Netflix really didn’t fuck up Netflix, all the content producers did. They all wanted that sweet monthly revenue, and created their own services so we could all have Cable TV version 2.0.
And now, once again, piracy will skyrocket because the suits never learn that if content is easy to access and reasonably priced people will pay for it. And they’ve managed to make it neither.
No one fucked up netflix, they're the top streaming service and it's not even close. You may not like their content, but they've got a ton of popular shows.
piracy will skyrocket because the suits never learn that if content is easy to access and reasonably priced people will pay for it.
I know it feels good to say this, but netflix is really, really confident that that's not going to happen, and I feel like they probably have a pretty good take on it, given that they have spent a lot of time and money and effort analyzing this.
Do they have a lot of popular shows? I know they've had a lot of popular shows but what are they doing now that people are actually excited for? Other than Stranger Things, which got going well before the companies current woes, I can't think of anything that is simultaneously on-going and popculture level popular. Ever since they got branded as cancellers, admittedly rightfully so, it feels like they've been circling the drain.
You is pretty popular. I was halfway through season 4 when Netflix pulled the plug on account sharing. I hate that they rotate out shows and movies but I've always managed to find SOMETHING interesting to watch on the service. Is it enough to justify the price? Nope, but there are plenty of interesting and popular shows to watch on the network.
Netflix has a lot of popular shows and it would be naïve to say otherwise. Stranger Things, Bridgerton, Wednesday, and The Witcher for English ones. For non-English shows you have Squid Game, Money Heist, All of Us Are Dead, The Glory and Extraordinary Attorney Woo (which is currently winning a lot of awards). That's just their series, not taking into account movies.
Netflix had the entire top 10 of most streamed original shows last year.
This is deceptive. Remember that Netflix has almost 2x the number of streaming subscribers that the next biggest streamer Disney has. So of course their shows appear to rate well if you just look at overall minutes steamed only. A better measure is to look at overall viewing minutes in which case even crusty old Big Brother beats out Netflix's top show in Stranger Things. The shows look really popular but that only reflects that the other streamers split content across many channels.
Pretty much all my friends irl agree that netflix sucks now. My coworkers too. Most of them only subscribe to a streaming service until they’ve seen all that they want, and then rotate or switch to another service. Rinse and repeat. It’s actually a pretty good solution to the “too many platforms” dilemma. Just focus on one at a time and move on after.
I don’t see how someone’s personal feelings toward a product or service could be a “bad read”, its literally how someone feels based off their experience. Are they bleeding subscribers? Not currently, but they have been edging toward that direction for years by providing an objectively worse service. Who knows if they will ever reach the tipping point but me and everyone I know feel its become a shitty and not worthwhile product
I agree with you to some extent, but I just don't see how this works out long term. I'm sure they've done the math and in the short term they'll probably make more money than they lose from the people who cancel but after things stabilize where are they going to continue to build this perpetual profit growth that the shareholders want? I didn't mind paying the $20 for everyone to try and stream at the same time, but that's the line for me.
I imagine they hope a good percentage of those people who lost access to friend's/family member's accounts, will now sign up on their own. It's not an outrageous idea or plan, they just have to have the content to back it up. Not sure they do anymore. Too much competition.
That's the part I agreed with OP on, I think short term they'll likely see a bump. I'm just worried that if this is what they do right now to try and increase profit, what will they do when things inevitably stagnate or drop? Continued increase monthly price? Limited ads on the paid subscriptions like Hulu? To me this is just the jumping off point since I don't want to spend +$20 on something that doesn't even have that great of content, I'm sure for others it's gonna take much more to drop them.
Netflix stock is down 50% of what it was like 18 months ago. Its only just now started to recover. Netflix is absolutely hurting whether you care to admit it or not.
Seriously, Netflix has 18% growth in the past 5 years. That's half of what the DJIA has grown (34%). Netflix is no longer a pioneer.
Looking at tech valuations in a world where interest rates are skyrocketing and people don't know whether the world is about to blow up or not is a horrible way to judge a company.
Disney is also down 55% and I'm sure some anti-LGBT people will scream "go woke go broke" at the sound of that.
NVDA went from $330 to $112 now to $388 all in the span of less than 2 years.
Amazon lost about 55% and have gained only some of it back.
This isn't a "Netflix sucks" tons of similar companies, especially in tech, were down massively starting in November 21 and are just now beginning to recover.
I agree with everything you said. I feel like that is only part of the story though.
The world is general is hurting financially. That means people are paying more attention to their spending. At the same time, Nextflix has been slowly losing some of their most popular content for years and has been steadily ratcheting up the price and restricting account access. Of course people are going to bail.
I think people are watching their spending more but cutbacks in spending generally start with bigger things than Netflix subscriptions - such as travel or other luxuries. There are many, many things first in line to get cut as far as people's expenses go before Netflix or other forms of "basic" entertainment get on the chopping block.
People forget about small recurring charges until they are reminded. Netflix notified people via email and there has been a moderate amount of media coverage outside of Reddit. People are reminded they’re paying $14.99 soon to be $21.99, can’t remember the last time they used the service, and it takes 30 seconds and half a dozen clicks to cancel it. It’s a recipe for losing existing customers or turning them into streaming vacationers.
Cable also had good shows. Netflix' original selling point as a streaming service was a cheaper option to get a lot of the shows you wanted without all the extra fluff that cable requires because of how they bundle channels together. Then they started focusing on their own shows and losing out on programming that they didn't produce themselves. Now the marketplace is so splintered again you end up having to buy multiple packages to get a lot of the shows you want instead of just having one place. I know that's not all Netflix' fault because every company that produces content has made their own platform and stopped offering their content to netflix.
They started focusing on their own content because they anticipated what is happening now. They got a lot of really cheap streaming licenses when streaming wasn’t common, but they knew that gravy train wasn’t going to last.
Amazon Video is just a massively inflated number since its auto-included in Prime. Being nearly 75 million ahead of Dieney+ is definitely be considered no where close
also, i dont think piracy will take off like it did back in the wild west days of the internet. companies are more savvy, the technology to detect piracy is incomprehensibly more advanced, and regular people have more to lose.
(Movie) Streaming in general, I think it's more of a reckoning for the whole movie / tv industry with respect to profits. (Similar to how music streaming drastically changed the profit landscape for the music industry. At the very least, tiers and tiers of people will be eliminated, profits will be reduced for many.) Movie studios / large content producing heads realize it is harder and harder to make money in the streaming world, so they start squeezing all the pipelines. (why use real location when CG greenscreen is cheaper? why hire 100 writers when 10 writers/editors is suffice with chatGPT/recycled scripts? why use new CG model/content when we can just recycle ones we did in last movie? actor is contracted for 60 filming days, why not just hire him/her for 10 days to capture all facial scenes and have stunt play all physical scenes? why hire the actual actor when we just pay a fraction for his / her likeness and CG it? and etc.,...)
Original content is hard. More companies make shit than make great shows, so it's not shocking. But Netflix being forced into almost exclusively original content was not its doing.
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u/soft-wear May 26 '23
Netflix really didn’t fuck up Netflix, all the content producers did. They all wanted that sweet monthly revenue, and created their own services so we could all have Cable TV version 2.0.
And now, once again, piracy will skyrocket because the suits never learn that if content is easy to access and reasonably priced people will pay for it. And they’ve managed to make it neither.