6 ms·

Netflix Regains 600,000 U.S. Subscribers

67 points by gammarator 15y ago

jpiasetz 15y ago
Would be interesting to know how many returned vs. how many of those are new and of the returning how many left due to the price increase.
thomasgerbe 15y ago
sigh http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3512413 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3512413
- markerdmann 15y ago
  It's so easy for great links to come and go on the new page without even getting a single vote. Everyone, make sure to browse the new page and vote up good links! It's your civic duty.
  - nodata 15y ago
    Also titles are important! Think of good titles!
    - ars 15y ago
      Having 4 friends helps too. Get them to vote up your story (simultaneously!!) so that it goes on the front page even for a few minutes. After that, if it's any good, it'll be self-sustaining. (If not, having those friends won't help much - it'll fall off if it doesn't keep getting votes from other people who think it's valuable.) I never actually done this, but I see it all the time.
bambax 15y ago
Netflix is magic. It has the only recommendation engine that actually works. I'm a streaming subscriber, and the only problem is their somewhat limited catalog: many movies I look for are only available on DVD. There are very few recent releases. But their catalog will inevitably expand. It's incredible how one comes to love something that works so consistently and dependably.
- AgentConundrum 15y ago
  > It has the only recommendation engine that actually works. I wish it let you split out recommendations based on users, with the option of "recommended for the whole account." I like Sci-Fi, and I've watched a fair amount of it on my Netflix account, including 10/11 Star Trek movies, but the last time I went into the Sci-Fi section, it was recommending me random kids shows and things I'd clearly not like. This is because my girlfriend uses it a lot and has watched a lot of older, especially teen (nostalgia), shows. To quote from A Christmas Story, Netflix "labor[s] under the delusion that I [am] not only perpetually 4 years old, but also a girl." Not knocking their engine, just a random anecdote. Didn't Netflix run a competition once for people to come up with a better recommendation engine a while ago? Maybe that's why it's so good. Crowdsourcing.
  - mark_l_watson 15y ago
    I agree, and the annoyance of split recommendations between my wife and I made me think that it was worth having two separate accounts. Compared to the horrible deal that is satellite TV, paying for two Netflix streaming accounts seems like a good deal, and I have been paying double for about 6 months. BTW, I have had no luck in talking my wife into dropping Directv, even with Netflix, Hulu+, and a good 7 screen movie theater near our house. Wish me luck :-)
    - DiabloD3 15y ago
      Yeah, but how the hell do you switch accounts on devices? Both Android and Roku require me to go through the insane process of typing my login and password in. I'd pay for double accounts, but Netflix apparently won't take my money.
      - mark_l_watson 15y ago
        We use my account on our shared TV with a GoogleTV and an Apple iTV. We use our own accounts on our laptops.
  - JoshTriplett 15y ago
dasil003 15y ago
I bought Netflix @ $75 last year. It was the first time I ever bought stock, but I had to do it out of sheer confidence. > "You are never as smart or dumb as they say," Hastings said in a Wednesday interview. This is exactly why I bought. Everybody and their mother was jumping all over themselves to talk about how stupid Netflix was. I figured the stock was pummeled about as low as it could go because at the end of the day Netflix has amazing infrastructure and product assets (I say this as a direct competitor). It's certainly the case that they are being squeezed mercilessly between price expectations of customers and profit expectations of the content cartels, but at the same time, Internet streaming is an irresistible force and no one is positioned better to capitalize on it than Netflix.
- kokey 15y ago
  That's generally a good strategy for beating the crowd at speculating. The problem is knowing when you are following or beating the crowd. The other problem is timing it right. Normally when 'everyone knows' that tech stock, property, or gold is a good investment, it's not a good time to invest in it.
  - onemoreact 15y ago
    Yea, I have been looking into shorting gold for a while now, but you really need to get the timing right to do that. It went from 1600 to 1900 and back to 1600 in the fall but there is so much volatility it's impossible to really know the market.
dcurtis 15y ago
Fun fact: Netflix now has almost the same number of subscribers as Comcast (21.67 million versus 22.4 million for Comcast). I find that amazing, because it means Netflix has the same distribution power as a major cable TV provider.
- badclient 15y ago
  Doesn't Comcast have a legal monopoly in many areas? While that may be further damning to Comcast from one angle, it does make them much more of a stable bet than Netflix.
- AgentConundrum 15y ago
  Distribution power, maybe, but they're probably still significantly disadvantaged financially, since $8/mo is considerably less than anybody (who has cable) pays for cable. I was looking into this just last night, actually. I'm not with Comcast, I'm not even American actually, but I wanted to add a couple channels to our account and I went looking at pricing. For the basic crappy channels - the first 20 or so, I think - I was $25. Our roommate, by which I mean by would-be brother-in-law, controls the account so I don't know how much it all comes to, but looking at the different packages, I'd say it's got to be at least $80-100, not factoring in any discounts for bundling with internet and all that.
  - chaostheory 15y ago
    > Distribution power, maybe, but they're probably still significantly disadvantaged financially, since $8/mo is considerably less than anybody (who has cable) pays for cable. Not entirely true. I'm part of a growing number of people that have cable tv who don't actually use cable tv. Let me explain. Once I explained to Comcast that my household no longer watches cable tv and that I'd rather spend the money I used to spend on cable tv for faster internet (up to 50 mbs). They in turn explained to me that if I have super basic cable plan for $9.99 / month, they would give me a $15 discount off my entire monthly bill. So for a $5 monthly discount, Comcast gets to keep me as a ghost cable tv subscriber.
    - 15y ago
kbutler 15y ago
We signed up again. Where our previous plan was "Keep a Netflix subscription and tell our friends about it", our current mode is, "This is the cheapest way to watch the existing episodes of TV series _____, then we'll cancel again."

67 points by gammarator 15y ago

Would be interesting to know how many returned vs. how many of those are new and of the returning how many left due to the price increase.

thomasgerbe 15y ago

sigh http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3512413 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3512413

markerdmann 15y ago
It's so easy for great links to come and go on the new page without even getting a single vote. Everyone, make sure to browse the new page and vote up good links! It's your civic duty.
- nodata 15y ago
  Also titles are important! Think of good titles!
  - ars 15y ago
    Having 4 friends helps too. Get them to vote up your story (simultaneously!!) so that it goes on the front page even for a few minutes. After that, if it's any good, it'll be self-sustaining. (If not, having those friends won't help much - it'll fall off if it doesn't keep getting votes from other people who think it's valuable.) I never actually done this, but I see it all the time.

bambax 15y ago

Netflix is magic. It has the only recommendation engine that actually works. I'm a streaming subscriber, and the only problem is their somewhat limited catalog: many movies I look for are only available on DVD. There are very few recent releases. But their catalog will inevitably expand. It's incredible how one comes to love something that works so consistently and dependably.

AgentConundrum 15y ago
> It has the only recommendation engine that actually works. I wish it let you split out recommendations based on users, with the option of "recommended for the whole account." I like Sci-Fi, and I've watched a fair amount of it on my Netflix account, including 10/11 Star Trek movies, but the last time I went into the Sci-Fi section, it was recommending me random kids shows and things I'd clearly not like. This is because my girlfriend uses it a lot and has watched a lot of older, especially teen (nostalgia), shows. To quote from A Christmas Story, Netflix "labor[s] under the delusion that I [am] not only perpetually 4 years old, but also a girl." Not knocking their engine, just a random anecdote. Didn't Netflix run a competition once for people to come up with a better recommendation engine a while ago? Maybe that's why it's so good. Crowdsourcing.
- mark_l_watson 15y ago
  I agree, and the annoyance of split recommendations between my wife and I made me think that it was worth having two separate accounts. Compared to the horrible deal that is satellite TV, paying for two Netflix streaming accounts seems like a good deal, and I have been paying double for about 6 months. BTW, I have had no luck in talking my wife into dropping Directv, even with Netflix, Hulu+, and a good 7 screen movie theater near our house. Wish me luck :-)
  - DiabloD3 15y ago
    Yeah, but how the hell do you switch accounts on devices? Both Android and Roku require me to go through the insane process of typing my login and password in. I'd pay for double accounts, but Netflix apparently won't take my money.
    - mark_l_watson 15y ago
      We use my account on our shared TV with a GoogleTV and an Apple iTV. We use our own accounts on our laptops.
- JoshTriplett 15y ago

dasil003 15y ago

I bought Netflix @ $75 last year. It was the first time I ever bought stock, but I had to do it out of sheer confidence. > "You are never as smart or dumb as they say," Hastings said in a Wednesday interview. This is exactly why I bought. Everybody and their mother was jumping all over themselves to talk about how stupid Netflix was. I figured the stock was pummeled about as low as it could go because at the end of the day Netflix has amazing infrastructure and product assets (I say this as a direct competitor). It's certainly the case that they are being squeezed mercilessly between price expectations of customers and profit expectations of the content cartels, but at the same time, Internet streaming is an irresistible force and no one is positioned better to capitalize on it than Netflix.

kokey 15y ago
That's generally a good strategy for beating the crowd at speculating. The problem is knowing when you are following or beating the crowd. The other problem is timing it right. Normally when 'everyone knows' that tech stock, property, or gold is a good investment, it's not a good time to invest in it.
- onemoreact 15y ago
  Yea, I have been looking into shorting gold for a while now, but you really need to get the timing right to do that. It went from 1600 to 1900 and back to 1600 in the fall but there is so much volatility it's impossible to really know the market.

dcurtis 15y ago

Fun fact: Netflix now has almost the same number of subscribers as Comcast (21.67 million versus 22.4 million for Comcast). I find that amazing, because it means Netflix has the same distribution power as a major cable TV provider.

badclient 15y ago
Doesn't Comcast have a legal monopoly in many areas? While that may be further damning to Comcast from one angle, it does make them much more of a stable bet than Netflix.
AgentConundrum 15y ago
Distribution power, maybe, but they're probably still significantly disadvantaged financially, since $8/mo is considerably less than anybody (who has cable) pays for cable. I was looking into this just last night, actually. I'm not with Comcast, I'm not even American actually, but I wanted to add a couple channels to our account and I went looking at pricing. For the basic crappy channels - the first 20 or so, I think - I was $25. Our roommate, by which I mean by would-be brother-in-law, controls the account so I don't know how much it all comes to, but looking at the different packages, I'd say it's got to be at least $80-100, not factoring in any discounts for bundling with internet and all that.
- chaostheory 15y ago
  > Distribution power, maybe, but they're probably still significantly disadvantaged financially, since $8/mo is considerably less than anybody (who has cable) pays for cable. Not entirely true. I'm part of a growing number of people that have cable tv who don't actually use cable tv. Let me explain. Once I explained to Comcast that my household no longer watches cable tv and that I'd rather spend the money I used to spend on cable tv for faster internet (up to 50 mbs). They in turn explained to me that if I have super basic cable plan for $9.99 / month, they would give me a $15 discount off my entire monthly bill. So for a $5 monthly discount, Comcast gets to keep me as a ghost cable tv subscriber.
  - 15y ago

kbutler 15y ago

We signed up again. Where our previous plan was "Keep a Netflix subscription and tell our friends about it", our current mode is, "This is the cheapest way to watch the existing episodes of TV series _____, then we'll cancel again."