3 ms·

Is it that people don't know what they want to watch? Or is it that what they want to watch isn't in the netflix catalog. 9/10 times I have a specific movie or

Is it that people don't know what they want to watch? Or is it that what they want to watch isn't in the netflix catalog. 9/10 times I have a specific movie or show in mind that I want to watch and I search for it on netflix it tells me it is only available to be shipped via DVD or bluray and its not available in their online catalog. Maybe if they spent less money on trying to develop their own content and more money licensing the best content to come out over the past 30 years then there would be more engagement. The percentage of the top 1000 or so movies as rated on IMDB or Rotten tomatoes that is NOT on netflix is staggering. When we all bought into the concept of netflix a decade or so back it was on the premise of all-you-can-eat on demand access to the largest/most inclusive catalog of movies and shows anywhere. They long ago ditched that model and they are suffering as a result. It's not even that you can't get the latest blockbusters, its that you can't get most highly rated movies from ANY of the last 3-4 decades. But movies rated 5/10 or lower? Seems like they've managed to license just about every one of those. Bleh.

sfink 7y ago
I suspect that isn't netflix's decision to make. Everyone is trying to get into the streaming market these days, and the only way to capture subscribers is to offer up content that other services don't have, which means they're willing to burn huge piles of investor money to lock up exclusive rights. Yes, it defeats the whole point of streaming subscriptions. Yes, it'll drive a large segment of the subscriber base back to piracy. But it's a classic prisoner's dilemma. As long as I'm speculating about shit i know nothing about, I'll follow up by predicting that the next wave - after things get bad enough - is cross-licensing deals between the bigger surviving players. That'll improve the value proposition to subscribers (great for us!) and also raise barriers to entry, so next will be the price gouging. Oh, and somewhere in there will be the contracts that prevent content creators/distributors from licensing new stuff to anyone else (unless they are one of the surviving streaming services.)

sfink 7y ago

I suspect that isn't netflix's decision to make. Everyone is trying to get into the streaming market these days, and the only way to capture subscribers is to offer up content that other services don't have, which means they're willing to burn huge piles of investor money to lock up exclusive rights. Yes, it defeats the whole point of streaming subscriptions. Yes, it'll drive a large segment of the subscriber base back to piracy. But it's a classic prisoner's dilemma. As long as I'm speculating about shit i know nothing about, I'll follow up by predicting that the next wave - after things get bad enough - is cross-licensing deals between the bigger surviving players. That'll improve the value proposition to subscribers (great for us!) and also raise barriers to entry, so next will be the price gouging. Oh, and somewhere in there will be the contracts that prevent content creators/distributors from licensing new stuff to anyone else (unless they are one of the surviving streaming services.)