4 ms·

I’m more bearish on Netflix’s long term sustainability lately. How many big show cancellations have recently resulted in massive blowback from huge swaths of f

by blhack 7y ago

I’m more bearish on Netflix’s long term sustainability lately. How many big show cancellations have recently resulted in massive blowback from huge swaths of fans? As much as those might seem like petty complaining from overly enthusiastic watchers, I think that Netflix should be more cautious. It’s caused me to get MUCH more skeptical about ever starting watching a show on their service, because I’ve see lots of times where the story never gets to see a conclusion. Netflix used to be a “no way I’m canceling this ever” thing for me. It’s not even close to that anymore. My intuition is that lots of people are the same. That should be concerning for Netflix investors. They also just recently spent $200M to hire the two people behind the catastrophic final season of Game Of Thrones. Game of thrones fans are numerous, and lots of them HATE that duo right now. That’s another huge group of people now actively looking for a reason to cancel. It feels like for a long time Netflix didn’t really have to care about customer experience or PR. They could do universally hated things like force auto playing previews on their interfaces, and basically nobody would leave because they had nowhere to go. Now: users are forced to use an interface which seems to actively make them upset while using it, to navigate through a bunch of options which might never actually have conclusions. That doesn’t sound like a good long term customer retention strategy. And then here comes Disney, with their MASSIVE catalog of shows with conclusions, for cheap. It’s not just Hulu vs Netflix anymore. Netflix: fix the interface and stop canceling shows without at least giving them conclusions. This stuff matters a lot!

uxcolumbo 7y ago
RE: fix the interface and stop canceling shows without at least giving them conclusions. In your view, how can they improve the interface - other than improving the recommendation algorithm. I find myself browsing their catalog for 20 minutes or so and then end up not watching anything. And totally agree with you on not cancelling shows. For example one of their better, more creative and daring shows was the OA. Cancelled. One of Netflix's USP could be that they are a place where people go to watch non lowest common denominator shows. But of course this takes time to get up the viewership numbers up and doesn't help them in the short term, hence why they have to cancel shows I guess.
- ethbro 7y ago
  The "every tile row looks the same" interface seems like a subpar choice, given the amount of content. At minimum, bubbling shows I've previously watched that now have a new season up into a differently displayed row would be helpful.
- zwaps 7y ago
  Whenever you want to watch or continue a show, the link and continue watching is hidden far down the page. When you want to discover a new show, Netflix shows you mostly shows you already watched and voted on. During all this, you are constantly at danger of misclicks or misscrolls, whixh start some loud trailer or an unwanted show. Essentially, netflix ui designers are extremely incompetent. Either that, or they truly do want to enrage their customers.
pavelrub 7y ago
> They also just recently spent $200M to hire the two people behind the catastrophic final season of Game Of Thrones. That's a pretty ridiculous way of putting it, given that those same two people are also responsible for creating one of the most successful shows in TV history. What will determine the success of this decision is the quality of what they produce. The number of people who will cancel their subscription simply due to D&D's involvement seems like a completely insignificant risk.
- blhack 7y ago
  I think you're missing the point I'm making. Sure that team has a lot of experience running one of the biggest shows of all time, but they're toxic to lots of people who watch TV right now. It was a bad PR move, and it makes it easier for spiteful fans to cancel their subscriptions. Normally just one of these things wouldn't be a big deal, but it seems like netflix has had a bunch of these "a bunch of your customers are so mad that they're leaving" events back to back.
  - pavelrub 7y ago
    No, I think you are the one who is missing the point. This deal a bet on D&D's ability to produce a hit show. Whatever "bad PR" you think this is getting is completely insignificant compared to what Netflix stands to gain from this. Other than that, I think you are vastly overestimating the number of people who respond negatively to this, their actual responses, and their overall impact on Netflix' bottom line. The main risk here for Netflix is that D&D will produce a bad show, not that a bunch of teenagers from r/gameofthrones will cancel their subscription.
    - tcd 7y ago
      Not many people will watch shows where D&D are involved I suspect
      - objectivetruth 7y ago
        Of the estimated 100 MILLION people that watched the GoT S8 premiere, you think even a million of them are paying attention to the drama of some writer-production team-showrunner drama? And that this will hold over and significantly affect the commercial success of whatever they do next? No matter how much Netflix throws into marketing? Somehow I doubt the executives and PR flacks at Netflix are too worried about this possibility. For the record, I've never watched an episode of GoT and I only vaguely remember hearing that some of the fans were angry at the showrunners for the finale.

by blhack 7y ago

uxcolumbo 7y ago

RE: fix the interface and stop canceling shows without at least giving them conclusions. In your view, how can they improve the interface - other than improving the recommendation algorithm. I find myself browsing their catalog for 20 minutes or so and then end up not watching anything. And totally agree with you on not cancelling shows. For example one of their better, more creative and daring shows was the OA. Cancelled. One of Netflix's USP could be that they are a place where people go to watch non lowest common denominator shows. But of course this takes time to get up the viewership numbers up and doesn't help them in the short term, hence why they have to cancel shows I guess.

ethbro 7y ago
The "every tile row looks the same" interface seems like a subpar choice, given the amount of content. At minimum, bubbling shows I've previously watched that now have a new season up into a differently displayed row would be helpful.
zwaps 7y ago
Whenever you want to watch or continue a show, the link and continue watching is hidden far down the page. When you want to discover a new show, Netflix shows you mostly shows you already watched and voted on. During all this, you are constantly at danger of misclicks or misscrolls, whixh start some loud trailer or an unwanted show. Essentially, netflix ui designers are extremely incompetent. Either that, or they truly do want to enrage their customers.

pavelrub 7y ago

> They also just recently spent $200M to hire the two people behind the catastrophic final season of Game Of Thrones. That's a pretty ridiculous way of putting it, given that those same two people are also responsible for creating one of the most successful shows in TV history. What will determine the success of this decision is the quality of what they produce. The number of people who will cancel their subscription simply due to D&D's involvement seems like a completely insignificant risk.

blhack 7y ago
I think you're missing the point I'm making. Sure that team has a lot of experience running one of the biggest shows of all time, but they're toxic to lots of people who watch TV right now. It was a bad PR move, and it makes it easier for spiteful fans to cancel their subscriptions. Normally just one of these things wouldn't be a big deal, but it seems like netflix has had a bunch of these "a bunch of your customers are so mad that they're leaving" events back to back.
- pavelrub 7y ago
  No, I think you are the one who is missing the point. This deal a bet on D&D's ability to produce a hit show. Whatever "bad PR" you think this is getting is completely insignificant compared to what Netflix stands to gain from this. Other than that, I think you are vastly overestimating the number of people who respond negatively to this, their actual responses, and their overall impact on Netflix' bottom line. The main risk here for Netflix is that D&D will produce a bad show, not that a bunch of teenagers from r/gameofthrones will cancel their subscription.
  - tcd 7y ago
    Not many people will watch shows where D&D are involved I suspect
    - objectivetruth 7y ago
      Of the estimated 100 MILLION people that watched the GoT S8 premiere, you think even a million of them are paying attention to the drama of some writer-production team-showrunner drama? And that this will hold over and significantly affect the commercial success of whatever they do next? No matter how much Netflix throws into marketing? Somehow I doubt the executives and PR flacks at Netflix are too worried about this possibility. For the record, I've never watched an episode of GoT and I only vaguely remember hearing that some of the fans were angry at the showrunners for the finale.