9 ms·

No wonder Netflix is bleeding subscribers – it’s become the new cable

42 points by philk10 5y ago

PaulHoule 5y ago
It's amusing to see CNN circle the wagons by shutting down CNN+ in favor of one "big tent" streaming service from the parent company. It's as if a cable channel is not supposed to develop a strong brand. I mean, MTV did, back when it played music videos, but as part of the Viacom stable the then 65 Sumner Redstone decided unilaterally that we wouldn't be able to watch music videos anymore. The ratings went in the toilet but who cares, Viacom is entitled to a certain number of cents per sub whether or not you watch and there is no way to accept or refuse MTV except to subscribe or not subscribe to the whole bundle. People might think you have a brand because you have a logo but there is no benefit for the company in making the consumer believe that you stand for something because the consumer doesn't have a disaggregated choice: once you subscribe it doesn't matter if you watch or not. It drives me nuts that people think GAME PASS from Microsoft is a good idea but I see it as "someday parents are going to be wondering why their kids aren't interested in playing video games anymore"... The answer will be that games wouldn't have been fun for twenty years and the parents just remember what it was like back when video games were fun, back when video game makers made money when they made fun games people want to buy. Once they got paid regardless, there wasn't any reason to make games fun anymore.
- culpable_pickle 5y ago
  I find your argument compelling, but slightly off. you can't just totally give up, but you need to find the cheapest way to be adequate, which turns into trash stuff that triggers something in our brain to seek out more of it. It's the same with sugar and junk food.
- diordiderot 5y ago
  The majority of Fox News' cabal revenue comes from people who don't watch it
  - _aavaa_ 5y ago
    Silence brother! We do not speak openly about the cabal revenue.
etempleton 5y ago
When Netflix began original programming almost everything they put out was interesting even if I wasn't the target demographic. Their recent programming, beyond a few good shows and documentaries, is mostly lowest common denominator garbage. I think Netflix became data obsessed. The problem with that is good art or even entertainment is rarely made by analyzing a spreadsheet to determine what audiences want. So now they have an app where it is hard to find things, because I guess it is more "sticky," and content that is brain dead, because I guess their data suggests a lot of people will watch it relative to the cost. They should have remained focused on premier television. Big shows people want to talk to their friends about. Not Movies, because they do a terrible job promoting them and not reality TV, because no one is subscribing to a service to watch reality TV (though they will probably watch it once subscribed). I do think that the pandemic disrupted filming so they bought what they could to fill the gap, so hopefully the quality picks back up.
- jmoak3 5y ago
  >no one is subscribing to a service to watch reality TV I subscribe to Hulu to host Bachelor series watch parties. However, I strongly agree that Netflix content is braindead and the service charges you more than its content is worth.
  - moomin 5y ago
    If you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend “UnReal”. It gives you the experience of watching reality TV and prestige TV at the same time.
- diordiderot 5y ago
  It's there a term for this phenomenon where a 'thousand cuts' of small optimizations that improve x or y metric kill a brand?
  - kelseyfrog 5y ago
    I'm not above neologizing. Garden Path Optimizing transitive verb 1. to be misled by progressive or incremental optimization. 2. to achieve sub-optimality by pursuing incremental optimization.
filereaper 5y ago
Netflix has gone from costing $9.99 CAD to $20.99 CAD over all these years, with loss of content like Friends etc... For which I'd have to go to another service. As a subscriber, I'm essentially footing the bill for Netflix's "spray and watch" technique which is getting hard to support when the content doesn't appeal to me. So maybe focus is key and perhaps don't cancel so many shows I was into before (Marco Polo, Daredevil, etc...) I'm keeping Netflix around but if they start preventing my family from using a single account which we've had for a decade now, that's the last straw and I'm cancelling the service.
- jfengel 5y ago
  Daredevil, at least, wasn't their fault. Disney bought the IP and refused to license it. You can see it on Disney+. That still leaves them on the hook for lots and lots of other shows that they canceled. (My particular beef: I Am Not Okay With This, though the pandemic deserves a lot of blame for that.)
  - afiori 5y ago
    their philosophy seemed to be "first seasons attract more new customers than n-th seasons", which I always perceived as based either an arrogant "you are not gonna leave anyway" or a fearful "of we do not grow quickly enough we are collapsing"
    - jfengel 5y ago
      Arrogant, but probably true. Most shows lose viewers as time goes on, even successful ones. People get momentarily outraged about losing a show they hoped to see more of, but they're easily distracted by a new thing. Eventually some are gonna get tired of the rug-pull, but I think a lot will say "As long as I have something to watch tonight I have a reason to keep the service."
      - afiori 5y ago
        I believe they had good data and made reasoned decisions, yet this is also exactly how you optimize for traffic rather than for an audience. Toning down cancellations would help with customer loyalty in my opinion.
flatearth22 5y ago
bezospen15 5y ago
YouTubeTV is closer to cable than Netflix
leros 5y ago
Netflix used to be THE place to watch everything. Now you have to hop between 5+ services to watch all the latest trendy things. Netflix didn't become cable. Netflix went from being a cable alternative to becoming a channel in the cable alternative.
vsskanth 5y ago
Their strategy of becoming HBO before HBO becomes Netflix seems to be failing because they keep putting out complete garbage shows instead of prestige TV. I blame it on their pivot towards reality shows. We watched the Great British Baking Show (it's nice) and now there seems to be 10 different Netflix original baking shows, all bad. It's just spray and pray at this point.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

42 points by philk10 5y ago

It's amusing to see CNN circle the wagons by shutting down CNN+ in favor of one "big tent" streaming service from the parent company. It's as if a cable channel is not supposed to develop a strong brand. I mean, MTV did, back when it played music videos, but as part of the Viacom stable the then 65 Sumner Redstone decided unilaterally that we wouldn't be able to watch music videos anymore. The ratings went in the toilet but who cares, Viacom is entitled to a certain number of cents per sub whether or not you watch and there is no way to accept or refuse MTV except to subscribe or not subscribe to the whole bundle. People might think you have a brand because you have a logo but there is no benefit for the company in making the consumer believe that you stand for something because the consumer doesn't have a disaggregated choice: once you subscribe it doesn't matter if you watch or not. It drives me nuts that people think GAME PASS from Microsoft is a good idea but I see it as "someday parents are going to be wondering why their kids aren't interested in playing video games anymore"... The answer will be that games wouldn't have been fun for twenty years and the parents just remember what it was like back when video games were fun, back when video game makers made money when they made fun games people want to buy. Once they got paid regardless, there wasn't any reason to make games fun anymore.

culpable_pickle 5y ago
I find your argument compelling, but slightly off. you can't just totally give up, but you need to find the cheapest way to be adequate, which turns into trash stuff that triggers something in our brain to seek out more of it. It's the same with sugar and junk food.
diordiderot 5y ago
The majority of Fox News' cabal revenue comes from people who don't watch it
- _aavaa_ 5y ago
  Silence brother! We do not speak openly about the cabal revenue.

etempleton 5y ago

When Netflix began original programming almost everything they put out was interesting even if I wasn't the target demographic. Their recent programming, beyond a few good shows and documentaries, is mostly lowest common denominator garbage. I think Netflix became data obsessed. The problem with that is good art or even entertainment is rarely made by analyzing a spreadsheet to determine what audiences want. So now they have an app where it is hard to find things, because I guess it is more "sticky," and content that is brain dead, because I guess their data suggests a lot of people will watch it relative to the cost. They should have remained focused on premier television. Big shows people want to talk to their friends about. Not Movies, because they do a terrible job promoting them and not reality TV, because no one is subscribing to a service to watch reality TV (though they will probably watch it once subscribed). I do think that the pandemic disrupted filming so they bought what they could to fill the gap, so hopefully the quality picks back up.

jmoak3 5y ago
>no one is subscribing to a service to watch reality TV I subscribe to Hulu to host Bachelor series watch parties. However, I strongly agree that Netflix content is braindead and the service charges you more than its content is worth.
- moomin 5y ago
  If you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend “UnReal”. It gives you the experience of watching reality TV and prestige TV at the same time.
diordiderot 5y ago
It's there a term for this phenomenon where a 'thousand cuts' of small optimizations that improve x or y metric kill a brand?
- kelseyfrog 5y ago
  I'm not above neologizing. Garden Path Optimizing transitive verb 1. to be misled by progressive or incremental optimization. 2. to achieve sub-optimality by pursuing incremental optimization.

filereaper 5y ago

Netflix has gone from costing $9.99 CAD to $20.99 CAD over all these years, with loss of content like Friends etc... For which I'd have to go to another service. As a subscriber, I'm essentially footing the bill for Netflix's "spray and watch" technique which is getting hard to support when the content doesn't appeal to me. So maybe focus is key and perhaps don't cancel so many shows I was into before (Marco Polo, Daredevil, etc...) I'm keeping Netflix around but if they start preventing my family from using a single account which we've had for a decade now, that's the last straw and I'm cancelling the service.

jfengel 5y ago
Daredevil, at least, wasn't their fault. Disney bought the IP and refused to license it. You can see it on Disney+. That still leaves them on the hook for lots and lots of other shows that they canceled. (My particular beef: I Am Not Okay With This, though the pandemic deserves a lot of blame for that.)
- afiori 5y ago
  their philosophy seemed to be "first seasons attract more new customers than n-th seasons", which I always perceived as based either an arrogant "you are not gonna leave anyway" or a fearful "of we do not grow quickly enough we are collapsing"
  - jfengel 5y ago
    Arrogant, but probably true. Most shows lose viewers as time goes on, even successful ones. People get momentarily outraged about losing a show they hoped to see more of, but they're easily distracted by a new thing. Eventually some are gonna get tired of the rug-pull, but I think a lot will say "As long as I have something to watch tonight I have a reason to keep the service."
    - afiori 5y ago
      I believe they had good data and made reasoned decisions, yet this is also exactly how you optimize for traffic rather than for an audience. Toning down cancellations would help with customer loyalty in my opinion.

flatearth22 5y ago

bezospen15 5y ago

YouTubeTV is closer to cable than Netflix

leros 5y ago

Netflix used to be THE place to watch everything. Now you have to hop between 5+ services to watch all the latest trendy things. Netflix didn't become cable. Netflix went from being a cable alternative to becoming a channel in the cable alternative.

vsskanth 5y ago

Their strategy of becoming HBO before HBO becomes Netflix seems to be failing because they keep putting out complete garbage shows instead of prestige TV. I blame it on their pivot towards reality shows. We watched the Great British Baking Show (it's nice) and now there seems to be 10 different Netflix original baking shows, all bad. It's just spray and pray at this point.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]