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Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

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Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#481

Post by FerretFred »

samwillis wrote: post #35
discardable_dan wrote: post #2

I said this again recently, but it's worth repeating: Netflix is on the very fast downward slope. Their catalog is wilting, the space is heating up with well-established competitors moving in and serving the precise content that Netflix originally built their brand on, and their efforts to fund a new catalog with new IP (and taking ownership of old IP) is destroying the business model that made them so appealing in t…

While I don't entirely agree with you I do think the price of Netflix is getting a little higher than the value we personally get out of it. Our personal breakdown this year (in the UK): Adults in the house, we are quite picky but if we love it then we will keep watching: Netflix @£9.99: 2 tv shows, 4-5 films Apple TV+ @£4.99: 3 tv shows, 2 films Disney Plus @£7.99: 1 tv show, Loads of movies Amazon Prime @£7.99: 3 t…

UK .. slightly off-topic but you (and I) are also paying £13.25 a month for the BBC...

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#482

Post by pym4n »

Netflix has by far the best UI but the same can't be said about content. When you start using a streaming catalogue app like JustWatch, the UI becomes less important and content becomes the main focus. I think content is what we are looking for at the end of the day, right?

It's getting hard to justify Netflix price because they have a great UI and a few interesting shows. IMO, the best bang for your buck today is Prime Video, Disney+ and CuriosityStream, all wrapped up by JustWatch.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#483

Post by toxik »

PoignardAzur wrote: post #416
toxik wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a larger problem than that, isn't it? We collectively moved from piracy to Netflix and other streaming platforms because the appeal was gone. But pulling the rug from underneath your users and removing movies and TV series they have built a relationship to just serves to piss off the very people you expect to pay for your service -- I understand it's a "complicated" IP problem (really, it's just too many greedy…

> But pulling the rug from underneath your users and removing movies and TV series they have built a relationship to just serves to piss off the very people you expect to pay for your service -- I understand it's a "complicated" IP problem (really, it's just too many greedy parties), but this will end in one result: more piracy. You're saying that like Netflix has any choice in the matter. Yes, it's in part a problem…

Netflix signed the agreement in the first place, they clearly knew what would happen: important and large parts of catalog was only temporary, until the competition started their own services or otherwise pulled content. They knew their catalog was going away, yet they offered it to attract users, who are now increasingly becoming disillusioned and leaving the service with a bitter aftertaste. See sibling comments.

I also did not pin this on Netflix, though I did say users -- it is in the rights holders' interests that their content gains popularity so they can sell merchandise, and produce more content. They are pulling the rug out from underneath that audience too.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#484

Post by Terretta »

ethbr0 wrote: post #386
sedatk wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UX is a night and day difference between Netflix and its competitors. It's mind-boggling that the giants like Disney and HBO can't even get close. It's especially more noticeable on slow devices like Smart TV's.

It's the minor things that jump out to me. Peacock uses a white glow around the preview picture as their selection indicator. No border. Just a faint glow. HBO Max has no way of navigating to a show page from your most recently viewed carousel. You have to find or search the show separately. It's death by a thousand cuts, but jesus... use your competitor's app. See what UX works and what doesn't. I can't imagine any…

> HBO Max has no way of navigating to a show page from your most recently viewed carousel. You have to find or search the show separately.

Hit play then as soon as it starts hit back, you’ll be at the show.

My guess is most remotes or TVs don’t support long press or other alt-clicks so they just implement the main thing people would want in that carousel. Even on AppleTV or other platforms that have long press.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#485

Post by spanktheuser »

tumblen wrote: post #220
inanutshellus wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Youtube is pretty magical. It has everything, even in the "kid zone". Which also means I can't leave them unsupervised for 30 minutes and come back. If I do, my kids will've gone from educational video about the rain forest to sponsored video to toy videos to slime to fart jokes to music videos of bikini-clad bimbos to steamy romance videos to ... Anyway it's just too much work to curate youtube for a child, IMO. For…

The other thing we find with our 3 year old is that he can have his tablet and watch movies or shows on Netflix/VLC, etc. and it's pretty much all positive. But he always prefers YouTube and when he's using YouTube, he mostly watches 3-5 minutes of something before getting enticed by another thumbnail. At times when he's had free reign to YT, it really seems to drastically affect his general attention, patience, temp…

As they get older, you’ll also find YouTube Kids serves as the primary gateway for consumerism / corporations to begin influencing your child. Between Netflix / Disney+, the traditional 30s television commercial has effectively disappeared for kids. Corporations have pivoted to sponsored content on YouTube kids.

YT Kids most popular channels are streamed play sessions and toy reviews with superhuman production values and unrealistic depictions of what the toys can do. Once a child has watched an episode of LOL doll play along (for example), YouTube algorithm will recommend LOL doll collection videos, which associate completist collecting with peer group social acceptance. Free to play video game spots were even worse, directly focusing on alluring introduction of the game’s addiction economy.

I gave my children access to YouTube kids for some of the excellent educational content reasoning that it would be a relatively safe experience. Within a month their homepage and all recommendations (and I do mean 100%) were sponsored 5-15 minute long toy commercials. Their interest in animals, nature, science, and dinosaur programming remained strong but disappeared entirely from view outside of keyword search.

All YT and Google apps are now removed from the devices they use. I allow unsupervised use of PBS Kids, PBS in general, Nat Geo, Disney Plus and Netflix Kids (with time limits) but YouTube is filtered from my kids devices at the router. They are not allowed Google accounts; all YouTube content access is done via keyword search with a parent selecting the material and remaining in the room during viewing.

There are programs on YouTube that can’t be replicated anywhere else. But the recommendation engine is distilled corruption and dismay.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#486

Post by spanktheuser »

Nextgrid wrote: post #274
inanutshellus wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Youtube is pretty magical. It has everything, even in the "kid zone". Which also means I can't leave them unsupervised for 30 minutes and come back. If I do, my kids will've gone from educational video about the rain forest to sponsored video to toy videos to slime to fart jokes to music videos of bikini-clad bimbos to steamy romance videos to ... Anyway it's just too much work to curate youtube for a child, IMO. For…

I see so many of these complaints about YT having lots of good family-friendly content but at the same time being terrible at curation even in the kids mode. Seems like the problem can be solved with a crowdsourced list of family-friendly videos (on GitHub?) managed by trusted collaborators and then a simple page that embeds only these videos? Over time I assume it should work given enough people contributing. It's n…

The problem is that the business model of YT kids contact creators contains incentives similar to those of SEO farms operating in the Google keyword ecosystem. Good content is shouldered aside by low effort, low value, high profit messaging.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#488

Post by mgkimsal »

imbnwa wrote: post #435
cosmojg wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love if Netflix picked up Utopia[1], and given current events, now would be a very interesting time to do so. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_(British_TV_series)

Amazon has the rights atm and even tried making an American version that really really sucked and had nowhere near the cinematography and editing chops of the British version

Life on Mars suffered a similar US translation, IIRC.

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#489

Post by bilater »

antifa wrote: post #459
bilater wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Respectfully, this is a lazy take. If you even slightly dig into the numbers the price increase makes complete sense. Netflix spent 17 billion dollars on content last year. They are outspending competitors 2 to 1 if not more. Their catalog is thriving - you have big names like DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, The Rock etc signing on for movies. You have shows like Squid Game attracting ridiculou…

Sure, but Netflix has also canceled some key originals while renewing some shows I feel like most of us on HB would agree are garbage.

Yes. Because most of us on HN are not their target demographic. You have to understand the average Netflix viewer is not a hacker nerd but a middle aged mom who watches Emily in Paris (their most popular show of 2020). :D

Re: Netflix’s Prices Are Rising Faster Than Cable

#490

Post by dec0dedab0de »

kevinmchugh wrote: post #204
dec0dedab0de wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Netflix is worth it for the comedy specials alone. Which was the only reason I ever got HBO back in the day. The original shows I watch are just icing on the cake. I think they would have more mindhsare if they released episodes weekly like Disney+ it's easy to forget how much you like a show when you only watch it one day a year. Now I have HBO for south park and then my family got into some of the DC shows.…

You could sign up and immediately cancel. Your access lasts a month at that point. I think JustWatch has notifications or emails for when new seasons drop. Also it's about the easiest task for a marketing team to email you to resubscribe when a new season of a show you watched comes out

I know atleast one service that will cancel your service the minute you cancel, but yes canceling immediately would be the plan for services that don't have a suspend option like netflix. [1]

As far as keeping up with the channels catalog, I meant I would want to build a discovery/search interface with data from every service so I could seamless signup/resume when I want to watch something.

[1] njpwworld.com which is the streaming service for a japanese pro wrestling company, will cancel your subscription the moment you cancel, no matter how much time you have already paid for. So if you sign up and immediately cancel you would be charged for a month, but never get access to it.

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