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I'll always have some sympathy for Netflix because they were effectively first. I remember waiting patiently for Netflix to arrive in Australia, and then as so
by BLKNSLVR 3y ago
I'll always have some sympathy for Netflix because they were effectively first.
I remember waiting patiently for Netflix to arrive in Australia, and then as soon as it did arrive, a flood of competitors decided to "me too" into the party. They were too afraid to be first, so I've stuck with Netflix out of respect for their blazing the trail.
The competitors such as Disney and Paramount have caused the enshittification by fracturing the offerings; walling off their IP into their own individual gardens rather than licensing it out.
Ideally there would be multiple Netflix equivalents, with slightly differing value propositions, but with significant overlap in content licensed from the likes of Disney and Paramount.
That's not the present we've found ourselves in though. It's an interesting outcome of how "the market" works.
I feel like I'm an apologist for Netflix, and so I must be to some extent, but Netflix are reacting to the market it finds itself in, in order to remain viable.
- iwontberude 3y agoThey pivoted over ten years ago to literally “become HBO” and while that was a pretty weak vision, I think they succeeded.
- airstrike 3y agoIf by "become HBO" you mean become as bad as the current state of HBO, sure, in which 99% of the content is trash but there's a show or two that are still decent. Tragically most Netflix originals are hot garbage. I'm repeatedly amazed at how BAD television is today. I guess I pay for Netflix because every so often there's a show like The Crown which is actually commendable, even if I don't strictly love it.
- jeromegv 3y agoThey didn't really have a choice. They knew everyone else would eventually create their own streaming service for their own content, so they needed content of their own.
- iwontberude 3y agoThey did have a choice to create a platform to commoditize other streaming services by creating a hardware platform for the living room, but instead they figured they had a better chance at playing in the smaller content creation market. Netflix could have kept and built Roku and at this point been in a better long term position with more categories of entertainment.
- em-bee 3y agonetflix is also the only independent streaming service i am aware of. i am not interested in services owned by apple, disney or amazon or any major film studio.