9 ms·

People Like Netflix’s Original Content More Than Its Other Content

76 points by artsandsci 10y ago

Zikes 10y ago
I don't see the value in comparing Netflix's original content against the exceptionally larger collection of syndicated content which mostly consists of whatever they can get their hands on regardless of quality. It only makes sense that in averaging those two groups the OC one would rate higher.
- gibbitz 10y ago
  Came here to say the same and as the back catalog slips further and further into the syndicated Sunday movie category the OC looks better and better because you haven't already seen it. When I first subscribed to Netflix it was a library of DVDs (literally), now its a slightly better TBS. (Hey Lethal Weapon's on... again) One thing to note about the cost. There's one rather large difference between cable and multiple streaming services (at least where Netflix is concerned) and that is advertising. We may be paying more for this content, but at least we're only getting content and not having to wait through mis-targeted advertising... At least for now.
  - fusiongyro 10y ago
    Agreed completely. Back in October someone blogged that only 31 of the IMDB top 250 movies are on Netflix. https://www.streamingobserver.com/netflix-now-31-movies-imdbs-top-250-list/ https://www.streamingobserver.com/netflix-now-31-movies-imdb...
croon 10y ago
I really like Netflix originals (the ones I've watched), but it also makes me fear for the future of consolidated streaming. I want to be able to keep up with, and watch good recommended shows. If I want to watch shows like The Man in the High Castle (Amazon), Game of Thrones (HBO, duh), Difficult People (Hulu), HarmonQuest (Seeso), etc. Is it reasonable to have to subscribe to 5 different streaming services? Don't get me wrong, $9,99 is likely too cheap to get mostly everything like you do with Spotify, but I'm willing to pay double or triple that, as long as I can keep it in one service, and that it's not five or six times as much, which is a bit steep. Can we expect anything other than a fractured market, where each service has a lot of content, but not even half of what we want to see?
- kartD 10y ago
  What about a Spotify equivalent with everything, but you can only stream x amount of hours/shows/episodes per year? I agree the market is too fractured and everyone subscribes for just a few shows on each service
  - fitchjo 10y ago
    What is the equivalent for TV content producers that concerts are for musicians? Seems to me there can be some advantage to having your music available for streaming as you provide significantly more access to your music, which you can then monetize through concerts/apparel, but would think those producing the in-demand content would not want someone else to be able to capitalize on that.
- gdulli 10y ago
  It feels like this is a path they foresaw long ago and therefore worked out the cable TV infrastructure. Which may have flaws and got bloated but also has a lot of benefits compared to streaming.
- rweichler 10y ago
  It is pretty easy to circumvent censorship these days, thanks to BitTorrent.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - loco5niner 10y ago
    Censorship is the wrong term here. Plus, I want to pay for what I use. I just want the process to be somewhat simplified.
- TylerE 10y ago
  For like $2 extra a month you can get all the HBO stuff throguh Amazon Prime.
kirykl 10y ago
I find watching the Netflix back-library to be slightly depressing. Generally watching older movies is great but when nearly every 'you might be interested in' has a cast that's 50% deceased it gets depressing
- magic_beans 10y ago
  But... many, many movies have deceased cast. Do you only watch movies released after 1960..?
- r00fus 10y ago
  I personally don't find Back to the Future less entertaining now that I know that Michael J Fox has Parkinsons disorder. Life happens, and people get old and die. I appreciate their older works for what they are.
mrfusion 10y ago
Which shows do you guys like?
- svachalek 10y ago
  Stranger Things and the Marvel Hell's Kitchen series (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage so far) should appeal to most of the nerd crowd and have a lot of mainstream popularity too. I also enjoyed Marco Polo, Sense 8, and The Get Down personally.
  - wwwhatcrack 10y ago
    It's sad they couldn't license any real super heroes. Those guys are lame.
- fullshark 10y ago
  Black Mirror and BoJack Horseman is the only Netflix original content that I think is phenomenal. The other stuff is fine to mediocre.
- Liuser 10y ago
  House of Cards started it all highly recommend watching it if you have not. Chewing Gum is a recent favorite of mine.
bennylope 10y ago
This should be retitled, "People Like Netflix’s Original Content More Than Its Other Sparse and Geographically Restricted Content"
- nottorp 10y ago
  Or "besides Netflix's own shows, there's nothing worth watching on Netflix any more". Except in some places where Netflix doesn't even have all their original content lol.
dlandis 10y ago
> That means that user ratings for Netflix originals are 11% higher, on average, than user ratings for syndicated content. You can't really draw any conclusions from that stat though since part of the issue is some of the non-original content they add is so bad. I looked up some of the ratings for their recently added movies and some had basically 1 star (on imdb, etc). Why even add it in that case? I think concentrating on original content is great, but I think they should be the go-to place for something else as well...I remember years ago people were amazed at how many quality, little-known, niche independent films they had. Why not get back to that in addition to original content?
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  > Why even add it in that case? Because entertainment is highly subjective, so some people are bound to like it, and stuff which isn't broadly popular is cheap to pick up. Plus, its a cheap way to give the catalog the casual illusion of depth. > I remember years ago people were amazed at how many quality, little-known, niche independent films they had. Why not get back to that in addition to original content? The same reason they don't have lots of the other high-quality non-profit all content they used to have -- once they proved the market, plenty of other players jumped in (including, in many cases, the content producers), so much of the content isn't available to them and what is has more people bidding for it, often seeking exclusivity and willing to pay for it. The same thing happened to HBO when other companies got into the "cable premium movie channel" business, and that's why HBO, for a long time, has also been driven by original programming. If you don't own the content, and you aren't the only channel in a space, the content owners are going to extract all the value through competition among distribution channels. So, you either have to be essentially a monopoly channel (which usually isn't maintainable), or you have to rely on compelling original content as your main draw.
- tyingq 10y ago
  Agree...of course the user ratings are lower for the non-original content. The Netflix catalog of non-original content does have some bright spots. But there's also a ton of really obscure documentaries, miniscule budget action movies, crappy Adam Sandler movies, reality TV garbage, etc.
IshKebab 10y ago
What other content?
zitterbewegung 10y ago
Awhile ago Netflix decided to become HBO before HBO could become Netflix. This shows in two ways. One is that they have been investing a bunch in original content and striving for high quality original content for streaming. It also shows that content that isn't owned by them seems to be declining in quality or there is less emphasis or even ability to get non original content on Netflix and the quality appears to be declining IMHO.
- CWuestefeld 10y ago
  That's pretty much what I came here to say. I do like their original content, BUT... I want that "last year's movies" that I used to be able to get from them, and now seems to be going to crap. The quality of their original stuff is very good. And they've got good coverage of non-original TV, too (e.g., reruns of "Friends"). But when you get to movies-from-theatres, they're just not there at all anymore. I think this is intentional on their part, but they need to be careful, because Amazon also seems to be doing well with a similar strategy (e.g., "Man in the High Castle"). Netflix's original mission of movies could be what sets them apart but it seems to be all but abandoned.
  - nikofeyn 10y ago
    yea, and actually, the movies i get through the hbo go app are often far superior to netflix's offerings. they rotate, but they often include major releases. i have been thinking about canceling netflix's streaming and returning to the dvd option to get more access.
- stephengillie 10y ago
  Netflix might become HBO at the cost of being Netflix.
  - ecnahc515 10y ago
    It's not a trade off, it's everyone else licensing them the content basically making Netflix have no choice but to produce its own content, everything else is too expensive now. Everyone wants tons of money from Netflix for their content, and Netflix is choosing to not pay the increased rate. I'm sure if that changed Netflix would continue to produce new content and use others as well.
frostirosti 10y ago
There has got to be a bias here. Of course people who've subscribed to netflix like their original content.
- grondilu 10y ago
  This. I'll totally confess that I'm very indulgent towards original Netflix programs. I'm paying for it so I want to believe I've made the right choice.
grillvogel 10y ago
this is a bit misleading, netflix has continued to lose most of its good licensed content and what is left is mostly garbage compared to what used to be there.
Uhhrrr 10y ago
Of course they do. Netflix original content is specifically targeted towards its users. https://blog.kissmetrics.com/how-netflix-uses-analytics/ https://blog.kissmetrics.com/how-netflix-uses-analytics/
Thaxll 10y ago
Netflix is sort of the new 2.0 cable company, at the begging it was great in term of global catalogue, ten years from now if will be Netflix shows only, back to square one.
the_watcher 10y ago
Netflix's original content has been extremely high-quality, on average. That said, the quality of the other content has also seemed to steadily decline, so this might be a skewed metric.
zeveb 10y ago
I think a lot of this is due to the fact that Netflix's other content is pretty terrible. I really miss the old Netflix DVD library: that had every movie or TV show I could ever hope to watch. Now I have a few popular movies from the last year, a few popular movies from a few years ago, a smattering of TV shows, and some (admittedly pretty good) original content. I just want to pay a cheque and get access to every film & TV show from across the world.
helthanatos 10y ago
I don't like any of Netflix's original content and Netflix(US) is pretty annoying with not offering content (such as Tokyo ghoul and better call Saul) I wish they made another Dexter as original content but oh well. About to only use Kodi.
sfifs 10y ago
As a marketing guy, I see these trends of unique content focused websites beginning to win over the YouTube/Social Sharing model in many parts of the world. In China, made for internet shows and Korean/Japanese shows dubbed into Chinese are all the rage. In India, locally led content focused video companies have begun rapidly grabbing ad budget dollars from what was previously a YouTube/FB market primarily - especially given FBs issues with video viewability. In the US, there's Netflix and Amazon Prime. The only difference is in the monetization model - primarily subscription in the US and Ads in China/India - though we're seeing some models of Subscription to do away with ads in China.
beters 10y ago
That's not saying much when there's very little good third-party content. Except for House of Cards S1, Netflix original content is B-grade at best. When Netflix started instant streaming, they had a solid content repertoire from various places. Today, they have very few good third-party movies, and they try to fill the empty space with lousy Original Content. Of course people will prefer Originals compared to very few crappy alternatives. I would rather see Netflix spend money on getting programming from other companies instead of throwing money at Adam Sandler.

76 points by artsandsci 10y ago

Zikes 10y ago

I don't see the value in comparing Netflix's original content against the exceptionally larger collection of syndicated content which mostly consists of whatever they can get their hands on regardless of quality. It only makes sense that in averaging those two groups the OC one would rate higher.

gibbitz 10y ago
Came here to say the same and as the back catalog slips further and further into the syndicated Sunday movie category the OC looks better and better because you haven't already seen it. When I first subscribed to Netflix it was a library of DVDs (literally), now its a slightly better TBS. (Hey Lethal Weapon's on... again) One thing to note about the cost. There's one rather large difference between cable and multiple streaming services (at least where Netflix is concerned) and that is advertising. We may be paying more for this content, but at least we're only getting content and not having to wait through mis-targeted advertising... At least for now.
- fusiongyro 10y ago
  Agreed completely. Back in October someone blogged that only 31 of the IMDB top 250 movies are on Netflix. https://www.streamingobserver.com/netflix-now-31-movies-imdbs-top-250-list/ https://www.streamingobserver.com/netflix-now-31-movies-imdb...

croon 10y ago

I really like Netflix originals (the ones I've watched), but it also makes me fear for the future of consolidated streaming. I want to be able to keep up with, and watch good recommended shows. If I want to watch shows like The Man in the High Castle (Amazon), Game of Thrones (HBO, duh), Difficult People (Hulu), HarmonQuest (Seeso), etc. Is it reasonable to have to subscribe to 5 different streaming services? Don't get me wrong, $9,99 is likely too cheap to get mostly everything like you do with Spotify, but I'm willing to pay double or triple that, as long as I can keep it in one service, and that it's not five or six times as much, which is a bit steep. Can we expect anything other than a fractured market, where each service has a lot of content, but not even half of what we want to see?

kartD 10y ago
What about a Spotify equivalent with everything, but you can only stream x amount of hours/shows/episodes per year? I agree the market is too fractured and everyone subscribes for just a few shows on each service
- fitchjo 10y ago
  What is the equivalent for TV content producers that concerts are for musicians? Seems to me there can be some advantage to having your music available for streaming as you provide significantly more access to your music, which you can then monetize through concerts/apparel, but would think those producing the in-demand content would not want someone else to be able to capitalize on that.
gdulli 10y ago
It feels like this is a path they foresaw long ago and therefore worked out the cable TV infrastructure. Which may have flaws and got bloated but also has a lot of benefits compared to streaming.
rweichler 10y ago
It is pretty easy to circumvent censorship these days, thanks to BitTorrent.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- loco5niner 10y ago
  Censorship is the wrong term here. Plus, I want to pay for what I use. I just want the process to be somewhat simplified.
TylerE 10y ago
For like $2 extra a month you can get all the HBO stuff throguh Amazon Prime.

kirykl 10y ago

I find watching the Netflix back-library to be slightly depressing. Generally watching older movies is great but when nearly every 'you might be interested in' has a cast that's 50% deceased it gets depressing

magic_beans 10y ago
But... many, many movies have deceased cast. Do you only watch movies released after 1960..?
r00fus 10y ago
I personally don't find Back to the Future less entertaining now that I know that Michael J Fox has Parkinsons disorder. Life happens, and people get old and die. I appreciate their older works for what they are.

mrfusion 10y ago

Which shows do you guys like?

svachalek 10y ago
Stranger Things and the Marvel Hell's Kitchen series (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage so far) should appeal to most of the nerd crowd and have a lot of mainstream popularity too. I also enjoyed Marco Polo, Sense 8, and The Get Down personally.
- wwwhatcrack 10y ago
  It's sad they couldn't license any real super heroes. Those guys are lame.
fullshark 10y ago
Black Mirror and BoJack Horseman is the only Netflix original content that I think is phenomenal. The other stuff is fine to mediocre.
Liuser 10y ago
House of Cards started it all highly recommend watching it if you have not. Chewing Gum is a recent favorite of mine.

bennylope 10y ago

This should be retitled, "People Like Netflix’s Original Content More Than Its Other Sparse and Geographically Restricted Content"

nottorp 10y ago
Or "besides Netflix's own shows, there's nothing worth watching on Netflix any more". Except in some places where Netflix doesn't even have all their original content lol.

dlandis 10y ago

> That means that user ratings for Netflix originals are 11% higher, on average, than user ratings for syndicated content. You can't really draw any conclusions from that stat though since part of the issue is some of the non-original content they add is so bad. I looked up some of the ratings for their recently added movies and some had basically 1 star (on imdb, etc). Why even add it in that case? I think concentrating on original content is great, but I think they should be the go-to place for something else as well...I remember years ago people were amazed at how many quality, little-known, niche independent films they had. Why not get back to that in addition to original content?

dragonwriter 10y ago
> Why even add it in that case? Because entertainment is highly subjective, so some people are bound to like it, and stuff which isn't broadly popular is cheap to pick up. Plus, its a cheap way to give the catalog the casual illusion of depth. > I remember years ago people were amazed at how many quality, little-known, niche independent films they had. Why not get back to that in addition to original content? The same reason they don't have lots of the other high-quality non-profit all content they used to have -- once they proved the market, plenty of other players jumped in (including, in many cases, the content producers), so much of the content isn't available to them and what is has more people bidding for it, often seeking exclusivity and willing to pay for it. The same thing happened to HBO when other companies got into the "cable premium movie channel" business, and that's why HBO, for a long time, has also been driven by original programming. If you don't own the content, and you aren't the only channel in a space, the content owners are going to extract all the value through competition among distribution channels. So, you either have to be essentially a monopoly channel (which usually isn't maintainable), or you have to rely on compelling original content as your main draw.
tyingq 10y ago
Agree...of course the user ratings are lower for the non-original content. The Netflix catalog of non-original content does have some bright spots. But there's also a ton of really obscure documentaries, miniscule budget action movies, crappy Adam Sandler movies, reality TV garbage, etc.

IshKebab 10y ago

What other content?

zitterbewegung 10y ago

Awhile ago Netflix decided to become HBO before HBO could become Netflix. This shows in two ways. One is that they have been investing a bunch in original content and striving for high quality original content for streaming. It also shows that content that isn't owned by them seems to be declining in quality or there is less emphasis or even ability to get non original content on Netflix and the quality appears to be declining IMHO.

CWuestefeld 10y ago
That's pretty much what I came here to say. I do like their original content, BUT... I want that "last year's movies" that I used to be able to get from them, and now seems to be going to crap. The quality of their original stuff is very good. And they've got good coverage of non-original TV, too (e.g., reruns of "Friends"). But when you get to movies-from-theatres, they're just not there at all anymore. I think this is intentional on their part, but they need to be careful, because Amazon also seems to be doing well with a similar strategy (e.g., "Man in the High Castle"). Netflix's original mission of movies could be what sets them apart but it seems to be all but abandoned.
- nikofeyn 10y ago
  yea, and actually, the movies i get through the hbo go app are often far superior to netflix's offerings. they rotate, but they often include major releases. i have been thinking about canceling netflix's streaming and returning to the dvd option to get more access.
stephengillie 10y ago
Netflix might become HBO at the cost of being Netflix.
- ecnahc515 10y ago
  It's not a trade off, it's everyone else licensing them the content basically making Netflix have no choice but to produce its own content, everything else is too expensive now. Everyone wants tons of money from Netflix for their content, and Netflix is choosing to not pay the increased rate. I'm sure if that changed Netflix would continue to produce new content and use others as well.

frostirosti 10y ago

There has got to be a bias here. Of course people who've subscribed to netflix like their original content.

grondilu 10y ago
This. I'll totally confess that I'm very indulgent towards original Netflix programs. I'm paying for it so I want to believe I've made the right choice.

grillvogel 10y ago

this is a bit misleading, netflix has continued to lose most of its good licensed content and what is left is mostly garbage compared to what used to be there.

Uhhrrr 10y ago

Of course they do. Netflix original content is specifically targeted towards its users. https://blog.kissmetrics.com/how-netflix-uses-analytics/ https://blog.kissmetrics.com/how-netflix-uses-analytics/

Thaxll 10y ago

Netflix is sort of the new 2.0 cable company, at the begging it was great in term of global catalogue, ten years from now if will be Netflix shows only, back to square one.

the_watcher 10y ago

Netflix's original content has been extremely high-quality, on average. That said, the quality of the other content has also seemed to steadily decline, so this might be a skewed metric.

zeveb 10y ago

I think a lot of this is due to the fact that Netflix's other content is pretty terrible. I really miss the old Netflix DVD library: that had every movie or TV show I could ever hope to watch. Now I have a few popular movies from the last year, a few popular movies from a few years ago, a smattering of TV shows, and some (admittedly pretty good) original content. I just want to pay a cheque and get access to every film & TV show from across the world.

helthanatos 10y ago

I don't like any of Netflix's original content and Netflix(US) is pretty annoying with not offering content (such as Tokyo ghoul and better call Saul) I wish they made another Dexter as original content but oh well. About to only use Kodi.

sfifs 10y ago

As a marketing guy, I see these trends of unique content focused websites beginning to win over the YouTube/Social Sharing model in many parts of the world. In China, made for internet shows and Korean/Japanese shows dubbed into Chinese are all the rage. In India, locally led content focused video companies have begun rapidly grabbing ad budget dollars from what was previously a YouTube/FB market primarily - especially given FBs issues with video viewability. In the US, there's Netflix and Amazon Prime. The only difference is in the monetization model - primarily subscription in the US and Ads in China/India - though we're seeing some models of Subscription to do away with ads in China.

beters 10y ago

That's not saying much when there's very little good third-party content. Except for House of Cards S1, Netflix original content is B-grade at best. When Netflix started instant streaming, they had a solid content repertoire from various places. Today, they have very few good third-party movies, and they try to fill the empty space with lousy Original Content. Of course people will prefer Originals compared to very few crappy alternatives. I would rather see Netflix spend money on getting programming from other companies instead of throwing money at Adam Sandler.