9 ms·

Netflix will now interrupt series binges with video ads for its other series

141 points by downrightmike 8y ago

steve19 8y ago
And so it begins...
- majewsky 8y ago
  https://www.xkcd.com/1656/ https://www.xkcd.com/1656/ ?
- trumped 8y ago
  it started a while ago: https://reelgood.com/blog/netflixs-us-catalog-has-shrunk-by-more-than-2-500-titles-in-less-than-2-5-years/ https://reelgood.com/blog/netflixs-us-catalog-has-shrunk-by-... (actually, I think it started prior to that... maybe when they started to push people away from DVDs by almost doubling the cost)
CamperBob2 8y ago
From the CNN article at https://money.cnn.com/2018/08/18/technology/business/netflix-video-promotions/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2018/08/18/technology/business/netflix...: In 2016, Netflix launched video previews that play when users browse. Netflix said that the videos cut down the time people spent browsing 'significantly.' Every action this company takes seems to have one goal, above and beyond all others: to make sure their customers never catch even a fleeting glimpse of just how few titles they have in their streaming catalog. A strange model, but it seems to work for them.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- meesterdude 8y ago
  And the titles they do have are incomplete. A number of shows i've gotten into only have a few seasons on netflix despite being several years old already - and more frustrating is it's not always season 1.
amiga-workbench 8y ago
The first time this happens to me I'm yanking my subscription.
- severine 8y ago
  Well, I'm not a Netflix user, but IMO a proper binge includes muscle memory for the shortcuts to exclude openings, endings, teasers and in previous episodes intros... Thinking about autoplaying, unskippable ads/trailers/promos makes me giggle. I can't imagine paying users reacting well to this.
- DavideNL 8y ago
  Same here. I'm already annoyed lately by the stuff Netflix tries to push me to watch, by automatically playing stuff... like the intros when i open the netflix app on my Tv or when I've finished watching the last episode of a show. "Thou shall consume more." I only need a little bit more of that crap to cancel my subscription...
AmVess 8y ago
In a statement given to Ars Technica, Netflix described the change as follows: "We are testing whether surfacing recommendations between episodes helps members discover stories they will enjoy faster." The reasoning, Netflix's statement says, comes from its last controversial decision: to add auto-playing videos, complete with unmuteable audio, while browsing through Netflix content. Netflix offered a major rebuttal to at least one Reddit claim, pointing out that the ads for Netflix content are entirely skippable. I'm guessing they aren't getting views they want, especially with a lot of their shows being duds. The obvious response would be to increase the quality of their programming. The easy response is to jam their current programming down our throats. I quit Netflix, and even a single ad about anything is enough to keep me from ever returning. Trust me, this is just a start. They know people hate autoplay videos, yet they added them anyway. They know people hate ads, but they are going to be using them anyway. What's next? Product advertising? I don't doubt this. Ad/ad free streaming packages?
- partiallypro 8y ago
  Pretty much guaranteed Netflix will start going the Hulu route when they start to run out of user growth and Wall Street wants more and more. What they should be doing is focusing on pure quality, instead of burning so much cash on vast original content (their cash burn is insane.) The current model is nothing but throwing everything against the wall and hoping some of it sticks. So many of their flops are so obviously going to be massive flops. If they would just focus on putting out new shows like Dark, Stranger Things, their murder docs with a seasonal release calendar, etc they would maintain customers. That and inking deals with non-Disney entities to get solid third party content. HBO has maintained customers and grown with just 3-4 shows keeping people hooked in any given time period. If they think they can compete with cash rich behemoths like Amazon and Disney they are going to get destroyed. Amazon is going to blow no telling how much on this new Lord of the Rings series...but they don't care, they can afford it. Netflix should go the Apple model, go with quality. Let the others burn cash to get into the space.
  - Something1234 8y ago
    Amazon's main issue is just poor discovery when I open up amazon, I want to see what I was last watching, but instead it almost never shows me that, instead it shows me what product I was looking at last, which I probably wasn't going to buy.
throw2016 8y ago
If you don't pay for it you are the product, if you pay for it you are still the product. If you don't pay for it you get ads. If you pay for it you still get ads. It's like some people are making up things as situations arise to shield corporate interests and diffuse blame to the individual to evade accountability and cover up greed.
kawsper 8y ago
If they are serious, I do not think they know their customers very well.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- goostavos 8y ago
  Never underestimate what a data scientist can make you "know" about your customers.
staticassertion 8y ago
The recommendations are benign if they are the ones that show up when a series ends. I have no issue with this - they can actually be helpful.
14 8y ago
Our house used to have netflix. Then came the different tiers, like pay more and you can have 4k video or more then one person at a time streaming. I didn't like the change but I was still able to keep the lower tier and it was still convenient at that time. Then we had a huge reorganization at work and though I didn't lose my job my hours were temporarily tanked and I was desperately running lower and lower on funds to the point where at one point I had $23 on my prepaid credit card. The same card had just expired and I was sent a new one with new numbers. Well after a month netflix tries to take a payment and can't since it is a new card. Then start the emails about needing a payment or I will lose service. Shortly after they did cut service. I was all too stressed to even deal with them and just figured, oh well I will be back once things are better at work and I can afford it. But before that could happen, I guess they can find out the new card numbers from the bank or whatever, so after cutting off my service for a month, while I am literally broke to the point I am unsure about future meals and $23 to my name a netflix payment came off my card. That was the last straw. I canceled immediately and will never go back.
- darpa_escapee 8y ago
  That's absolutely insane. I have separate cards for different bills, and had Netflix done something like this to me, it would have severely messed up some careful planning. I'm sorry to hear that it happened to you while you were in a vulnerable position.
  - jonknee 8y ago
    It's a feature not a bug, you signed up for something, didn't cancel and were billed for it.
    - geertj 8y ago
      Nobody is perfect. GGP seemed to go through a difficult time.
    - abraham_lincoln 8y ago
      They cut his service for lack of payment, then charged him.
Krasnol 8y ago
So, who's going to be the new Netflix?
- stock_toaster 8y ago
  Disney or Amazon.
  - mirceal 8y ago
    IMHO I don’t see Disney pulling this off. It’s more likely they’ll go the HBO way where after multiple failures to spin their service they will end up selling their content as an add-on subscription.
- vesak 8y ago
  Reliable VPN + pirateproxy.
  - mrguyorama 8y ago
    I really hope piracy has another burst of interest. Steam and Spotify completely fulfill my needs for games and music, though with some regrets (I don't really own anything I use) but there's still zero reasonable ways to get quality access to 95% of the movies and television I want
unimpressive 8y ago
I've recently noticed a lot less enthusiasm for Netflix than I used to see. I suspect that they've run into the problem where it's possible to subtly degrade your product without immediate consequences. People stop being devoted to you, but that doesn't show up in numbers. It's a bit like a marriage where star eyed lovers learn to fall out of love with each other many years before the divorce. What caused the divorce? A long campaign of subtle harms.
- meesterdude 8y ago
  salient point, spot on. However, iirc they were/are spending buttloads on creating new content. But the content itself isn't very good. Maybe too many data science experiments on what users will be receptive to.
  - creaghpatr 8y ago
    It’s not just that the quality of their homegrown content is deteriorating, its that they are flushing out any competition to said content- they are punishing their users
- shady-lady 8y ago
  You can divide whatever enthusiasm you have by three for me. The content in Europe is woeful compared to the US.
  - zaarn 8y ago
    That's true for almost any streaming service. I tried both Netflix and Amazon's offers, both had very little content I wanted or if it had then only a few seasons (in one case starting at season 5 and then not having the rest of them either). And I totally blame Hollywood and the Media Industry, esp. Disney, for making hostile exlusive licensing deals. In many cases, I cannot even watch a movie until it's dubbed in my language, even if I don't want to watch it dubbed but in OAT. It's frustrating. And then it's also likely on the streaming service I currently use, but on another one.
- 8y ago
jondwillis 8y ago
Lots of folks here are very negative on what seems to be a clear-cut example of an A/B test. If Netflix sees improvement of their objectives, they will roll it out. Maybe they will even use predictive modeling based on your usage as to whether or not they show interstitial ads to you or not.
- ebbv 8y ago
  You’re showing a lot of faith that they will interpret the results fairly and act on them. The auto play video while browsing is pretty universally reviled and they haven’t turned that off.
  - meesterdude 8y ago
    Nor provided any means by preference to disable. Which means they aren't even willing to acknowledge a significant portion of users don't like the behavior and allowing them any recourse. Which means the autoplay is more for them than for us.
  - jondwillis 8y ago
    Yes, I am. I like the auto playing feature. I like the idea of interstitial promotional ads. I am Netflix’s target user and I consider myself a fairly nuanced consumer of their media.
    - josho 8y ago
      What value do you get from ads running on Netflix?
- blitmap 8y ago
  Not to sound obtuse, but I subscribed to their service to watch shows/movies and not be A/B-tested. I know I agreed to it in the skimmed ToS, but the main appeal was to not have ads of any kind. Oh well ->cancel();
- true_tuna 8y ago
  Sounds right. If you don’t want ads on Netflix do this. The first time you see an ad, stop watching Netflix immediately. Then cancel your subscription, destroy your television, drop out of society, go live in a cabin in the woods.
meesterdude 8y ago
Netflix's response to poor quality of content is to remove user reviews and introduce unskippable ads. Looks like netflix jumped the shark. They used to be a cool place people wanted to work at, but looks like they love is leaving/gone. A shame! the alternatives aren't nearly as appealing.
sjwright 8y ago
This is currently a "test" feature. You can opt out of tests here: https://www.netflix.com/DoNotTest https://www.netflix.com/DoNotTest
- rurp 8y ago
  Wow, thank you for this. I complained to Netlfix support about the auto-playing videos and asked how to disable them. They never mentioned this option, just said that it was a test I couldn't opt out of.
- skissane 8y ago
  I wish they gave you the ability to opt out of specific tests rather than all tests across the board. That might actually be a good way for them to get feedback on which specific tests are upsetting their customers.
- jerrac 8y ago
  I tried that, the autoplay videos still autoplay. :( Haven't binged anything on Netflix for a while (due to autoplay videos, in part...), so I can't say what it does with the original topic of the link. Also talked to support, they said it can't be turned off.
- downrightmike 8y ago
  This is great! When I called support they were testing out the rotating show cover art/cards like a screen saver. I want my TV to shut off and this feature stops that. In speaking with them they said, yes I was in a test group and they would fix it. They never did fix this, but hey now it is turned off. Thanks!
jusonchan81 8y ago
They are only testing it. If it leads to cancellations or drop in viewing or not a successful project then they will yank it. And the guy who proposed it will likely get fired too. They are humans, sometimes stupid choices will be made, but their data should help correct its course eventually.
- lancesells 8y ago
  But this is where A/B testing is fuzzy. Let's say it increases views but erodes brand sentiment to where the next thing they do starts getting people to cancel their subscription. Data is not everything in all cases. I haven't seen it so no idea if I like it or not. Seems like people don't like it but who knows? Personally, I think they need to focus on the UI and slow down on all the mediocre content. It's choice paralysis and I'm finding it hard to want to even take a chance on many of their originals as there is too much.
erikb 8y ago
The moment I see this I will stop paying them.
askaboutit 8y ago
The tides are turning on Netflix. People just don’t love the product anymore. I wonder if they’re pivoting for a sale to Disney or they’re just starting to be too big for their own good. Either way. I wonder what will replace it.
- stock_toaster 8y ago
  Their UI/UX is /awful/. Probably purposefully bad, to hide how shallow their back catalog has become, but regardless.... It’s so bad it makes amazon UX seem tolerable in comparison!
  - askaboutit 8y ago
    The worst part is the VPN blocks even for their own content. But their UI/UX is incredibly boring and does make it hard to search for items. They seem to want to feed you their own choices instead of helping you find what you want.
dreamcompiler 8y ago
Netflix used to be a neutral pipe, just like Comcast. The trouble with pipes is that they hate being pipes and they always aspire to being a content creator. Whenever that happens, they instantly have a conflict of interest and cease being a decent pipe. So far my house's plumbing system hasn't tried to get into the beverage business, but I expect it's only a matter of time.
- EpicEng 8y ago
  >Netflix used to be a neutral pipe Netflix has never been a "neutral pipe". Their business model is to curate/acquire/create content that people will pay a monthly fee to watch. How does that in any way resemble an ISP?
  - harperlee 8y ago
    Netflix started business lending you dvds by mail. They were providing all content they could get their hands on, not curating (except if you call Blockbuster or any other videoclub a "curator of content", based on the fact that they did not have any film on existence). So yeah, they were a "neutral pipe" until they started creating content.
    - dragonwriter 8y ago
      > They were providing all content they could get their hands on No, they weren't. Even Wwith DVDs, they had selection criteria. Though, sure, until streaming—and until streaming got competitive—breadth was a bigger selling point than it is now.
      - harperlee 8y ago
        Sorry perhaps I was not completely clear. (Part of) my point is that just having a selection done does not automatically turn your business into "curation". Early Netflix users used Netflix for the film availability, not for the film curation. In other words they valued the "positive existence"/access of the offering much more than the "negative existence" / curtailing of bad movies (users chose the films, so not so interested in curation when users also did it).
ishanr 8y ago
so its time to get rid of the membership then.. cool
rryan 8y ago
Loud swearing doesn't show up on metrics. This drives me insane about Amazon. My behavior won't change, even though my perception of the brand is going down the tubes. Netflix is also horrible about autoplaying trailers with sound. Maybe I went to netflix.com to check whether something was in the catalog while my spouse sleeps next to me. You do not have the right to pump sounds through my speakers until I hit play.
- erichurkman 8y ago
  It at least remembers the 'mute' icon on auto play videos now. That was broken for a while. Still, it's infuriating. It opens with a huge header image with a brief sentence or two about the thing it's showing you. You're three words in reading and the intro text disappears into a minute-long preview that spoils the show. What the hell? Or worse, you've loaded your dashboard and are about to click into starting the show you left off on, only for the hero image/preview to load and shove the page down three inches. Your click now opens a new, unrelated show. You frantically click 'back', only to end up on the page prior to netflix.com. When you re-load Netflix, the show you accidentally clicked is now in the 'continue watching' section — right where your desired show is. !@#^*!)#
unethical_ban 8y ago
Netflix used to have anything the the world practically, on DVD. So much of that didn't move to streaming. My dad has never used streaming, because they don't have the old movies he likes.
- humantiy 8y ago
  The dvd service is still around and actually the catalog looks far better than what is streaming. the issue of course is that instant gratification and convenience vs waiting for something to come in the mail.
Rotdhizon 8y ago
Not sure if anyone covered it here yet, but Netflix doesn't take user feedback. They've stated that they base their decisions on whether or not to include new features based on how many users click on it. People complained to hell and back about them putting in auto play videos, but it was included because so many people clicked on that feature. Same is going for these ads, they know people don't want them, but they hide behind their click metrics as an excuse for going forward with it. Many, many people will quit Netflix over this, I wonder if it will noticeably hurt their profits.
- 1123581321 8y ago
  The simpler explanation is that their data show that people end up liking new things they complained about. It’s not an uncommon story with software customers. I would be surprised if a feature passes their tests by showing more usage of Netflix only to lead to cancellations. I am interested in understanding the potential path to this, though.
- jonny_eh 8y ago
  Their adherence to data will be their undoing. Empathy is far more important when making product decisions.
p2t2p 8y ago
Ads in the paid by me streaming? Off to torrents, see 'ya (or rather not).
- crysin 8y ago
  So a service provider behaves in a way you disagree with and you decide to break the law and torrent copyrighted material?
  - p2t2p 8y ago
    yep. I have bad relationships with laws. There used to be laws which prescribed certain people to wear a yellow star. Or when a black person could not use the same water fontain as white person. So yeah, modern copyright laws are flawed on basic philosophycal level so I have no respect for them.
wjp3 8y ago
Cancelled. Made sure to state the reasons why, too.
p1necone 8y ago
The second I see one of these ads I will unsubscribe. No ads, and being able to watch things on demand are the two features I pay Netflix for. It's unthinkable to me that they think this is a good idea.
- p1necone 8y ago
  Actually screw it, I'm unsubscribing now. Whoever thought this should even be trialed should be fired.
modells 8y ago
Fucking Netflix
pasbesoin 8y ago
Netflix's streaming UI keeps getting (substantially, for me) worse. And a good part of this appears to be in the effort to hide and mask the increasingly crap quality of their catalog. Bye bye, stars. Bye bye, user comments. Hello rotating tile images -- now more rapidly rotating tile images. Guess what? It's the same tired, B or C (or D) list title they've been pushing at you for weeks and months. Oh yeah, and the fan on my laptop kicking in everytime I pull the site up, because now every tile has to have some irritating animation upon hover. Ooh, shiny! But a lot less useful for finding something I might actually enjoy watching, than stars and user comments. (Think movie trailers, versus talking to a friend. Yeah, that clip may be "compelling". But your friend will tell you it's the best 5 seconds of the whole waste of time.) 10 bucks or so a month isn't that much. But you know what? I've had enough of the increasingly gamed UI and lamed catalog. I have Prime, as well, and while it isn't the greatest -- all of streaming is becoming so balkanized -- I'm spending the vast majority of my fixed price streaming time in it, these days. Recently, they've adopted the "big tiles" like Netflix. But so far, they aren't gaming the UI to nearly the extent that Netflix is. And, starting a couple of months ago, I've gotten to revisit "Babylon 5". Meanwhile, on Netflix, "Iron Fist" 'season' 2? Season 1 was bad enough...
King-Aaron 8y ago
Time to dust off bittorrent.
yAnonymous 8y ago
The shitty UX will probably be the reason when I cancel my subscription one day. You're a billion dollar company and your web player has problems getting the focus right. You still haven't found a decent way -other than notification and email spam- to remind users when the series they're watching start a new season. Like, keep them in the user's list, but apply an "inactive/watched" filter so they don't mess up the list of currently running and unwatched series?
- flanban 8y ago
  I canceled mine, somewhat for UX reasons, but I'm with you it blows my mind that their UX isn't better given their resources. Although I've worked in a small company that got big and subsequently lost their speed in making the product improvements/changes that led to their success in the first place. I suppose the difference is when you're small you work for your customers and when you're big you work for your investors.
rainbowmverse 8y ago
So they want to shove their shoddy recommendation engine into the few interesting things I find. I don’t think they thought this through.
j-c-hewitt 8y ago
My wife and I really enjoy watching cooking competitions. We have probably watched several entire series of them both on Netflix and on others. Netflix produced a couple of their own originals. We could not make it through more than a single episode of any of them. One was actively offensive and disgusting in which the competitors were floridly incompetent and the challenge was to make something gross. After that experience which was like watching the worst of Youtube except with a 'made by Netflix' label I do not search for cooking competition shows on Netflix anymore.
rafaelvasco 8y ago
Well, time to up my game on Torrent and Usenet then. I particularly like UseNet for movies and other content, apart from XXX.

141 points by downrightmike 8y ago

steve19 8y ago

And so it begins...

majewsky 8y ago
https://www.xkcd.com/1656/ https://www.xkcd.com/1656/ ?
trumped 8y ago
it started a while ago: https://reelgood.com/blog/netflixs-us-catalog-has-shrunk-by-more-than-2-500-titles-in-less-than-2-5-years/ https://reelgood.com/blog/netflixs-us-catalog-has-shrunk-by-... (actually, I think it started prior to that... maybe when they started to push people away from DVDs by almost doubling the cost)

CamperBob2 8y ago

From the CNN article at https://money.cnn.com/2018/08/18/technology/business/netflix-video-promotions/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2018/08/18/technology/business/netflix...: In 2016, Netflix launched video previews that play when users browse. Netflix said that the videos cut down the time people spent browsing 'significantly.' Every action this company takes seems to have one goal, above and beyond all others: to make sure their customers never catch even a fleeting glimpse of just how few titles they have in their streaming catalog. A strange model, but it seems to work for them.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
meesterdude 8y ago
And the titles they do have are incomplete. A number of shows i've gotten into only have a few seasons on netflix despite being several years old already - and more frustrating is it's not always season 1.

amiga-workbench 8y ago

The first time this happens to me I'm yanking my subscription.

severine 8y ago
Well, I'm not a Netflix user, but IMO a proper binge includes muscle memory for the shortcuts to exclude openings, endings, teasers and in previous episodes intros... Thinking about autoplaying, unskippable ads/trailers/promos makes me giggle. I can't imagine paying users reacting well to this.
DavideNL 8y ago
Same here. I'm already annoyed lately by the stuff Netflix tries to push me to watch, by automatically playing stuff... like the intros when i open the netflix app on my Tv or when I've finished watching the last episode of a show. "Thou shall consume more." I only need a little bit more of that crap to cancel my subscription...

AmVess 8y ago

In a statement given to Ars Technica, Netflix described the change as follows: "We are testing whether surfacing recommendations between episodes helps members discover stories they will enjoy faster." The reasoning, Netflix's statement says, comes from its last controversial decision: to add auto-playing videos, complete with unmuteable audio, while browsing through Netflix content. Netflix offered a major rebuttal to at least one Reddit claim, pointing out that the ads for Netflix content are entirely skippable. I'm guessing they aren't getting views they want, especially with a lot of their shows being duds. The obvious response would be to increase the quality of their programming. The easy response is to jam their current programming down our throats. I quit Netflix, and even a single ad about anything is enough to keep me from ever returning. Trust me, this is just a start. They know people hate autoplay videos, yet they added them anyway. They know people hate ads, but they are going to be using them anyway. What's next? Product advertising? I don't doubt this. Ad/ad free streaming packages?

partiallypro 8y ago
Pretty much guaranteed Netflix will start going the Hulu route when they start to run out of user growth and Wall Street wants more and more. What they should be doing is focusing on pure quality, instead of burning so much cash on vast original content (their cash burn is insane.) The current model is nothing but throwing everything against the wall and hoping some of it sticks. So many of their flops are so obviously going to be massive flops. If they would just focus on putting out new shows like Dark, Stranger Things, their murder docs with a seasonal release calendar, etc they would maintain customers. That and inking deals with non-Disney entities to get solid third party content. HBO has maintained customers and grown with just 3-4 shows keeping people hooked in any given time period. If they think they can compete with cash rich behemoths like Amazon and Disney they are going to get destroyed. Amazon is going to blow no telling how much on this new Lord of the Rings series...but they don't care, they can afford it. Netflix should go the Apple model, go with quality. Let the others burn cash to get into the space.
- Something1234 8y ago
  Amazon's main issue is just poor discovery when I open up amazon, I want to see what I was last watching, but instead it almost never shows me that, instead it shows me what product I was looking at last, which I probably wasn't going to buy.

throw2016 8y ago

If you don't pay for it you are the product, if you pay for it you are still the product. If you don't pay for it you get ads. If you pay for it you still get ads. It's like some people are making up things as situations arise to shield corporate interests and diffuse blame to the individual to evade accountability and cover up greed.

kawsper 8y ago

If they are serious, I do not think they know their customers very well.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
goostavos 8y ago
Never underestimate what a data scientist can make you "know" about your customers.

staticassertion 8y ago

The recommendations are benign if they are the ones that show up when a series ends. I have no issue with this - they can actually be helpful.

14 8y ago

Our house used to have netflix. Then came the different tiers, like pay more and you can have 4k video or more then one person at a time streaming. I didn't like the change but I was still able to keep the lower tier and it was still convenient at that time. Then we had a huge reorganization at work and though I didn't lose my job my hours were temporarily tanked and I was desperately running lower and lower on funds to the point where at one point I had $23 on my prepaid credit card. The same card had just expired and I was sent a new one with new numbers. Well after a month netflix tries to take a payment and can't since it is a new card. Then start the emails about needing a payment or I will lose service. Shortly after they did cut service. I was all too stressed to even deal with them and just figured, oh well I will be back once things are better at work and I can afford it. But before that could happen, I guess they can find out the new card numbers from the bank or whatever, so after cutting off my service for a month, while I am literally broke to the point I am unsure about future meals and $23 to my name a netflix payment came off my card. That was the last straw. I canceled immediately and will never go back.

darpa_escapee 8y ago
That's absolutely insane. I have separate cards for different bills, and had Netflix done something like this to me, it would have severely messed up some careful planning. I'm sorry to hear that it happened to you while you were in a vulnerable position.
- jonknee 8y ago
  It's a feature not a bug, you signed up for something, didn't cancel and were billed for it.
  - geertj 8y ago
    Nobody is perfect. GGP seemed to go through a difficult time.
  - abraham_lincoln 8y ago
    They cut his service for lack of payment, then charged him.

Krasnol 8y ago

So, who's going to be the new Netflix?

stock_toaster 8y ago
Disney or Amazon.
- mirceal 8y ago
  IMHO I don’t see Disney pulling this off. It’s more likely they’ll go the HBO way where after multiple failures to spin their service they will end up selling their content as an add-on subscription.
vesak 8y ago
Reliable VPN + pirateproxy.
- mrguyorama 8y ago
  I really hope piracy has another burst of interest. Steam and Spotify completely fulfill my needs for games and music, though with some regrets (I don't really own anything I use) but there's still zero reasonable ways to get quality access to 95% of the movies and television I want

unimpressive 8y ago

I've recently noticed a lot less enthusiasm for Netflix than I used to see. I suspect that they've run into the problem where it's possible to subtly degrade your product without immediate consequences. People stop being devoted to you, but that doesn't show up in numbers. It's a bit like a marriage where star eyed lovers learn to fall out of love with each other many years before the divorce. What caused the divorce? A long campaign of subtle harms.

meesterdude 8y ago
salient point, spot on. However, iirc they were/are spending buttloads on creating new content. But the content itself isn't very good. Maybe too many data science experiments on what users will be receptive to.
- creaghpatr 8y ago
  It’s not just that the quality of their homegrown content is deteriorating, its that they are flushing out any competition to said content- they are punishing their users
shady-lady 8y ago
You can divide whatever enthusiasm you have by three for me. The content in Europe is woeful compared to the US.
- zaarn 8y ago
  That's true for almost any streaming service. I tried both Netflix and Amazon's offers, both had very little content I wanted or if it had then only a few seasons (in one case starting at season 5 and then not having the rest of them either). And I totally blame Hollywood and the Media Industry, esp. Disney, for making hostile exlusive licensing deals. In many cases, I cannot even watch a movie until it's dubbed in my language, even if I don't want to watch it dubbed but in OAT. It's frustrating. And then it's also likely on the streaming service I currently use, but on another one.
8y ago

jondwillis 8y ago

Lots of folks here are very negative on what seems to be a clear-cut example of an A/B test. If Netflix sees improvement of their objectives, they will roll it out. Maybe they will even use predictive modeling based on your usage as to whether or not they show interstitial ads to you or not.

ebbv 8y ago
You’re showing a lot of faith that they will interpret the results fairly and act on them. The auto play video while browsing is pretty universally reviled and they haven’t turned that off.
- meesterdude 8y ago
  Nor provided any means by preference to disable. Which means they aren't even willing to acknowledge a significant portion of users don't like the behavior and allowing them any recourse. Which means the autoplay is more for them than for us.
- jondwillis 8y ago
  Yes, I am. I like the auto playing feature. I like the idea of interstitial promotional ads. I am Netflix’s target user and I consider myself a fairly nuanced consumer of their media.
  - josho 8y ago
    What value do you get from ads running on Netflix?
blitmap 8y ago
Not to sound obtuse, but I subscribed to their service to watch shows/movies and not be A/B-tested. I know I agreed to it in the skimmed ToS, but the main appeal was to not have ads of any kind. Oh well ->cancel();
true_tuna 8y ago
Sounds right. If you don’t want ads on Netflix do this. The first time you see an ad, stop watching Netflix immediately. Then cancel your subscription, destroy your television, drop out of society, go live in a cabin in the woods.

meesterdude 8y ago

Netflix's response to poor quality of content is to remove user reviews and introduce unskippable ads. Looks like netflix jumped the shark. They used to be a cool place people wanted to work at, but looks like they love is leaving/gone. A shame! the alternatives aren't nearly as appealing.

sjwright 8y ago

This is currently a "test" feature. You can opt out of tests here: https://www.netflix.com/DoNotTest https://www.netflix.com/DoNotTest

rurp 8y ago
Wow, thank you for this. I complained to Netlfix support about the auto-playing videos and asked how to disable them. They never mentioned this option, just said that it was a test I couldn't opt out of.
skissane 8y ago
I wish they gave you the ability to opt out of specific tests rather than all tests across the board. That might actually be a good way for them to get feedback on which specific tests are upsetting their customers.
jerrac 8y ago
I tried that, the autoplay videos still autoplay. :( Haven't binged anything on Netflix for a while (due to autoplay videos, in part...), so I can't say what it does with the original topic of the link. Also talked to support, they said it can't be turned off.
downrightmike 8y ago
This is great! When I called support they were testing out the rotating show cover art/cards like a screen saver. I want my TV to shut off and this feature stops that. In speaking with them they said, yes I was in a test group and they would fix it. They never did fix this, but hey now it is turned off. Thanks!

jusonchan81 8y ago

They are only testing it. If it leads to cancellations or drop in viewing or not a successful project then they will yank it. And the guy who proposed it will likely get fired too. They are humans, sometimes stupid choices will be made, but their data should help correct its course eventually.

lancesells 8y ago
But this is where A/B testing is fuzzy. Let's say it increases views but erodes brand sentiment to where the next thing they do starts getting people to cancel their subscription. Data is not everything in all cases. I haven't seen it so no idea if I like it or not. Seems like people don't like it but who knows? Personally, I think they need to focus on the UI and slow down on all the mediocre content. It's choice paralysis and I'm finding it hard to want to even take a chance on many of their originals as there is too much.

erikb 8y ago

The moment I see this I will stop paying them.

askaboutit 8y ago

The tides are turning on Netflix. People just don’t love the product anymore. I wonder if they’re pivoting for a sale to Disney or they’re just starting to be too big for their own good. Either way. I wonder what will replace it.

stock_toaster 8y ago
Their UI/UX is /awful/. Probably purposefully bad, to hide how shallow their back catalog has become, but regardless.... It’s so bad it makes amazon UX seem tolerable in comparison!
- askaboutit 8y ago
  The worst part is the VPN blocks even for their own content. But their UI/UX is incredibly boring and does make it hard to search for items. They seem to want to feed you their own choices instead of helping you find what you want.

dreamcompiler 8y ago

Netflix used to be a neutral pipe, just like Comcast. The trouble with pipes is that they hate being pipes and they always aspire to being a content creator. Whenever that happens, they instantly have a conflict of interest and cease being a decent pipe. So far my house's plumbing system hasn't tried to get into the beverage business, but I expect it's only a matter of time.

EpicEng 8y ago
>Netflix used to be a neutral pipe Netflix has never been a "neutral pipe". Their business model is to curate/acquire/create content that people will pay a monthly fee to watch. How does that in any way resemble an ISP?
- harperlee 8y ago
  Netflix started business lending you dvds by mail. They were providing all content they could get their hands on, not curating (except if you call Blockbuster or any other videoclub a "curator of content", based on the fact that they did not have any film on existence). So yeah, they were a "neutral pipe" until they started creating content.
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    > They were providing all content they could get their hands on No, they weren't. Even Wwith DVDs, they had selection criteria. Though, sure, until streaming—and until streaming got competitive—breadth was a bigger selling point than it is now.
    - harperlee 8y ago
      Sorry perhaps I was not completely clear. (Part of) my point is that just having a selection done does not automatically turn your business into "curation". Early Netflix users used Netflix for the film availability, not for the film curation. In other words they valued the "positive existence"/access of the offering much more than the "negative existence" / curtailing of bad movies (users chose the films, so not so interested in curation when users also did it).

ishanr 8y ago

so its time to get rid of the membership then.. cool

rryan 8y ago

Loud swearing doesn't show up on metrics. This drives me insane about Amazon. My behavior won't change, even though my perception of the brand is going down the tubes. Netflix is also horrible about autoplaying trailers with sound. Maybe I went to netflix.com to check whether something was in the catalog while my spouse sleeps next to me. You do not have the right to pump sounds through my speakers until I hit play.

erichurkman 8y ago
It at least remembers the 'mute' icon on auto play videos now. That was broken for a while. Still, it's infuriating. It opens with a huge header image with a brief sentence or two about the thing it's showing you. You're three words in reading and the intro text disappears into a minute-long preview that spoils the show. What the hell? Or worse, you've loaded your dashboard and are about to click into starting the show you left off on, only for the hero image/preview to load and shove the page down three inches. Your click now opens a new, unrelated show. You frantically click 'back', only to end up on the page prior to netflix.com. When you re-load Netflix, the show you accidentally clicked is now in the 'continue watching' section — right where your desired show is. !@#^*!)#

unethical_ban 8y ago

Netflix used to have anything the the world practically, on DVD. So much of that didn't move to streaming. My dad has never used streaming, because they don't have the old movies he likes.

humantiy 8y ago
The dvd service is still around and actually the catalog looks far better than what is streaming. the issue of course is that instant gratification and convenience vs waiting for something to come in the mail.

Rotdhizon 8y ago

Not sure if anyone covered it here yet, but Netflix doesn't take user feedback. They've stated that they base their decisions on whether or not to include new features based on how many users click on it. People complained to hell and back about them putting in auto play videos, but it was included because so many people clicked on that feature. Same is going for these ads, they know people don't want them, but they hide behind their click metrics as an excuse for going forward with it. Many, many people will quit Netflix over this, I wonder if it will noticeably hurt their profits.

1123581321 8y ago
The simpler explanation is that their data show that people end up liking new things they complained about. It’s not an uncommon story with software customers. I would be surprised if a feature passes their tests by showing more usage of Netflix only to lead to cancellations. I am interested in understanding the potential path to this, though.
jonny_eh 8y ago
Their adherence to data will be their undoing. Empathy is far more important when making product decisions.

p2t2p 8y ago

Ads in the paid by me streaming? Off to torrents, see 'ya (or rather not).

crysin 8y ago
So a service provider behaves in a way you disagree with and you decide to break the law and torrent copyrighted material?
- p2t2p 8y ago
  yep. I have bad relationships with laws. There used to be laws which prescribed certain people to wear a yellow star. Or when a black person could not use the same water fontain as white person. So yeah, modern copyright laws are flawed on basic philosophycal level so I have no respect for them.

wjp3 8y ago

Cancelled. Made sure to state the reasons why, too.

p1necone 8y ago

The second I see one of these ads I will unsubscribe. No ads, and being able to watch things on demand are the two features I pay Netflix for. It's unthinkable to me that they think this is a good idea.

p1necone 8y ago
Actually screw it, I'm unsubscribing now. Whoever thought this should even be trialed should be fired.

modells 8y ago

Fucking Netflix

pasbesoin 8y ago

Netflix's streaming UI keeps getting (substantially, for me) worse. And a good part of this appears to be in the effort to hide and mask the increasingly crap quality of their catalog. Bye bye, stars. Bye bye, user comments. Hello rotating tile images -- now more rapidly rotating tile images. Guess what? It's the same tired, B or C (or D) list title they've been pushing at you for weeks and months. Oh yeah, and the fan on my laptop kicking in everytime I pull the site up, because now every tile has to have some irritating animation upon hover. Ooh, shiny! But a lot less useful for finding something I might actually enjoy watching, than stars and user comments. (Think movie trailers, versus talking to a friend. Yeah, that clip may be "compelling". But your friend will tell you it's the best 5 seconds of the whole waste of time.) 10 bucks or so a month isn't that much. But you know what? I've had enough of the increasingly gamed UI and lamed catalog. I have Prime, as well, and while it isn't the greatest -- all of streaming is becoming so balkanized -- I'm spending the vast majority of my fixed price streaming time in it, these days. Recently, they've adopted the "big tiles" like Netflix. But so far, they aren't gaming the UI to nearly the extent that Netflix is. And, starting a couple of months ago, I've gotten to revisit "Babylon 5". Meanwhile, on Netflix, "Iron Fist" 'season' 2? Season 1 was bad enough...

King-Aaron 8y ago

Time to dust off bittorrent.

yAnonymous 8y ago

The shitty UX will probably be the reason when I cancel my subscription one day. You're a billion dollar company and your web player has problems getting the focus right. You still haven't found a decent way -other than notification and email spam- to remind users when the series they're watching start a new season. Like, keep them in the user's list, but apply an "inactive/watched" filter so they don't mess up the list of currently running and unwatched series?

flanban 8y ago
I canceled mine, somewhat for UX reasons, but I'm with you it blows my mind that their UX isn't better given their resources. Although I've worked in a small company that got big and subsequently lost their speed in making the product improvements/changes that led to their success in the first place. I suppose the difference is when you're small you work for your customers and when you're big you work for your investors.

rainbowmverse 8y ago

So they want to shove their shoddy recommendation engine into the few interesting things I find. I don’t think they thought this through.

j-c-hewitt 8y ago

My wife and I really enjoy watching cooking competitions. We have probably watched several entire series of them both on Netflix and on others. Netflix produced a couple of their own originals. We could not make it through more than a single episode of any of them. One was actively offensive and disgusting in which the competitors were floridly incompetent and the challenge was to make something gross. After that experience which was like watching the worst of Youtube except with a 'made by Netflix' label I do not search for cooking competition shows on Netflix anymore.

rafaelvasco 8y ago

Well, time to up my game on Torrent and Usenet then. I particularly like UseNet for movies and other content, apart from XXX.