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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

#481
post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Why did you delete the variety link? It was a thoughtful exploration of the problem. This is undoubtedly a complex issue but I don't know that their approach can be dismissed as "woke".

She literally says it was a political act for her, but the most problematic is this:

> I have asked Egyptians to see themselves as Africans, and they are furious at me for that

if you try to lump all the cultures of africa in a single word 'black' that is synonym 'african-american' then yes it s very woke and insulting to egyptians (who are more culturally arab than sub-saharan). Asking egyptians to see themselves as african-american is profoundly american myopia, but netflix doesn't even see that.

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

#482
Comcast has thousands of movies on demand. But the list of them they show me is always the most popular, so I just see a handful of them. Other services do this, too, like Netflix.

For crying out loud, Comcast showed me The Lost City as the first one for about 6 months.

Clue: If I don't watch the popular shows you show me month after month after month, show me something from deeper in the catalog! Or even just throw up random ones.

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

#483
Netflix really messed this up.

They shouldn't have tried to tackle password sharing. Instead they should have enforced concurrent streams and let people pay for more concurrent streams.

Psychologically it's very different and people paying for the premium plan of 4 streams would probably not be affected.

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

#484

Losing 1M users is not good, but isn't the real question how many accounts they lost? > The move was linked to a fall in users of more than a million, two thirds of whom were using someone else’s password, according to Kantar’s research, which is based on surveys of household streaming habits. This makes it seem like they lost 333k customers. I don't know how many customers they have in Spain, but that sounds like a…

They would have no way of knowing if your wife or you are using your wife's account, so of course it doesn't include that. Why would you need to clarify that? They don't have spyware turning on your camera for facial recognition lol

Because the data comes from surveys, not NFLX. As noted in my original excerpt:

> according to Kantar’s research, which is based on surveys of household streaming habits

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

#485
post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Holland seemed to focus more on developing fewer shows of higher quality content while Bajaria was more focused on "get all the content, throw it all at the wall and see what sticks" (who saw "Squid Games" coming?)." I think the root problem is that no studio anywhere is large enough to put out enough high-quality content to keep the people engaged continuously. Not even Disney. All the studios were looking over at…

Bringing up episodic television shows in the 90s brings up an interesting point. For 90s episodic television, script submissions were open to the public. Each show still had a team of staff writers like they do today, but the staff writers would mostly write the really important episodes (like finales and two-parters). The bulk of the episodes would be freelance scripts, with the staff writers editing for consistency…

> The bulk of the episodes would be freelance scripts, with the staff writers editing for consistency and adding an extra scene or two to hint at continuing plot threads

Can you name a few shows that were written that way? I'd never heard of this but I don't watch much TV from before the 2000's.

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

#486
post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netflix it’s power is innovation. Think Bandersnatch. I assume they’re going to be (one of) the first with an AI-assisted or even completely generated show that is completely tuned to your taste. I expect the same to happen with games, with the wildcard of multiplayer. Music probably earlier than movies / series and games even.

>Netflix it's power is innovation. Think Bandersnatch. A one-off thing from 5 years ago that hasn't been replicated since and nobody really cares about now?

I mean, that is exactly my point.

I’m not saying HBO or Apple TV+ (what a name..) couldn’t do it, just that they seem much less poised to.

Funny how saying Bandersnatch was innovative gets HN absolutely livid.

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

#487

> The move was linked to a fall in users of more than a million, two thirds of whom were using someone else’s password > Subscription cancellations in the first quarter tripled compared to the previous period, according to Kantar’s research. Of all remaining Netflix subscribers in Spain, one-tenth said they planned to unsubscribe in the second quarter. So they lost 300,000 paying users whom they think will come back,…

I think Netflix sees 3 people sharing 1 account and thinks that 2 of the 3 would maybe pay for accounts if they block sharing.

But in reality they end up losing the 1 account instead because none of the 3 people are willing to pay full price individually. They were all willing to pay 1/3 of the price when sharing.

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

#488
post #458

What I truly don’t understand is why everyone decided they needed their own streaming platforms. What’s the strategy there? Why does Disney need to invest resources into Disney+ when they can just sell the rights to their content to one or two Streaming platforms and make more money? Did they think it would be cheaper to build their own platforms? Same for all the others. Who cares if Netflix owns the streaming user-…

> Why does Disney need to invest resources into Disney+ when they can just sell the rights to their content to one or two Streaming platforms and make more money?

I think they assume they can make more money doing it themselves. They can probably generate more revenue, but the question is whether they end up ahead after accounting for the cost of creating and maintaining the platform.

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

#489
post #65

It's funny. Right now I have access to around 5 streaming services while I only pay for 2. My girlfriend's friend has access to Netflix, my sis HBO. I provide access to Disney+ and Prime to my family. I used to get YT premium from my sis's boyfriend, but they detected I'm not in the family household and they kicked me out. If it wasn't because other people use my accounts (and I use theirs), I wouldn't be paying for…

It's interesting to see that free market competition actually worsened the customer offering when it comes to streaming services. Back in the days, Netflix was a one-to-see-all service and that was also one of the reasons why it took people from torrenting to paying for movies. Nowadays, if you want to watch a particular movie, you have maybe a 10% chance that it is available on the streaming service that you are cur…

Competition has forced all these streamers to up their game and produce more good shows to stay popular. Netflix has never been a one-to-see-all service. When Netflix was the only major streamer, other networks and studios were also producing great content. It's not like they came out of nowhere. You still had to find other ways to watch the very best shows and movies across all of TV, which at the time means you would've had to have a cable subscription with premium channels like HBO and Showtime. And if you just decided on a random movie, there is a way better chance it is on Netflix now than there would've been ten years ago.

Nowadays, there are more shows, including more prestige shows, more movies, more comedies, more kids shows, as well as a lot of stuff that never would have been made twenty years ago. And it's all cheaper now than having cable ever was, even when you add them all up. And that's making a big assumption that you actually want/need to see "all". Which you don't. Any one of them would be totally sufficient to fill your time with quality programming. Netflix today is filled with way more content of all types than Netflix ten years ago.

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

#490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of wisdom in that rant. I too have noticed the big gap is writers (who are going on strike it seems). I think we're all going to have to suffer through "stuff written by LLMs" for a while, but I really think that a studio that restructured their revenue sharing to focus more of the proceeds towards writers would find quite a bit of success in today's market.

> I too have noticed the big gap is writers I started watching "The Night Agent" but the dialogue became too painful for me to carry on after about four or five episodes. That coupled with a script where two secret service agents bitch at each other like children eventually nailed the coffin.

Exactly! I had the same reaction. First episode, "Okay, an interesting (if well worn) setup, a lead character that is somewhat interesting, some dynamics." to second episode "Well that really didn't feel particularly entertaining", to the third episode, "not getting better, time to get off this train."
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