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Companies focus on buying content while ignoring the quality of the broadcast experience. I am tired of competitors that skimp on this. Netflix doesn’t shove

Companies focus on buying content while ignoring the quality of the broadcast experience. I am tired of competitors that skimp on this. Netflix doesn’t shove ads in your face, works on every platform and almost never has mysterious transmission failures. And now they have excellent content too. They have figured out so much more than some of the last-century providers.

majani 8y ago
and yet they still make mind boggling losses with no end in sight. I think in the next 10 years Netflix will serve as a reality check that shows why content creators have had to resort to their ugly business practices.
- goodmattg 8y ago
  "no end in sight" is false. It took ~5 seconds to Google this. https://www.barrons.com/articles/netflix-will-be-cash-flow-positive-by-2022-moodys-says-1523475251 https://www.barrons.com/articles/netflix-will-be-cash-flow-p...
  - casefields 8y ago
    That’s assuming all the customers will continue to subscribe including a bunch of price increases and nearly double the current amount of subscribers. “We expect the steady subscriber growth, together with gradual price increases will outpace the increasing investment in content and the upfront working capital spending on self-produced and owned programming, resulting in steadily improving margins. We believe that those margins will need to grow from the 7% range of 2017, to the low to mid 20% range to generate positive cash flows. As a result, we forecast the company becoming cash-flow positive in approximately five years.” Yeah that increases as in plural.
adjkant 8y ago
Hulu is the worst goddamn experience, not even just because of ads, but the entire platform is so buggy and fragile. The Netflix playback experience is somehow still highly underrated. Amazon got the playback experience right pretty quick as well - I really want to know what is stopping Hulu.
- chii 8y ago
  I suspect that both Netflix and Prime are run like an engineering company, while Hulu is run like a media/marketing company.
wvenable 8y ago
Amazon prime shows ads for other prime shows occasionally and it just pisses me off. I'm seeing less of them, so maybe they got the message. Prime is also very much a superficial copy of the Netflix interface.
- typetehcodez 8y ago
  This reason alone (the ads to other Prime shows) is why I cancelled my Prime subscription and also was the final nail in the coffin on why I stopped using amazon all together. Amazon started to piss me off when they turned my amazon kindle, and the later my amazon app on my android phone into advertisement space.
- r00fus 8y ago
  Prime Video is just a teaser for Amazon Video. I can't let my kids use it because they'll either buy or complain about not being able to buy the non-free stuff. It's a mess for that reason alone.
- makecheck 8y ago
  Pre-ads on services also don’t play well at all with failures. Even a short crappy promo for 15 seconds gets old if it keeps replaying the crappy promo every time my actual show fails to play. So the experience goes: $ad, $error, $same_ad, $same_error, and before you know it you’re muttering about how much you’re over-paying.

majani 8y ago

and yet they still make mind boggling losses with no end in sight. I think in the next 10 years Netflix will serve as a reality check that shows why content creators have had to resort to their ugly business practices.

goodmattg 8y ago
"no end in sight" is false. It took ~5 seconds to Google this. https://www.barrons.com/articles/netflix-will-be-cash-flow-positive-by-2022-moodys-says-1523475251 https://www.barrons.com/articles/netflix-will-be-cash-flow-p...
- casefields 8y ago
  That’s assuming all the customers will continue to subscribe including a bunch of price increases and nearly double the current amount of subscribers. “We expect the steady subscriber growth, together with gradual price increases will outpace the increasing investment in content and the upfront working capital spending on self-produced and owned programming, resulting in steadily improving margins. We believe that those margins will need to grow from the 7% range of 2017, to the low to mid 20% range to generate positive cash flows. As a result, we forecast the company becoming cash-flow positive in approximately five years.” Yeah that increases as in plural.

adjkant 8y ago

Hulu is the worst goddamn experience, not even just because of ads, but the entire platform is so buggy and fragile. The Netflix playback experience is somehow still highly underrated. Amazon got the playback experience right pretty quick as well - I really want to know what is stopping Hulu.

chii 8y ago
I suspect that both Netflix and Prime are run like an engineering company, while Hulu is run like a media/marketing company.

wvenable 8y ago

Amazon prime shows ads for other prime shows occasionally and it just pisses me off. I'm seeing less of them, so maybe they got the message. Prime is also very much a superficial copy of the Netflix interface.

typetehcodez 8y ago
This reason alone (the ads to other Prime shows) is why I cancelled my Prime subscription and also was the final nail in the coffin on why I stopped using amazon all together. Amazon started to piss me off when they turned my amazon kindle, and the later my amazon app on my android phone into advertisement space.
r00fus 8y ago
Prime Video is just a teaser for Amazon Video. I can't let my kids use it because they'll either buy or complain about not being able to buy the non-free stuff. It's a mess for that reason alone.
makecheck 8y ago
Pre-ads on services also don’t play well at all with failures. Even a short crappy promo for 15 seconds gets old if it keeps replaying the crappy promo every time my actual show fails to play. So the experience goes: $ad, $error, $same_ad, $same_error, and before you know it you’re muttering about how much you’re over-paying.