Live data from Hacker News

Netflix CEO may have missed the real reason why US subscriber numbers plunged

marketwatch.com

411–417 of 417 posts

Re: Netflix CEO may have missed the real reason why US subscriber numbers plunged

#411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People aren't asking for a single distribution channel in the sense of a single monolithic company owning all the IP. They do want (1) convenient apps that aggregate, such as Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video, and (2) a way to get all the content without having to pay lots of individual companies (I'm subscribing to around 5 streaming services myself). Why can't video be like music? Spotify and Apple Music aggregate pr…

> Why can't video be like music? Music is still fighting being “like music”. > Spotify and Apple Music aggregate pretty much all the music in the world now. There have been a number of recent media reports about how exclusives, which never were absent from streaming music, are playing a bigger role now. > You don't have to sign up Warner and Sony and a thousand other labels to play music. Well, yeah, we haven't gotte…

>> Moreover, all the music is licensed through a single IP rights licensing system.

> No, it's not, it's just that public performance licensing has a small number of agencies that most artists are affiliated with, and offer blanket licenses

At least in Germany we have a single agency (GEMA) that acts on behalf of virtually all artists worldwide. They are responsible for a range of licenses, be it for bands that want to cover a song on their new album, a bar that wants to play music or a music streaming service that wants to get started.

In my experience it is a tremendous help to have a single entity for licensing that even has ready-made rates for most things.

I don't see a reason why this could not exist for movies as well. Cost-intensive productions can easily be reflected by tiered pricing so that it costs more to stream/show Jurassic Park than some independent movie.

Re: Netflix CEO may have missed the real reason why US subscriber numbers plunged

#412
post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft all offer paid rentals of nearly anything, on a per movie, episode, or season basis. So what you are asking for definitely exists. It’s just priced disproportionately high compared to the streaming packages that are popular these days.

$4/movie when i could get a month of X service for $8-12/month is kind of too high. Pay per episode for the TV shows I want to watch is too high almost whatever the price (who would pay anything to watch the logan's run tv series??) Maybe we can get a frequent renter's club. $20/month for 8 movies (two a week) and 20 episodes?

I agree movies are expensive.

However, I’m very okay with iTunes’s If I watched more TV overall, it might get too expensive, but I don’t, so quality over quantity.

Re: Netflix CEO may have missed the real reason why US subscriber numbers plunged

#413
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just made a quick greasemonkey script that disables the autoplay at the top but leaves up the jpg splash. If anyone's interested I can share it.

I'm interested...

I posted it here:

https://paste.ee/p/8xg54

Re: Netflix CEO may have missed the real reason why US subscriber numbers plunged

#414
post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People tend to look up movies not by theme, but by actor or director. Could Netflix be okay with categories that don’t fill up entire screens?

That blows my mind; I never would have considered people would focus on the actors or the director. Until you said it I don't once thing I ever even considered the possibility! I'm kinda floored right now.

Actors or directors are a decent indicator of quality.

Recently I’ve found that old actors in mid-budget productions have the best overall quality.

Re: Netflix CEO may have missed the real reason why US subscriber numbers plunged

#415
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course people would rather pay $10 a month to access everything, but that's just not sustainable. Look at Netflix's own financials. They got into content creation and they're now deep in debt despite their massive subscriber base. I also don't get why everyone is clamoring for one company to control all video entertainment distribution. Isn't that what we hated about cable? Didn't we beg for the ability to pick an…

> They got into content creation and they're now deep in debt despite their massive subscriber base. I've found that while Netflix has some decent original content - the overwhelming majority of it is garbage and totally uninteresting. Sometimes I feel some of the Netflix Originals where mothballed from normal venues, so Netflix picked it up, failing to realize why nobody else wanted to produce it in the first place.…

Everyone thinks the overwhelming majority of all content is garbage and totally uninteresting. You might be surprised to learn that 31 million accounts watched Adam Sandler's most recent Netflix movie within the first three days, rivaling Stranger Things numbers. I remember the Internet laughing at Netflix for investing so much into Adam Sandler.

And Netflix (correctly) abandoned being a movie library service a long time ago. They're pretty much just HBO with a more broad appeal now.

Re: Netflix CEO may have missed the real reason why US subscriber numbers plunged

#416
post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course people would rather pay $10 a month to access everything, but that's just not sustainable. Look at Netflix's own financials. They got into content creation and they're now deep in debt despite their massive subscriber base. I also don't get why everyone is clamoring for one company to control all video entertainment distribution. Isn't that what we hated about cable? Didn't we beg for the ability to pick an…

How much did Netflix pay for the Rock and Chappelle specials? I read it was over $100M, for both men's specials, and that was what, less than 10 hours of programming? No wonder they are deep in debt.

Rock: $40M

Ricky Gervais: $40M

Chappelle: $60M

Eddie Murphy: $70M

$210M for less than 20 hours of programming. Wow.

Re: Netflix CEO may have missed the real reason why US subscriber numbers plunged

#417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. Streaming video will be like Spotify as soon as Disney+ finishes buying every IP franchise.

I wonder how far they can go before they are told they can't buy anything more? I think they have too much right now.

Probably at about the same point Taco Bell is viewd as "Fine Dining"
Post reply on HN