5 ms·

Netflix adds 13.1M subscribers, tops revenue estimates

40 points by samspenc 3y ago

xfour 3y ago
"Netflix is also looking at making its ad tier more attractive to advertisers, including by bolstering its sales teams and ad operations to “meet brands where they need us and how they need us.” “We’re focused on the long-term revenue potential here,” said (Co-Ceo) Peters. “We’re very optimistic about it. It’s a huge opportunity." Seems about what everyone was predicting, and inline with making the watching experience worse. It's surprising they added subscribers. I wonder how many were due to deals with Phone providers etc.
- nomel 3y ago
  Peacock, Amazon Freemium, etc, have proven that people are ok with eyeballs-on-ads as a payment method. If Netflix opens a free/cheaper tier, it won't make it "worse" for existing paid viewers, it'll just make the service more accessible. We'll have to see if they end up putting ads in the existing paid service tiers.
  - CharlesW 3y ago
    Amazon already did, while simultaneously introducing a new tier for $3 more per month. Next, expect ad-supported plans to show progressively more ads, and the cost of others' ad-free plans to rise.
    - nomel 3y ago
      Amazon is also charging less than half of what Netflix does, for 4k, and is still the cheapest of all the streaming services. I naively assume they're feeling the pressure more than Netflix does.
      - CharlesW 3y ago
        Although there’s a few great series and movies in the catalog, even at half the price it’s not great value. I’d be very surprised if more than 5% of its subscribers only subscribe to Amazon Video, vs. getting it as a freebie with Amazon Prime.
  - folkrav 3y ago
    Prime literally just started pushing ads to existing customers and charging $3/month extra for no ads. That’s literally making it worse for existing paid viewers. I have no reason to think Netflix would do otherwise. They all end up doing the same crap the second one of them pulls it off, historically…
  - LegitShady 3y ago
    Peacock lost billions of dollars in 2023. Amazon Prime Video is a bit weird because amazon can absorb its giant losses, and prior to this last quarter they were absolutely dumping money into productions that didn't make sense, chasing game of thrones by burning money. Netflix, meanwhile was profitable. Why is the profitable company chasing the business practices of the companies that are burning billions of dollars per year?
    - nomel 3y ago
      > Why is the profitable company chasing the business practices of the companies that are burning billions of dollars per year? Peacock was an example of how a large group of people prefer ads to paying, which means it wasn't worse for them. This was in the context of my comment of Netflix potentially adding a "free" ad supported tier, which could make the content available to those people who couldn't/wouldn't pay. But, as you point out, them not being profitable suggests that "free" with ads isn't sustainable, meaning a Netflix "free" tier probably wouldn't work either, assuming they were similar to the 15 minutes/hour of ads that Peacock has.
- ratg13 3y ago
  As long as there is an affordable option to not have ads, it’s fine to make subsidized tiers for users on a budget. Although I admit this is typically the slipperiest of slopes.
- e40 3y ago
  Good point about the mobile providers. Seems this could easily be juking the stats.
  - Mindwipe 3y ago
    Not significantly as most of the growth is outside the US and there are far fewer of those deals overseas (not none, but far less).
konschubert 3y ago
It's incredible how bad the video player is on disney plus. Apparently this is much harder to get right than I thought.
- shipit1999 3y ago
  Them and HBO Max both were both terrible in my experience on Roku.
- maximus-decimus 3y ago
  Their videos look much better than netflix though.
- yen223 3y ago
  In my experience Youtube and Netflix are the only apps that really got the basics of video streaming right.
  - ToucanLoucan 3y ago
    Really I would say the exact opposite, at least with regard to YouTube. Their Apple TV app is genuinely the only bad Apple TV app I've ever used. Constant problems with audio de-sync, random freezes and blank screens. By comparison I don't remember the last time any of the others I use (infuse, Max, D+, Prime) have had any issues at all.
    - aurareturn 3y ago
      Agreed with Apple TV app. YouTube likes to set my video quality to 480p by default. When I manually change it to 1080p for a video, it turns my 1.5x playback speed to normal. Finally, it will desync my audio if I change it back to 1.5x. I’ve gone through this process 1000 times over the last year. It’s become muscle memory on my remote. YouTube still hasn’t fixed it.
      - apantel 3y ago
        Seconding the constant downgrading of quality to 480p.
dns_snek 3y ago
I'm genuinely shocked. Apparently I know nothing about consumer behavior. Withering library, reneging on account sharing, poor quality streams, rising prices, addition of ads and so on. Just how badly do they need to screw their customers for it to have consequences? Is their brand recognition just so strong that they can overcome all of that?
- jerpint 3y ago
  The ugly truth is that the competition is largely worse. I recently wanted to watch a show only available via a third party thru Amazon prime, so I purchased a subscription (on top of prime), only to be served a show with adds every 10 minutes. It was truly awful
  - throwoutway 3y ago
    Which subscription (so I can avoid it)?
    - arthurcolle 3y ago
      Paramount, Starz, any of them do the same thing.
- tfehring 3y ago
  Netflix is one of the most data-driven companies there is. They know exactly how much customers care about those things, as measured in dollars of revenue, and they account for it in their product and content decisions. As a consumer, I wish that consumers as a whole were more price- and quality-sensitive and more ad-averse, since that would make it rational for companies to offer me better, cheaper products. But based on revealed preference, they’re not, so they don’t.
- okdood64 3y ago
  > poor quality streams Relative to what? No one cares about this past a certain point.
ChrisArchitect 3y ago
Related today: Netflix is turning into cable TV https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/23/24047817/netflix-is-turning-into-cable-tv https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/23/24047817/netflix-is-turni... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39111600 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39111600)
cableshaft 3y ago
They're keeping us a bit longer because the live action One Piece was a gateway drug into the anime, and they have a lot of it on there (just finished watching episode 316 today, a few more and we're done with the Water 7 arc). But I was ready to cancel for the first time in years before that, as I realize I had barely touched it in almost a year, with the exception of Alice in Borderland and a handful of other things here and there. Whenever we get through what they have of One Piece I'll probably cancel until season 2 of the live action comes out (or some other show we like comes back, like maybe Squid Game season 2).
Narciss 3y ago
Is it just me that thinks the constant growth model is freaking insane? In the platform space, it inevitably begets platforms full of ads, because it’s one way to maintain that constant growth. Eventually all platforms that are big enough end up in the same place one way or another.
- ListeningPie 3y ago
  All this growth is because A CEO is accountable to the shareholders and not the customers. Customers may be happy but if shareholders value the company at $215 billion dollars you had better find a way to get there. Until Netflix starts losing money due to ads, they have to keep pushing them. User experience be damned as long as more money is rolling in. I think the strategy is to keep pushing until an inflection point is reached and then back off and adjust. Otherwise not trying ads could cost billions.
drkevorkian 3y ago
As much as I hate to admit it, their pushback on account sharing finally stopped me from leeching on my relatives account.

40 points by samspenc 3y ago

"Netflix is also looking at making its ad tier more attractive to advertisers, including by bolstering its sales teams and ad operations to “meet brands where they need us and how they need us.” “We’re focused on the long-term revenue potential here,” said (Co-Ceo) Peters. “We’re very optimistic about it. It’s a huge opportunity." Seems about what everyone was predicting, and inline with making the watching experience worse. It's surprising they added subscribers. I wonder how many were due to deals with Phone providers etc.

nomel 3y ago
Peacock, Amazon Freemium, etc, have proven that people are ok with eyeballs-on-ads as a payment method. If Netflix opens a free/cheaper tier, it won't make it "worse" for existing paid viewers, it'll just make the service more accessible. We'll have to see if they end up putting ads in the existing paid service tiers.
- CharlesW 3y ago
  Amazon already did, while simultaneously introducing a new tier for $3 more per month. Next, expect ad-supported plans to show progressively more ads, and the cost of others' ad-free plans to rise.
  - nomel 3y ago
    Amazon is also charging less than half of what Netflix does, for 4k, and is still the cheapest of all the streaming services. I naively assume they're feeling the pressure more than Netflix does.
    - CharlesW 3y ago
      Although there’s a few great series and movies in the catalog, even at half the price it’s not great value. I’d be very surprised if more than 5% of its subscribers only subscribe to Amazon Video, vs. getting it as a freebie with Amazon Prime.
- folkrav 3y ago
  Prime literally just started pushing ads to existing customers and charging $3/month extra for no ads. That’s literally making it worse for existing paid viewers. I have no reason to think Netflix would do otherwise. They all end up doing the same crap the second one of them pulls it off, historically…
- LegitShady 3y ago
  Peacock lost billions of dollars in 2023. Amazon Prime Video is a bit weird because amazon can absorb its giant losses, and prior to this last quarter they were absolutely dumping money into productions that didn't make sense, chasing game of thrones by burning money. Netflix, meanwhile was profitable. Why is the profitable company chasing the business practices of the companies that are burning billions of dollars per year?
  - nomel 3y ago
    > Why is the profitable company chasing the business practices of the companies that are burning billions of dollars per year? Peacock was an example of how a large group of people prefer ads to paying, which means it wasn't worse for them. This was in the context of my comment of Netflix potentially adding a "free" ad supported tier, which could make the content available to those people who couldn't/wouldn't pay. But, as you point out, them not being profitable suggests that "free" with ads isn't sustainable, meaning a Netflix "free" tier probably wouldn't work either, assuming they were similar to the 15 minutes/hour of ads that Peacock has.
ratg13 3y ago
As long as there is an affordable option to not have ads, it’s fine to make subsidized tiers for users on a budget. Although I admit this is typically the slipperiest of slopes.
e40 3y ago
Good point about the mobile providers. Seems this could easily be juking the stats.
- Mindwipe 3y ago
  Not significantly as most of the growth is outside the US and there are far fewer of those deals overseas (not none, but far less).

konschubert 3y ago

It's incredible how bad the video player is on disney plus. Apparently this is much harder to get right than I thought.

shipit1999 3y ago
Them and HBO Max both were both terrible in my experience on Roku.
maximus-decimus 3y ago
Their videos look much better than netflix though.
yen223 3y ago
In my experience Youtube and Netflix are the only apps that really got the basics of video streaming right.
- ToucanLoucan 3y ago
  Really I would say the exact opposite, at least with regard to YouTube. Their Apple TV app is genuinely the only bad Apple TV app I've ever used. Constant problems with audio de-sync, random freezes and blank screens. By comparison I don't remember the last time any of the others I use (infuse, Max, D+, Prime) have had any issues at all.
  - aurareturn 3y ago
    Agreed with Apple TV app. YouTube likes to set my video quality to 480p by default. When I manually change it to 1080p for a video, it turns my 1.5x playback speed to normal. Finally, it will desync my audio if I change it back to 1.5x. I’ve gone through this process 1000 times over the last year. It’s become muscle memory on my remote. YouTube still hasn’t fixed it.
    - apantel 3y ago
      Seconding the constant downgrading of quality to 480p.

dns_snek 3y ago

I'm genuinely shocked. Apparently I know nothing about consumer behavior. Withering library, reneging on account sharing, poor quality streams, rising prices, addition of ads and so on. Just how badly do they need to screw their customers for it to have consequences? Is their brand recognition just so strong that they can overcome all of that?

jerpint 3y ago
The ugly truth is that the competition is largely worse. I recently wanted to watch a show only available via a third party thru Amazon prime, so I purchased a subscription (on top of prime), only to be served a show with adds every 10 minutes. It was truly awful
- throwoutway 3y ago
  Which subscription (so I can avoid it)?
  - arthurcolle 3y ago
    Paramount, Starz, any of them do the same thing.
tfehring 3y ago
Netflix is one of the most data-driven companies there is. They know exactly how much customers care about those things, as measured in dollars of revenue, and they account for it in their product and content decisions. As a consumer, I wish that consumers as a whole were more price- and quality-sensitive and more ad-averse, since that would make it rational for companies to offer me better, cheaper products. But based on revealed preference, they’re not, so they don’t.
okdood64 3y ago
> poor quality streams Relative to what? No one cares about this past a certain point.

ChrisArchitect 3y ago

Related today: Netflix is turning into cable TV https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/23/24047817/netflix-is-turning-into-cable-tv https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/23/24047817/netflix-is-turni... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39111600 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39111600)

cableshaft 3y ago

They're keeping us a bit longer because the live action One Piece was a gateway drug into the anime, and they have a lot of it on there (just finished watching episode 316 today, a few more and we're done with the Water 7 arc). But I was ready to cancel for the first time in years before that, as I realize I had barely touched it in almost a year, with the exception of Alice in Borderland and a handful of other things here and there. Whenever we get through what they have of One Piece I'll probably cancel until season 2 of the live action comes out (or some other show we like comes back, like maybe Squid Game season 2).

Narciss 3y ago

Is it just me that thinks the constant growth model is freaking insane? In the platform space, it inevitably begets platforms full of ads, because it’s one way to maintain that constant growth. Eventually all platforms that are big enough end up in the same place one way or another.

ListeningPie 3y ago
All this growth is because A CEO is accountable to the shareholders and not the customers. Customers may be happy but if shareholders value the company at $215 billion dollars you had better find a way to get there. Until Netflix starts losing money due to ads, they have to keep pushing them. User experience be damned as long as more money is rolling in. I think the strategy is to keep pushing until an inflection point is reached and then back off and adjust. Otherwise not trying ads could cost billions.

drkevorkian 3y ago

As much as I hate to admit it, their pushback on account sharing finally stopped me from leeching on my relatives account.