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Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

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Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#351
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compared to competitors, Apple TV+ currently appear to put much more emphasis on quality over quantity in their original content. I really enjoyed some shows like Severance, For All Mankind, Trying, Acapulco, Foundation. It reminds me of the time when Netflix Originals stood for content to be excited about. What they don't have is a back catalog of licensed films and shows included with the flat rate offering (they a…

FWIW I thought Foundation was incredibly poor

I was not a fan of Foundation, however the Cleon story line was awesome, everything was really bad.

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of woke crap? I don't really understand the definition, but that's because it is US identity politics and nobody wants to define it apparently. But maybe from afar you have a particular definition?

I don’t understand why it’s so difficult to describe woke. It’s mostly genders and race, it becomes a problem when you’re trying to watch a movie and you start noticing the minority token that exists exclusively to gain imaginary social points but adds nothing to the story. This isn’t anything new however, cinema is soft power and the US has been at it for nearly a century now.

Not every story with a black person in it has to be a story about the person being black. We're pretty used to seeing shows with white characters whose whiteness doesn't contribute anything to the story. The implicit rationale here seems to be that any character who isn't white and male needs a special justification for existing.

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#355
post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So an independent studio would produce a show, put it on all the platforms and the platforms would pay based on views? Sounds like youtube. The current model works because producing a television show is way more complex than making an album, it is way too much risk for indie companies to absorb.

Where precisely is the risk? If you already produced the content why not make it available on multiple streaming sites? Is it the production studio asking for exclusivity or the streaming outlets?

    The economics just don't work the same. 
the most lucrative scheme for productions, while also staying within that invisible boundary of not alienating consumers, for films and series: the exclusivity deals.

How's that dr watson?

    In an extreme example you are paying a long term subscription, let's say $200, for the exclusive privilege to access say 2 shows. That's $100 for one aficionado, per production.

    What you are advocating for is 
for each production to be made available on dozens of platforms each having most other productions, you end up with a prorata/ratio of that aficionado who viewed yours, but also happen to have viewed 8 other productions. Unless the viewer pays up 20x or 30x for some universal subscription, that's far less revenue than $100. In practice subscribers simply won't even spend 10x. Why? Because they are only ready to pay 10 times more for certain beloved productions, but very little for those that aren't deemed that necessary to watch. So they tend to accept to pay a lot for a few hits, even if they have to give up on all the rest.

Why does it not work the same for music?

    First, it used to. Apple, in the good old Steve Jobs days, did it good to break the practice. With iTunes. Which managed to catch up with every other platform and integrate well to provide a UX leaving the competition far behind.  Pressure power, and master maneuvers accomplished the exploit. Apple TV didn't show the same prouesse, maybe Jobs started to fade away, Apple didn't make a great screen display like they did with the iPod to gain that consumer pressure against the trad distributors, and it was simply a much harder battle due to the second reason below.

    A great tune is played many many many times. An average one at least far less. So the prorata formula used to compensate the owners, works OK. The pareto distribution applies where great hits get accordingly rewarded.
 
    With movies/series, unless it is one of those rare non thriller/mystery gem, it is watched once and for all. A one to one view to reward system puts greater productions at a deficit.
I doubt the Entertainment industry saw all of this from the get go, but they have decades of accounting experience and shaped it up once cable/satellite tv with network channels became prominent. It roughly applies the same with with streaming.

    Does it make it right? Legally it seems that they win, those exclusivity contracts are legal. Building a platform and funnel your productions through it only as well. Although legislators needs to step up their game, end the lobbying thr led to this abuse of Intellectual Property rights, to finally enforce what it is and just it: ownership of the art, not of its distribution.

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#356
post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They know who all the password sharers are. They've spent months, or even years running models to predict the fallout if they cut off password sharing. None of the actual results are going to be in any way surprising to them. So while people here think they're doing this to their own detriment, their legion of scientists have already told them the end result which is obviously not detrimental or they wouldn't be doin…

As a "scientist" mentioned in your comment (they call us Research Engineers), I have to tell you that this is a business decision. One or more than one suit in the C-level made this decision. And, as a scientist, you cannot build a model with a never-happened-before phenomena. Only "risk specialists", "risk engineers", etc. which are different names for BSers will even try to "predict" this. How can one build a "mode…

They did test it in some countries though so they have some kind of data.

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I genuinely don't understand this sentiment in 2023. Maybe in 2003 it was reasonable, but if you have the money, just spend it to buy the content you want. I get that there's a lot of "crap" that you don't want to see, but I appreciate some of that, and I'm sure you appreciate some of what I call "crap". I don't see how you go from that situation to justifying not paying for it. There's a price for the content and it…

I don't pirate because I just can't be bothered. It's all too much work for a short temporary experience, but I do remember the promises. Streaming was going to "save us" from the big cable companies. No ads, just pay that small subscription fee and watch what you want when you want it. Now there are a dozen subscription fees, I'm getting ads anyway, and I'm not getting content I want to pay money for. Some are even…

Pirating popular shows is actually pretty darn easy, and you get the benefit of watching it with your favorite player wherever you want to, not with the crap player they offer under scenarios they dictate. Want to watch an HBO show offline on a plane or train, no problem. I actually “pirate” some of stuff I pay for.

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#358
post #311
post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I want some way of telling them "I don't want to wade through crap..." Yarr matey, one way do be not parting ways with coin for said services, instead making a more... equitable re-appropriation

I'd rather encourage better options with my money than pirate. Granted there aren't many / any. I do donate to my local PBS station ... the content they provide is pretty dang good.

The Criterion Collection now offers a streaming service, which consists mostly of what would be considered "better options" than the typical mainstream chaff.

https://www.criterionchannel.com/

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#359
post #79

Netflix have really dissapointed me. I've been a subscriber since before streaming, and have even been content paying the subscription fee during the "breaks" of not using their service for up to months at a time because I so badly want(ed) them to succeed. I also understood the difficult situation they were facing when the producers of content were makkng ridiculous demands on their distribution, or worse, just pull…

Disappointment can only come from your own expectations. Good doesn't last. I like to have a mindset of using these kind of things while they work for me, until they don't, then leave and not look back. Don't get attached to commercial endeavours.

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#360
post #74

An unplesant surpsise I got from Netflix is when I went to a vacation to Thailand and got welcomed with "you can't watch it here" screen. Customer support told me I can only watch Netflix in the country I purchased it from. This was not my first trip so must be a new development.

Sometimes some shows are not available or you get different voice languages if you watch your Netflix from a different country.

That's what I was expecting, and what I got from Google and Netflix website, but it flat out refused to open up.

Through some mystic fuckery it worked via VPN for me, but not for my wife (same exact VPN server).

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