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Netflix Is Betting Its Future on Exclusive Programming

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Re: Netflix Is Betting Its Future on Exclusive Programming

#91
post #76

I guess there is another, very big reason: The Non-US markets. The US is surely important, but Netflix has launched in Europe and faces a huge obstacle that very few US Americans know about - rights licensing is far worse. Selling content overseas is a huge business, which means a giant time delay until something makes it to, say, Germany (even if not dubbed). Which worked in the past, but the Internet is forcing rea…

please stop saying global when you mean developed world. global means available everywhere, netflix is in 50 countries. in south africa for example a lot of movies are plain impossible to get legally in any format. maybe internationally is a better word?

their strategy is to global for sure.

right now, they're international.

happy?

Re: Netflix Is Betting Its Future on Exclusive Programming

#92
post #10

When Netflix first started, they were able to buy the streaming rights to old movies and TV shows for cheap, because executives thought they weren't worth anything. Now those contracts are expiring, and the studios want to jack up the rates or start their own service. Netflix is also getting squeezed by ISPs like Comcast, who want to charge them for the right to deliver video to Comcast's customers who already paid f…

Alternatively, you stop watching movies and do something else?

Re: Netflix Is Betting Its Future on Exclusive Programming

#93
post #11
post #10

When Netflix first started, they were able to buy the streaming rights to old movies and TV shows for cheap, because executives thought they weren't worth anything. Now those contracts are expiring, and the studios want to jack up the rates or start their own service. Netflix is also getting squeezed by ISPs like Comcast, who want to charge them for the right to deliver video to Comcast's customers who already paid f…

You mean when Netflix streaming started - they've been around for a long time doing DVDs :).

I don't understand why people forget they have the DVD business. That's why I subscribed, and I've always been a subscriber. Everything comes out on DVD eventually, so you can watch almost anything through Netflix if you're willing to wait. And there's plenty of media there to fill the time.

Re: Netflix Is Betting Its Future on Exclusive Programming

#94

I guess there is another, very big reason: The Non-US markets. The US is surely important, but Netflix has launched in Europe and faces a huge obstacle that very few US Americans know about - rights licensing is far worse. Selling content overseas is a huge business, which means a giant time delay until something makes it to, say, Germany (even if not dubbed). Which worked in the past, but the Internet is forcing rea…

Netflix is making the same mistakes. They sold the rights of "House of Cards" to Sky Television preventing anyone from watching season 3 in most of Europe.

Does House of Cards licensing have anything to do with the fact that it was originally a UK show?

Re: Netflix Is Betting Its Future on Exclusive Programming

#95
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've only watched a handful of their shows, but I'm yet to watch a Netflix show that isn't great. House of Cards is fantastic, Daredevil as you say is amazing, Bojack Horseman is hilarious, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a breath of fresh air.

season 3 of house of cards is trash imo. The rest was brilliant, and it hurts. I went from watching characters with an actual goal struggling and overcoming obstacles to meet that goal to watching a soap opera.

It was definitely the weakest season, but I think it mostly showed because season 1 and 2 were so good. I've still got high hopes for next season given how season 3 ended.

Re: Netflix Is Betting Its Future on Exclusive Programming

#96
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HBO is global (to some degree). I live in Sweden and (if I didn't have to go to work) I can enjoy the latest episode of Game of Thrones only hours after it's aired in the US. Although we don't have HBO Go here -- we have a similar service called HBO Nordic. I'm almost certain that it's a HBO owned company, available only in nothern Europe though.

Here in Italy Game of Thrones is distributed by Sky, and for this season they went as far as airing it in English at the same time (ie in the middle of the night) as it was aired in the US. Later the same day, at prime time, they aired it in Italian.

By the way, they are also online: you can find them both on skygo[0,1] and on skyonline[2] websites (why sky italy has two websites is a story for another day...)

[0] http://skygo.sky.it/ondemand/categorie/serie-tv/serie-in-ond... (in italian)

[1] http://skygo.sky.it/ondemand/categorie/serie-tv/serie-in-ond... (in english)

[2] http://www.skyonline.it/intrattenimento/serie-in-onda/il-tro... (both italian and english versions)

Re: Netflix Is Betting Its Future on Exclusive Programming

#97
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean when Netflix streaming started - they've been around for a long time doing DVDs :).

I don't understand why people forget they have the DVD business. That's why I subscribed, and I've always been a subscriber. Everything comes out on DVD eventually, so you can watch almost anything through Netflix if you're willing to wait. And there's plenty of media there to fill the time.

Its still a good service and their ability to turn around disks so quickly was a huge advantage to them for years. They wisely realized, however, that the DVD business would die slowly and got very competitive about streaming. I'm sure you can enjoy the dvd mailing for at least a few more years before they begin closing those large warehouses down one by one.

Re: Netflix Is Betting Its Future on Exclusive Programming

#98
post #68

I guess there is another, very big reason: The Non-US markets. The US is surely important, but Netflix has launched in Europe and faces a huge obstacle that very few US Americans know about - rights licensing is far worse. Selling content overseas is a huge business, which means a giant time delay until something makes it to, say, Germany (even if not dubbed). Which worked in the past, but the Internet is forcing rea…

HBO is global (to some degree). I live in Sweden and (if I didn't have to go to work) I can enjoy the latest episode of Game of Thrones only hours after it's aired in the US. Although we don't have HBO Go here -- we have a similar service called HBO Nordic. I'm almost certain that it's a HBO owned company, available only in nothern Europe though.

It does HBO Nordic injustice to say it is similar to HBO Go. HBO Go requires a subscription to the linear HBO TV channel. HBO Nordic is free of user-hostile tying to cable TV. And unlike HBO Now, HBO Nordic isn't Apple TV exclusive.

In other words the Nordic offering is better than either of the over-IP HBO offerings in the U.S. Says a lot of how dysfuntional the HBO situation in the U.S. is when they don't offer their best service domestically.

Re: Netflix Is Betting Its Future on Exclusive Programming

#99
post #10

When Netflix first started, they were able to buy the streaming rights to old movies and TV shows for cheap, because executives thought they weren't worth anything. Now those contracts are expiring, and the studios want to jack up the rates or start their own service. Netflix is also getting squeezed by ISPs like Comcast, who want to charge them for the right to deliver video to Comcast's customers who already paid f…

It's the inevitable market dynamic for a company like Netflix. They're a middle-man--the sell Sony's content, hosted on Amazon's servers, over Comcast's wires. Their business model lives and dies by what value they can add to that chain.

Don't get me wrong, I like Netflix. I don't have cable TV (and now that HBO Now exists, I don't plan to). But I've got Netflix alongside Hulu and Amazon Prime, and I see them as pretty fungible. Getting a good browsing/steaming UI together isn't rocket science, and all three are fine. The original content is the only thing that makes Netflix a "must have" for me.

Re: Netflix Is Betting Its Future on Exclusive Programming

#100
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've only watched a handful of their shows, but I'm yet to watch a Netflix show that isn't great. House of Cards is fantastic, Daredevil as you say is amazing, Bojack Horseman is hilarious, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a breath of fresh air.

season 3 of house of cards is trash imo. The rest was brilliant, and it hurts. I went from watching characters with an actual goal struggling and overcoming obstacles to meet that goal to watching a soap opera.

I don't want to spoil anything so I'll be vague. The problem is that the main character went from being a conniving underdog to the top of the stack way too quickly. Now the stakes are much lower because he already got what he wanted, and it's much less interesting to watch.

If you look at the British series, it's much shorter, and for good reason.

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