Netflix in trouble

[Cyder]

Well...Ozark starts next Friday. I'm not leaving until that's done.

Excellent! I didn't know the rest would be coming out so soon.

 

[Yankee Traveler]

Netflix is trying to be cool. Its hard to be cool.

It's easy to be cool if you are cool.

It's damn near impossible to be cool when you already have to try.

 

[Yankee Traveler]

No, the CEO will not be canned. He’s the founder of the company and generally considered one of the best CEO’s out there.

Netflix has just reached saturation point, basically. Everyone who wants the service has it already. Not sure how they combat that.

Get people to cancel so you can get them to resubscribe?

 

[calsnowskier]

I enjoy a lot of their content but it seems like once I binge something I'm waiting forever for the next season. I've been toying with the idea of canceling for a few months and then hopping back in, rinse and repeat. I'm hoping the covid shutdown delayed a lot of the shows and soon they'll catch up and release more shows I like.

I think 1 on, 2 off is a pretty good schedule for them.

 

[Cyder]

I think 1 on, 2 off is a pretty good schedule for them.

I do that with some pay cable channels. I'll wait until the last episode of something I like airs, pay for a month, binge whatever I'm interested in and then cancel.

 

[BusSport]

"Netflix can’t renew your favorite shows, but it can spend $30 million per episode of Stranger Things":

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Netflix apparently spent $30 million on each episode of the show's upcoming fourth season, which is double what HBO paid for each episode of the final season of Game of Thrones -- the show with elaborate castle sets, dragons, fantasy costumes, and (no offense) more than two or three named actors who you might recognize from other things. Unless they're shooting this thing on-location in the Upside Down with IMAX cameras and they genetically engineered a real-life Demogorgon, it doesn’t seem like it should be costing that much money.

 

[wazzu31]

They put out so much content already. What else are you looking for? One of the issues they highlighted on their call is the ability for people to binge watch a show. Currently you can watch a full season of a show in a couple days then cancel the service. They are planning to release the new season of Stranger Things in installments to prevent this kind of churn. Makes some sense.

Better content, which is my point. If you have content someone isn’t going to binge watch a series then cancel it. They didn’t have a huge drop off when Disney+ first came out and took off Marvel.

 

[BusSport]

Deadline: Netflix will add advertising to its service in next year or two

 

[calsnowskier]

Deadline: Netflix will add advertising to its service in next year or two

So pay for it AND get ads?

FUCK that.

 

[BeaReylo]

So pay for it AND get ads?

FUCK that.

Or you'll have to pay even more to not have to watch ads. Either way its screwing over people who actually pay for the service year round.

 

[TrevorClark98]

I don't even pay for Netflix, yet I can pirate any one of their series (or movies) with minimal effort. I doubt I am the only person in the USA who knows how to do this.

 

[Sir Robin Of Camelot]

They haven't had any really compelling content in a while.

Which is why I cancelled my subscription back in January… along with them raising my monthly fee to over $20. My grandsons used my account fairly regularly and i let them know that $20 was the break point for me. They are both happy as well… so Netflix lost three potential revenue sources.

 

[BusSport]

Netflix going to crack down on password sharing by charging additional fee if password is used outside your address

 

[Diamondeye]

So pay for it AND get ads?

FUCK that.

They might do a free subscription or have public access where you get skull-fucked by ads like YouTube, but also offer a premium pay subscription with no ads and premium content.

As Netflix has rapidly grown, they were not going to be able to charge what they were ad-free and maintain overall content quality, largely because it's not 2016 anymore and they're facing significantly more competition, but also things like piracy and password sharing are diluting their revenues and return on content investments (an issue for the streaming industry as a whole )

You get what you pay for, essentially. If people want streaming content to improve, they need to be willing to pay more, or at least something.

The problem is that there are now so many streaming options for consumers that pricing power is limited.

 

[calsnowskier]

They might do a free subscription or have public access where you get skull-fucked by ads like YouTube, but also offer a premium pay subscription with no ads and premium content.

As Netflix has rapidly grown, they were not going to be able to charge what they were ad-free and maintain overall content quality, largely because it's not 2016 anymore and they're facing significantly more competition, but also things like piracy and password sharing are diluting their revenues and return on content investments (an issue for the streaming industry as a whole )

You get what you pay for, essentially. If people want streaming content to improve, they need to be willing to pay more, or at least something.

The problem is that there are now so many streaming options for consumers that pricing power is limited.

All good points, but it is a bit simplistic to just look at payment structures to keep Netflix afloat.

As has been mentioned here, they are producing a LOT of content that most have no interest in. As long as their costs to be able to include these titles in their library is relatively low, no harm, no foul. But a lot of their stuff that cost them a butt ton are either just as niche as the cheap stuff, or has a larger target audience, but actively pokes a good segment of their subscriber base in the eye.

Their choices on what to add to their library are very suspect.

 

[Diamondeye]

Netflix going to crack down on password sharing by charging additional fee if password is used outside your address

One password for one IP. Seems simple enough.

Of course, the same people complaining about this will be among the same people complaining about the declining content quality.

 

[Diamondeye]

All good points, but it is a bit simplistic to just look at payment structures to keep Netflix afloat.

As has been mentioned here, they are producing a LOT of content that most have no interest in. As long as their costs to be able to include these titles in their library is relatively low, no harm, no foul. But a lot of their stuff that cost them a butt ton are either just as niche as the cheap stuff, or has a larger target audience, but actively pokes a good segment of their subscriber base in the eye.

Their choices on what to add to their library are very suspect.

It's difficult to separate the business side from the content side, as they're just not bringing in enough money to sustain both the volume and quality of content we had come to expect.

They're relying more on Asians and Europeans for content because they're generally cheaper.

I've enjoyed some of the Korean shows, particularly Squid Game and Hellbound, but understand why many don't.

The company has lost too much market value recently for there to not be drastic changes to its operations aimed at increasing revenue.

It's anyone's guess what they'll be.

 

[BusSport]

One password for one IP. Seems simple enough.

No, one password for one IP wouldn't work at all: since ISPs assign dynamic IPs that can change at any time, one password per IP would mean lots of subscribers would regularly get falsely accused of password sharing even if they didn't password share. That's why Netflix's plan is to use geolocation instead.

 

[flyerhawk]

One password for one IP. Seems simple enough.

Of course, the same people complaining about this will be among the same people complaining about the declining content quality.

That isn't realistic.

My step-daughter uses our account in college. I don't share our password outside of the family.

The better solution is to tie each login to a real email address. I think Google has it right. I can share my YouTube TV with 5 household members but they all have to be explicitly granted. If I want to share my password with other people, I am basically giving them access to my email account.

If they want to get more hard core they could implement a 2FA system as well.

 

[Diamondeye]

No, one password for one IP wouldn't work at all: since ISPs assign dynamic IPs that can change at any time, one password per IP would mean lots of subscribers would regularly get falsely accused of password sharing even if they didn't password share. That's why Netflix's plan is to use geolocation instead.

That isn't realistic.

My step-daughter uses our account in college. I don't share our password outside of the family.

The better solution is to tie each login to a real email address. I think Google has it right. I can share my YouTube TV with 5 household members but they all have to be explicitly granted. If I want to share my password with other people, I am basically giving them access to my email account.

If they want to get more hard core they could implement a 2FA system as well.

I'm far from a tech wiz, so it may very well be more complicated to than it appears, but this has been a rather glaring flaw in Netflix business since the beginning, and it's pretty surprising they really haven't done much to address it.

Though with the sales growth they saw for much of the past decade, it probably wasn't much of a priority.