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

Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 165 posts

Re: Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

#141

Post by mapontosevenths »

Kreutzer wrote: post #126
mapontosevenths wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to add to the pile: The audio/video experience is actually WORSE than a good home cinema with a UHD bluray. Many theaters are still 1080p (and its very noticable on a large screen). Even in 4k the vast majority lack HDR. The new Tron movie, for example, will look much better on a large home screen than it did in most theaters. So why would I pay them to sit in a room full of jerks on their cellphones and watch i…

I’ve mostly had pleasant experiences at my local theatre, even some memorable encounters with strangers, and find the notion of a home theatre rather depressing.

There's certainly something to be said for the social aspect. I just wish theaters would catch up with the tech.

Only something like 20-40% of theaters are 4k, and less than 1% do HDR. 4k is really important when the image is that large, and the missing HDR changes the entire vibe of some films.

Re: Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

#142

Post by [deleted] »

Flatcircle wrote: post #64
karel-3d wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I prefer Netflix to Oracle-ied Paramount. I don't want Ellisons to own more than they do. Netflix is boring, Ellisons are evil.

Anyone that thinks Netflix buying WB would be better than the Ellisons knows nothing about the media business. Look at what James Cameron said about it last week, everyone prefers the Ellisons over Netflix because Netflix actively wants to kill the theatrical and physical media businesses

[deleted]

Re: Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

#144

Post by an0malous »

echelon wrote: post #11
hxhbbx7 wrote: post #9

All this deal making drama, thats been going in media for a while now hides the fact that Content Supply has vastly overshot Demand to levels that make no sense in any other industry. Cost of tools/production/distribution have all massively dropped over the last 2 decades. Needs a more sustainable story or oscillations and chaos are going to keep increasing.

> Content Supply has vastly overshot Demand Content has never overshot demand. I would drown myself in content if it were good and abundant. It's not. It's lackluster and middling. Content is scarce because it is expensive to produce. The wrong people get put in charge of projects (or tastes/reception is hard to gauge, and experiences hard to engineer). We wind up with a lot of expensive garbage. There is a dearth of…

Apple TV has a ton of great original sci-fi

Re: Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

#145

Post by ZaoLahma »

stingraycharles wrote: post #127
burningChrome wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HBO cancelled Perry Mason, one of the better done noir detective series. That was kind of the nail in the coffin for me. I still get it free because of my AT&T subscription, but I can't argue that Netflix has really come out with anything really worth watching either - Department Q and Mindhunter are only two that I think of that were decent. I agree that the majority of stuff on streaming services is complete garbag…

I wonder if it’s a matter of the platforms optimizing for the wrong metrics, or whether people just stopped paying for quality.

It's hard to motivate high quality at high cost on subscription based platforms. We all pay the same price regardless of whether the content is barely palatable or great, and we all want new content frequently.

Better then to pump out a wide range of mediocracy to attract and keep as many subscribers as possible.

Re: Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

#146

Post by expedition32 »

steveBK123 wrote: post #124
Flatcircle wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone that thinks Netflix buying WB would be better than the Ellisons knows nothing about the media business. Look at what James Cameron said about it last week, everyone prefers the Ellisons over Netflix because Netflix actively wants to kill the theatrical and physical media businesses

Further theres been directors that comment on how aggressively NFLX manages them to create lowest-common-denominator type format. One was talking about getting notes back saying "the show needs to be easy enough to follow that someone across the room washing the dishes understands whats going on. It's why theres no subtext in shows anymore, and they hit you over the head repeatedly with obviousness. So while TikTok l…

We have had 20 years of comic book movies and endless sequels from the major studios.

Let's not pretend that James "Avatar" Cameron is deep.

Re: Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

#147

Post by the_other »

phatfish wrote: post #107
the_other wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion, here in the UK, the cinema/theatre business killed itself. Cinemas are horrible places to visit: - they smell bad (stale junk food) - they have oppressive lighting (mostly extremely dark but with garish turquoise and pink dazzle, accentuating the most confusing aspects of their architecture) - the sound systems are thunderously loud (I'll be taking earplugs the next time I go to one) - most of them are…

Plenty of art house type movie theatres in the UK which would suit your taste better I expect.

I've generally preferred these over the mainstream chains. The nearest Picturehouse to me closed down recently, which was a real loss as it was in a great building. I feel they didn't lean into their art house background hard enough: half the programme seemed to be the afforementioned addiction-cinema.

I feel that these spaces should be celebrating cinema: specials, all-nighters, film discussion groups/clubs in their cafes, some kind of access for local film-makers... like to actually be a part of film-as-art, rather than a part of film-for-business. Some of this goes on (I've been to a few such events), but I have a hunch that there's appetite for much more. It's just a hunch though.

Re: Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

#148

Post by mcphage »

expedition32 wrote: post #146
steveBK123 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Further theres been directors that comment on how aggressively NFLX manages them to create lowest-common-denominator type format. One was talking about getting notes back saying "the show needs to be easy enough to follow that someone across the room washing the dishes understands whats going on. It's why theres no subtext in shows anymore, and they hit you over the head repeatedly with obviousness. So while TikTok l…

We have had 20 years of comic book movies and endless sequels from the major studios. Let's not pretend that James "Avatar" Cameron is deep.

> Let's not pretend that James "Avatar" Cameron is deep.

It’s not, but it’s also now 3 films in 16 years. That’s not a lot.

Re: Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

#149

Post by mcphage »

johnbellone wrote: post #114
achow wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Annapurna Pictures is owned by Megan Ellison. The studio have produced Oscar nominated marquee films like Her, Zero Dark Thirty, American Hustle.

That studio has produced a lot of great video games, too. But we need more variety in ownership. Not everything can be owned by conservative leaning billionaires.

> Not everything can be owned by conservative leaning billionaires.

Well, it can be, that’s the problem :-(. But it would really, really suck.

Re: Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

#150

Post by mrweasel »

stingraycharles wrote: post #130
mrweasel wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's not like Netflix hasn't had ample time and infinite money to do the same if they wanted to. Yet they've failed, I think it's a culture problem. Buy HBO and hopefully carry over the culture and skills to Netflix that way is pretty much they only hope. Netflix created a few good series, but it's also clear that they don't have the writing talent to produce the volume they want. Netflix can produce absolutely bea…

Wasn’t there something going on with an internal battle between two content leads, one focused on “lots of content” and the other on higher quality, more risky bets (that lead to Squid Games, Ozark, Stranger Things, etc), and the one doing the higher quality content ended up losing. I am convinced they’re hyper focused on the wrong metrics, and don’t take long term retention into consideration.

While I don't know, that sound plausible. Netflix can make incredibly technically beautiful shows, but that's getting cheaper and cheaper to do. Good writing is expensive and combined with data suggesting that people mostly look at their phone while watching their shows, why even bother making something with a complex and interesting plot.
Post reply on HN