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In a statement given to Ars Technica, Netflix described the change as follows: "We are testing whether surfacing recommendations between episodes helps members

by 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.
  - yontherubicon 8y ago
    If they had a separate site, media.amazon.com or something, which led to this page: https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=lp_2858778011_nav_shopall_aiv?rh=i%3Ainstant-video%2Cn%3A2858778011&ie=UTF8&node=2858778011 https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=lp_2858778011_nav_shopall_aiv?r... then it'd fix the issue you're having with them at the moment. It's a really simple fix.
  - daveFNbuck 8y ago
    I also find their player misses little things that Hulu and Netflix understand, like that whether I want subtitles can depend on what language the content I'm watching is in.
gkoberger 8y ago
I think you're being harsh on Netflix. They have great stuff people have never heard of; advertising doesn't automatically mean it's crap. When they first started, people came for The Office or Scrubs. Then they started creating their own, and every new show huge press. House of Cards, Orange Is The New Black, etc. But as they add tons more content, they need more traditional ways to get people interested. People have a "no ads!" stance and forget the way they got into most shows they like are ads. As they make more content themselves (as opposed to The Office or Arrested Development), they need more steady ways to get people interested.
- meesterdude 8y ago
  I think this comment is attempting to gaslight the issues the parent comment raises, which are valid and will take more than a trip down memory lane to resolve.
  - gkoberger 8y ago
    I'm not gaslighting anything, I'm simply disagreeing. I dislike ads too, but the answer isn't that "Netflix should spend a ton of money on content, and then hide it away unless someone explicitly looks for it." There's gotta be a happy medium, and for better or for worse, ads work. If Netflix makes bad content, then I'll be mad they're forcing it on me. But if they make good content, in the long run I'll be happy they're experimenting with as-non-evasive-as-possible ways to get me interested. To put it another way: it's better if they get more people hooked on more shows and that leads to more subscriptions, rather than them having to resort to crappy third party ads to afford new content.
    - GW150914 8y ago
      I'm not gaslighting anything, I'm simply disagreeing. I dislike ads too, but the answer isn't that "Netflix should spend a ton of money on content, and then hide it away unless someone explicitly looks for it." There's gotta be a happy medium. Here’s a thought... they could let users rate shows, maybe on some 1-5 based scale, then use that information to power recommendations targeted at those users instead of just randomly promoting their disgusting flavors of the day? Then instead of shows dying in obscurity people who would most enjoy them could see them! As a bonus a guy who likes documentaries and dramas wouldn’t have to scroll through children’s cartoons being recommended to him? Nah, that would never work...
amirmasoudabdol 8y ago
Of course soon there will be real Ads too. That’s why you make contents anyway!
- bogomipz 8y ago
  And when that moment arrives you will know that the transformation from the "old cable TV" to the "new cable TV" is complete. There was a time when there were no ads on cable too, seens almost incomprehensible now: https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/26/arts/will-cable-tv-be-invaded-by-commercials.html https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/26/arts/will-cable-tv-be-inv...
TAForObvReasons 8y ago
Product advertising has been happening for years, even in their flagship House of Cards series: http://adage.com/article/media/netflix-s-house-cards-tout-anheuser-busch-samsung/297318/ http://adage.com/article/media/netflix-s-house-cards-tout-an... . But we use the euphemism "product placement" to obscure the fact that it is really advertising.
cm2187 8y ago
The thing with Netflix is that it can disappear as quickly as it arrived. Given their lack of a large catalogue of movies, the only thing keeping subscribers is a stream of new interesting shows. I don’t think people will keep a subscription just to watch old House of Cards episodes. There is zero lockin. So if they indeed start deteriorating the user experience, they should see the p&l impact immediately.
- skissane 8y ago
  I wonder, why Netflix doesn't buy some legacy entertainment companies to build up more of a back-catalog? If they've got so much cash to spend on new content, why not spend some of it to own old content too? Part of the strength of the existing media conglomerates is their rights to the accumulation of decades of output. Not everyone is so interested in new stuff (myself, on average I'd rather watch 80s films than new ones).
  - humantiy 8y ago
    >why Netflix doesn't buy some legacy entertainment companies Now that you say that I wish they would have grabbed FOX away from Disney. That would have given them something better to compete with and not allowed Disney to be even larger than it already is.
GW150914 8y ago
The auto play and gutted recommendation engine pushed me to the brink, but this? If they roll this out, I’m gone and never looking back. To be honest piracy is looking better every day, between splintering services, weak catalogues, shitty practices and nickel & diming. I’m not getting suckered into the cable bundle model again, and maybe it’s time to remind these media “giants” that the only reason most people don’t pirate is convenience.
hndamien 8y ago
The solution is simple. Stop spending large sums to produce crap. Spend small sums to produce crap and admit it is crap (Kevin Hart), and there is an audience for that. Spend large sums on good prior art - eg. rebuild things that were popular elsewhere and inadvertently died - Arrested Development, Futurama, Longmire etc. Pay big sums for the artists - Matt Groening (Disenchanted), Chris Rock, Louis CK, Dave Chappelle (not Kevin Hart).
- Something1234 8y ago
  I think you've been eating memberberries. Futurama should stay dead, it should not be brought back as a zombie. It should be allowed to rest in peace as the fantastic show it was. We need to move forward, but most of the content I've seen on netflix is crap.
  - hndamien 8y ago
    I actually agree, I just meant that the bringing back zombie strategy is a pretty risk free and effective one that can work in some cases. Maybe not zombies, but premature deaths because they catered to niches that were too small successfully. And get the artists to make new works.
    - beaconstudios 8y ago
      > Maybe not zombies, but premature deaths because they catered to niches that were too small successfully. Imagine the PR they would attract if they were able to bring back Firefly. Especially given Nathan Fillion is a big-name actor now.
- modells 8y ago
  Yup. It doesn't take a fortune to produce crap or good stuff. The only thing money can do is add some polish.
xvf22 8y ago
remember seeing these types of ads on Amazon Prime video and that certainly factored into my decision to cancel Prime. If Netflix does the same I'm pretty sure I'll cancel that as well.
- modells 8y ago
  Damn tootin.
Frqy3 8y ago
I assume product placement in their own produced shows is already occuring. Etheir that, or they are leaving money on the table with what looks to me like unsubtle brand visibility.
- burkaman 8y ago
  There is plenty. The most famous example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGDgnp7-uck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGDgnp7-uck
marticode 8y ago
Another response would be to have a better sorted and navigable catalog. It boggles my mind that as a French viewer, all the French content is just stuffed together in "European".
alphatauri 8y ago
Netflix does product advertising already and has done so far a while! http://m.ign.com/articles/2015/03/02/netflixs-product-placement-deals-revealed http://m.ign.com/articles/2015/03/02/netflixs-product-placem... They’ve been double dipping for a while. Gilmore girls new season was obnoxious because of this.

by AmVess 8y ago

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.
- yontherubicon 8y ago
  If they had a separate site, media.amazon.com or something, which led to this page: https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=lp_2858778011_nav_shopall_aiv?rh=i%3Ainstant-video%2Cn%3A2858778011&ie=UTF8&node=2858778011 https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=lp_2858778011_nav_shopall_aiv?r... then it'd fix the issue you're having with them at the moment. It's a really simple fix.
- daveFNbuck 8y ago
  I also find their player misses little things that Hulu and Netflix understand, like that whether I want subtitles can depend on what language the content I'm watching is in.

gkoberger 8y ago

I think you're being harsh on Netflix. They have great stuff people have never heard of; advertising doesn't automatically mean it's crap. When they first started, people came for The Office or Scrubs. Then they started creating their own, and every new show huge press. House of Cards, Orange Is The New Black, etc. But as they add tons more content, they need more traditional ways to get people interested. People have a "no ads!" stance and forget the way they got into most shows they like are ads. As they make more content themselves (as opposed to The Office or Arrested Development), they need more steady ways to get people interested.

meesterdude 8y ago
I think this comment is attempting to gaslight the issues the parent comment raises, which are valid and will take more than a trip down memory lane to resolve.
- gkoberger 8y ago
  I'm not gaslighting anything, I'm simply disagreeing. I dislike ads too, but the answer isn't that "Netflix should spend a ton of money on content, and then hide it away unless someone explicitly looks for it." There's gotta be a happy medium, and for better or for worse, ads work. If Netflix makes bad content, then I'll be mad they're forcing it on me. But if they make good content, in the long run I'll be happy they're experimenting with as-non-evasive-as-possible ways to get me interested. To put it another way: it's better if they get more people hooked on more shows and that leads to more subscriptions, rather than them having to resort to crappy third party ads to afford new content.
  - GW150914 8y ago
    I'm not gaslighting anything, I'm simply disagreeing. I dislike ads too, but the answer isn't that "Netflix should spend a ton of money on content, and then hide it away unless someone explicitly looks for it." There's gotta be a happy medium. Here’s a thought... they could let users rate shows, maybe on some 1-5 based scale, then use that information to power recommendations targeted at those users instead of just randomly promoting their disgusting flavors of the day? Then instead of shows dying in obscurity people who would most enjoy them could see them! As a bonus a guy who likes documentaries and dramas wouldn’t have to scroll through children’s cartoons being recommended to him? Nah, that would never work...

amirmasoudabdol 8y ago

Of course soon there will be real Ads too. That’s why you make contents anyway!

bogomipz 8y ago
And when that moment arrives you will know that the transformation from the "old cable TV" to the "new cable TV" is complete. There was a time when there were no ads on cable too, seens almost incomprehensible now: https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/26/arts/will-cable-tv-be-invaded-by-commercials.html https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/26/arts/will-cable-tv-be-inv...

TAForObvReasons 8y ago

Product advertising has been happening for years, even in their flagship House of Cards series: http://adage.com/article/media/netflix-s-house-cards-tout-anheuser-busch-samsung/297318/ http://adage.com/article/media/netflix-s-house-cards-tout-an... . But we use the euphemism "product placement" to obscure the fact that it is really advertising.

cm2187 8y ago

The thing with Netflix is that it can disappear as quickly as it arrived. Given their lack of a large catalogue of movies, the only thing keeping subscribers is a stream of new interesting shows. I don’t think people will keep a subscription just to watch old House of Cards episodes. There is zero lockin. So if they indeed start deteriorating the user experience, they should see the p&l impact immediately.

skissane 8y ago
I wonder, why Netflix doesn't buy some legacy entertainment companies to build up more of a back-catalog? If they've got so much cash to spend on new content, why not spend some of it to own old content too? Part of the strength of the existing media conglomerates is their rights to the accumulation of decades of output. Not everyone is so interested in new stuff (myself, on average I'd rather watch 80s films than new ones).
- humantiy 8y ago
  >why Netflix doesn't buy some legacy entertainment companies Now that you say that I wish they would have grabbed FOX away from Disney. That would have given them something better to compete with and not allowed Disney to be even larger than it already is.

GW150914 8y ago

The auto play and gutted recommendation engine pushed me to the brink, but this? If they roll this out, I’m gone and never looking back. To be honest piracy is looking better every day, between splintering services, weak catalogues, shitty practices and nickel & diming. I’m not getting suckered into the cable bundle model again, and maybe it’s time to remind these media “giants” that the only reason most people don’t pirate is convenience.

hndamien 8y ago

The solution is simple. Stop spending large sums to produce crap. Spend small sums to produce crap and admit it is crap (Kevin Hart), and there is an audience for that. Spend large sums on good prior art - eg. rebuild things that were popular elsewhere and inadvertently died - Arrested Development, Futurama, Longmire etc. Pay big sums for the artists - Matt Groening (Disenchanted), Chris Rock, Louis CK, Dave Chappelle (not Kevin Hart).

Something1234 8y ago
I think you've been eating memberberries. Futurama should stay dead, it should not be brought back as a zombie. It should be allowed to rest in peace as the fantastic show it was. We need to move forward, but most of the content I've seen on netflix is crap.
- hndamien 8y ago
  I actually agree, I just meant that the bringing back zombie strategy is a pretty risk free and effective one that can work in some cases. Maybe not zombies, but premature deaths because they catered to niches that were too small successfully. And get the artists to make new works.
  - beaconstudios 8y ago
    > Maybe not zombies, but premature deaths because they catered to niches that were too small successfully. Imagine the PR they would attract if they were able to bring back Firefly. Especially given Nathan Fillion is a big-name actor now.
modells 8y ago
Yup. It doesn't take a fortune to produce crap or good stuff. The only thing money can do is add some polish.

xvf22 8y ago

remember seeing these types of ads on Amazon Prime video and that certainly factored into my decision to cancel Prime. If Netflix does the same I'm pretty sure I'll cancel that as well.

modells 8y ago
Damn tootin.

Frqy3 8y ago

I assume product placement in their own produced shows is already occuring. Etheir that, or they are leaving money on the table with what looks to me like unsubtle brand visibility.

burkaman 8y ago
There is plenty. The most famous example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGDgnp7-uck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGDgnp7-uck

marticode 8y ago

Another response would be to have a better sorted and navigable catalog. It boggles my mind that as a French viewer, all the French content is just stuffed together in "European".

alphatauri 8y ago

Netflix does product advertising already and has done so far a while! http://m.ign.com/articles/2015/03/02/netflixs-product-placement-deals-revealed http://m.ign.com/articles/2015/03/02/netflixs-product-placem... They’ve been double dipping for a while. Gilmore girls new season was obnoxious because of this.