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Netflix's New Chapter

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Re: Netflix's New Chapter

#191

Post by indigodaddy »

no_wizard wrote: post #7

I'm gonna attempt to break this down: - Netflix has 5-6 Billion USD free cash flow, and because they got what debt they do have under favorable terms, they are positioned to retain most of that free cash flow - Disney, Comcast (Peacock), CBS/Viacom and other media corporations are saddled with debt, and are all losing money on their own independent streaming businesses. Likely untenable in their shareholder model - T…

“Therefore, Netflix needs to do what it can to retain / attract subscribers, but essentially can wait until the other services have to give up due to cost”

Much as they did with Blockbuster as he described in the article, correct?

Re: Netflix's New Chapter

#192

Post by latexr »

WalterBright wrote: post #172
darth_avocado wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s Disney’s content That is partly the problem. You spend hundreds of millions to make blockbuster movies and then release it on Disney+ in a few months for free (or sometimes directly). That costs money. Add to that over reliance on only Disney content creates two problems: 1. You can’t have enough new content every month, subscribers therefore don’t keep the subscription year round. 2. You have to pay money to…

What I don't understand about the movie business is the cost of making them. The most important ingredient to the success of a movie is the plot. We've all seen low budget movies that made lots of money - because of the plot. Casablanca, Psycho, Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, Primer, ... Star Trek TOS was a very low budget affair, and produced excellent results, because they hired the best scifi writers. When they…

> The most important ingredient to the success of a movie is the plot.

Provably false by all the bad sequels which nonetheless made more money than the original¹. If plot were that crucial, movies would consist of a person sitting down reading a book, à la The Invention of Lying². Money matters to commercial success of a film above anything else.

¹ https://www.vox.com/2016/7/1/12070048/resurgence-independenc...

² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invention_of_Lying

Re: Netflix's New Chapter

#193

Post by slowmovintarget »

BurningFrog wrote: post #135
cwmma wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

here's some advice, skip everything else, just watch Andor, it's fantastic, best Star Wars since Empire. Other stuff has been hit or miss.

Andor reinvented the spy thriller in the Star Wars universe. Mandalorian reinvented the Western in the Star Wars universe. Both are superb. The other Star Wars series are not.

We got both a heist, and a prison break from Andor.

The Mandalorian is Western + Ronin / Samurai.

And yes, they're both great.

Re: Netflix's New Chapter

#194

Post by lrem »

mardifoufs wrote: post #63
tootie wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, D+ is churning out an enormous volume of what would be considered prestige content at other services. All the Star Wars and Marvel shows are star-studded and larded with top-tier visual effects. And some of them aren't really getting a lot of viewers from what the rumors say.

That's why it's so surprising imo. Disney+ has a very wide and deep catalog of pre-existing IP, and I would have imagined that most subscribers care more about that than any future original production. So it's weird to see them invest so much in new content, more so than competitors that have a much weaker, smaller catalog. Especially when the content is made exclusively for Disney+. But I'm almost certainly complete…

Disney+ is also very disappointing on that back catalog. There are Disney cartoons that I watched as a kid and would love to show to my kids. I can find them on YouTube, apparently badly copied from VHS tapes. I can't find them on Disney+, or only find a "modern" remake that's outright cringy :/

Re: Netflix's New Chapter

#195

Post by tzs »

skrowl wrote: post #162
no_wizard wrote: post #7

I'm gonna attempt to break this down: - Netflix has 5-6 Billion USD free cash flow, and because they got what debt they do have under favorable terms, they are positioned to retain most of that free cash flow - Disney, Comcast (Peacock), CBS/Viacom and other media corporations are saddled with debt, and are all losing money on their own independent streaming businesses. Likely untenable in their shareholder model - T…

I've talked with several of my friends about this. EVERYONE was universally willing to pay Netflix their monthly sub when all the studios just sold their content to Netflix. NO ONE has subscribed to all of Disney+, Apple+, Paramount+, Peacock, etc. in the new everyone-built-their-own-netflix era. They're all either making do with less content or sailing the high seas mateys yo ho. In many cases they've even DROPPED N…

I don't know how big a factor this is, but note that some of those have bundling deals with other services. For people that happen to use those other services this can as a side effect greatly reduce the annoyance of the things one wants to watch being spread over different non-free services.

I have Hulu as part of my Spotify subscription.

I have Peacock Premium as part of Xfinity internet.

I have Paramount+ as part of Walmart+.

I have Amazon Prime Video as part of Amazon Prime.

Some T-Mobile plans include Netflix and Apple TV+.

Re: Netflix's New Chapter

#196

Post by WalterBright »

gorbypark wrote: post #186
WalterBright wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don't understand about the movie business is the cost of making them. The most important ingredient to the success of a movie is the plot. We've all seen low budget movies that made lots of money - because of the plot. Casablanca, Psycho, Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, Primer, ... Star Trek TOS was a very low budget affair, and produced excellent results, because they hired the best scifi writers. When they…

The issue is making money. There are lots of low budget movies with good plots that don’t make money (or not a lot of it). While at the same time, they can make the 5th sequel to some shitty comic book video and almost guarantee a few hundred million in profits. Of course movies can tank, but generally they are not stupid and the accounts have it figured out.

If you're going to spent $100 million on a movie, why settle for a boring plot and pedestrian dialog?

I watched the La Brea show for a while. Lots of expensive special effects. But the dialog was just pablum. The characters each talked like they were the same person - using the same words and phrases. They behaved the same, too.

Re: Netflix's New Chapter

#197

Post by LarryMullins »

TrueSlacker0 wrote: post #185
darth_avocado wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s Disney’s content That is partly the problem. You spend hundreds of millions to make blockbuster movies and then release it on Disney+ in a few months for free (or sometimes directly). That costs money. Add to that over reliance on only Disney content creates two problems: 1. You can’t have enough new content every month, subscribers therefore don’t keep the subscription year round. 2. You have to pay money to…

They don't even list all their old content. For example the old Donald duck cartoons, there seem to only be about 15 or so streaming. The rest are not available. Why?

I don't know about Donald Duck cartoons in particular, but I think a lot of those old cartoons are difficult to find because they contain content that the corporation fears might offend somebody. Racist (or arguably so) ethnic caricatures, extreme cartoon violence, that sort of thing.

For instance, the original version of Disney's The Three Little Pigs has the wolf disguising himself as a stereotypical Jewish merchant.

Re: Netflix's New Chapter

#198

Post by sharkjacobs »

zamadatix wrote: post #11
no_wizard wrote: post #7

I'm gonna attempt to break this down: - Netflix has 5-6 Billion USD free cash flow, and because they got what debt they do have under favorable terms, they are positioned to retain most of that free cash flow - Disney, Comcast (Peacock), CBS/Viacom and other media corporations are saddled with debt, and are all losing money on their own independent streaming businesses. Likely untenable in their shareholder model - T…

What I don't understand is how e.g. Disney+ is losing so much money. It's Disney's content, has an enormous userbase, and somehow is bleeding billions?

Disney+ doesn't just get all its content "for free" even though Disney owns it all.

A company as big as Disney has to be able to look at its different subsidiaries and analyse how they're performing individually. So maybe Walt Disney Animation Studio spends money making movies and earns money selling the rights to those movies, and so Disney+ gets exclusive access to streaming rights, but it still has to pay for them.

Re: Netflix's New Chapter

#199

Post by LarryMullins »

WalterBright wrote: post #172
darth_avocado wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s Disney’s content That is partly the problem. You spend hundreds of millions to make blockbuster movies and then release it on Disney+ in a few months for free (or sometimes directly). That costs money. Add to that over reliance on only Disney content creates two problems: 1. You can’t have enough new content every month, subscribers therefore don’t keep the subscription year round. 2. You have to pay money to…

What I don't understand about the movie business is the cost of making them. The most important ingredient to the success of a movie is the plot. We've all seen low budget movies that made lots of money - because of the plot. Casablanca, Psycho, Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, Primer, ... Star Trek TOS was a very low budget affair, and produced excellent results, because they hired the best scifi writers. When they…

All substance and no style can work, as your examples prove. But it's also possible to find examples of successful movies which were all style, no substance. For instance the first Avatar (I haven't seen the recent sequel.)

Re: Netflix's New Chapter

#200

Post by vlunkr »

runako wrote: post #182
nostromo wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tech part of streaming no longer matters and Netflix is in serious trouble due to their lack of quality content. I'm no fan of Disney, but you have to give it to Bob Iger. He just paid out the nose to buy every piece of valuable IP: Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Fox, even Jim Henson. The amount of content they now own is insane. Everything from Sunny in Philadelphia to the Muppet show to Alien to Avatar to The Simpso…

> Netflix is in serious trouble due to their lack of quality content. People say this often, but I have never seen it manifested in a viewership chart. Just using Nielsen data as an example, Netflix absolutely dominates the Top 10 chart, with 7/10 of the programs: https://www.nielsen.com/top-ten/ Anecdotally, when traveling outside the US, Netflix & Disney are really the only providers I have seen have any kind of fo…

The subscriber count continues to grow, so it seems like the content is fine. Or at least not so bad that people are unsubscribing.

It seems to me that Netflix still has the most generally appealing content. Yeah Disney has some of the biggest names, but unless you 1. have young kids or 2. are a huge, not burnt-out Star Wars or Marvel fan, Disney+ is a pretty poor service. Most of the other services fall somewhere else in the middle of that spectrum.

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