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Netflix Canada just got rid of its cheapest ad-free plan without even a heads up

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Re: Netflix Canada just got rid of its cheapest ad-free plan without even a heads up

#51

That’s really funny, I was just an hour ago reading this long New York magazine story on streaming consolidation that Pocket suggested to me which contains this line: “ Netflix claims its Basic With Ads tier brings in more revenue per user than its standard commercial-free plan” “More revenue” links to https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/ads-on-netflix-12... . Overall story paints a picture of the chickens com…

Ads will typically be more profitable for most things entertainment. Entertainment is generally cheap and far more profitable industries can pay more for ads than users are willing to spend.

People here are balking at paying like $10 a month for Netflix if they can't split it but likely take it as a given that you need to spend several hundreds each month for insurance.

Getting one customer on the latest aids medication can net a company 10s of thousands per year.

Drank the water at camp lejune? You may be worth millions of dollars to the right law firm.

Re: Netflix Canada just got rid of its cheapest ad-free plan without even a heads up

#52
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a pretty good approach, but there is one drawback that may be significant for some. You see a movie or show and then want to talk about it with your friends and find that they've all either won't be back on the right streaming service for a new months or they've seen it months ago and aren't that interested in talking about it any more.

That’s just a reality. I tend to not binge shows. Rather I try to slot them into one of my weekly slots. Since I limit my weekly intake, I also start shows late. A typical conversation for even a new show is as along the lines of “Oh yeah, we binged the entire thing!” I’ve learned it’s not worth talking about the show to someone who’s seen it since they’re more often than not bursting wanting to talk about something…

As much as I hated having to wait for a show to come on TV I do miss the mass event that was watching Game of Thrones when it airs. Especially the last season with watch parties and stuff.

Re: Netflix Canada just got rid of its cheapest ad-free plan without even a heads up

#53

> Without Even A Heads Up Since it only affects new users, and existing users on the plan remain, who cares about a "heads up"? Maybe it's newsworthy that they dropped the cheapest plan going forwards, but it's not as though there's some expectation that plan changes for new members are supposed to be announced months in advance or something. When I go to the grocery store and strawberries are now $4.99 instead of $2…

I mean, a ton of people complain about the rising cost of groceries.

But nobody complains that the grocery store didn't warn them in advance.

So why does the article's headline think that price changes are supposed to be pre-announced? Netflix has done plenty of things that legitimately deserve criticism, but not pre-announcing a price change is a silly thing to judge them for.

It's a clickbait headline, trying to stir up outrage where it doesn't even make sense.

Re: Netflix Canada just got rid of its cheapest ad-free plan without even a heads up

#54

Netflix also no longer works when i travel. Went on a short trip to see some relatives in another country and my netflix account is blocked. Contacted support and they said i need to pay for a new account in that country. Netflix is really starting to lose its value for me. But I’m working on setting up a VPN at my house to tunnel all Netflix traffic through and then configure some rpis to send to family members so w…

It's likely you're sharing it across households/relatives. Not sure I'd go to such lengths for something that costs as much as a Chipotle burrito tbh

By traveling you are sharing netflix?

Re: Netflix Canada just got rid of its cheapest ad-free plan without even a heads up

#55

Netflix also no longer works when i travel. Went on a short trip to see some relatives in another country and my netflix account is blocked. Contacted support and they said i need to pay for a new account in that country. Netflix is really starting to lose its value for me. But I’m working on setting up a VPN at my house to tunnel all Netflix traffic through and then configure some rpis to send to family members so w…

Hasn't Netflix always been region locked? Pretty sure people using VPNs just for Netflix is a thing.

The streaming service that is now majority self produced content has to have region lock? To everything?

The story was always "evil Disney licensing is forcing us" but I guess they lived long enough to turn into Disney.

Re: Netflix Canada just got rid of its cheapest ad-free plan without even a heads up

#56

Netflix also no longer works when i travel. Went on a short trip to see some relatives in another country and my netflix account is blocked. Contacted support and they said i need to pay for a new account in that country. Netflix is really starting to lose its value for me. But I’m working on setting up a VPN at my house to tunnel all Netflix traffic through and then configure some rpis to send to family members so w…

Netflix lost its value for me when they just stopped having good content. I kept it around almost out of habit, but the anti-consumer policies were the straw that broke the camels back. Their self produced movies and shows are on average, abysmal. I might put up with their practices if they made good things.

This was it for me as well. I realized I spent more time browsing the catalogue trying in vain to find something good than I did time spent actually watching things. The way it went is I think "I want to watch X", then realize Netflix doesn't have X, then spend 2 hours mindlessly browsing the catalogue for anything that might scratch the X itch and eventually give up then watch half of something else before quitting.

Now I just torrent X and watch it.

Re: Netflix Canada just got rid of its cheapest ad-free plan without even a heads up

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's 2023. My ChatGPT based AI agent will continue calling and deliver persuasive Haiku poems requesting a discount on my package. It will persist until it achieves it's desired goal...

I assume the Netflix AI team will develop an agent that convinces your AI to agree to a more expensive plan. They are known for their technical excellence afterall.

They just laid off their technical excellence would you settle for the overworked, fearful group that remains?

Re: Netflix Canada just got rid of its cheapest ad-free plan without even a heads up

#58
post #27

Tangent: As much as it feels like we just have “bundles” like the bad old cable days, I really enjoy getting to change streaming providers every 2-3 months. My wife and I just Hoover up whatever we’re interested in then move on. And in a year we’ve got that service back and we Hoover up the last year’s added content that looks good. Lots of ways to measure it but when I think about how much I pay and what my experien…

I gave up on that nonsense.I have a raspberry pi that rapidly pulls down new torrents for stuff and processes and/or copies it to my media center for free....which is another raspberry pi. I've no problem paying for content (I am "upper class"), but companies, especially Netflix clearly haven't figured things out. For Netflix, I am mostly referring to the account sharing stuff. I did not share my account with anyone,…

I can also afford streaming services but choose instead to steal it. You don't need to justify it with such weak excuses.

Re: Netflix Canada just got rid of its cheapest ad-free plan without even a heads up

#59

Netflix also no longer works when i travel. Went on a short trip to see some relatives in another country and my netflix account is blocked. Contacted support and they said i need to pay for a new account in that country. Netflix is really starting to lose its value for me. But I’m working on setting up a VPN at my house to tunnel all Netflix traffic through and then configure some rpis to send to family members so w…

Netflix lost its value for me when they just stopped having good content. I kept it around almost out of habit, but the anti-consumer policies were the straw that broke the camels back. Their self produced movies and shows are on average, abysmal. I might put up with their practices if they made good things.

I was a ~10 year account as we kept for our based and cycled through a second options every month or few.

I cancelled on a combination of sharing, as my sister used and that stopped me cancelling earlier, plus general content got more limited for my tastes.

Many people seem similar as me, and this is a world where scale matters.

I actually wonder if it would be good regulation that government seperated streaming from creating/owning catalogues. I'm not sure if correct but I suspect otherwise we will have a small number of players controlling what the world watches which tends to be a bad thing.

Re: Netflix Canada just got rid of its cheapest ad-free plan without even a heads up

#60
post #27

Tangent: As much as it feels like we just have “bundles” like the bad old cable days, I really enjoy getting to change streaming providers every 2-3 months. My wife and I just Hoover up whatever we’re interested in then move on. And in a year we’ve got that service back and we Hoover up the last year’s added content that looks good. Lots of ways to measure it but when I think about how much I pay and what my experien…

I gave up on that nonsense.I have a raspberry pi that rapidly pulls down new torrents for stuff and processes and/or copies it to my media center for free....which is another raspberry pi. I've no problem paying for content (I am "upper class"), but companies, especially Netflix clearly haven't figured things out. For Netflix, I am mostly referring to the account sharing stuff. I did not share my account with anyone,…

The 'upper class' dont have enough eye balls to keep the content industry afloat.
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