12 ms·
Rise of Netflix Competitors Has Pushed Consumers Back Toward Piracy
- dogma1138 8y agoNot surprised I have a Netflix and Amazon Prime sub I find myself downloading the shows I pay for because it’s eaiser to have them in Plex than searching for them on Netflix/Prime. In the US it’s even worse as there are many more services available like Hulu all of these really need to open up an API for searching and streaming so Plex and Kodi can easily integrate with them. The cost is also getting pretty steep with more and more services being required for coverage.
- bilbo0s 8y ago>I have a Netflix and Amazon Prime sub I find myself downloading the shows I pay for because it’s eaiser to have them in Plex than searching for them on Netflix/Prime... ??? If it's easier just to have them in Plex, why would Plex need to search Netflix? Serious question. I'm not a Plex user, but the first statement made me think about switching for a moment. Then you made the second statement about Plex needing an API to search Netflix. So I'm genuinely confused why that would be?
- detaro 8y agoThey want to watch videos Netflix and other services from Plex. Those services don't have useful APIs, so Plex can't integrate them into their search/UI. So parent instead downloads the videos from torrents etc., so they are normal video files they can feed into Plex.
- hadrien01 8y agoPlex is (mostly) for pirated content. If you could search on Plex with a Netflix API, you would be watching legal content.
- touristtam 8y agoCan you link Netflix/Amazon Prime to a plex server and index that?
- dewey 8y agoNot but it looks like that's something they are going for. Offering other subscriptions through Plex in the native Plex interface. https://www.plex.tv/blog/turning-plex-music-up-to-eleventy/ https://www.plex.tv/blog/turning-plex-music-up-to-eleventy/
- dogma1138 8y agoPlex has a lot of plugins for online content https://github.com/plexinc-plugins https://github.com/plexinc-plugins
- dewey 8y agoMost of these seem to be for public catch-up providers. Getting Netflix to run with the whole DRM situation seems to be a whole other challenge I'd say?
- dogma1138 8y agoSome aren't public providers it's just a webapp you can do nearly anything you want. As far as DRM goes it isn't really a problem since it's easily solvable on any device you use, for devices they can use the built-in DRM, for computers it's already a browser anyhow so you have the OS and browser level DRM. And you know what even if you aren't going to stream through the Plex app itself which is easily achievable how hard it is to just make the search API accessible and then simply have links like netflix://f9dd2846-cda5-49a0-bb19-fb9ba5b0521d for one click streaming? The trailers, recaps and episode data is publicly available any how e.g. https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/70300800 https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/70300800 All I want is for a basic API that would allow you to search then use these links to launch the stream through your account I don't care in which app it actually streams, this can be solved by an intern in an afternoon and it's mind boggling why it hasn't been done yet.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- dogma1138 8y agoBecause I care about the user experience not the legal technicality. It’s much easier for me to automatically download and add all the shows into Plex and use its library management for all media. If I had a legal way to do it I would, Plex has plugins for example I watch NFL trough a plug-in which is linked to my account, I also watch BBC content through the iPlayer plugin, as well as other content such as podcasts for example from multiple sources. If Netflix and Prime has an official plugin that would allow me to link my sub and add that content to the Plex library I would do that in a heartbeat.
- crispyambulance 8y agoYeah, it baffles me why Netflix, a company with deep pockets and enormous technical talent, deliberately makes their search shitty and instead seems to be pushing algorithmic "recommendations". Their genre categorizations are a joke too. Really, the only thing that their search (at least on the Roku) seems to work for is Titles. Would it be too much to ask to be able to search against director, cast, language, actors, date?
- jscheel 8y agoOne plausible, if slightly paranoid, explanation I read was that Netflix is trying to intentionally obscure the size of their library and the deficits in it. This would be especially relevant to OP's story about rising exclusivity.
- RodericDay 8y agothis is obviously, trivially the reason why
- touristtam 8y agoIt isn't paranoid: it obvious when you realize their licensed catalogue is continuously rotating,
- barrkel 8y agoNetflix is a hostile user application due to perverse incentives. They see engagement as a proxy for stickiness, and similarly lack of engagement as a leading indicator of churn. So they implement features that look like they increase engagement, like auto-play while scrolling, auto-play of next title, auto-play of a new series after the end of a series. I don't know about other people, but they absolutely infuriate me. We normally mute Netflix on entry into the app because we know that it's going to start blaring out of the speakers as the menu is navigated. And even the menu can't be navigated in peace: I need to keep hopping between adjacent shows to stop it trying to auto-play in the background with distracting images. If I want to leave the remote idle, I need to exit the app or find somewhere for focus to rest where it's not going to start playing something. It's just one or two more "engagement" steps away from getting cancelled.
- thebigspacefuck 8y agoI use justwatch.com to look for things I'm interested in watching. The search sucks sometimes because it doesn't always find what I typed in,sometimes I have to do a site:justwatch.com search in Google to actually find something, but in general it will usually point me in the direction of where I can stream or what subscription I need (so I do a trial, watch then cancel if there's nothing else to watch). If I can't find it anywhere, I hit up the library or rent it from Prime. I used to not have any money so I would pirate, but now I make enough that a couple of bucks isn't worth doing something illegal for.
- ymolodtsov 8y ago"That’s especially true in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa, where BitTorrent now accounts for 32% of all upstream network traffic." Here's the thing — you can't legally watch HBO Now here. You simply can't access certain content through streaming. That's also one of the main drivers.
- miluge 8y agoEurope has HBO Go and it cost 2.99 ( in Romania at least ) euros per month. I cancelled my Netflix has I have HBO GO included in my internet package and use mostly Usenet or Torrents and my Raspberry Pi / PS4 for all my media consumption.
- cgrand-net 8y agoNot all Europe, only in: Magyarország Česko Slovensko România Polska Hrvatska Србија Slovenija Македонија Montenegro България Bosna
- dagw 8y agoAnd Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, but under the HBO Nordic brand instead of the HBO Go brand. Also It's 10€ a month, not 3.
- titanix2 8y ago> Česko Controversial term here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_the_Czech_Republic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_the_Czech_Republic
- jerf 8y agoThe solution I've been experimenting with is streaming rotation; rather than subscribing to a dozen streaming services and watching a few hours of each each month, this couple of months will be Hulu, this couple of months will be Sling (sports, mostly, though lately they seem to be getting locked out of more and more stuff too), this month will be this other service, and so on. If the content is going to stay available, why have subscriptions to all of them all the time?
- davio 8y agoI'm doing the same. I cancel the same day I subscribe so I can watch for the month without a perpetual bill.
- DyslexicAtheist 8y agothat's a really cool idea. I just killed my netflix subscription last month because I felt there wasn't enough good content for my taste and that I've already seen it all ...
- patrickk 8y agoI know of people who do this for Sky Sports UK (traditional premium tv), who hold the exclusive rights to many English Premier league games (soccer). When the off season approaches, call up Sky and ask to terminate your subscription. Either they offer you a really nice deal, similar to what new subscribers get, or you quit for a few months and re-subscribe just before the season starts again. There's more on Sky than just soccer, but obviously that's the main draw for most people.
- purple_ducks 8y agoWith Freesat in the mix in the UK, the only other things Sky has going for it are: a) Sky Atlantic showing new HBO shows 1 day after HBO (no HBO in UK) b) a slightly more polished EPG and recorder than the freesat/linux equivalents though that gap seems to be reducing.
- patrickk 8y ago
- wil421 8y agoWhy are people still using file sharing and torrents? Get a Usenet subscription, pay a yearly fee to a decent indexer, setup NZBGet, setup TV automation with Sonarr, and Radarr for movie automation if needed. Lots of Usenet providers include VPN, AT&T doesn’t seem to care FYI. Setup Plex for a media sever, get plex pass, buy a USB TV tuner or HD Homerun, and a digital antenna. Connect the HD homerun to plex for TV broadcast automation. Now you need to buy more hardrives because you ran out of space. Edit: Great my comment is almost as bad as the Dropbox vs Rsync one.
- kop316 8y agoHonestly? Laziness. The only time I will actually totrrent something is if I bought the DVD/Blu-Ray and I want to rip it for use with Plex. I find what I need by torrents, and I already have a VPN I use.
- iamatworknow 8y ago>Why are people still using file sharing and torrents? >Get...pay...setup...setup...and...setup...get...buy...and...connect...buy... That's why. Torrents are easier for people to figure out.
- slovette 8y agoUnrelated aside: This might be the most creatively concise form of critical communication to a comment I’ve ever seen on HN. Nice job.
- wil421 8y agoThis is HN. I expect a technical audience who want technical solutions.
- kakarot 8y agoSurely you're not positing that torrents aren't a technical solution. They are an extremely technical solution to many problems people originally faced with Usenet.
- idlern 8y ago>That’s especially true in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa, where BitTorrent now accounts for 32% of all upstream network traffic. One major reason for BitTorrent’s rising popularity? Annoying exclusivity streaming deals. In my country you can't even watch Netflix exclusives on Netflix because they already sold the rights to local TVs. So you sign up for Netflix and it's a wasteland of 2nd tier movies and old series. Yeah Friends is cool but who cares about it in 2019. Segmentation is the biggest problem. But that's true for every digital store not just Netflix. I wish these stores were one unfied thing not US Netlix, German Netflix, UK Netflix etc. I know it comes down to copyright laws and such but the difference between the countries is soooo big. Feels like you are signing up for a 3rd tier service for the same amount of money
- ataturk 8y agoI setup a proxy and looked at Netflix through European eyes and then canceled my subscription in the US. What a bunch of frauds these people are.
- wlesieutre 8y agoFrom what I understand, "Netflix Original" means two different things: 1) Things that are actually Netflix's shows, like House of Cards 2) Things that Netflix bought exclusive distribution rights for in the US and markets as "Original" just like House of Cards, but actually had nothing to do with. So it's less that Netflix sold the rights to local TVs and more that they never had those rights to begin with.
- SketchySeaBeast 8y agoAnd that means that Netflix exclusives can go off the air due to poor TV viewership. Dirk Gently, you were gone too soon.
- mcv 8y agoIs Dirk Gently gone from Netflix?! It's one of the best things there. I thought I still saw it listed recently. Maybe it's only gone from your region and not mine, in which case I recommend a VPN.
- Gys 8y agoI often think of quiting netflix. I only keep it because its very cheap. But their recommendation system is terrible (includes everything I already saw and liked - why ?!), there is a very, very minimal description (I like to spend more then 1 sec reading before I spend 90m watching), there are no ratings (if imdb says less the 5.5 then I do not watch it anyway), etc, etc.
- RodericDay 8y agothere's no index! it's a joke
- theklr 8y agoDo it. I left in October and haven't looked back. I get the library and all but for the reasons you mentioned,I could not keep partially funding an experiment.Although I miss the moments when they've had these releases land into the zeitgeist, after the hype (and mediocre reviews) I realized it's just FOMO and wait another month until I build up enough content I truly want to watch.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- alistairSH 8y agoYeah, this isn't surprising at all. I've run into it. Typical lazy weekend evening... - turn on AppleTV - search for [year old hit movie or TV show] - brief happiness because it's available - followed by annoyance because it's available on one of the services to which I don't subscribe (or it's on Amazon, but isn't Prime) I have Prime, Netflix, and HBO and still run into this regularly. It's really annoying. As soon as GOT is done, I'll likely cancel HBO - it doesn't add much value. Netflix is hanging on, barely - every time I go to cancel, I find something interesting to watch, and that keeps me for another month or two. But, it feels user-hostile and with the price going up again, I'm that much more likely to just cancel and be done with them. And I hate the idea of relying on Amazon even more than I already do. Le Sigh
- sealjam 8y agoYou describe my experience almost exactly. One difference here in the UK is that I'm unable to even pay for HBO. I wanted to watch Generation Kill the other day, it seemed like it was available on amazon prime but in fact isn't available in my region. My only option is to buy it for £2.50 per episode, which seems like a bad deal to me.
- Reason077 8y ago"here in the UK ... I'm unable to even pay for HBO." Sure you can. Sky (a.k.a. Now TV) carries most (all?) current HBO content in the UK. Though I guess that doesn't apply to historic stuff like Generation Kill, which predates their exclusivity agreement.
- dsr_ 8y ago"BitTorrent usage has bounced back because there's too many streaming services, and too much exclusive content" Bzzt, wrong. The number of streaming services is fine. It's the pricing that's the problem. Proof by reductio: if they were all free, everyone would subscribe to everything. People are willing to pay for convenience. They aren't willing to overpay for convenience when they have free alternatives. They'll pay $25/month for a service that combines Netflix, Hulu, CBS and Disney into one searchable interface. Split them up, and people will drop or not even start the ones they perceive as being lowest value.
- mavdi 8y agoI wouldn't call subscribing to every single major streaming service a convenience.
- preommr 8y agoNetflix's problem are their business methods. Proof by reductio: If Netflix just dominated the whole planet and ran a totalitarian regime, they could force everyone to watch Netflix.
- GuB-42 8y ago> Proof by reductio: if they were all free, everyone would subscribe to everything. Not even sure. If every time you need to watch a movie you need to make a new account, with the usual form to fill, email check, all the little popups telling you how to use features you don't need, the notification to disable, etc... only to notice you didn't subscribe to the right platform, I think you will go back to torrents rather quickly. And that's without touching compatibility issues. And then, you contradict yourself in the last sentence by saying "a service that combines... into one". Acknowledging that you want a single $25/month service, not just a discount if you buy all 4.
- smsm42 8y ago> Proof by reductio: if they were all free, everyone would subscribe to everything. Not necessarily. Having 15 different apps/ways to access content is annoying too. And of course nobody integrates with anybody because they're all competing so why boost the competitor's offer? But yes, if on top of that each of them costs $10-15/month, that's a deal breaker. I'd just subscribe to one that has the most content, and that's it. Maybe sometime in the future they'd get the right idea and learn to play nice... doesn't seem to be happening so far.
- touristtam 8y agoCould that lead to a revision of the term of licensing and a unification of regional markets (specifically in mature market like Europe)? Purely rhetorical question at this point as the national networks are likely to lobby to keep the statu quo.
- SketchySeaBeast 8y agoNetflix got me as it was the first, and it still provides decent value for the money, as well as great 4k/HDR/Dolby Vision content. I'm thinking about signing up for Prime as it seems to have a lot of content. That's about it. I'll seriously consider the Disney streaming service because I am a man-child and love the MCU and want to see the series on there, but I will not sign up for CBS all access, Hulu, or Crave TV. It's all too much, and I'm not going to pay another cable bill equivalent.
- fredley 8y agoIt's not just obtaining content, it's bloody playing it too. We have a Chromecast, which works great for Netflix and works acceptably for most domestic UK TV (BBC/Channel 4 etc). But it won't work with Prime, or several other subscription things anyway, and I really resent being forced into buying another media dongle just because the one I have has been crippled due to these corporations' wankery. Torrenting and streaming local content from VideoStream or similar works great though, so as always, convenience is king.
- zozbot123 8y agoHonestly, given the sheer amount of high-quality video content that's available from free, ad-supported streaming platforms with no DRM to speak of (indeed, you could easily grab a copy of anything you wanted to keep for the longer term - it's just that you don't even bother with that!), there's very little reason to even pirate nowadays. Why would I want to support consumer-hostile organizations like Netflix, HBO or the Amazon Video division, even with my attention and by engaging with their crappy "content"? I'll just keep watching stuff from the sites that don't pull any DRM crap. (In fact I don't even bother with blocking the ads, they're reasonable enough and they do a tolerable job of supporting creators.)
- H1Supreme 8y agoCan you list one or two? I'm only familiar with the large one's like Netflix and HBO.
- rdruxn 8y agoHow is HBO consumer-hostile?
- sliken 8y agoThey have several channels on the roku, not sure why. It's painful to setup, and it forgets the authorization every few weeks. Since there's not much content I wouldn't run it often, but when I did it would pop up a code and ask me to go to a website to approve it. Said website would bounce through the comcast authentication page... but bouncing often didn't work. When it did work it would take about 5 minutes of futzing around. I couldn't watch it from firefox or google chrome running on my linux box. The client would hang fairly often, I'd end up resetting my roku to clear it. Netflix does it right. Auth lasts a long time (at least a year), the client is generally pretty reliable, and I can watch from Linux, Roku, or Android as I see fit. I can even download episodes on Android if I want to save on bandwidth charges. While Netflix isn't perfect, it does seem way less consumer hostile than HBO.
- asdff 8y ago
- NotAnEconomist 8y agoI don't pirate... but I pay around ~$100 a month to say that (for video), and still don't have access to a fair bit of content that exists in silos. For reference, that's buying: Amazon Prime ($10), two channels on Prime ($20), Netflix and another streaming ($20), and a streaming TV subscription ($40-50). Notably missing is Disney SVOD -- though some Disney content is carried by the streaming TV. Given the frustration of having to use multiple apps and services while still not getting everything because of the massive fragmentation -- never mind that most people can't afford anywhere near that a month on TV -- I'm not surprised people are pirating content.
- mxuribe 8y agoMinor point: I'm curious about someone paying for channels via Prime. I also have Prime but no other channels via Prime...but because of a seemingly silly reason: the Prime App is awful - both slow and buggy - so i would NOT want to experience those other channels through the Prime app. I'll be honest I've actually never tried to add/pay for other channels via Prime, so i'm making a BIG assumption that they would play through the Prime App. My experience has been quite positive with the netflix app, awful with Prime App, also awful with hulu App, and so-so/not terrible with hbo's separate App....and these are all via my dedicated roku 3 device. If you seem to have a positive experience with those additional channels via Prime, curious to learn more about your set up? Are using roku device, etc.?
- NotAnEconomist 8y agoI'm deep into the Amazon ecosystem, so I use a FireTV Cube. There, the Amazon video content is some kind of default invisible app accessible as a tab at the top of the screen and via searches, so it sort of "just happens". When I go to "Videos", there's just an extra lane of channels I've subscribed to below my watch list and suggested content -- if I pull them open, it brings up what's basically the home page again, but with only that channel's content displayed. It's not a great app, I think your description of 'so-so' fits the experience, but it's better than some of the dedicated streaming ones (looking at you, DirecTV and Funimation!)
- CivBase 8y ago"Competitors" is the wrong word here. The problem is not competition, it's exclusivity. I'm subscribed to half a dozen streaming services but I still regularly find content that isn't available on any of them. There's definitely some truth to the notion that piracy is a service problem. Even without considering the costs, I really don't want to subscribe to any more streaming services simply because I'm being forced to maintain accounts and share payment information with so many entities. It doesn't help that a regular subscription for a streaming service with only one or two appealing pieces of content is simply a bad value.
- isuckatcoding 8y agoOf course it’s much easier to pay for a cheap VPN and use one of those torrent streaming services.
- jshaqaw 8y agoThe whole streaming model makes little sense st this point. It is replicating the cable channel system. The model which makes sense was/is an ITunes ala carte system where you buy shows and movies you watch direct. Bundling only works for the provider not the consumer. For a while the streaming services like Netflix artificially made themselves look better than ala carte with the standard tech playbook - offer a product below cost until you are an 800 pound gorilla and can dictate terms. I don’t think the vast majority of newer streaming services will make it.
- eppsilon 8y agoA la carte might make sense if the pricing was more reasonable. I don't want to pay $2-3 per episode to own a TV series I'll never watch again.
- mentos 8y agoI agree with this, the other night I saw a show I wanted to watch but then it proposed a $3 price to watch the episode which sadly turned me off. I laughed like 'ha I guess I'm that cheap' turned off my tv and rolled over in bed to go to sleep. I wonder what price might have gotten me in that moment? $0.50?
- danillonunes 8y agoI would pay $3 for renting a single movie, but not for a show episode because that would build up too fast. 10 episodes per season and that’s already $30 for one show.
- asdff 8y agoTV on DVD was just as bad.
- asdff 8y agoIf the bar is netflix's $12, then 3 bucks better get me 1 week, call it 40 hours of content. I'd be much more eager to watch a bunch of different shows and spend a lot more money than if I had to pay $2.99 or whatever to rent a movie on itunes/amazon.
- pdimitar 8y agoThis is particularly hilarious especially when you are in Eastern Europe. For the longest time the myth that people pirate because they are cheap reigned supreme. Then a few local TVs figured to make on-the-street interviews and about 95% of the people said they torrent because it's easier and quicker (only a minute chunk of them said "I already pay my internet bill, why should I pay extra" which is IMO not such a flawed argument as claimed either). Convenience is the biggest factor. Make something inconvenient and people will just go somewhere else. It's as simple as that. I wish the streaming services luck navigating the foggy mire of copyright laws and exclusivity deals now. In the meantime everybody in that area loses business to torrents. That system is so tragically slow and sluggish that it eventually works against its own interest. This makes me smile. What makes me smile even more is that they will probably just try to ignore the issue and will lose even more money in the process.
- cirgue 8y ago"If your paid product is worse than the free competitor, people will continue to use the free product until that changes." Netflix's value add for 90% of people is content discovery and convenience.
- pdimitar 8y agoFair enough, but plenty of torrent trackers have very respectable dashboards, like "Trending content" or "Newest additions", "Most downloaded" etc. Agreed on your points, just saying that the free alternatives aren't doing that bad themselves.
- cirgue 8y agoWe're very much in agreement, I should have said "only value add".
- Kurtz79 8y ago"only a minute chunk of them said "I already pay my internet bill, why should I pay extra" which is IMO not such a flawed argument as claimed either" I would be interested about your reasoning? The fact that you bought plates and cutlery means that you should have food for free?
- zaarn 8y agoNowdays, with a bit of elbow grease, piracy can be easier than Netflix. In a purely hypothetical example, I could be running Sonarr and Radarr to gain almot immediate access to any TV-type media release as soon as it's available. I could feed the files into Plex and thanks to Plex Pass, I could then download the episodes of my favorite show in the morning and watch them on the go. If a show becomes unavailable due to legal reasons (Netflix' Star Trek Discovery) or other reasons (removed from media library, not licensed or license ran out), I would have a local copy. I could hook up bazaar to obtain subtitles for all those would-have media files. I wouldn't have to deal with resolution restrictions or siloing. It would be all in one app that contains all my media. This experience would be free plus the work I have to do myself to set it up. But the actual reality is that I have 3 streaming apps on my phone because neither of the three offers all the tv shows, movies and anime that I want to consume. Shows vanish for various reasons and I cannot consume them anymore. They're gone. I have to put in actual work to discover where the current media is best obtained and sometimes the price is too high. For this experience I have to pay. If Netflix and Friends want to keep people out of piracy, they need to stop siloing, stop geofencing their offerings and start competing around the service of media, not the availability of media. Piracy almost always wins the availability contest. Piracy at the moment wins for Geofencing and other DRM (there is none). Piracy doesn't silo my favorite content. And piracy doesn't cost the end user anything, only the producer. Now, I'm not advocating for piracy. I'd rather live in a world where piracy wasn't necessary or even lucrative for the end user. It's very frustrating to be stuck in the one where I throw money at the subpar solution.
- HugoDaniel 8y ago"file-sharing accounts for 3 percent of global downstream and 22 percent of upstream traffic, with 97% of that traffic in turn being BitTorrent" Two questions: 1. How much is 97% of 3% ? 2. Why did the writer used such technique to make it sound big ?
- larntz 8y ago1. 0.3 * 0.97 = 2.91 2. I don't think the author is trying to make it sound big, but they could have worded it differently. I think the author is making two points: > a. 3% of all downstream traffic is file-sharing traffic. > b. 97% of file sharing traffic is bittorrent.
- arethuza 8y agoI don't know about piracy but I'm definitely thinking about getting a new DVD/blu-ray player as even with Netflix, Amazon, Apple iTunes and BBC iPlayer the choice available is still pretty restricted - particularly when it comes to older content.
- Finnucane 8y agoThis is one of the reasons we still pay for the Netflix DVD service. Eventually everything shows up there, regardless of where it originated. If they can get it on disk, they can rent it.
- stevenwoo 8y agoI stopped the Netflix DVD service because even some Netflix streaming exclusives do not show up, 13th was not available last time I was on there I believe in November 2018, additionally my local library has the new DVD/Blueray releases available around the same time my place in the Netflix queue went from long wait to available.
- rchaud 8y agoThe article correlates rising Bittorrent traffic with exclusive streaming deals without showing any causality. Disappointing. That being said, users are absolutely having to hunt and peck across different services as the article said. And this is not a simple matter of comparison shopping, as Netflix makes it impossible to actually view their catalogue without signing up. Once you sign up, you realize that shows don't have reviews anymore. Finally, it's all too obvious now that Netflix's preference these days is to dump all of its licensing deals and only have its own content on the platform. It wasn't an issue with 'prestige' brands like House of Cards and Stranger Things, but now there's a glut of straight-to-DVD-esque Netflix originals that they constantly bug you to check out. Honestly, if they ever drop Friends and The Office (shows with highly devoted followings), they're likely to see a big dropoff in subscribers.
- hombre_fatal 8y agoDoes anyone ever get "life is amazing but I choose to be angry" vibes from the comments on this topic every time it comes up? Like letting yourself get livid that you couldn't quite stretch your legs on a cheap flight that took you where ever you wanted in the world. I always scroll the comments in the hopes of finding someone frustrated at the frustration, and I never find it. For example, in these comments people assert that it's "user-hostile" that Netflix's search shows you related shows for your search term. Should it do a better job indicating that your target show wasn't found? Maybe. Though I'd like to hear how you'd design that, because Netflix search is essentially a multi-lingual keyword search across multi-lingual titles. Is someone searching "funny" looking for the movie "Funny Games"? You'll notice that Netflix tries to help you drill down into comedies. It's "user-hostile"? Has anyone here not been in a group setting trying to find something to watch, so you search something and someone recognizes some other movie from the search results? I've never even been in a group setting where anyone knew what we should watch, chaining through related videos seems like the best UX. Also, do we really need access to every bit of content under the sun for some small monthly payment? Is that really the end-game? As a community of people who supposedly appreciate the merits of decentralization, which company gets to be that tollbooth of all content produced by humanity? This topic generates so many strong opinions and anger at what seem like inconsequential issues that I have to wonder how much of the problem is Netflix and how much is merely our entitlement in a world where we have access to more content than any humans in history, and how that makes us even thirstier than ever.
- sliken 8y agoThe netflix UI is pretty user hostile. You can't control what sections you see, nor what order those sections are. So it's maddening to even find what you were just watching 10 minutes ago. When browsing they assume you want to see the preview, and you can't turn it off. Nor can you browse only videos you haven't seen. You'd think they would want a nice clean interface where your recently seen videos are always on top, and your favorite sections show only videos you haven't seen. Sadly that's not possible. If they published an API for that functionality I'm sure someone would fix that pretty quickly.
- onemoresoop 8y agoI recently subscribed to Mubi. They have a curated selection of movies in a list of 30 movies, every day a movie gets out and another one gets in. I think it's around 8-9 USD per month and there's a week trial. I like revisiting classic or arthouse movies so I naturally like their selection but I doubt this is for everyone. The model however, could work with different audiences.
- stevewillows 8y agoI was on Mubi for a while and really liked the 'one in, one out' system. I typically watched the movies that were about two days out, regardless of my interest. As a result I watched a lot of movies I never would had known about. I don't think this model would translate to the less-obsessed, though -- especially for films that are easier to find.