8 ms·

Total anecdote: Kinda sucks when shows leave Netflix and don't get replaced; half the appeal of Netflix is the ability to quickly switch between Futurama and A

Total anecdote: Kinda sucks when shows leave Netflix and don't get replaced; half the appeal of Netflix is the ability to quickly switch between Futurama and Always Sunny, and more importantly to be able to watch those shows on a platform that doesn't completely suck (FX's app has got to be one of the worst apps I've ever used). When "Parts Unknown" was about to leave Netflix, I really questioned whether it was worth keeping my subscription. It feels like it's happening at an accelerated pace in the last couple of years. The original content is good, and I realize that those shows leaving Netflix is probably more about Fox/CNN than it is about Netflix, but still makes me less interested in Netflix nonetheless.

TylerE 8y ago
They've been so aggressively getting rid of "real" content and replacing it with their in-house productions, the quality of which has slid quite a bit as they've ramped up volume. I'm on the verge of canceling it, since most of what I want is on Prime anyway.
- brightball 8y ago
  Same. I nearly cancelled when they got rid of Chuck. Amazon Prime picked it up shortly afterwards and lately most of what we watch is on Amazon.
  - zuppy 8y ago
    Well, I’ve got the opposite reaction with Amazon: I can’t watch even some of their own shows when they get released in US. For example The Man in the High Castle’s second season whas unavailable here for quite a while after the release. You can’t blame the content producers here.
- xienze 8y ago
  I don’t think they’re replacing their content on purpose, they have no choice. Around ten years ago when Netflix streaming started to take off studios thought they were taking Netflix for a ride, selling new-fangled “streaming” rights for old catalogue films that otherwise weren’t making much money. Now the game has changed and Netflix effectively can’t afford to renew these contracts, so little by little the stuff people actually know and love is leaving the service. To Netflix’s credit, they started trying to make their own content, but for every hit there’s about twenty misses. And frankly, even if everything they made turned to gold they still wouldn’t have age-old classics that everyone still wants to see. I actually think they’re going to be in a lot of trouble a few years down the line as their catalog is going to be a handful of great originals, tons of garbage originals, and a bottomless pit of Z-grade studio films.
  - pkaye 8y ago
    I've realized the same. I'm always surprised they are part of the FAANG stocks given how little they have control they have over their catalog.
    - dfee 8y ago
      I took the N out and realized that would never fly. As Netflix is the odd duck of the group, maybe some banking associate put it in there just to give some ferocity to the acronym (I.e. engineered a backronyn).
      - toomuchtodo 8y ago
        I always thought it odd that Netflix was picked instead of Microsoft for the "FAANG" group, considering market cap.
        dlgeek 8y ago
        Microsoft wasn't a growth stock for many years.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- atombender 8y ago
  Their licensing deals with studios such as NBC, Fox etc. are time-based. Netflix is not purposely getting rid of shows. Nor is Netflix the one deciding that "Parks and Recreation" is to only be available in the US. Netflix is producing all of their own shows precisely so that they will no longer be held hostage by other license holders. Of course, now everyone doing the same thing, and consumers are left having to subscribe to a ton of providers (even when said providers currently are in a "drought" between seasons of your favourite shows) and jump between apps to get what they want. (As an aside, Hulu stands out here in providing a "pause" button on your subscription. But it's month-based, and you still have to manage that yourself; it doesn't automatically credit you for those months when you didn't use the service.)
ProfessorLayton 8y ago
Another anecdote: I’d have cancelled Netflix a while ago if my family wasn’t using it. Their UX has been on a steady decline for me: - Audio previews make it so I never want to browse for what to watch next. I hate having to fumble with my tv/home theatre remote because of this. - If you leave it hanging, the previews count towards a watch! Wow. God help you if you wanna make some popcorn. - Their sorts are always shuffled around, pushing whatever content is on their agenda. - Im bilingual, and I can’t belive there’s no way to turn off captions for some of their shows. I can’t watch a show like Narcos without having subs for either English or Spanish. This might sound nit picky, but bilinguals aren’t exactly edge cases, either (SV is full of bilinguals!) I’ve talked to some of their UX designers, and data seems to rule all there, so they wouldn’t be doing what they’re doing if it didn’t help them. But damn it is infuriating. Crazy that my favorite netflix client is the one Apple designed for them in the older Apple TVs
- Crisco 8y ago
  I've shared a lot of your issues with Netflix as well, and I don't think it's nitpicky to want to watch Narcos without any subtitles. I feel like especially for that show where it really tried to capture the feeling of Colombia watching it and having to read half dialogue takes away from my enjoyment.
- unethical_ban 8y ago
  Audio previews! Holy shit! Terrible experience. And auto-play for episodes. I know it gets people hooked to watch, but still annoying. There are so few configurable items in their Netflix menu.
  - geoffmcc 8y ago
    I have noticed lately that the "Are you still there" message has gone away. While it is nice when you are awake, it sucks when you fall asleep and wake up on season 6 of something when last you knew you were on season 2. Then you have to figure out exactly what episode you fell asleep on, not impossible but can be a pain.
jdoliner 8y ago
Adding my own anecdote: I cancelled Netflix a while ago, I hadn't been watching it for a while but assumed the rest of my family was. Eventually got around to asking them and it turned out they hadn't used it in a while either. Turns out we all just kinda lost interest. I remember when streaming first came out I was excited to "see what's on streaming," it felt like so much content to explore. Then it gradually became: "let's see if I can find something tolerable on Netflix before I go to bed." So many nights I started 5 different things, giving up on each to start something new, before I eventually just gave up on Netflix all together and went to sleep. Part of the problem, was that their content came to all feel bland in the same way to me. But I also think they slowly broke my media consumption habits. I remember the days of Blockbuster when you had to pick one movie, and then you were committed. Which meant I almost always finished the movies. Many times I'd watch them twice. Netflix creates this persistent FOMO over what you could be watching. Eventually, I just stopped watching anything.
- TylerE 8y ago
  There is a paradox of choice, for sure. I remember when my first car had a 6cd changer in the trunk... I could listen to the same couple of albums for weeks. Now ten million songs at my fingertips and sometimes you just don’t feel like dealing with it
- rorykoehler 8y ago
  Almost in the exact same situation here. I've switched to audiobooks before bed. I've started sleeping much better too.
mrep 8y ago
I don't blame them. Netflix had 2 options: 1. Continue licensing content and be subject to the whims of the content creators who can destroy their margin by increasing fees. The content creators can also start their own streaming services like disney is planning on doing eating into that market of streaming. 2. Create their own content eliminating the 2 main risks in option 1. Option 2 is really the only viable option even if competition for content will likely result in content providers (HBO,Showtime,Netflix,Amazon...) not making much profit as the industry goes towards more perfect competition.
- onlyrealcuzzo 8y ago
  Creating good content is harder than leasing it. Option 2 has it's risks, and honestly they seem higher. Why would Disney or Comcast want Netflix to fail when it's a boon for them currently? Sure, they'll aggressively negotiate the best deals for themselves, sure they'll plan for a backup in the event Netflix would ever stop leasing their content, but why kick a cash cow in the teeth? It's bad business. If anything, Netflix jumped the shark cutting their cheques to the providers and creating their own content.
  - jogjayr 8y ago
    > Why would Disney or Comcast want Netflix to fail when it's a boon for them currently? See Pandora for a lesson in what happens when a content distribution company has no pricing power with their suppliers (content producers). Note that Spotify has been paying attention. [1] 1. https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/23/spotify-expands-its-push-into-original-content-with-new-podcasts/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/23/spotify-expands-its-push-i...
  - raynr 8y ago
    Disney is already working on their streaming service. Disney only wants Netflix around for as long as it takes for Disney to build a competing service made up of only Disney content that you have to pay a premium for. Even from Netflix's stratified perspective, Disney is a juggernaut, and Netflix's bargaining power goes away as soon as Disney has its own service running. Netflix needs to give subscribers a reason to keep their subscriptions going and if licensed content goes away they're going to need compelling original content to keep their subs interested.
eganist 8y ago
Happened to me with Amazon Prime as well. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16937290 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16937290 The moment they announced the price hike, it's like something cracked in my rationalization to maintain the service, and every adverse complaint I've ever queued up in my mind against the service floated right to the top. I'm on the verge of the same with Netflix. If I see a price hike, I'll quit just the same. They've been losing far more content than they've been adding. ...which I'd be happy to do. The production shops behind the prestige and niche films these streamers are lapping up for fixed fees (something like n% of budget paid to the production house, where n is a value over 100) are utterly crippling the production of quality titles that aren't things like event pieces or sequels. As the good production houses dip because of the rates the streamers are paying, you're more frequently being left with new or inexperienced production houses filling the void, producers with less experience IDing the creatives (writing/acting/etc), finding directors who can cast successfully, doing accurate budgeting, etc. I'll stop short of turning this into too much of a rant. Basically: the Netflixes and Amazons of the world have crippled the business case for an entire class of motion picture and subverted the quality of output in this class as a result.
- rorykoehler 8y ago
  I had prime through subscribing for the shopping service. I never found one show I wanted to watch on there apart from old stuff I'd already seen elsewhere.
- scrooched_moose 8y ago
  At least in my area, most of my orders still arrive in 2 days after cancelling. I just have to order a little less frequently to get that $35 free ship threshold. I was noticing I was ordering far less recently (mostly settled in the new house now), and the fact they still refuse to support Chromecast meant Prime Video was useless for me. The price hike was the final nail.
- MrMember 8y ago
  I cancelled my Netflix account around a year ago because of issues that kept accumulating. Removal of shows, deteriorating UX, price hikes, etc. I haven't missed it. I stopped renewing Prime when they announced the most recent price hike. It runs out in a week and I already don't miss it. If I need something in two days I'll pay for two day shipping. In all likelihood I'll save money this way.
mkhpalm 8y ago
Similar to you. All the shows I used to watch on it were gone or I'd already seen everything I could find worth watching. I canceled netflix about 2 years ago after being with them long before they ever did their streaming beta. I thought I'd just not subscribe for about a year and come back when they had made a bunch of new content. The bits and pieces I've seen or what I overhear about that content hasn't been very enticing.
TeMPOraL 8y ago
Agreed. Recently, Netflix reminded me why ultimately, torrents are simply superior. You see, I initially subscribed to Netflix because it had most of Star Trek on it - all the TV shows + many (I think most) of the movies. The ability to watch an episode every now and then was what kept me subscribed even through the periods I couldn't find anything else interesting there. Now, recently came a time I actually wanted to watch a Star Trek movie I loved ("Generations"). I looked for it, but it was nowhere to be found. Just gone. So was "First Contact". So were all the others (except the bastardizations of JJ Abrams). This prompted me to ask, what other (non-Trek) movies and series I loved and even watched on Netflix are still available? Turns out, the list of movies and series has been gradually decreasing behind my back. A lot of the interesting things I watched on Netflix, that I used as an argument to recommend Netflix to friends, are simply gone. Torrents cause a PITA with storage management, but have this one lovely feature - once a file is on your hard drive, it stays there. And this generalizes to SaaS vs. local software and files, too.
- majewsky 8y ago
  > Torrents cause a PITA with storage management, but have this one lovely feature - once a file is on your hard drive, it stays there. Same reason why I still buy my music on actual CDs. Sure, I rip them once and only use the files afterwards, but I can be assured that no matter what happens to my backup, I'll still have a large chunk of my music collection available in 30 years.
  - Paianni 8y ago
    Alternatively, one could just burn FLACs to recordable Blu-rays (preferably M-Discs) and achieve the same result.
thebigspacefuck 8y ago
Are there any good alternatives? I've used Prime and Hulu before but they seem to have the same issue from time to time. The obvious alternative for me is to rent the content from Prime or iTunes (I have an Apple TV so my options are somewhat limited), but at $3-$5 per rental that's 3-4 movies on Netflix before I get my money back. I think I watch that many but I'm not sure. I watch a lot of crap I wouldn't otherwise that I feel like I'm settling for, but on the other hand Netflix is just my ticket to zone out and stop thinking about other stuff, so it does the trick.

TylerE 8y ago

They've been so aggressively getting rid of "real" content and replacing it with their in-house productions, the quality of which has slid quite a bit as they've ramped up volume. I'm on the verge of canceling it, since most of what I want is on Prime anyway.

brightball 8y ago
Same. I nearly cancelled when they got rid of Chuck. Amazon Prime picked it up shortly afterwards and lately most of what we watch is on Amazon.
- zuppy 8y ago
  Well, I’ve got the opposite reaction with Amazon: I can’t watch even some of their own shows when they get released in US. For example The Man in the High Castle’s second season whas unavailable here for quite a while after the release. You can’t blame the content producers here.
xienze 8y ago
I don’t think they’re replacing their content on purpose, they have no choice. Around ten years ago when Netflix streaming started to take off studios thought they were taking Netflix for a ride, selling new-fangled “streaming” rights for old catalogue films that otherwise weren’t making much money. Now the game has changed and Netflix effectively can’t afford to renew these contracts, so little by little the stuff people actually know and love is leaving the service. To Netflix’s credit, they started trying to make their own content, but for every hit there’s about twenty misses. And frankly, even if everything they made turned to gold they still wouldn’t have age-old classics that everyone still wants to see. I actually think they’re going to be in a lot of trouble a few years down the line as their catalog is going to be a handful of great originals, tons of garbage originals, and a bottomless pit of Z-grade studio films.
- pkaye 8y ago
  I've realized the same. I'm always surprised they are part of the FAANG stocks given how little they have control they have over their catalog.
  - dfee 8y ago
    I took the N out and realized that would never fly. As Netflix is the odd duck of the group, maybe some banking associate put it in there just to give some ferocity to the acronym (I.e. engineered a backronyn).
    - toomuchtodo 8y ago
      I always thought it odd that Netflix was picked instead of Microsoft for the "FAANG" group, considering market cap.
      - dlgeek 8y ago
        Microsoft wasn't a growth stock for many years.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
atombender 8y ago
Their licensing deals with studios such as NBC, Fox etc. are time-based. Netflix is not purposely getting rid of shows. Nor is Netflix the one deciding that "Parks and Recreation" is to only be available in the US. Netflix is producing all of their own shows precisely so that they will no longer be held hostage by other license holders. Of course, now everyone doing the same thing, and consumers are left having to subscribe to a ton of providers (even when said providers currently are in a "drought" between seasons of your favourite shows) and jump between apps to get what they want. (As an aside, Hulu stands out here in providing a "pause" button on your subscription. But it's month-based, and you still have to manage that yourself; it doesn't automatically credit you for those months when you didn't use the service.)

ProfessorLayton 8y ago

Another anecdote: I’d have cancelled Netflix a while ago if my family wasn’t using it. Their UX has been on a steady decline for me: - Audio previews make it so I never want to browse for what to watch next. I hate having to fumble with my tv/home theatre remote because of this. - If you leave it hanging, the previews count towards a watch! Wow. God help you if you wanna make some popcorn. - Their sorts are always shuffled around, pushing whatever content is on their agenda. - Im bilingual, and I can’t belive there’s no way to turn off captions for some of their shows. I can’t watch a show like Narcos without having subs for either English or Spanish. This might sound nit picky, but bilinguals aren’t exactly edge cases, either (SV is full of bilinguals!) I’ve talked to some of their UX designers, and data seems to rule all there, so they wouldn’t be doing what they’re doing if it didn’t help them. But damn it is infuriating. Crazy that my favorite netflix client is the one Apple designed for them in the older Apple TVs

Crisco 8y ago
I've shared a lot of your issues with Netflix as well, and I don't think it's nitpicky to want to watch Narcos without any subtitles. I feel like especially for that show where it really tried to capture the feeling of Colombia watching it and having to read half dialogue takes away from my enjoyment.
unethical_ban 8y ago
Audio previews! Holy shit! Terrible experience. And auto-play for episodes. I know it gets people hooked to watch, but still annoying. There are so few configurable items in their Netflix menu.
- geoffmcc 8y ago
  I have noticed lately that the "Are you still there" message has gone away. While it is nice when you are awake, it sucks when you fall asleep and wake up on season 6 of something when last you knew you were on season 2. Then you have to figure out exactly what episode you fell asleep on, not impossible but can be a pain.

jdoliner 8y ago

Adding my own anecdote: I cancelled Netflix a while ago, I hadn't been watching it for a while but assumed the rest of my family was. Eventually got around to asking them and it turned out they hadn't used it in a while either. Turns out we all just kinda lost interest. I remember when streaming first came out I was excited to "see what's on streaming," it felt like so much content to explore. Then it gradually became: "let's see if I can find something tolerable on Netflix before I go to bed." So many nights I started 5 different things, giving up on each to start something new, before I eventually just gave up on Netflix all together and went to sleep. Part of the problem, was that their content came to all feel bland in the same way to me. But I also think they slowly broke my media consumption habits. I remember the days of Blockbuster when you had to pick one movie, and then you were committed. Which meant I almost always finished the movies. Many times I'd watch them twice. Netflix creates this persistent FOMO over what you could be watching. Eventually, I just stopped watching anything.

TylerE 8y ago
There is a paradox of choice, for sure. I remember when my first car had a 6cd changer in the trunk... I could listen to the same couple of albums for weeks. Now ten million songs at my fingertips and sometimes you just don’t feel like dealing with it
rorykoehler 8y ago
Almost in the exact same situation here. I've switched to audiobooks before bed. I've started sleeping much better too.

mrep 8y ago

I don't blame them. Netflix had 2 options: 1. Continue licensing content and be subject to the whims of the content creators who can destroy their margin by increasing fees. The content creators can also start their own streaming services like disney is planning on doing eating into that market of streaming. 2. Create their own content eliminating the 2 main risks in option 1. Option 2 is really the only viable option even if competition for content will likely result in content providers (HBO,Showtime,Netflix,Amazon...) not making much profit as the industry goes towards more perfect competition.

onlyrealcuzzo 8y ago
Creating good content is harder than leasing it. Option 2 has it's risks, and honestly they seem higher. Why would Disney or Comcast want Netflix to fail when it's a boon for them currently? Sure, they'll aggressively negotiate the best deals for themselves, sure they'll plan for a backup in the event Netflix would ever stop leasing their content, but why kick a cash cow in the teeth? It's bad business. If anything, Netflix jumped the shark cutting their cheques to the providers and creating their own content.
- jogjayr 8y ago
  > Why would Disney or Comcast want Netflix to fail when it's a boon for them currently? See Pandora for a lesson in what happens when a content distribution company has no pricing power with their suppliers (content producers). Note that Spotify has been paying attention. [1] 1. https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/23/spotify-expands-its-push-into-original-content-with-new-podcasts/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/23/spotify-expands-its-push-i...
- raynr 8y ago
  Disney is already working on their streaming service. Disney only wants Netflix around for as long as it takes for Disney to build a competing service made up of only Disney content that you have to pay a premium for. Even from Netflix's stratified perspective, Disney is a juggernaut, and Netflix's bargaining power goes away as soon as Disney has its own service running. Netflix needs to give subscribers a reason to keep their subscriptions going and if licensed content goes away they're going to need compelling original content to keep their subs interested.

eganist 8y ago

Happened to me with Amazon Prime as well. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16937290 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16937290 The moment they announced the price hike, it's like something cracked in my rationalization to maintain the service, and every adverse complaint I've ever queued up in my mind against the service floated right to the top. I'm on the verge of the same with Netflix. If I see a price hike, I'll quit just the same. They've been losing far more content than they've been adding. ...which I'd be happy to do. The production shops behind the prestige and niche films these streamers are lapping up for fixed fees (something like n% of budget paid to the production house, where n is a value over 100) are utterly crippling the production of quality titles that aren't things like event pieces or sequels. As the good production houses dip because of the rates the streamers are paying, you're more frequently being left with new or inexperienced production houses filling the void, producers with less experience IDing the creatives (writing/acting/etc), finding directors who can cast successfully, doing accurate budgeting, etc. I'll stop short of turning this into too much of a rant. Basically: the Netflixes and Amazons of the world have crippled the business case for an entire class of motion picture and subverted the quality of output in this class as a result.

rorykoehler 8y ago
I had prime through subscribing for the shopping service. I never found one show I wanted to watch on there apart from old stuff I'd already seen elsewhere.
scrooched_moose 8y ago
At least in my area, most of my orders still arrive in 2 days after cancelling. I just have to order a little less frequently to get that $35 free ship threshold. I was noticing I was ordering far less recently (mostly settled in the new house now), and the fact they still refuse to support Chromecast meant Prime Video was useless for me. The price hike was the final nail.
MrMember 8y ago
I cancelled my Netflix account around a year ago because of issues that kept accumulating. Removal of shows, deteriorating UX, price hikes, etc. I haven't missed it. I stopped renewing Prime when they announced the most recent price hike. It runs out in a week and I already don't miss it. If I need something in two days I'll pay for two day shipping. In all likelihood I'll save money this way.

mkhpalm 8y ago

Similar to you. All the shows I used to watch on it were gone or I'd already seen everything I could find worth watching. I canceled netflix about 2 years ago after being with them long before they ever did their streaming beta. I thought I'd just not subscribe for about a year and come back when they had made a bunch of new content. The bits and pieces I've seen or what I overhear about that content hasn't been very enticing.

TeMPOraL 8y ago

Agreed. Recently, Netflix reminded me why ultimately, torrents are simply superior. You see, I initially subscribed to Netflix because it had most of Star Trek on it - all the TV shows + many (I think most) of the movies. The ability to watch an episode every now and then was what kept me subscribed even through the periods I couldn't find anything else interesting there. Now, recently came a time I actually wanted to watch a Star Trek movie I loved ("Generations"). I looked for it, but it was nowhere to be found. Just gone. So was "First Contact". So were all the others (except the bastardizations of JJ Abrams). This prompted me to ask, what other (non-Trek) movies and series I loved and even watched on Netflix are still available? Turns out, the list of movies and series has been gradually decreasing behind my back. A lot of the interesting things I watched on Netflix, that I used as an argument to recommend Netflix to friends, are simply gone. Torrents cause a PITA with storage management, but have this one lovely feature - once a file is on your hard drive, it stays there. And this generalizes to SaaS vs. local software and files, too.

majewsky 8y ago
> Torrents cause a PITA with storage management, but have this one lovely feature - once a file is on your hard drive, it stays there. Same reason why I still buy my music on actual CDs. Sure, I rip them once and only use the files afterwards, but I can be assured that no matter what happens to my backup, I'll still have a large chunk of my music collection available in 30 years.
- Paianni 8y ago
  Alternatively, one could just burn FLACs to recordable Blu-rays (preferably M-Discs) and achieve the same result.

thebigspacefuck 8y ago

Are there any good alternatives? I've used Prime and Hulu before but they seem to have the same issue from time to time. The obvious alternative for me is to rent the content from Prime or iTunes (I have an Apple TV so my options are somewhat limited), but at $3-$5 per rental that's 3-4 movies on Netflix before I get my money back. I think I watch that many but I'm not sure. I watch a lot of crap I wouldn't otherwise that I feel like I'm settling for, but on the other hand Netflix is just my ticket to zone out and stop thinking about other stuff, so it does the trick.