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

Netflix shares sink 10% as subscriber take-up slows

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 167 posts

Re: Netflix shares sink 10% as subscriber take-up slows

#151

Post by albanread »

superasn wrote: post #150

The best part about Netflix was their recommendation engine at least in the beginning. Now they have their own shows which they want to force down our throats match or no match. I think their USP at least to me was their great recommendations which is totally lost now because of their ulterior motives. Coincidentally I too am going to cancel my subscription this month.

I am staying subscribed; I don't have the spare time to watch all of their shows; so getting bored of it; is not a problem; I like that they don't have adverts; and you can just play what you choose when you do have the time.

This morning I got a letter from the BBC thanking me for paying my mandatory license fee; for owning a `colour television`.

Netflix is good value; because I actually watch it; and the fact that people can legally cancel the subscription should keep them on their toes.

Not that long ago there were only one or two channels of government propaganda to watch; that displayed a commercial test card transmission through most of the day. Life is good.

Re: Netflix shares sink 10% as subscriber take-up slows

#152

Post by oeoeo00 »

b_tterc_p wrote: post #26
oeoeo00 wrote: post #18

Netflix has yet to find a property that can go the distance and really hook people long term. This whole “cancel a show after 3 seasons” is not what users who grew up with 6,7...10 year runs of shows connect to. They need some content with long legs to keep the sort used to Frasier like life spans. That’s who was tuning in during their growth period, for those old shows they can’t hang onto now.

Hmm I don’t think this is true. Most of netflix’s Content is story driven whereas never dying sitcoms were just kind of whatever. I’m sure people watched the sitcoms, some even on loop, but I doubt it was the luring factor. Maybe that’s just my personal misconception.

Anecdote; I’ve had family and friends cancel Netflix when their old favorites got pulled.

People that are center of the road politically, and very nostalgia/tradition driven. It seems reasonable to me that type of person makes up a pretty large portion of the population (I grew up in the Midwest and feel that basically describes the region pretty well, accepting it’s just my gut sense.)

Our brains like routine. That routine can be chasing novel experience or sitting still clinging to nostalgia. Seems pretty clear from the news the majority fall into the latter group.

Re: Netflix shares sink 10% as subscriber take-up slows

#154

Post by eeeeeeeeeeeee »

amiga_500 wrote: post #70
JauntyHatAngle wrote: post #39

As someone who recently cancelled my Netflix subscription after idly flipping through it and realising nothing here holds my interest anymore, I feel like many of the reasons people pirated TV/Film content in the past (and Netflix helped to reduce by many-fold) have now returned with a vengeance. I'm on Australian Netflix, and the selection of titles has steadily diminished from an already reduced catalogue to the sa…

The average netflix experience, for films: - look through the first category, feel disappointed - look through other categories, see the same films in multiple categories - waste 20 minutes before either turning off or in refusing to totally dump the sunk cost, choose a film you don't really want It's like the inverted set of the Criterion Collection.

They could provide a more positive user experience if they overhauled their terrible user interface. They focus too much on making you believe there are thousands of choices, when it’s probably closer to 10-20.

This is clearly evident in how they keep items you’ve already watched in the same list of things you haven’t watched. Why would any sane person do this?

Re: Netflix shares sink 10% as subscriber take-up slows

#155

Post by eeeeeeeeeeeee »

Semaphor wrote: post #115

The reason I like Netflix less and less is their atrocious browsing interface: No customizability. I want "continue watching" always at the top and have an easy way to remove shows from there. I never want to see "Watch it again" anywhere. I don't want any movies on the Index. And I want a clear sign which shows are dubbed. (Well, and I'd like Japanese shows to have English subs, but that's not a UI problem) Over the…

Also, why do they always show you items you’ve already watched alongside things you haven’t? How many people are watching the same movie or tv series multiple times each month?

The UI is definitely a big reason I cancelled.

Re: Netflix shares sink 10% as subscriber take-up slows

#156

Post by eeeeeeeeeeeee »

tyingq wrote: post #30

I suspect they will also get hit by people subscribing for a month to see something specific, then unsubscribing until something new worth watching appears. Now that good content is so fragmented across services, it will likely be common to cancel often. I paid for a month of HBO mostly to watch Chernobyl, then cancelled.

This is what I do now and I enjoy the services a lot more now because I don’t browse. I just make lists of things I want to watch and subscribe accordingly.

Re: Netflix shares sink 10% as subscriber take-up slows

#157

Post by amiga_500 »

eeeeeeeeeeeee wrote: post #154
amiga_500 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average netflix experience, for films: - look through the first category, feel disappointed - look through other categories, see the same films in multiple categories - waste 20 minutes before either turning off or in refusing to totally dump the sunk cost, choose a film you don't really want It's like the inverted set of the Criterion Collection.

They could provide a more positive user experience if they overhauled their terrible user interface. They focus too much on making you believe there are thousands of choices, when it’s probably closer to 10-20. This is clearly evident in how they keep items you’ve already watched in the same list of things you haven’t watched. Why would any sane person do this?

No, the poor catalogue is the root cause of my antipathy.

Re: Netflix shares sink 10% as subscriber take-up slows

#158

Post by dang »

kentrado wrote: post #127
rayiner wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Riding in the HOV lane when you’re alone is also convenient. That doesn’t mean you’re not a degenerate for doing it. If you don’t like the terms on which people have offered their work, by all means, take your business elsewhere. There’s literally nothing stopping you from instead consuming the work of indie artists and producers who choose to make their work available more widely. (It’s also not fair to those indie…

It sounds to me like you are trying to get him to conform to slave morality. I could argue at length why pirating is not immoral, but I know it has been already repeated enough by people like Lawrence Lessig and David Bravo.

Please don't turn HN threads into Nietzschean flamewars.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Netflix shares sink 10% as subscriber take-up slows

#159

Post by rorykoehler »

rayiner wrote: post #141
rorykoehler wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The degenerates in this case are the copyright holders. They ruin it for everyone as usual with their shortsighted greed.

Yeah! What terrible people! Not offering content that they created, or paid to have created, for less than what people are willing to pay for it! If there is anything that is entitled to be sold in a profit-maximizing manner it’s copyrighted content. We’re not talking about a public good, or monopolizing a pre-existing thing. If Marvel (or some other company) didn’t make Avengers, it wouldn’t exist in the universe. N…

That's not the reality of this situation. They are fragmenting the market on purpose in order to "build a moat". You can't complain about piracy anymore. We can see what happens when there is a paid alternative. People stop pirating and use it. If you don't offer a paid alternative to piracy because you want to squeeze extra profit from fragmentation then tough luck when people start pirating. Honestly I think content should be a highly regulated market with a set price and open marketplace. What we have today is cable 2.0 and cable died because it doesn't work.

Re: Netflix shares sink 10% as subscriber take-up slows

#160

Post by kentrado »

dang wrote: post #158
kentrado wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds to me like you are trying to get him to conform to slave morality. I could argue at length why pirating is not immoral, but I know it has been already repeated enough by people like Lawrence Lessig and David Bravo.

Please don't turn HN threads into Nietzschean flamewars. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Nietzschean flamewars? Is that a thing or you just made that up?
Post reply on HN