3 ms·

Spotify makes sense because you're swapping out inefficient distribution (record stores & albums) to an efficient one. Netflix doesn't have a similar advantage

by treis 4y ago

Spotify makes sense because you're swapping out inefficient distribution (record stores & albums) to an efficient one. Netflix doesn't have a similar advantage. Media companies produced shows and Cable companies distributed them just fine before. The advantage they had in technology and being able to buy cheap media has evaporated. Their advantage of being able to burn money is now evaporating with it. They're left with trying to produce better media cheaper which they can't do because they're worse than legacy studios. Or distributing cheaper/better which they can do but there's not a 10+ billion dollar company there. Worse for them Apple & Amazon still seem to be happy burning money for a while. Not a lot of bargains out there buying media.

evandijk70 4y ago
Do you mean cable television? To me, Netflix is the same to cable television as Spotify is to radio, so I'm not sure I see a big benefit of Spotify there.
- treis 4y ago
  Cable had commercial free channels and on demand content before Netflix came around.
yodon 4y ago
Netflix wasn't a cable competitor- it was a Blockbuster competitor. They started out as the king of the DVD rental market, putting essentially 100% of the competitors in that distribution-only industry out of business. They eventually reached a scale in the streaming category (which they essentially invented from a business standpoint, even though they did not invent the technology) where it made sense for them to produce their own content, both because it was more economically efficient generally and to prevent studios from starving them of content and shutting off their revenues. Their move into producing some fraction of their own content matched that of both cable companies and TV studios before them. Netflix's primary advantage, in both the DVD market and the early streaming market was 100% a radically disruptive distribution advantage. Eventually, in both cases, they became so dominant that they redefined their own industries. It's not that Netflix is a cable company, it's that cable were forced to become Netflix to stay alive and avoid the fate of Blockbuster and Netflix's original competitors.

by treis 4y ago

evandijk70 4y ago

Do you mean cable television? To me, Netflix is the same to cable television as Spotify is to radio, so I'm not sure I see a big benefit of Spotify there.

treis 4y ago
Cable had commercial free channels and on demand content before Netflix came around.

yodon 4y ago

Netflix wasn't a cable competitor- it was a Blockbuster competitor. They started out as the king of the DVD rental market, putting essentially 100% of the competitors in that distribution-only industry out of business. They eventually reached a scale in the streaming category (which they essentially invented from a business standpoint, even though they did not invent the technology) where it made sense for them to produce their own content, both because it was more economically efficient generally and to prevent studios from starving them of content and shutting off their revenues. Their move into producing some fraction of their own content matched that of both cable companies and TV studios before them. Netflix's primary advantage, in both the DVD market and the early streaming market was 100% a radically disruptive distribution advantage. Eventually, in both cases, they became so dominant that they redefined their own industries. It's not that Netflix is a cable company, it's that cable were forced to become Netflix to stay alive and avoid the fate of Blockbuster and Netflix's original competitors.