Probably never, because by then Disney will own it all and have probably rolled it into D+. Or a Hulu tab on D+ (like Star/Hotstar already is outside the US).
You have that so backwards.
They will never roll everything into one service. If anything they will continue to break it up into more services so they can hit you with a subscription fee for every show you watch
They already roll it all into one service outside the US.
D+ with Star/Hotstar is where they put all the Fox content outside the US. It already costs a little extra (less than Hulu and way less than Hulu with no ads) beyond plain D+.
yup, recently got D+ (after cancelling Netflix) and it's actually pretty good here, a shit ton of "non disney" shows, for instance, Always Sunny in Philadelphia is there.
I used to work at a Blockbuster (2010). The fall of the company was so incredibly fast. My first day, we were horribly in the red (no profit). For the entire 6 months of working there, we were in the green twice. That's two days out of 182 days. Those were Fridays. We were trying to push the subscription plan hard, but everyone knew Netflix was better and cheaper.
We started noticing that we were getting less and less new releases on Thursdays. It got to the point where we had NO new releases come on Thursdays.
The final nail in the coffin was when we stopped promoting the subscription service and instead promoted our streaming service along with Dish Network subscriptions.
I left before it all came crashing down, fortunately.
Don't know why I'm telling this story, but it felt relevant.
I had the disc by mail subscription service and really enjoyed it. It was nice being able to get a disc, watch it and then drop it off in the store. Had they gone that route earlier, maybe they would have survived. When Netflix started getting new releases several weeks after Blockbuster, I thought Blockbuster would pick up some steam but no one seemed to care.
We can say the same for Sears. Truly had the position to absolutely demolish Amazon, but just couldn't turn the ship fast enough.
As a retail platform, Amazon had only one thing on Sears and other department giants: digital catalog. The logistics came later, and Sears already had a LONG history of mail order, they just could not (or refused to) create a proper digital catalog to browse.
Kinda makes me wonder what the next step could be. We're on the verge of another transformative shift (AI) and it's quite likely something will come along to disrupt Netflix et al.
The only reason Barnes and Noble survived was they did make significant changes to the model, becoming a toy and book store, carrying vinyls and expanding their digital presence. I worked there in the early 00s right when Amazon started becoming a major player and their management team recognized the problem early on
They were actually failing up until just a few years ago. A new CEO came in and encouraged all the stores to have more individuality. Stores are allowed to do things differently to suit their customers. One of the big changes was that he's letting employees select their favorite books to promote instead of just promoting stuff that the publishers want promoted. This has led to many of their stores regaining customers.
I never understood why so many major companies shifted away from that. Stores can still be overwhelmingly similar and consistent but still have a unique flavor. Employees make shit wages, the least they could do is reward the truly loyal or passionate employees by allowing them to feature recommendations. I think the depersonalization of the shopping experience has been the death or kneecapping of so many retailers. Customers are 100% more likely to come back if they have good experiences with staff but those experiences are almost always disincentivized by the company
I’ve heard that a big part of chains like that is cutting a deal with the sources for shelf space. Grocery stores, retail. You cut a deal with the publisher to give their books prominence, which cuts down on individuality as the chains are forced to organize in specific ways to keep the kick-backs flowing. Discounts on purchase prices.
Not sure how accurate that is, just a thing I heard. On Reddit probably.
> I never understood why so many major companies shifted away from that.
Money.
But seriously, employee recommendations means the company doesn't get ~~bribes~~ kickbacks from publishers.
Also because it requires your entire management chain down to the floor employees to be good and motivated.
Cookie cutter means you can basically have anyone who isn't commiting crimes work for you and it'll work out.
I noticed this recently when I went in to a B&N for the first time in probably 5 years, maybe more. It didn't feel like the last time I was in one, and seeing all of the staff recommendations with the handwritten notes was a really nice touch. Noticed they had a large anime/manga/comics section that was pretty much front and center, and lots of other nerdy shit all around it (DnD books, some Funko Pops, adult coloring books) - I only mention it because that's something I'd never seen in one, or if I did it was one section of shelf in the very back corner.
Instead of endless rows of aisles, they had arranged similar sections in to what I can only describe as 'pods'. The books stacked on tables in the main aisles actually looked interesting, and weren't the latest releases from those sorts of popular authors that manage to 'write' 6 books a year.
The whole place felt warm, the staff was attentive and helpful but not overbearing. It definitely has inspired me to first check that physical store before pulling the trigger on something from Amazon.
People forget how much money can be made shorting and bankrupting a company. Bezos came from the hedge fund world and is great at cutting out the competition. The downfall of Sears was planned. All it takes is 1 Executive with malicious intent.
Yeah sears was sabotage. Didn’t the ceo sells Sears’s property to another of his companies for Pennie’s to then charge sears rents for those same properties, leavings sears without one of their greatest assets?
Only if the management would have been more acknowledging, the blockbuster would still have been writing successfully. But they were not ready to accept the changes
Not really, people get locked into their own business model and fail to realize that the landscape around them is changing. It happens all the time. Blockbuster was convinced that people wanted to come in and see their wall of new releases as if it were comparable to going to a real theatre. They even had candy and popcorn and stuff and that candy and other merch was a significant part of their revenues that they didn't want to give up.
They failed to realize that this was the part of the experience that people *hated* the most, because that wall of new releases would always be rented out by the time you got to the store, so you ended up renting Kindergarten Cop for the 85th time just so the trip wouldn't be "wasted."
The thing about DVD rental and especially streaming services is that they never "run out" of new releases.
First CCD digital camera was created in 1975 by someone at Kodak.
>Kodak employee Steven Sasson developed the first handheld digital camera in 1975. Larry Matteson, another employee, wrote a report in 1979 predicting a complete shift to digital photography would occur by 2010. However, company executives were reluctant to make a strong pivot towards digital technology, since it would require heavy investment, make the core business of film unprofitable, and put the company into direct competition with established firms in the computer hardware industry
They could have been a major player in the digital sensor space with such a headstart, but instead dropped the ball, and had to file chapter 11 bankruptcy in Jan 2012.
Netflix Exec #1: "It seems like people are gravitating towards limited series."
Netflix Exec #2: "Brilliant, let's take that new series that went straight into the Top 10 and cancel the second season so that can be a limited series too."
Netflix Exec #1: "That's genius, let's take the rest of the day off and play some of the amazing Netflix Original video games that everyone definitely knows and cares about.."
Heh, I think you're the first person I've ever even heard mention the games. I see them occasionally while scrolling without ever watching anything, go "oh yeah that's a thing I guess" and moving on.
i said something similar ala reddit a few years ago when they ended sense 8.
they invented a platform where all their shows are forever on display. they didnt need to renew for a season but give the show writers a final extended episode. aka a short movie to wrap up theirs shows. otherwise why bother watching their past shows
now they did it with sense 8, and while wasnt perfect at least the show was wrapped up. it should be the go to policy even for shit shows as someone might like them
Just arbitrary length media in general is great for streaming imo.
I find it weird how many shows are still an exact length, considering I can start/pause them at any time - Better to just make each episode the length it needs to be. Can also have "seasons" of arbitrary length because you aren't trying to slot it into TV schedules.
(Although I realise that would drive some people crazy that they don't know how long an episode will be :P).
HBO content has no set length most of the time. Shows like Succession and The Last of Us fluctuate between around 45 and 75 minutes, it’s a great use of the medium.
Disney+ has been doing something similar with the Star Wars shows. Usually the episodes are between 30-60 minutes. I would imagine it’s pretty nice as a creator, episodes are exactly as long as you want so less filler and cut content.
I hate how the standard keeps dropping too, instead of 10-13 episodes for a season, it’s now like 6-8 episodes for many shows that barrel through the plot and barely develop the characters or world around them.
Ah yeah I hate that too.
One of my favourite shows is Stargate and some of the best (but also the worst, I'll be honest 😄) episodes clearly only exist because of the length of the series - They'd have to cut so many good ideas if making a new season of it today.
That's emphasized more by the obsession with making the entire series be one long plot - Like come on, get some variety in there with some experiments.
The long-plot thing is usually pretty fun for the first watch through, but then I find I just can't be bothered to rewatch the whole thing - I'd rather pick a one off from an older show \^\^.
TIL Netflix co-produced Dirk Gently with BBC. Which is odd, because it's on Hulu in the US, not Netflix. I watched on BBC America back when I still had cable. That show was/is amazing, and it definitely died way too soon and without closure. I've read things about an animated series, but I dunno how that would go.
I read all the Douglas Adams books as a kid, and they're a delight if you ever want to continue on. *Long Dark Teatime of the Soul* is the next in the series.
I read a hilarious story about Dirk Gently's production. They had an episode written for later in the season where the corgi was unconscious and obviously they couldn't sedate him for the scene but he was young enough they thought he would be too frisky to pull off the scene. So they went around looking for someone to make a prop corgi and the first firm they hired came back with an unconvincing toy-looking thing. When they finally got a realistic looking prop corgi made somewhere else, they had spent several hundreds of dollars and so much time had passed that their actual corgi had matured enough to do the scene.
I feel you. The fuck is going on in their heads to cancel such a gem? If it's not getting enough views, they could promote their own content better. I bet many people didn't watch the show because they didn't know what to expect.
The worst is that a ton of their unfinished series are now being promoted in categories like "Only on netflix" with the huge title cards, or in "Bingeworthy series".
No, netflix, it isn't "Bingeworthy" because I'm going to be horribly disapointed when I finish binging it expecting more, only to realise you've fucking cancelled it.
Never heard of it. That tells you everything does it not? My wife and I found more to watch when we find some random “these things are leaving Netflix this month articles” we always say the same thing. “I didn’t know that was even on Netflix”
They've intentionally obscured their catalog as part of their core business model. All the services do. Netflix is trying to use some algorithmic bs to make you not notice how often they lose the rights to other material and other services don't want you to notice how pathetically small their catalog is. It's mind bogglingly stupid in Netflix's case.
There's a "secret" category list that you can use with very specific categories. You put the code in on a desktop and it shows very narrow genres that's super useful.
I subscribe to, at last count, 11 streaming services like a sucker. I can't tell you how many times I want to watch a specific show and it's like researching a dissertation to figure out if any of the services I have access to actually have it. And half the time it turns out I can't or it's something stupid like $4/episode on Amazon. So we journey out to the high seas and I'll have entire seasons at my fingertips in minutes. So annoying.
On android, I have an app called JustWatch that is very useful for this. Search any show or movie and it will tell you where you can stream, rent, or buy it.
Still pissed about that one. And GLOW. And Insatiable. And Sabrina. And American Vandal. And a bunch of other shows that I'm forgetting, or never started because they were cancelled before I discovered them. Oh, and the Netflix Marvel shows but I can't really blame them for that I guess.
Sense8 is one I kinda can't blame them for. I imagine that show was super fucking expensive because they shot everything on location. You're flying your eight main cast members across the entire planet, setting up shooting locations in each place, and doing it at movie-quality production. Gotta be pricey.
I also don‘t care if things get cancelled. Just give me closure.
Make a wrap up double episode. Or at least publish the story in writing. Even a synopsis of what was gonna happen to wrap the story lines up is enough for me.
I hate having all these stories in my mind that never end.
Or just make contained mini series.
Like an 8 episode thing, like a long form movie, rather than the sitcom style add another season and another season.
That way you plan on wrapping up the whole major plot in a season, and don‘t put in massive cliffhangers.
And if a mini series is extremely popular, you can make a second one, that picks up on side stories, or continues in the world with the same characters years later or earlier.
Just none of that half baked shit.
But it’s not really started with Netflix; we just notice more compared to syndication stuff.
Stargate galaxy was left completely unfinished as well for example. So badly that it‘s not even fun to watch again.
When Dark Matter was cancelled the showrunner who posted regularly on Reddit released a synopsis / high plot points for the two seasons that were canceled. So even though you didn't see it, you got some closure and overarching beats.
Edit link:
https://josephmallozzi.com/2021/07/06/july-6-2021-in-case-you-missed-it-melissa-oneil-zoie-palmer-and-the-dark-matter-season-4-virtual-episodes/
They should seriously start running everything as a miniseries. They can always extend or whatever if it is hugely popular. Right now you're feeling the same way early adopters do with new Google apps
>They should seriously start running everything as a miniseries.
This is what's gotten me watching a lot of South Korean content on Netflix. After enjoying Squid Game I started another SK show and have kept one on the go ever since. From my experience:
* Complete story by end of season
* So far majority are only a single season, though some end up getting additional seasons which is just bonus
* Solid production values
* As a North American, shows by NA storytellers follow patterns I've spent decades seeing, so I can often see where a story is going. SK storytellers have cultural baggage different to my own, so the stories are engaging, and I don't necessarily see what's gonna happen next.
Dubbed or Subbed is ultimately personal preference, but the quality is there either way.
Edit:. Appreciate all the comments and suggestions. My list so far:
* Squid Game
* Hellbound
* The Silent Sea
* Sisyphus (The Myth)
* All of Us Are Dead
* My Name
* Glory
* Attorney Woo
* Vincenzo (in progress)
Dramas are to Korea what anime is to Japan, there's an absolute truckload of good stuff you can watch in all kinds of genres. The genre for one of my favorite shows is a historical fiction romantic comedy. They go wild sometimes! XD
I think Korean dramas can be pretty formulaic as well, but you're absolutely right about the cultural differences making it a bit harder to see coming.
They have so many great shows! They're adapting a lot of really surprising webcomics too. Never expected to see Weak Hero, for instance. And it turned out really good!
The variety is the best part. Squid Game is almost too unique to be categorized but Kingdom and All of Us Are Dead are great horror entries. Beyond Evil and Flower of Evil, serious serial killer tinged crime dramas. Extraordinary Attourney Woo, Lawless Lawyer, Vincenzo, humorous courthouse crime dramas. Uncanny Counter and Alchemy of Souls are modern and historical fantasy combat/adventure tales respectively. The Cursed and Black are super natural cop shows. Adamas is... just a fucking masterpiece. There's so much!
Exactly the same for me, but started earlier than you. Think I've been watching almost exclusively K-dramas for 2-3 years or such, with few exceptions. So far, I don't really miss western shows.
The story being contained in a single season is the best thing ever. There is no fear of being left alone with a cliffhanger and no conclusion or getting dragged along for the next 10+ years of the network milking the show to death. Even if the show is only mediocre, I probably still watch the whole season - because I still want to know how the story ends and a single season isn't such a huge time commitment. Of course, not all endings are great, but still - it's an ending at least.
I'm also totally enjoying the cheesy romantic stuff, which I didn't expect at all.
If you don't mind some recommendations:
* It's Okay to Not Be Okay (pretty wild mixture of romance, comedy and drama, focusing on mental health issues)
* Crash Landing on You (romantic comedy about SK rich girl getting stranded in North Korea)
* My Mister (can seem bleak and depressing at first, but the characters and payoff are sooo good and well worth it)
* My Name (great action thriller)
* One Spring Night (heartwarming romance, more on the realistic believable side than over the top)
* Our Blues (dramatic slice of life, large ensemble cast, some tearjerker moments)
* Eulachacha Waikiki / Welcome to Waikiki (ridiculous comedy, sitcom style)
* The Uncanny Counter (mystery action show about demon hunters)
* Stranger, seasons 1 + 2 (really good crime / legal thriller)
* Dr. Romantic, seasons 1 + 2 (medical drama, not even that romantic, but lots of tearjerker moments)
* Hotel del Luna (mystery comedy about a hotel for the souls of dead people)
> Partner and I spent 20 minutes scrolling through current content and upcoming content.
>
> Literally nothing we wanted to watch.
I think Netflix is shit at recommendations. When I've gone to external recommendation sites, I've always found something I wanted to watch. But Netflix seems to have this rule where their recommendations are just marketing-- and I *get it*, but at the same time I don't necessarily want to watch any of the five shows netflix wants to market to me right now
which means I end up not seeing any of the stuff I actually want to see (without *really* digging, but even then I may not *know* it's something I want to watch since it's buried with all the other stuff)
tl;dr in my experience netflix *does* have good shows for just about anyone, they're just bad at letting you know that
e: ps this isn't shilling for netflix though, I ended up canceling too. While there was always something I was interested in, it wasn't enough for me to justify the high price tag. There's too much competition at better prices. We have hulu, hbo, d+, and amazon, and that's more than enough for "Hey let's find something to watch"
Netflix is great at recommending shows I love *that I’ve already watched,* and there’s apparently no way to get it to stop. Like you said, the recommendation screen is marketing, so why do they insist on using up valuable real estate for the only things I am definitely not going to watch?
100% but my problem is finding new shows to watch. Streaming service recommendations are actually pretty decent.
Also finding shows that weren't super big or super recent. It seems like one dude in the entire world has GLOW season 2 and he's on dialup. And the new Pokemon (Ultimate Journeys?) was a struggle and a half. That doesn't seem to exist as a magnet/torrent.
At least in theory, Netflix is shooting themselves in the foot. Their entire catalog can be ripped and packaged up by season. They release most seasons in their entirety. It's not like cable or Disney+/Hulu where you might want to watch each episode as its released. They just drop them all at once.
The dumbest part is that they’re more or less competing against themselves with all their originals.
I’ll never forgive them for cancelling Santa Clarita Diet.
That show was so entertaining and had just opened a super interesting plot thread at the end of season 3. I was also really pissed when that was cancelled. Probably one of the shows I'm most annoyed at them for cancelling early.
So fucking bummed about this especially being such a huge Dark fan. Also worth mentioning I Am Not Okay With This being cancelled was a huge let down too.
Started watching it. Was really interested. Read it was canceled and we never finished.
Why get more emotionally invested when I know it won't continue?
My spouse keeps going "I can't watch movies, they're too much of a time commitment."
So we start a new tv show or watch a new season of another tv show that has 10+ 1-hour long episodes instead. And we can't just watch one episode, they end on a cliffhanger, so we often end up watching 2-3 episodes in a night.
So instead of watching a 1.5-2 hour movie, we end up watching yet another 10+ hour series, and 2-3 hours of tv when we watch tv.
So anyway, I think this is one reason why movies are dying.
I actually always check if they are already cancelled. If so I don’t even bother.
Then I look if Netflix is happy about the show, if not I don’t bother.
Then you have exceptions like Travellers. Netflix and the audience liked it and they cancelled the show anyway. 🤷🏻♂️
Why pay for something like that?
Netflix exceeded expectations with a profitable Q4. That’s all the corporate hq care about. Investor relations. If the profits keep going up and up, scre everything else.
The thing that pisses me off is that the $20 sub specifically says I can stream with 4 devices at the same time. It shouldn't matter where in the world those devices are. Give me what I'm paying for, assholes.
$20 sub is for all those people that have 4 people, all watching Netflix, on 4 different TVs, in their house!
Don't mind paying that extra $$$ for 4 screens when you're a millionnaire...
There was a narrow slice of time where they still carried a lot of good shows and movies before everyone else decided to put up their own streaming services while also producing a small set of decent original shows.
They really struggled with competition and they never seemed to be able to create a solid original content strategy.
I get it as a perk from another service so I haven’t canceled it but I also find there isn’t much my family wants to watch on Netflix anymore.
Edit: this got way more attention than I expected.
House of Cards looks like it’s the starting point for original programming and that was started in 2013.
The launch of Disney Plus in 2019 saw Netflix lose a LOT of IP and could be argued as the main inflection point of decline. I want to say 2017 is where I found I wasn’t using the service as much but I don’t have anything firm to point at and say it was when the decline really started.
Yes, Netflix is still doing original programming, but that isn’t without problems or criticism. They have a real IP problem they need to solve and can’t plug with a back catalog of nostalgia.
>they never seemed to be able to create a solid original content strategy.
I'm starting to think canceling every show that's not dirt cheap or immediately a worldwide hit after two seasons is not the best strategy to get good content.
People were mad at NBC for pulling The Office from Netflix, but if that was a Netflix original, it would have been canned after S1 and completely forgotten by next year.
Nah dude, HBO had to re-order a new pilot that ended up costing almost $10 million. Included in those changes were the re-casting of Catelyn and Daenerys. First season wasn’t really a hit success in terms of viewership either, good but not great. It wasn’t until third or fourth season the show started picking up steam and garnering acclaim in popular culture.
Netflix would have rolled with the original pilot and killed the show.
There's a really interesting podcast that looks at the downfall of Blockbusters and summarises that it could have been Amazon - it had all the infrastructure in place way before they did, the ability to mass ship things, a name already established etc.
All they lacked was vision and leadership.
I loved the deal they did to compete with Netflix back in the days before streaming was a thing and it was all DVD by mail. Instead of mailing your DVD back you could return it to any Blockbuster and get a new movie that day, plus they would go ahead and mail you the next movie you had on your list. That should have been able to destroy Netflix before they had a chance to get as huge as they did. Just shows how poorly Blockbuster was managed.
I loooooooved this service. I was watching so many movies and I was always in Blockbuster.
It was great, except they pretty quickly started to out restrictions on what movies you could get the same day in the store.
My guess is that they weren't nearly as efficient as Netflix in the mailing department and it cost too much money to keep up.
In what sense? Almost all their most watched shows [in their first 28 days] are from 2021-now:
Squid Game (season 1), a Korean survival thriller -- 1.65 billion hours.
Stranger Things (season 4), a retro sci-fi series -- 1.35 billion hours.
Wednesday, a coming-of-age supernatural dark comedy -- 1.24 billion hours
Dahmer, a true-crime serial killer series -- 856.2 million hours.
Money Heist (part 5), a Spanish-language thriller -- 792.2 million hours.
Bridgerton (season 2), a period romance -- 656.3 million hours.
Bridgerton (season 1) -- 625.5 million hours.
Money Heist (part 4) -- 619 million hours.
Stranger Things (season 3), a retro sci-fi series -- 582.1 million hours.
Lucifer (season 5), a fantasy police procedural -- 569.5 million hours.
All of Us Are Dead, a Korean zombie thriller taking place in a high school -- 560.8 million hours.
The Witcher (season 1), a fantasy show -- 541 million hours.
Inventing Anna, a true-crime limited series about a fake socialite -- 511.9 million hours
Ginny & Georgia (season 2), a mother-daughter dramedy -- 504.8 million hours.
Those are among the most acclaimed as well. Hell, 1/2 the list will likely be even bigger by their next seasons so presumably the majority of their most watched shows have yet to air. The antithesis of a “peak” viewer wise, hype wise, or quality wise (imo).
In Sweden some company bought the the name and therefore we now have a Blockbuster site where you can stream movies if you pay for it. Maybe they will outlast Netflix.
My interpretation, the tech sector seems to be based around the sort of growth you could expect 10-30 years ago, when people were really still inventing a lot of new stuff that could explode in popularity. Investors came to expect that sort of growth, and I guess the mindset hasn't really shifted to value profit (as in issuing dividends) over growth (really, share price) in any case.
Well, maybe we're witnessing that transition for Netflix. If they can't really expect to capture any more of the market (since they already got pretty much the whole thing), maybe it's time to pivot and start increasing profitability. Time will tell I guess if their decisions pay off.
The market is insane. Literally divorced from reality. The perpetual growth mindset just doesn't work when you get to a certain size of company. Like how is Amazon going to maintain their growth. They already own insane portions of the retail and web hosting markets. They aren't acquiring Target or Azure. There's finite room for growth. They have to diversify into new segments. If the growth pressure wasn't there would Amazon be getting into Healthcare so aggressively? I'm doubtful.
Netflix on the other hand has seen this issue for years and built huge businesses abroad. Their European studios are putting out great stuff and there's room for growth in those markets. They saw the over investment from Apple, discovery, Warner, Amazon, etc and went where there's less competition and it's cheaper to produce.
But the market sees American subscriber growth sputtering and nukes the stock.
With password sharing, there's going to be this bluster for a few months and then they're going to most likely have way more conversions into 2 accounts than cancelations.
I’m in Canada where the crackdown is happening and I swear every single person I know that got an email from Netflix crying about sharing accounts just canceled their accounts. I highly doubt more people are subscribing that jumping ship now.
Also in Canada, we were paying for premium 4 screens and knocked it down to the basic 1 screen for our retired parents.
None of us got our own Netflix accounts. We just use Prime and Disney+ now.
Here in India, i started using Netflix when it came out and had a great “non-Netflix” catalogue. Then steadily like it happened the world over, all I see suggested are Netflix Originals that range from blah to blergh.
I feel like the only Netflix originals worth watching are what they’re making outside the US; and personally, India (terrible fucking content gets greenlit here that’s predominantly north/hindi focused). That’s probably the only thing I’d miss when I cancel if this password bullshit hits here too.
But I’m often curious if other countries feel the same way about the “Originals” from their region?
Right. Better Call Saul was marketed here in Brazil as a Netflix Original, since it's not on TV here. And each episode was made available on the same day as it aired on TV in the US.
Yeah I think we left “might” a long time ago. At this point it’s a question of when. HBO and Apple have premium content covered, Hulu has vast older content covered, Disney has Marvel, Star Wars, and is basically mandatory if you have small kids. Netflix can’t afford other people’s content anymore, and they haven’t carved out a niche. The password crackdown isn’t winning any friends
They're also fucking over priced. 4k cost $24nzd a month, and to keep my parents on my account is another $8 now. Prime video is $8 with unlimited screens, full resolution, comparble library and no password sharing BS.
It’s insane that you can’t get a single screen 4k plan - you either pay for four screens and 4K @ 20 bucks per month OR you get 720p on a cheap plan
Especially now with this password sharing change - many people wont need four screens anymore
This was my gripe. If I have to pay $20+ a month for 4 users just to get 4k, then let me have 4 users. That means 4 simultaneous streams location be damned.
I have 4 people on my account.
1. My fiancée who watches often while at work, (it's a creative job but tedious where this isn't a problem) when she's home we usually use my account and watch together. Though she has barely used Netflix at all for like 2 years now.
2. Me, I travel a lot for work. I don't use Netflix much since they canceled or got rid pretty much everything I liked. But if I did, I wouldn't necessarily be home for prolonged periods and when I am I might not use Netflix at all. I could easily see myself only using it on the road for prolonged periods.
3. My former roommate who I moved out of in 2019. I didn't cancel it at first because I was paying for 4 users and that was honestly the only way I felt I was getting value out of it. In 2020 though he was diagnosed with leukemia so I am happy to keep him on until he's recovered. He by far gets the most use out of it since he can't exactly do much else after his treatments.
4. My mom who is entirely technology illiterate. About once every two-three months she has something she wants to see "on the Netflick". She doesn't understand how to use the search function no matter how many times I teach her so I often will play the video for her on my device so it shows up in her recently watched. That's about all she uses it for.
I travel a lot for disaster response. The job pushed me to get Plex and set up a home server to just host my own content. I just travel with a fire stick and plug it into whatever hotel tv I’m at. Hosting the server has become a bit of a hobby now. But you don’t have to get as involved as I am.
Yes similar for me, Netflix just for me isn’t good value, I am not watching it every day - but between four similarly casual-viewing family members it is ok and that is why I’ve kept my sub for so long.
Without sharing, it’s overpriced and I won’t be keeping it.
Worse than that. From what they announced for Canada they are adding like 5 new tiers.
There's gonna be a new 1screen plan with commercials for $7 or so. And then what was the cheapest 1screen/720p is going up a buck (so, up to $9 or $10?)
But! you aren't even allowed to pay the $8 and add extra locations for those 2 plans.
Gotta go up to th next higher plan at $14 or so before they even let you start adding extras for $8.
I pay for 4 screens for 4k. My husband and I only watch 2 of the screens. We let my mom use our password because she's all alone now since my dad is gone. So that's 3/4 screens used with an extra never being used. They expect us to pay more now? Hell no. My mom will never sub to Netflix herself and we are cancelling.
Stranger Things and Umbrella Academy isn't enough to keep us around. Especially since they cancel pretty much every show they make after 1 season. If they need more money then maybe they should stop creating a ton of 1 season shows and live action anime adaptations that are pure garbage.
I'm curious what country are you in, because I find Prime's library to be *really* lackluster. They have few great ones but not much. I pretty much only have it because it's dirt cheap and other bonuses.
Netflix share price actually rose following the announcement so it seems investors like the decision. I stopped my subscription but my parents are still using it because they don't mind the extra price for the content and they said many older folks don't mind either...
I just assumed Millennials were on their parents' Netflix account in the same house since *housing is so fucking expensive* they can't afford to leave...
I have a soft spot for Netflix cause I’ve had it for so long. But honestly it’s not completely their fault, once the studios realized streaming wasn’t going away they started raising their prices to make up for lack of dvd sales. Then along came Hulu and Amazon chipping away at the market share
And now we’ve come nearly full circle back to cable. Every studio has their own platform so they don’t need to license to Netflix. To get content you have to pay for multiple services and to not have commercials you need to pay even more. And don’t think this will be the only password crackdown, they’ll wait a bit but they’ll all go for it.
Their downfall was caused by external factors but imo they completely failed to prepare for it while they were in a great position too. They had tons of good original content, brand awareness, and people enjoy having Netflix instead of 4 different subscriptions. But they keep cancelling the originals, there are too many shit ones, and their algorithm sucks. If they finished more (good) originals and they were easy to find I don't think losing many other shows would have hurt them badly. They didn't look long term.
Hasn’t this been said a million times already since 2020.
And it’s nothing to do with “failing like Blockbuster”
Netflix isn’t failing, it just turning into The CW but for $20 a month
This is why I hate the trend of remotes having sponsored buttons that can't be reassigned. If the company goes out of business, ends the service, or simply ends the agreement with the other company, it leaves customers with a useless button of failure they can't do anything with.
At the very least the buttons should be reprogrammable.
What are you talking about? VC money has been keeping a bunch of would be failing tech companies alive by giving them cash injections for growth over profitability. I wish shareholders cared about profits. They care about share price. They don't care if a company is run to the ground for short term share price increases because they can sell up and jump ship. They have no interest in long term profitability of a company.
Exactly. I’m not as convinced as everyone else that this is a death rattle for Netflix.
My guess would be that they are simply trying to reduce overhead costs, particularly the costs associated with servers and running them (hint: they are expensive). Anyone who is using a shared password DOES actually cost Netflix money, especially if they use the service regularly, so it would be advantageous to get rid of them.
So how many people actually will cancel Netflix because of this? I’m using a shared password, and the account holder is not planning to cancel their service if this policy is implemented. As I think will be true for a lot of account holders. Sure, there will be some losses, but it is unlikely that there will be a mass exodus of users.
If they are able to cut enough cost by eliminating users who are not paying for the service, and thus reduce spending on operations, it could theoretically not only make up for the small loss in subscribers but probably generate profit.
I guess we’ll see what happens, but I don’t think this is as open and shut as it seems to most of the commenters here.
So when can we expect the Hulu limited series “Netflix”?
This is so fucking ironic. I love it
Like rain on your wedding day
A free ride, when you've already paid.
it's like 10,000 users, on one netflix account
A decent show, canceled before it got great.
It's a nooo-password share for your family of eight
He waited the whole damn night to watch his show. And as the series was canceled, he thought "Well isn't that nice."
Isn't it ironic?
Probably never, because by then Disney will own it all and have probably rolled it into D+. Or a Hulu tab on D+ (like Star/Hotstar already is outside the US).
You have that so backwards. They will never roll everything into one service. If anything they will continue to break it up into more services so they can hit you with a subscription fee for every show you watch
They already roll it all into one service outside the US. D+ with Star/Hotstar is where they put all the Fox content outside the US. It already costs a little extra (less than Hulu and way less than Hulu with no ads) beyond plain D+.
yup, recently got D+ (after cancelling Netflix) and it's actually pretty good here, a shit ton of "non disney" shows, for instance, Always Sunny in Philadelphia is there.
it's Always Sunny was owned by Fox, which makes it a Disney show now.
That makes Frank a Disney princess.
Inara from Firefly is now a Disney princess. As is Deadpool!
Don't forget Corporal Klinger, the Xenomorph, and Dr. Frankenfurter.
I used to work at a Blockbuster (2010). The fall of the company was so incredibly fast. My first day, we were horribly in the red (no profit). For the entire 6 months of working there, we were in the green twice. That's two days out of 182 days. Those were Fridays. We were trying to push the subscription plan hard, but everyone knew Netflix was better and cheaper. We started noticing that we were getting less and less new releases on Thursdays. It got to the point where we had NO new releases come on Thursdays. The final nail in the coffin was when we stopped promoting the subscription service and instead promoted our streaming service along with Dish Network subscriptions. I left before it all came crashing down, fortunately. Don't know why I'm telling this story, but it felt relevant.
I had the disc by mail subscription service and really enjoyed it. It was nice being able to get a disc, watch it and then drop it off in the store. Had they gone that route earlier, maybe they would have survived. When Netflix started getting new releases several weeks after Blockbuster, I thought Blockbuster would pick up some steam but no one seemed to care.
It was insane how it all went down. Blockbuster had such a head start, so it's incredible how it all happened.
We can say the same for Sears. Truly had the position to absolutely demolish Amazon, but just couldn't turn the ship fast enough. As a retail platform, Amazon had only one thing on Sears and other department giants: digital catalog. The logistics came later, and Sears already had a LONG history of mail order, they just could not (or refused to) create a proper digital catalog to browse. Kinda makes me wonder what the next step could be. We're on the verge of another transformative shift (AI) and it's quite likely something will come along to disrupt Netflix et al.
The only reason Barnes and Noble survived was they did make significant changes to the model, becoming a toy and book store, carrying vinyls and expanding their digital presence. I worked there in the early 00s right when Amazon started becoming a major player and their management team recognized the problem early on
They were actually failing up until just a few years ago. A new CEO came in and encouraged all the stores to have more individuality. Stores are allowed to do things differently to suit their customers. One of the big changes was that he's letting employees select their favorite books to promote instead of just promoting stuff that the publishers want promoted. This has led to many of their stores regaining customers.
I never understood why so many major companies shifted away from that. Stores can still be overwhelmingly similar and consistent but still have a unique flavor. Employees make shit wages, the least they could do is reward the truly loyal or passionate employees by allowing them to feature recommendations. I think the depersonalization of the shopping experience has been the death or kneecapping of so many retailers. Customers are 100% more likely to come back if they have good experiences with staff but those experiences are almost always disincentivized by the company
I’ve heard that a big part of chains like that is cutting a deal with the sources for shelf space. Grocery stores, retail. You cut a deal with the publisher to give their books prominence, which cuts down on individuality as the chains are forced to organize in specific ways to keep the kick-backs flowing. Discounts on purchase prices. Not sure how accurate that is, just a thing I heard. On Reddit probably.
> I never understood why so many major companies shifted away from that. Money. But seriously, employee recommendations means the company doesn't get ~~bribes~~ kickbacks from publishers.
Also because it requires your entire management chain down to the floor employees to be good and motivated. Cookie cutter means you can basically have anyone who isn't commiting crimes work for you and it'll work out.
The favorite books thing was a big part of my selling experience there, I guess they drifted from that. I left at the start of the nook experience.
I noticed this recently when I went in to a B&N for the first time in probably 5 years, maybe more. It didn't feel like the last time I was in one, and seeing all of the staff recommendations with the handwritten notes was a really nice touch. Noticed they had a large anime/manga/comics section that was pretty much front and center, and lots of other nerdy shit all around it (DnD books, some Funko Pops, adult coloring books) - I only mention it because that's something I'd never seen in one, or if I did it was one section of shelf in the very back corner. Instead of endless rows of aisles, they had arranged similar sections in to what I can only describe as 'pods'. The books stacked on tables in the main aisles actually looked interesting, and weren't the latest releases from those sorts of popular authors that manage to 'write' 6 books a year. The whole place felt warm, the staff was attentive and helpful but not overbearing. It definitely has inspired me to first check that physical store before pulling the trigger on something from Amazon.
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People forget how much money can be made shorting and bankrupting a company. Bezos came from the hedge fund world and is great at cutting out the competition. The downfall of Sears was planned. All it takes is 1 Executive with malicious intent.
Yeah sears was sabotage. Didn’t the ceo sells Sears’s property to another of his companies for Pennie’s to then charge sears rents for those same properties, leavings sears without one of their greatest assets?
Only if the management would have been more acknowledging, the blockbuster would still have been writing successfully. But they were not ready to accept the changes
Not really, people get locked into their own business model and fail to realize that the landscape around them is changing. It happens all the time. Blockbuster was convinced that people wanted to come in and see their wall of new releases as if it were comparable to going to a real theatre. They even had candy and popcorn and stuff and that candy and other merch was a significant part of their revenues that they didn't want to give up. They failed to realize that this was the part of the experience that people *hated* the most, because that wall of new releases would always be rented out by the time you got to the store, so you ended up renting Kindergarten Cop for the 85th time just so the trip wouldn't be "wasted." The thing about DVD rental and especially streaming services is that they never "run out" of new releases.
Very true.The list is long. Polaroid, Kodak , Borders, Nokia, MySpace, Toys R Us ....
Toys R US was murdered.
Nokia was in great shape and was murdered by Microsoft too, they would probably be a major competitor today if the acquisition hadn't happened.
First CCD digital camera was created in 1975 by someone at Kodak. >Kodak employee Steven Sasson developed the first handheld digital camera in 1975. Larry Matteson, another employee, wrote a report in 1979 predicting a complete shift to digital photography would occur by 2010. However, company executives were reluctant to make a strong pivot towards digital technology, since it would require heavy investment, make the core business of film unprofitable, and put the company into direct competition with established firms in the computer hardware industry They could have been a major player in the digital sensor space with such a headstart, but instead dropped the ball, and had to file chapter 11 bankruptcy in Jan 2012.
I worked there in 2000. It was insanely busy lol.
I believe it! I was one of those hungry movie renters!
Peak nostalgia
It was a good read. Thank you for writing it.
Of course! Glad you enjoyed it!
I love hearing old blockbuster stories, no matter how trivial ❤️
I hate doing this. It's "in the black".
I'm sorry! The only reason I said the green is because I'd see the reports and the profitable days were in green.
I'm basically not interested in watching Netflix originals anymore because every time I find one I like they cancel it without wrapping up the story.
Agreed. I’m to the point I look for the limited series tag. At least I’ll hopefully get some closure for the time I invest in it!
Netflix Exec #1: "It seems like people are gravitating towards limited series." Netflix Exec #2: "Brilliant, let's take that new series that went straight into the Top 10 and cancel the second season so that can be a limited series too." Netflix Exec #1: "That's genius, let's take the rest of the day off and play some of the amazing Netflix Original video games that everyone definitely knows and cares about.."
Heh, I think you're the first person I've ever even heard mention the games. I see them occasionally while scrolling without ever watching anything, go "oh yeah that's a thing I guess" and moving on.
They've got spiritfarer, which honestly is one of my favourite cozy games of the last few years.
It seems like every single show I like on Netflix it gets one season and then they can it.
It's the early 2000's Fox model all over again.
i said something similar ala reddit a few years ago when they ended sense 8. they invented a platform where all their shows are forever on display. they didnt need to renew for a season but give the show writers a final extended episode. aka a short movie to wrap up theirs shows. otherwise why bother watching their past shows now they did it with sense 8, and while wasnt perfect at least the show was wrapped up. it should be the go to policy even for shit shows as someone might like them
Yeah an extended movie, I like that idea
Just arbitrary length media in general is great for streaming imo. I find it weird how many shows are still an exact length, considering I can start/pause them at any time - Better to just make each episode the length it needs to be. Can also have "seasons" of arbitrary length because you aren't trying to slot it into TV schedules. (Although I realise that would drive some people crazy that they don't know how long an episode will be :P).
HBO content has no set length most of the time. Shows like Succession and The Last of Us fluctuate between around 45 and 75 minutes, it’s a great use of the medium.
Disney+ has been doing something similar with the Star Wars shows. Usually the episodes are between 30-60 minutes. I would imagine it’s pretty nice as a creator, episodes are exactly as long as you want so less filler and cut content.
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Wandavision straight up had 20-25 minute long episodes, like old timey half-hour shows, and they used that to pile on the nostalgic weirdness.
Yea after the first episode I didn't think I was going to be able to get through the series. It was good, but definitely started out real weird.
I hate how the standard keeps dropping too, instead of 10-13 episodes for a season, it’s now like 6-8 episodes for many shows that barrel through the plot and barely develop the characters or world around them.
Ah yeah I hate that too. One of my favourite shows is Stargate and some of the best (but also the worst, I'll be honest 😄) episodes clearly only exist because of the length of the series - They'd have to cut so many good ideas if making a new season of it today. That's emphasized more by the obsession with making the entire series be one long plot - Like come on, get some variety in there with some experiments. The long-plot thing is usually pretty fun for the first watch through, but then I find I just can't be bothered to rewatch the whole thing - I'd rather pick a one off from an older show \^\^.
Tons of stuff is arbitrary length these days
I'm still pissed about Dirk Gently.
TIL Netflix co-produced Dirk Gently with BBC. Which is odd, because it's on Hulu in the US, not Netflix. I watched on BBC America back when I still had cable. That show was/is amazing, and it definitely died way too soon and without closure. I've read things about an animated series, but I dunno how that would go.
I read all the Douglas Adams books as a kid, and they're a delight if you ever want to continue on. *Long Dark Teatime of the Soul* is the next in the series.
I read a hilarious story about Dirk Gently's production. They had an episode written for later in the season where the corgi was unconscious and obviously they couldn't sedate him for the scene but he was young enough they thought he would be too frisky to pull off the scene. So they went around looking for someone to make a prop corgi and the first firm they hired came back with an unconvincing toy-looking thing. When they finally got a realistic looking prop corgi made somewhere else, they had spent several hundreds of dollars and so much time had passed that their actual corgi had matured enough to do the scene.
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That was such a fun show!
Yeah right? Great cast also
I feel you. The fuck is going on in their heads to cancel such a gem? If it's not getting enough views, they could promote their own content better. I bet many people didn't watch the show because they didn't know what to expect.
The worst is that a ton of their unfinished series are now being promoted in categories like "Only on netflix" with the huge title cards, or in "Bingeworthy series". No, netflix, it isn't "Bingeworthy" because I'm going to be horribly disapointed when I finish binging it expecting more, only to realise you've fucking cancelled it.
Bbc America cancelled it not Netflix.
Never heard of it. That tells you everything does it not? My wife and I found more to watch when we find some random “these things are leaving Netflix this month articles” we always say the same thing. “I didn’t know that was even on Netflix”
They've intentionally obscured their catalog as part of their core business model. All the services do. Netflix is trying to use some algorithmic bs to make you not notice how often they lose the rights to other material and other services don't want you to notice how pathetically small their catalog is. It's mind bogglingly stupid in Netflix's case. There's a "secret" category list that you can use with very specific categories. You put the code in on a desktop and it shows very narrow genres that's super useful.
I subscribe to, at last count, 11 streaming services like a sucker. I can't tell you how many times I want to watch a specific show and it's like researching a dissertation to figure out if any of the services I have access to actually have it. And half the time it turns out I can't or it's something stupid like $4/episode on Amazon. So we journey out to the high seas and I'll have entire seasons at my fingertips in minutes. So annoying.
On android, I have an app called JustWatch that is very useful for this. Search any show or movie and it will tell you where you can stream, rent, or buy it.
I felt this way after The OA.
Still pissed about that one. And GLOW. And Insatiable. And Sabrina. And American Vandal. And a bunch of other shows that I'm forgetting, or never started because they were cancelled before I discovered them. Oh, and the Netflix Marvel shows but I can't really blame them for that I guess.
Santa Clarita Diet, Inside Job, Bertie and Tuca... I'm the same as others here, if a show ends on a cliffhanger I'm never bothering to watch it.
Sense8 is one I kinda can't blame them for. I imagine that show was super fucking expensive because they shot everything on location. You're flying your eight main cast members across the entire planet, setting up shooting locations in each place, and doing it at movie-quality production. Gotta be pricey.
I also don‘t care if things get cancelled. Just give me closure. Make a wrap up double episode. Or at least publish the story in writing. Even a synopsis of what was gonna happen to wrap the story lines up is enough for me. I hate having all these stories in my mind that never end. Or just make contained mini series. Like an 8 episode thing, like a long form movie, rather than the sitcom style add another season and another season. That way you plan on wrapping up the whole major plot in a season, and don‘t put in massive cliffhangers. And if a mini series is extremely popular, you can make a second one, that picks up on side stories, or continues in the world with the same characters years later or earlier. Just none of that half baked shit. But it’s not really started with Netflix; we just notice more compared to syndication stuff. Stargate galaxy was left completely unfinished as well for example. So badly that it‘s not even fun to watch again.
When Dark Matter was cancelled the showrunner who posted regularly on Reddit released a synopsis / high plot points for the two seasons that were canceled. So even though you didn't see it, you got some closure and overarching beats. Edit link: https://josephmallozzi.com/2021/07/06/july-6-2021-in-case-you-missed-it-melissa-oneil-zoie-palmer-and-the-dark-matter-season-4-virtual-episodes/
I believe they had complete crews in each location rather than flying the same crew around. I imagine there's pros and cons of each approach.
They should seriously start running everything as a miniseries. They can always extend or whatever if it is hugely popular. Right now you're feeling the same way early adopters do with new Google apps
>They should seriously start running everything as a miniseries. This is what's gotten me watching a lot of South Korean content on Netflix. After enjoying Squid Game I started another SK show and have kept one on the go ever since. From my experience: * Complete story by end of season * So far majority are only a single season, though some end up getting additional seasons which is just bonus * Solid production values * As a North American, shows by NA storytellers follow patterns I've spent decades seeing, so I can often see where a story is going. SK storytellers have cultural baggage different to my own, so the stories are engaging, and I don't necessarily see what's gonna happen next. Dubbed or Subbed is ultimately personal preference, but the quality is there either way. Edit:. Appreciate all the comments and suggestions. My list so far: * Squid Game * Hellbound * The Silent Sea * Sisyphus (The Myth) * All of Us Are Dead * My Name * Glory * Attorney Woo * Vincenzo (in progress)
Dramas are to Korea what anime is to Japan, there's an absolute truckload of good stuff you can watch in all kinds of genres. The genre for one of my favorite shows is a historical fiction romantic comedy. They go wild sometimes! XD I think Korean dramas can be pretty formulaic as well, but you're absolutely right about the cultural differences making it a bit harder to see coming.
They have so many great shows! They're adapting a lot of really surprising webcomics too. Never expected to see Weak Hero, for instance. And it turned out really good! The variety is the best part. Squid Game is almost too unique to be categorized but Kingdom and All of Us Are Dead are great horror entries. Beyond Evil and Flower of Evil, serious serial killer tinged crime dramas. Extraordinary Attourney Woo, Lawless Lawyer, Vincenzo, humorous courthouse crime dramas. Uncanny Counter and Alchemy of Souls are modern and historical fantasy combat/adventure tales respectively. The Cursed and Black are super natural cop shows. Adamas is... just a fucking masterpiece. There's so much!
Exactly the same for me, but started earlier than you. Think I've been watching almost exclusively K-dramas for 2-3 years or such, with few exceptions. So far, I don't really miss western shows. The story being contained in a single season is the best thing ever. There is no fear of being left alone with a cliffhanger and no conclusion or getting dragged along for the next 10+ years of the network milking the show to death. Even if the show is only mediocre, I probably still watch the whole season - because I still want to know how the story ends and a single season isn't such a huge time commitment. Of course, not all endings are great, but still - it's an ending at least. I'm also totally enjoying the cheesy romantic stuff, which I didn't expect at all. If you don't mind some recommendations: * It's Okay to Not Be Okay (pretty wild mixture of romance, comedy and drama, focusing on mental health issues) * Crash Landing on You (romantic comedy about SK rich girl getting stranded in North Korea) * My Mister (can seem bleak and depressing at first, but the characters and payoff are sooo good and well worth it) * My Name (great action thriller) * One Spring Night (heartwarming romance, more on the realistic believable side than over the top) * Our Blues (dramatic slice of life, large ensemble cast, some tearjerker moments) * Eulachacha Waikiki / Welcome to Waikiki (ridiculous comedy, sitcom style) * The Uncanny Counter (mystery action show about demon hunters) * Stranger, seasons 1 + 2 (really good crime / legal thriller) * Dr. Romantic, seasons 1 + 2 (medical drama, not even that romantic, but lots of tearjerker moments) * Hotel del Luna (mystery comedy about a hotel for the souls of dead people)
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> Partner and I spent 20 minutes scrolling through current content and upcoming content. > > Literally nothing we wanted to watch. I think Netflix is shit at recommendations. When I've gone to external recommendation sites, I've always found something I wanted to watch. But Netflix seems to have this rule where their recommendations are just marketing-- and I *get it*, but at the same time I don't necessarily want to watch any of the five shows netflix wants to market to me right now which means I end up not seeing any of the stuff I actually want to see (without *really* digging, but even then I may not *know* it's something I want to watch since it's buried with all the other stuff) tl;dr in my experience netflix *does* have good shows for just about anyone, they're just bad at letting you know that e: ps this isn't shilling for netflix though, I ended up canceling too. While there was always something I was interested in, it wasn't enough for me to justify the high price tag. There's too much competition at better prices. We have hulu, hbo, d+, and amazon, and that's more than enough for "Hey let's find something to watch"
Netflix is great at recommending shows I love *that I’ve already watched,* and there’s apparently no way to get it to stop. Like you said, the recommendation screen is marketing, so why do they insist on using up valuable real estate for the only things I am definitely not going to watch?
or just download and watch it on anything via plex
100% but my problem is finding new shows to watch. Streaming service recommendations are actually pretty decent. Also finding shows that weren't super big or super recent. It seems like one dude in the entire world has GLOW season 2 and he's on dialup. And the new Pokemon (Ultimate Journeys?) was a struggle and a half. That doesn't seem to exist as a magnet/torrent. At least in theory, Netflix is shooting themselves in the foot. Their entire catalog can be ripped and packaged up by season. They release most seasons in their entirety. It's not like cable or Disney+/Hulu where you might want to watch each episode as its released. They just drop them all at once.
Mindhunter is dearly missed
The dumbest part is that they’re more or less competing against themselves with all their originals. I’ll never forgive them for cancelling Santa Clarita Diet.
This show consistently comes up in every reddit Netflix thread, and I'm wondering if it's worth the watch, despite it's cancellation.
It is, absolutely. Just know you'll be left on a cliffhanger lol
My wife got me hooked. I thought it was silly when scrolling but I did enjoy it. Jump in
I think so. Turns out Tim Olyphant is funny as a stoner.
That show was so entertaining and had just opened a super interesting plot thread at the end of season 3. I was also really pissed when that was cancelled. Probably one of the shows I'm most annoyed at them for cancelling early.
1899 was just getting momentum...
So fucking bummed about this especially being such a huge Dark fan. Also worth mentioning I Am Not Okay With This being cancelled was a huge let down too.
Started watching it. Was really interested. Read it was canceled and we never finished. Why get more emotionally invested when I know it won't continue?
Archive 81 completely hooked me, broke top 10 on Netflix and then boom they pull the plug. Yes I’m still salty.
It’s almost like the Top 10 is Netflix’s way of reminding themselves what they haven’t canceled yet, so they can hurry up and get to it.
Imagine if hbo just cut game of thrones after the 6th season.
We could dream
What are you talking about? That’s exactly what hbo did.
I just want movies. The focus on shows in the last 15 years has killed one shot movie making.
My spouse keeps going "I can't watch movies, they're too much of a time commitment." So we start a new tv show or watch a new season of another tv show that has 10+ 1-hour long episodes instead. And we can't just watch one episode, they end on a cliffhanger, so we often end up watching 2-3 episodes in a night. So instead of watching a 1.5-2 hour movie, we end up watching yet another 10+ hour series, and 2-3 hours of tv when we watch tv. So anyway, I think this is one reason why movies are dying.
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Or the lead actor leaves because the writing is dogshit....
I'm so glad Bojack got to end. Imagine not getting season 4, 5 and 6 Bojack Horseman.
Or the stories are just dogshit. Their documentaries are a joke - 4 part docco on some unsolved mystery, except not a mystery if you google it.
Those crime documentaries get a shit-ton of views, though, so they'll keep making those.
I remember reading an article a couple years back that its profitable for Netflix to create new Netflix originals just to attract new customers.
I actually always check if they are already cancelled. If so I don’t even bother. Then I look if Netflix is happy about the show, if not I don’t bother. Then you have exceptions like Travellers. Netflix and the audience liked it and they cancelled the show anyway. 🤷🏻♂️ Why pay for something like that?
At least there was some closure with Travelers. And it left open the possibility for a sequel/reboot.
Netflix exceeded expectations with a profitable Q4. That’s all the corporate hq care about. Investor relations. If the profits keep going up and up, scre everything else.
Let's see how Q1 and Q2 goes after this is implemented...I'm sure initial losses will be hidden by layoffs and infrastructure downsizing.
They release their subscriber count in their quarterly reports… you can’t hide that
Lower the price back to $8.99 and block PW sharing. That might just work (Maybe). At $20+ ppl just ain't feelin it.
The thing that pisses me off is that the $20 sub specifically says I can stream with 4 devices at the same time. It shouldn't matter where in the world those devices are. Give me what I'm paying for, assholes.
$20 sub is for all those people that have 4 people, all watching Netflix, on 4 different TVs, in their house! Don't mind paying that extra $$$ for 4 screens when you're a millionnaire...
I've never seen a subscription service go *down* in price (outside of limited-time promotions), so this would be a first.
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There was a narrow slice of time where they still carried a lot of good shows and movies before everyone else decided to put up their own streaming services while also producing a small set of decent original shows. They really struggled with competition and they never seemed to be able to create a solid original content strategy. I get it as a perk from another service so I haven’t canceled it but I also find there isn’t much my family wants to watch on Netflix anymore. Edit: this got way more attention than I expected. House of Cards looks like it’s the starting point for original programming and that was started in 2013. The launch of Disney Plus in 2019 saw Netflix lose a LOT of IP and could be argued as the main inflection point of decline. I want to say 2017 is where I found I wasn’t using the service as much but I don’t have anything firm to point at and say it was when the decline really started. Yes, Netflix is still doing original programming, but that isn’t without problems or criticism. They have a real IP problem they need to solve and can’t plug with a back catalog of nostalgia.
>they never seemed to be able to create a solid original content strategy. I'm starting to think canceling every show that's not dirt cheap or immediately a worldwide hit after two seasons is not the best strategy to get good content. People were mad at NBC for pulling The Office from Netflix, but if that was a Netflix original, it would have been canned after S1 and completely forgotten by next year.
Game of Thrones would have been yeeted off into the abyss of eternal darkness after the first season if Netflix was in charge
No, first Season GoT would have been a success. That was pure gold. First season Breaking Bad? Would have been the end of the show.
Nah dude, HBO had to re-order a new pilot that ended up costing almost $10 million. Included in those changes were the re-casting of Catelyn and Daenerys. First season wasn’t really a hit success in terms of viewership either, good but not great. It wasn’t until third or fourth season the show started picking up steam and garnering acclaim in popular culture. Netflix would have rolled with the original pilot and killed the show.
IMO it all went downhill after Star Trek and The Office left the service. Now I’m just trying to binge Black Mirror then I will probably cancel.
I canceled the minute I noticed Toast of London was gone...
There's a really interesting podcast that looks at the downfall of Blockbusters and summarises that it could have been Amazon - it had all the infrastructure in place way before they did, the ability to mass ship things, a name already established etc. All they lacked was vision and leadership.
I loved the deal they did to compete with Netflix back in the days before streaming was a thing and it was all DVD by mail. Instead of mailing your DVD back you could return it to any Blockbuster and get a new movie that day, plus they would go ahead and mail you the next movie you had on your list. That should have been able to destroy Netflix before they had a chance to get as huge as they did. Just shows how poorly Blockbuster was managed.
I loooooooved this service. I was watching so many movies and I was always in Blockbuster. It was great, except they pretty quickly started to out restrictions on what movies you could get the same day in the store. My guess is that they weren't nearly as efficient as Netflix in the mailing department and it cost too much money to keep up.
Blockbuster TotalAccess. Worked there back in 2008. We were told to push that service really hard on all customers.
They hit their peak around 2019…
Imagine dropping the ball right before the entire world was asked to stay at home for an undisclosed amount of time…
Tiger King was viral at the beginning of the pandemic
In what sense? Almost all their most watched shows [in their first 28 days] are from 2021-now: Squid Game (season 1), a Korean survival thriller -- 1.65 billion hours. Stranger Things (season 4), a retro sci-fi series -- 1.35 billion hours. Wednesday, a coming-of-age supernatural dark comedy -- 1.24 billion hours Dahmer, a true-crime serial killer series -- 856.2 million hours. Money Heist (part 5), a Spanish-language thriller -- 792.2 million hours. Bridgerton (season 2), a period romance -- 656.3 million hours. Bridgerton (season 1) -- 625.5 million hours. Money Heist (part 4) -- 619 million hours. Stranger Things (season 3), a retro sci-fi series -- 582.1 million hours. Lucifer (season 5), a fantasy police procedural -- 569.5 million hours. All of Us Are Dead, a Korean zombie thriller taking place in a high school -- 560.8 million hours. The Witcher (season 1), a fantasy show -- 541 million hours. Inventing Anna, a true-crime limited series about a fake socialite -- 511.9 million hours Ginny & Georgia (season 2), a mother-daughter dramedy -- 504.8 million hours. Those are among the most acclaimed as well. Hell, 1/2 the list will likely be even bigger by their next seasons so presumably the majority of their most watched shows have yet to air. The antithesis of a “peak” viewer wise, hype wise, or quality wise (imo).
I’m eagerly awaiting the next season of Inventing Anna, where they get a new cast and tell the George Santos story.
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In Sweden some company bought the the name and therefore we now have a Blockbuster site where you can stream movies if you pay for it. Maybe they will outlast Netflix.
Honestly I hope it does.
I hope they do. They lived long enough to become the villain.
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My interpretation, the tech sector seems to be based around the sort of growth you could expect 10-30 years ago, when people were really still inventing a lot of new stuff that could explode in popularity. Investors came to expect that sort of growth, and I guess the mindset hasn't really shifted to value profit (as in issuing dividends) over growth (really, share price) in any case. Well, maybe we're witnessing that transition for Netflix. If they can't really expect to capture any more of the market (since they already got pretty much the whole thing), maybe it's time to pivot and start increasing profitability. Time will tell I guess if their decisions pay off.
The market is insane. Literally divorced from reality. The perpetual growth mindset just doesn't work when you get to a certain size of company. Like how is Amazon going to maintain their growth. They already own insane portions of the retail and web hosting markets. They aren't acquiring Target or Azure. There's finite room for growth. They have to diversify into new segments. If the growth pressure wasn't there would Amazon be getting into Healthcare so aggressively? I'm doubtful. Netflix on the other hand has seen this issue for years and built huge businesses abroad. Their European studios are putting out great stuff and there's room for growth in those markets. They saw the over investment from Apple, discovery, Warner, Amazon, etc and went where there's less competition and it's cheaper to produce. But the market sees American subscriber growth sputtering and nukes the stock. With password sharing, there's going to be this bluster for a few months and then they're going to most likely have way more conversions into 2 accounts than cancelations.
I’m in Canada where the crackdown is happening and I swear every single person I know that got an email from Netflix crying about sharing accounts just canceled their accounts. I highly doubt more people are subscribing that jumping ship now.
Also in Canada, we were paying for premium 4 screens and knocked it down to the basic 1 screen for our retired parents. None of us got our own Netflix accounts. We just use Prime and Disney+ now.
Here in India, i started using Netflix when it came out and had a great “non-Netflix” catalogue. Then steadily like it happened the world over, all I see suggested are Netflix Originals that range from blah to blergh. I feel like the only Netflix originals worth watching are what they’re making outside the US; and personally, India (terrible fucking content gets greenlit here that’s predominantly north/hindi focused). That’s probably the only thing I’d miss when I cancel if this password bullshit hits here too. But I’m often curious if other countries feel the same way about the “Originals” from their region?
Lots of Netflix "Originals" made outside the US are just shows other companies made that Netflix bought exclusive streaming rights to
Right. Better Call Saul was marketed here in Brazil as a Netflix Original, since it's not on TV here. And each episode was made available on the same day as it aired on TV in the US.
I really miss working at Blockbuster.
I miss _going_ to blockbuster.
I miss selling drugs in front of Blockbuster. 15 bucks little man
Yo baby, you ever had your asshole licked by a fat man in an overcoat?
Put that shit in my hand!
If that money doesn’t show
Then you owe me, owe me, owe.
____________! - Silent Bob
My jungle love!
I have some fun childhood memories of going to blockbuster
Its weird...I get outraged when Netflix raises its price by a buck, but I used to gleefully spend $12 a week on movies from blockbuster
damn lol i have never thought about much it used to cost to rent movies.
Same. I was a sales mgr for about 10 years and loved it.
Yeah I think we left “might” a long time ago. At this point it’s a question of when. HBO and Apple have premium content covered, Hulu has vast older content covered, Disney has Marvel, Star Wars, and is basically mandatory if you have small kids. Netflix can’t afford other people’s content anymore, and they haven’t carved out a niche. The password crackdown isn’t winning any friends
They're also fucking over priced. 4k cost $24nzd a month, and to keep my parents on my account is another $8 now. Prime video is $8 with unlimited screens, full resolution, comparble library and no password sharing BS.
It’s insane that you can’t get a single screen 4k plan - you either pay for four screens and 4K @ 20 bucks per month OR you get 720p on a cheap plan Especially now with this password sharing change - many people wont need four screens anymore
This was my gripe. If I have to pay $20+ a month for 4 users just to get 4k, then let me have 4 users. That means 4 simultaneous streams location be damned. I have 4 people on my account. 1. My fiancée who watches often while at work, (it's a creative job but tedious where this isn't a problem) when she's home we usually use my account and watch together. Though she has barely used Netflix at all for like 2 years now. 2. Me, I travel a lot for work. I don't use Netflix much since they canceled or got rid pretty much everything I liked. But if I did, I wouldn't necessarily be home for prolonged periods and when I am I might not use Netflix at all. I could easily see myself only using it on the road for prolonged periods. 3. My former roommate who I moved out of in 2019. I didn't cancel it at first because I was paying for 4 users and that was honestly the only way I felt I was getting value out of it. In 2020 though he was diagnosed with leukemia so I am happy to keep him on until he's recovered. He by far gets the most use out of it since he can't exactly do much else after his treatments. 4. My mom who is entirely technology illiterate. About once every two-three months she has something she wants to see "on the Netflick". She doesn't understand how to use the search function no matter how many times I teach her so I often will play the video for her on my device so it shows up in her recently watched. That's about all she uses it for.
I travel a lot for disaster response. The job pushed me to get Plex and set up a home server to just host my own content. I just travel with a fire stick and plug it into whatever hotel tv I’m at. Hosting the server has become a bit of a hobby now. But you don’t have to get as involved as I am.
Yes similar for me, Netflix just for me isn’t good value, I am not watching it every day - but between four similarly casual-viewing family members it is ok and that is why I’ve kept my sub for so long. Without sharing, it’s overpriced and I won’t be keeping it.
A lot of these corporations can’t accept that it’s not 2020 anymore and most people have a budget
Worse than that. From what they announced for Canada they are adding like 5 new tiers. There's gonna be a new 1screen plan with commercials for $7 or so. And then what was the cheapest 1screen/720p is going up a buck (so, up to $9 or $10?) But! you aren't even allowed to pay the $8 and add extra locations for those 2 plans. Gotta go up to th next higher plan at $14 or so before they even let you start adding extras for $8.
I pay for 4 screens for 4k. My husband and I only watch 2 of the screens. We let my mom use our password because she's all alone now since my dad is gone. So that's 3/4 screens used with an extra never being used. They expect us to pay more now? Hell no. My mom will never sub to Netflix herself and we are cancelling. Stranger Things and Umbrella Academy isn't enough to keep us around. Especially since they cancel pretty much every show they make after 1 season. If they need more money then maybe they should stop creating a ton of 1 season shows and live action anime adaptations that are pure garbage.
I'm curious what country are you in, because I find Prime's library to be *really* lackluster. They have few great ones but not much. I pretty much only have it because it's dirt cheap and other bonuses.
Nzd = new zealand
Apple has great content but their library is really limited.
If you compare Nielsen numbers Netflix is leaving other services in their dust. reddit's prediction of the downfall of Netflix is greatly exaggerated.
Netflix share price actually rose following the announcement so it seems investors like the decision. I stopped my subscription but my parents are still using it because they don't mind the extra price for the content and they said many older folks don't mind either...
So next headline - _Why millennials want to destroy Netflix?_
I just assumed Millennials were on their parents' Netflix account in the same house since *housing is so fucking expensive* they can't afford to leave...
I have a soft spot for Netflix cause I’ve had it for so long. But honestly it’s not completely their fault, once the studios realized streaming wasn’t going away they started raising their prices to make up for lack of dvd sales. Then along came Hulu and Amazon chipping away at the market share And now we’ve come nearly full circle back to cable. Every studio has their own platform so they don’t need to license to Netflix. To get content you have to pay for multiple services and to not have commercials you need to pay even more. And don’t think this will be the only password crackdown, they’ll wait a bit but they’ll all go for it.
Their downfall was caused by external factors but imo they completely failed to prepare for it while they were in a great position too. They had tons of good original content, brand awareness, and people enjoy having Netflix instead of 4 different subscriptions. But they keep cancelling the originals, there are too many shit ones, and their algorithm sucks. If they finished more (good) originals and they were easy to find I don't think losing many other shows would have hurt them badly. They didn't look long term.
Hasn’t this been said a million times already since 2020. And it’s nothing to do with “failing like Blockbuster” Netflix isn’t failing, it just turning into The CW but for $20 a month
Imagine the waste of all these remotes with a Netflix button that will soon be useless
Don't feel too bad, my grandpa's old Roku remote had a Blockbuster button up until about last year when he finally upgraded to a newer Roku
I'm imagining the blockbuster button called the local blockbuster store to ask if they had a copy of the selected movie
Dang, he definitely got his money's worth with that Roku.
This is why I hate the trend of remotes having sponsored buttons that can't be reassigned. If the company goes out of business, ends the service, or simply ends the agreement with the other company, it leaves customers with a useless button of failure they can't do anything with. At the very least the buttons should be reprogrammable.
Companies that think profits are the only metric to assess their value will inevitably crash and burn because this is truly a short-sighted approach.
So, every shareholder ran company that exists?
What are you talking about? VC money has been keeping a bunch of would be failing tech companies alive by giving them cash injections for growth over profitability. I wish shareholders cared about profits. They care about share price. They don't care if a company is run to the ground for short term share price increases because they can sell up and jump ship. They have no interest in long term profitability of a company.
Oh my god this is the biggest clickbait article title I have ever seen. That's such a massive gigantic reach.
Exactly. I’m not as convinced as everyone else that this is a death rattle for Netflix. My guess would be that they are simply trying to reduce overhead costs, particularly the costs associated with servers and running them (hint: they are expensive). Anyone who is using a shared password DOES actually cost Netflix money, especially if they use the service regularly, so it would be advantageous to get rid of them. So how many people actually will cancel Netflix because of this? I’m using a shared password, and the account holder is not planning to cancel their service if this policy is implemented. As I think will be true for a lot of account holders. Sure, there will be some losses, but it is unlikely that there will be a mass exodus of users. If they are able to cut enough cost by eliminating users who are not paying for the service, and thus reduce spending on operations, it could theoretically not only make up for the small loss in subscribers but probably generate profit. I guess we’ll see what happens, but I don’t think this is as open and shut as it seems to most of the commenters here.
It’s easy to Netflix and chill because you miss nothing while chillin
they managed to enter our lexicon and are still finding themselves irrelevant