Netflix's cloud, but offer their own distribution/revenue schemes?

Re: Netflix Long Term View

#98

Post by notnickwolf »

joshuapants wrote: post #42
ericflo wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It happened a long time ago, at least I became aware of this shift when an exec from Netflix was quoted saying "The goal is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us" http://www.gq.com/entertainment/movies-and-tv/201302/netflix...

And honestly, I think Netflix is most of the way there. HBO Go is a pain to use, the tablet app won't let me output to a TV or monitor, and it is frequently slow for me. I can't remember the last time I needed to wait for Netflix to buffer, and it seems to happen constantly for HBO. Netflix is solid on the technical side, and their original series (in my opinion) eclipse what HBO currently offers. HBO has one show th…

I'm interested, what did you enjoy about Bojack Horseman? I've seen it, and I was quite puzzled about who the audience for the show was.

Re: Netflix Long Term View

#99

Post by spike021 »

jaredsohn wrote: post #81
spike021 wrote: post #5

I personally don't really like the setup Netflix uses as much UI-wise. It seems as though nowadays services need to be all about personalization, where ratings, reviews, and content watched all factor into the new content that is shown to me, the user. I might only like one movie or tv show of a particular genre, give it 4 or 5 stars, and then there's a pretty good chance I'll keep being shown similar ones that I kno…

They have a lot of this, at least if you are accessing the service via the web. Just click on Browse and choose a genre and you'll be able to sort by rating, year of release, maturity rating, or alphabetical order. You can also access these genres by clicking on the section titles in the recommendations. Otherwise, your best bet is to use one of the many external sites such as allflicks.net.

Oh... I guess I missed that via the website. AFAIK that's not available for other clients, but I could be wrong actually. It still seems that they want to have personalized lists front and center, when it would be nice if they would have a setting that lets a user choose what is displayed at the root level. But otherwise that does seem to work pretty well.

Thanks for the tip.

Re: Netflix Long Term View

#100

Post by mark_l_watson »

DennisP wrote: post #48
mhurron wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> their selection is great as well Hulu gets more of my bitching when related to selection, but Netflix gets it's share. Partial seasons, only a few seasons of shows that have long since ended, so many movies not offered. But basically when it comes down to I want to watch something, we have both a Hulu subscription and Netflix for a reason and I still have to torrent things. Also, their app sucks for finding things.

I had Hulu, but a paid service showing the same unskippable commercials over and over again was just too much.

I hear you re: the commercials. It cost the networks less to show content on Hulu so the commercial time should be less. Also, as you say, they should not show the same commercials over and over again. I recently re-subscribed to Hulu+, and I will probably stick with them for a few more months, but really, they could make the service better and still generate good profits for the networks who collectively own Hulu+.
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