Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing • Hacker News Board

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

#831

Post by vivegi » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 3:55 AM UTC

stemlord wrote: post #758

lnenad wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean even if they drop subscribers their usage costs should drop as well so it might balance out in the end profit wise.

Would be cool to see a big tech company embrace something other than the infinite growth fantasy

Actually, if NFLX pivoted their DVD-rental business (which they are planning to sell) to Digital Dowload-to-Own, there are new customers they can bring. Also, since it is a transactional business, there will be a steady income stream with every new release and people who want to own the Blu-ray equivalent digital edition.

They probably are worried about the cannibalization of the subscription base and hence caught in the Innovator's Dilemma.

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

#832

Post by propogandist » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 4:24 AM UTC

genewitch wrote: post #769

watwut wrote: post #658

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, watching episode a week sux. By the end of a season, you don't remember what happened 3 months ago. The series got much better writing over time - but the consequence is that I actually want to see it as a whole instead of little by little with mandatory breaks.

and for you we have the likes of Naruto, which is 30-60% flashbacks to the prior episodes.

this was especially bad when there were ads sprinkled throughout during cable broadcasts

A typical show went like this:

last time on dragonBallZ… 12 minutes of content… next time on dragonBallZ

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

#833

Post by xwolfi » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 4:29 AM UTC

wkat4242 wrote: post #816

bigiain wrote: post #807

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, I think you'll find the artists have a much less rosy view of that. "We'll cut the people creating that art's earnings down to millicent's per stream and even screw them over on that, and we'll share all the profits equitably between the rent seeking middle men" doesn't really count as "works great" for everybody...

Isn't that how the music industry has always worked? The record labels have always screwed artists, except the biggest ones. But anyway, it's better than getting nothing like it used to be :) Spotify and the like have really managed to stop piracy.

It s unfair to say that I think. First, an artist doesnt only work for money, there is an element of fame and love for the craft that is bigger than in other profession. Then, I mean, nobody forced them to sign a label and if there was a way to make the audience pay more they d have found it by now.

With a label "screwing them", they get more famous, practice the craft more often in front of more people, and get more money out of it.

Because let s be honest, what s the thing you can cut the fastest in your budget ? Movies, music and paintings. It s a difficult profession with a difficult billing. Labels help more than they screw, up to the artists to shop around for one that has good marketing for a cheaper fee.

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

#834

Post by throwaway290 » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 4:42 AM UTC

zerocrates wrote: post #734

throwaway290 wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal bar of what counts as AAA I guess? It actually started quite well, but second half of the series drags down the average in terms of story/screenwriting/camera/VFX. It doesn't stand near the likes of Foundation, Game of Thrones, Mrs. Maisel, Mr. Robot, The Wire Doing TV is a marathon, perhaps Dark showrunners are more of sprinter people and should do movies instead.

You'd be hard-pressed to find much that's going to stand with Game of Thrones on production values. Dark, I'd agree, faded in terms of the plotting as it got kind of all twisted up in itself toward the end, but I still liked it quite a bit. And you could say similar things about some of your other picks, like Mr. Robot (or Game of Thrones for that matter). Sustained excellence season after season is really hard to ac…

None of them went off the rails in visual quality, story, etc as dramatically as Dark...

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

#835

Post by DesiLurker » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 5:06 AM UTC

aembleton wrote: post #198

streakfix wrote: post #38

Let me add a couple 100 more to that count. Did you know that netflix doesn't support resolutions higher than 720p on windows/linux? You could subscribe to the 1080p plan (like me) and the players will stream 720p videos to you with no indication whatsoever. The only way of checking the netflix video resolution is `document.querySelectorAll('video')[0].videoWidth`. There are FF extensions but they don't work for ever…

If you can't tell that it isn't 1080p, does it really matter?

thats the thing, you can actually tell but for adaptive streaming its harder to be definitive. Also content resolution becomes secondary when you are neck deep in show & storyline. that does not means its insignificant, just that its effects are subtle. In fact, this is so much more true for HDR vs non HDR.

Source: I've done a lot of HDR processing development for a leading media company.

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

#836

Post by Firmwarrior » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 5:21 AM UTC

_zzaw wrote: post #803

Firmwarrior wrote: post #772

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it's not a matter of angry feelings, it's just a cost-benefit analysis I'm guessing they aren't actually going to put this into action in the USA, but we'll see how it goes I'd personally be fine with paying for 5 different streaming video services, but my wife is too frugal and makes me cancel one when I start another.. presumably a lot of people are in the same boat, and would look at this as a good opportuni…

Just curious, what makes you think they won't do it here? I think they're 100% greedy enough to do it here. And at that point, I'll cancel. I've already kind of accustomed my parents to it by reminding them that it takes them half an hour to find anything that they even want to watch on Netflix.

I just think they'll play around with it in smaller regions to see the effect and run a cost-benefit analysis before they risk angering their primary money maker

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

#837

Post by seunosewa » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 5:27 AM UTC

autoexec wrote: post #631

afavour wrote: post #617

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you want to time gate your episodes with your friends you're still welcome to coordinate that with them. That feels somewhat naive. People don't only belong to one friendship group. > if a streaming platform withholds episodes so that they can better manage social media and stretch out advertising I'll just wait until the whole thing is out before I even start watching. Sounds like it works out for everyone, the…

> That feels somewhat naive. People don't only belong to one friendship group. We did exactly that during pandemic lockdowns. We used a browser extension that let us sync our netflix viewing while we had a live chat running during the show. It meant we could all talk about the last episode during the week and people had something to look forward to. It's perfectly do-able unless you're actually trying to keep your fr…

What's the browser extension you used?

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

#838

Post by amanaplanacanal » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 5:30 AM UTC

nomel wrote: post #763

otherme123 wrote: post #644

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spanish here: we had shared accounts for every platform in our workplace. HBO, Disney, Netflix, Movistar, Filmin... As soon at Netflix started the threats, we talked about keep it and try login through a proxy or getting it out of our pooled accounts. Each of us was only following one Netflix show, two at most, so we got rid of it. Not salty, it just doesn't make sense anymore if you already have four or more platfor…

Wait, so everyone at work was using the same account? You're making this sound like a rational move, from Netflix.

Maybe? They lost a subscriber.

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

#839

Post by tekknik » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 5:33 AM UTC

serial_dev wrote: post #739

gs17 wrote: post #732

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Netflix: “We increase the flat permanently. And we have now competitors and doesn’t over anymore all relevant content (e.g. Star Trek Picard, Expanse, Disney). How about ruining it and blocking family members with heuristics, geoblocking, per-device-checks and so on?“. Don't forget cancelling shows constantly. I'm not getting invested in anything Netflix unless I know it has an ending already.

Yes, so annoying. Some shows just makes you interested, invested in the story, you learn the characters' names... Then the season ends, you look up when the next season comes out... And you see that the show has been canceled... Happened too many times, last one that really frustrated me was GLOW. I wonder if it has a vicious circle, spiral component to it, like how Google keeps killing their products because people…

> A new show launches, it doesn't perform too well, so Netflix cancels it after the second season. Now, the people who enjoyed the show will be more sceptical of new shows, and now a larger percentage of users will "boycott" new shows.

This isn’t new, rarely is a cable tv show signed initially for more than 1-2 seasons and then if it does well it’s renewed. Netflix is literally following industry standard here so if you’re going to call them out call everybody out.

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

#840

Post by taeric » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 5:34 AM UTC

gnicholas wrote: post #817

taeric wrote: post #813

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am sympathetic, but to pretend a household is multiple houses feels forced, to say the least. Would be like claiming you have multiple primary houses. Can make a sense, in very narrow cases. Largely not what anyone thinks that term means. To claim otherwise seems bad faith.

> pretend a household is multiple houses To me this reads as a category error. Households are made up of people, and houses are made of wood. But if you want to pay more to Netflix when you visit a friend's cabin, or your own, I won't get in your way!

And to me this reads as petulant redefining of terms in the hopes of pulling a gotcha.

To be clear, the portability afforded with streaming services is nice. And I'm all for taking advantage of it. But household has always been the combination of a physical house and a social group in it. To claim otherwise is silly.

Can you find other uses of the term that does this? Even "family" is typically constrained to immediate family. Such that nobody expects family benefits at a job to extend to their cousins. Heck, we don't even expect it to extend to siblings or parents.