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Netflix Canada just got rid of its cheapest ad-free plan without even a heads up
- Waterluvian 3y agoTangent: As much as it feels like we just have “bundles” like the bad old cable days, I really enjoy getting to change streaming providers every 2-3 months. My wife and I just Hoover up whatever we’re interested in then move on. And in a year we’ve got that service back and we Hoover up the last year’s added content that looks good. Lots of ways to measure it but when I think about how much I pay and what my experience is like, I’m doing far better than in the cable days. I’m much happier.
- atorodius 3y agoComment sponsored by Big Stream ;) In seriousness, I think this is actually a neat strategy.
- passwordoops 3y agoIt's the go-to strategy for us as well, but I'll bet you dollars to donuts this is the next target for some sort of crackdown
- fomine3 3y ago$20 for a month, $120 for 12 months
- Waterluvian 3y agoYou’ll have to call Netflix to cancel and they’ll just pass you around the call Center until they hang up by accident.
- ant6n 3y agoMore like, if you cancel, your account gets deleted for good, so you lose your profile with users, history, recommendations. You can pay x/month to pause your membership.
- koolba 3y agoCome on, we all know deleting your data would be a premium-only feature.
- XorNot 3y agoNetflix recommendations are useless, so this sounds like a win to me. Random is more interesting then "let us fail at understanding you based on limited demographics".
- ClassyJacket 3y agoNetflix already deletes your account after 10 months, probably for this specific purpose.
- jonhohle 3y agoIs that a new policy? I’ve had Netflix off and on since 2008 (for DVD rentals) and still have info from them. I’m pretty sure we’ve been gone for longer than 10-month windows.
- ncallaway 3y agoI’d seriously consider paying them a fee for that! I certainly hope they go in that direction.
- JimtheCoder 3y agoIt's 2023. My ChatGPT based AI agent will continue calling and deliver persuasive Haiku poems requesting a discount on my package. It will persist until it achieves it's desired goal...
- paxys 3y agoThey will simply make monthly plans absurdly expensive unless you commit to a 1-year contract. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
- lotsofpulp 3y agoHaving a middleman cut out and being able to watch on whatever device you want, whenever you want, is not things staying the same. My experience of being able to search the TV app on iOS or tvOS or macOS and then being given the option to play, buy, or rent the media is pretty seamless. And subscriptions are simple to cancel, so starting them is not a concern. Complete opposite of dealing with cable/satellite TV contracts and advertising breaks when watching stuff.
- passwordoops 3y agoYou miss the point. First, no middle man had been eliminated anywhere, the platforms have simply replaced them with better offers for the consumer right now. Secondly, Doctorow's law of enshittification more or less dictates that once users and content creators are locked in, the tech company will start to deliver poorer quality service and squeeze as much revenue as possible out of you. So currently, sure I can move around and it is better than the cable companies, but the trajectory of where the platforms are headed is not a good one and trending towards behavior more aligned with what the cable companies do. https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/ https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/
- gbear605 3y agoIronically a one year contract isn’t even an option for Netflix right now (in the US, can’t speak for other countries). Honestly not sure why, since it seems like it’d be more profitable for them, even with a slight discount.
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- jimcsharp 3y agoRotating content.
- geodel 3y agoAgree. I think they would've numbers by now how many are doing like that. Like if its 0.01% maybe not worth the effort now. Once its reach 0.1%, its time to empower customers by providing weekly/monthly/quarterly plans at different pricing points.
- tzs 3y agoThat's a pretty good approach, but there is one drawback that may be significant for some. You see a movie or show and then want to talk about it with your friends and find that they've all either won't be back on the right streaming service for a new months or they've seen it months ago and aren't that interested in talking about it any more.
- whartung 3y agoThat’s just a reality. I tend to not binge shows. Rather I try to slot them into one of my weekly slots. Since I limit my weekly intake, I also start shows late. A typical conversation for even a new show is as along the lines of “Oh yeah, we binged the entire thing!” I’ve learned it’s not worth talking about the show to someone who’s seen it since they’re more often than not bursting wanting to talk about something I haven’t seen. Or 2 months later when I’m done, they’ve forgotten a bunch of it anyway, moving on to other stuff I haven’t seen. It’s not like the old days when there were forums for shows like “Lost” just abuzz with speculation.
- I_AM_A_SMURF 3y agoAs much as I hated having to wait for a show to come on TV I do miss the mass event that was watching Game of Thrones when it airs. Especially the last season with watch parties and stuff.
- Larrikin 3y agoI like HBOs new method for releasing their less major hits. They release 2 to 3 episodes a week, which usually is about the amount of episodes I want to watch in one sitting, especially hour long shows. There's less pressure to get through a full season and it still gets the full season out pretty quickly. I've seen some other services copy this strategy a little bit, releasing 2 to 3 episodes at the start of the season, but then sadly dragging out the season after with single weekly episodes until the end of the season
- Barrin92 3y ago>My wife and I just Hoover up whatever we’re interested in then move on. Probably saner than my chaotic good approach of having gone back to torrenting but donating a subscription worth of money to the Against Malaria foundation to ease my conscience now that I'm not a broke student any more. I can't be bothered with the obnoxious subscriptions and autplay UIs
- henry2023 3y agoThis is the way to go
- eek2121 3y agoI gave up on that nonsense.I have a raspberry pi that rapidly pulls down new torrents for stuff and processes and/or copies it to my media center for free....which is another raspberry pi. I've no problem paying for content (I am "upper class"), but companies, especially Netflix clearly haven't figured things out. For Netflix, I am mostly referring to the account sharing stuff. I did not share my account with anyone, but false advertising rubbed me the wrong way, so they went from whatever their current top tier pricing is to zero from me. Other huge gripes include streaming quality and number of streams.
- RockRobotRock 3y agoI can also afford streaming services but choose instead to steal it. You don't need to justify it with such weak excuses.
- mcpackieh 3y ago"steal"
- gsatic 3y agoThe 'upper class' dont have enough eye balls to keep the content industry afloat.
- nine_zeros 3y agoIt just looks like the game is up. Every company is trying to raise prices and squeeze more, so that stock prices remain up. If they could accept a lower stock price instead, they'd just be more stable, and retain loyalty on the other side of the recession curve.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 3y agoThey should have stayed private then. If you're issuing stock you better make sure it goes up or you're paying dividends or nobody will buy it.
- henry2023 3y agoStock going up is not the purpose of public companies. In fact you should always assume that the current price of a security considers all available information and has no reason to diverge from natural market returns.
- paddw 3y agoCompany exists to return capital to shareholders. In the absence of a dividend, that has to be from stock price going up. If neither happens, leadership will be changed. Efficient market hypothesis is also nonsense.
- henry2023 3y agoPublic companies are meant to have public voting rights. The capital part of it is not the priority. Also, it’s not “Efficient Market Hipothesis”. If you have material non public information you definitely can make alpha purchasing stocks. If you don’t, then you are only betting on a decentralized casino.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- vinyl7 3y agoSoon they'll learn that eventually you run out of other peoples money
- mdm_ 3y agoCrave recently did the same thing in Canada, got rid of their $9.99 “mobile” plan, and now the $24.99 subscription is the only choice available for new subscribers. Sucks because all I want to watch is new Star Trek series, which means paying $28/month after tax to watch about 3.5 hours of content.
- morkalork 3y agoPretty much the only thing I use crave for. They haven't been too strict on password sharing so I've been using a family member's account to watch it. In the end it may not even matter, supposedly they'll be losing the series in Canada soon.
- ipaddr 3y agoI wanted to try Crave but I bought an nVidia box instead. Install kodi found some popular addons. Now I can see anything on Crave or any other network from any point in history. I'm watching season 2 of Big Brother, I'm watching shows not available on streaming services. I didn't realize this user experience and availability was possible. I still have netflix, prime, plex and cable but that might give me .1% availability
- megax 3y agoCurious about your setup. Which nVidia box do you have? It’s been a while since I touched Kodi. Last time I played with it, I found that the addon ecosystem was hit and miss. Any suggestions there?
- ipaddr 3y agohttps://www.wirelesshack.org/top-best-working-kodi-video-add-ons.html https://www.wirelesshack.org/top-best-working-kodi-video-add...
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y agoWhat plugins are you using? I have nvidia box and kodi and I am not aware of what you are describing!
- crazygringo 3y ago> Without Even A Heads Up Since it only affects new users, and existing users on the plan remain, who cares about a "heads up"? Maybe it's newsworthy that they dropped the cheapest plan going forwards, but it's not as though there's some expectation that plan changes for new members are supposed to be announced months in advance or something. When I go to the grocery store and strawberries are now $4.99 instead of $2.99 last week, I don't complain the supermarket didn't give me a "heads up".
- cortesoft 3y agoI mean, a ton of people complain about the rising cost of groceries.
- crazygringo 3y agoBut nobody complains that the grocery store didn't warn them in advance. So why does the article's headline think that price changes are supposed to be pre-announced? Netflix has done plenty of things that legitimately deserve criticism, but not pre-announcing a price change is a silly thing to judge them for. It's a clickbait headline, trying to stir up outrage where it doesn't even make sense.
- rchaud 3y agoPresumably the grocery store didn't have everybody's email address.
- crazygringo 3y agoNetflix doesn't have these people's e-mail addresses either. Because this is about increasing the price for new customers, not existing ones. And it has no idea who's going to sign up. (Also, grocery stores very often do have the e-mail addresses of most of their regular shoppers, if they use a rewards program in order to get sale prices. But they certainly don't use it to daily price hikes.)
- cortesoft 3y ago
- eduction 3y agoThat’s really funny, I was just an hour ago reading this long New York magazine story on streaming consolidation that Pocket suggested to me which contains this line: “ Netflix claims its Basic With Ads tier brings in more revenue per user than its standard commercial-free plan” “More revenue” links to https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/ads-on-netflix-1234829760/#:~:text=According%20to%20Netflix%27s%20first%2Dquarter,(U.S.)%20user%20to%20Netflix https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/ads-on-netflix-12.... Overall story paints a picture of the chickens coming home to roost in streaming https://www.vulture.com/2023/06/streaming-industry-netflix-max-disney-hulu-apple-tv-prime-video-peacock-paramount.html https://www.vulture.com/2023/06/streaming-industry-netflix-m... So I guess it’s not surprising that they would take away the least profitable plan.
- hattmall 3y agoAds will typically be more profitable for most things entertainment. Entertainment is generally cheap and far more profitable industries can pay more for ads than users are willing to spend. People here are balking at paying like $10 a month for Netflix if they can't split it but likely take it as a given that you need to spend several hundreds each month for insurance. Getting one customer on the latest aids medication can net a company 10s of thousands per year. Drank the water at camp lejune? You may be worth millions of dollars to the right law firm.
- medellin 3y agoNetflix also no longer works when i travel. Went on a short trip to see some relatives in another country and my netflix account is blocked. Contacted support and they said i need to pay for a new account in that country. Netflix is really starting to lose its value for me. But I’m working on setting up a VPN at my house to tunnel all Netflix traffic through and then configure some rpis to send to family members so we can all steal from Netflix again. At this point they have pissed me off enough that im working on making it as easy as possible for anyone to setup and sharing it when im done.
- gloryjulio 3y agoThey killed all the interest shows for me. I stopped watching when they cut Santa Clarita diet. Bojack horseman was the last complete show I watched.
- hermitdev 3y agoHasn't Netflix always been region locked? Pretty sure people using VPNs just for Netflix is a thing.
- mholm 3y agoContent has always been region locked, but accounts could travel freely between regions. This allowed users in the USA to access media available in any country from a VPN, for instance.
- medellin 3y agoRegion lock is one thing. When traveling i was fine watching whatever i was restricted to in that country. Now my account is completely worthless outside the US.
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- AlchemistCamp 3y agoNo. I signed up for my account in Taiwan and have also used it in Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and the US. I canceled a few years back and went to Amazon Prime, but they recently gutted their selection if you’re outside the US, so I was considering getting Netflix again.
- opmelogy 3y agothis makes total sense. Tech really does funnel money into a smaller set of society and the way to keep doing that is to raise prices on everyone, even if that means the majority of the people that are making way less a year than their employees.
- dghughes 3y agoI'm in Canada and keep thinking of ditching Netflix but I keep procrastinating maybe today is the day. Or tomorrow since Monday is my billing date $24.14 for Premium. I can't recall when I last watched Netflix. Streaming services are the gym membership of the 21st century the companies hope we forget or find it a pain to cancel.
- barbazoo 3y agoLuckily, I was able just now to switch from Standard to Basic FWIW
- graypegg 3y agoI get it, the ad tier probably makes a lot more revenue per-user than the ad-free basic plan. They’ve done the research (I assume) and I guess came to the conclusion that price-sensitive users will tolerate ads to save money, and the users that would have chosen basic solely because it was the cheapest option without ads will simply switch to the new cheapest ad-free option. Either way, Netflix actually stands to make more money removing that tier. However it’s also another barrier to me ever considering paying Netflix ever again. But we’re the minority of people.
- SpacePortKnight 3y agoNetflix increase prices. Reddit closes down free API access. Twitter introduces subscriptions. I've noticed that people are quick to react negatively to such news however I feel like all of these services provide a real value and they are without any real competition. Also these services are still better than traditional alternatives. I can cancel Netflix anytime and that alone is worth to me more than anything which cable could offer.
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