6 ms·

Netflix blows past estimates as subscribers jump 16%

32 points by samspenc 2y ago

samspenc 2y ago
Copy-pasting from the article: - Earnings per share: $5.28 vs. $4.52 expected - Revenue: $9.37 billion vs. $9.28 billion expected - Total memberships: 269.6 million vs. 264.2 million expected - Net income of $2.33 billion, or $5.28 per share, versus $1.30 billion, or $2.88 per share, in the prior-year period.
adamredwoods 2y ago
HBO, aka Max, has gone downhill a bit now that they've mixed in Discovery channel reality-tv-filler with HBO cinematic offerings. It just doesn't fit together. Luckily, HBO is licensing to Netflix. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-03-04/hbo-s-path-to-streaming-profit-sell-to-netflix-slash-marketing-and-crack-down-on-sharing https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-03-04/hbo-s-...
- tryptophan 2y ago
  What happened to HBO is so bizzare...such a strong brand thown away for no reason.
  - hcx56 2y ago
    Most people on the planet dont have enough cash in their wallet to pay the rich to entertain them. So the rich find abnormal routes to self delusion of sucess. How do such such systems Scale when the majority dont have high disposable income? 1. "McDonaldization of Society" covers the path McDonalds took. Its drilled into anyone who goes to B-school. 2. Get Other corporations to subsidize consumption to make their crap sticky(loyalty programmes they call it) - so you have firms with massive cash mountains like AT&T/Comcast/Apple/Amazon/Reliance etc bundling content to push their trash 3. Total Attention available is a finite resource. As content exploded with the internet all corporations got sucked into wars of Attention Capture. So we get an era of Marketing/Advertising/Demand engineering budgets growing at faster rates than actual product design or product quality budgets. They have learnt attention capture or theft is enough to get corps to pay the bills. Quality is optional. 4. Dependence on low interest rates, global interest rate/corp tax rate/labour/forex arbitrage and Banks to issue high interest credit to the sub prime masses. M&A to swallow up competition. Basically Financilization, where financial engineering can allow firms to hit revenue/growth targets irrespective of quality of good or servive playing these games, naturally quality goes into background. These have all become runaway processes that no one controls anymore.
mensetmanusman 2y ago
Has anyone compared the Netflix 3 body problem to tencent's?
- alephnerd 2y ago
  The Netflix one is trash. The Tencent one is fairly close to the book. Downside is there is definetly some "rah-rah" nationalism and the pacing isn't the greatest, but all in all I'd say the Tencent one is a pretty strong adaption. If an abridged version of the Tencent adaption was bought by Netflix it would have done very well.
  - mplewis 2y ago
    As a big fan of the books, I preferred the Netflix adaptation to the Tencent one.
  - routerl 2y ago
    > The Tencent one is fairly close to the book. Not really? It both overexplains simple concepts (e.g. the billiard table scene) and underexplains important concepts. The Netflix show just has awful writing, and only cares about visuals. My favorite example of bad writing is the very last scene, where three characters are having a conversation, then one of them suddenly gets up and says "let me show you something". So they drive for (seemingly) hours, apparently in perfect silence, only to get out of the car, look over a field, and deliver a handful of pithy lines, followed immediately by "okay let's go back". (For book readers: this is the "bugs vs. humans speech"). Anyway, they're both ephemeral garbage. I guess 3BP will be like Dune, where it takes decades for a decent adaptation to show up.
- wumeow 2y ago
  The Tencent version is overly long and drawn out, has mediocre visual effects and production, censors key parts from the book, has bad english-speaking actors, but has decent writing and is interesting to watch. The Netflix version has awful writing for the scientist protagonists, dumbs down or omits parts of the book (the audience is too stupid to learn what the CMB is for instance, and barely any time is spent in the vr game), zips through the story real fast because they decided to cram all of the first book and part of the sequel into 8 episodes for some reason, but has great visual effects.
rahimnathwani 2y ago
My wife and I live together, and we have a single Netflix account, using my email address. Whenever my wife travels for work (3-4 weeks per quarter), her hotel room's TV has the Netflix app built in. When she logs in, she is often prompted to update the 'Netflix Household'. I then have to confirm this by clicking a link (assuming I see the notification in time! otherwise she just can't log in). I contacted Netflix support and asked them this question: If my wife is travelling to a hotel, and she logs into the Netflix app on the hotel TV, can I still watch Netflix on my home TV? The support agent told me the answer is 'NO' (yes, they answered in capitals). This surprised me, because a Netflix help page says "A Netflix account is meant to be shared by people who live together in one household.". This describes exactly our use of Netflix. My wife and I live together in one household. But she sometimes travels for work (obviously without me). The support agent told me that to support this use case (one person using Netflix on a hotel TV whilst the other person is at home) I'd need to pay for an additional user. (This wouldn't be an issue if she were watching on a phone or tablet, because portable devices apparently continue to work as long as they're used for Netflix at home at least once per month.)
- jrajav 2y ago
  You just explained the headline. Netflix has successfully weaponized edge cases for profit - the "success" part crucially hinging on surviving the initial news cycle and coming out the other side with their reputation intact. The money grab was spread across so many disparate demographics and use cases that none could coalesce to a single, easy-to-message gripe. All it cost them was a few key slices of trust from discerning customers. Take enough of those slices and your business will fade - but who cares, for this financial year?
  - rahimnathwani 2y ago
    The thing is... we subscribe to several TV streaming services, but IIRC Netflix is the only one whose app is on the TVs at this particular brand's hotels. And it's become even more inconvenient to use external HDMI devices. At the last hotel I stayed at, the TV unit was permanently on 100% volume, and the effective volume was controlled by the external box. This would be fine, except that: - at low volumes, it was hard to hear voices clearly, as the audio signal coming from the box into the TV was really low, and the TV was amplifying not only that signal, but also background hum - attaching an external device to the TV (like a TV stick) means the TV remote can no longer control the volume
1-6 2y ago
Going forward, subscriber numbers won’t be included in their reporting. They’ve probably reached their peak and Wall Street doesn’t like it.
scary-size 2y ago
Got an email today that prices are increasing in May. From €17.99 to €19.99 for the „big“ subscription.
- bravetraveler 2y ago
  Like clockwork, I cancelled over this years ago
tracker1 2y ago
I think it just comes down to being one of the better off many bad options. There are too many streaming services now and people are cutting back after trying many. In the end, Netflix is about the best at a constant stream of new content while having good usability and quality. It's not a run of garbage reality TV. I think Amazon Prime Video runs a close second and mostly for the tie in with delivery service. Though I'm not sure how well that will hold with a lot of people. Delivery effectiveness has slipped, with extra charges for the fastest delivery and now there's ads. YouTube has a lot of new media and think it likely does well enough for subscriptions with the music and family plan. Everything else looks sucks. HBO Max has slipped on original content and movies. Paramount is really hot or miss and heaven help you if you run a pihole or similar. NBC/Universal is almost worse. Disney is slipping, even though they're bundled with everything. Hulu has way too many ads, and the live TV option is just insanely expensive. In the end, nobody is going to pay for more than 2-3 services for the most part. I'm the end, Netflix is still one of the better options for many. I've liked more shows on Amazon myself.
- salesynerd 2y ago
  I agree. For me, a person living in Southeast Asia, Prime Video is a great choice - very cheap monthly price combined with a decent number of good movies and shows from Hollywood as well as across the region. Disney+ is cheaper than Netflix but the content is disappointing, unless you have young children who like all things Disney. Personally, I subscribe to Netflix opportunistically, e.g., I'll do so when the latest season of Stranger Things start airing and discontinue after watching the episodes.
happytiger 2y ago
Netflix isn’t good, it just sucks less. It’s really commentary on how bad streaming services are becoming.
nusl 2y ago
With the ongoing clusterf*ck of streaming services only getting worse over time, I've begun dropping out of using them at all anymore and reverting to previous means. Managing your own media, even if simple, has proven to be way superior to trusting a company that changes their ways at a whim and breaks years of trust. How long until streaming media is just as infected with adverts as everything before it, that it was supposed to replace, and someone starts a whole new thing for ad-free media and we start the circle anew?
- sonicanatidae 2y ago
  Most of us purchase these services, and pay happily, until the inevitable enshittification step, then it's back to the high seas, because I'm willing to pay for services, but I'm not willing to pay more, to get less, because some assclown has quarterly numbers to make.
Log_out_ 2y ago
3 body problem side effect?

32 points by samspenc 2y ago

Copy-pasting from the article: - Earnings per share: $5.28 vs. $4.52 expected - Revenue: $9.37 billion vs. $9.28 billion expected - Total memberships: 269.6 million vs. 264.2 million expected - Net income of $2.33 billion, or $5.28 per share, versus $1.30 billion, or $2.88 per share, in the prior-year period.

adamredwoods 2y ago

HBO, aka Max, has gone downhill a bit now that they've mixed in Discovery channel reality-tv-filler with HBO cinematic offerings. It just doesn't fit together. Luckily, HBO is licensing to Netflix. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-03-04/hbo-s-path-to-streaming-profit-sell-to-netflix-slash-marketing-and-crack-down-on-sharing https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-03-04/hbo-s-...

tryptophan 2y ago
What happened to HBO is so bizzare...such a strong brand thown away for no reason.
- hcx56 2y ago
  Most people on the planet dont have enough cash in their wallet to pay the rich to entertain them. So the rich find abnormal routes to self delusion of sucess. How do such such systems Scale when the majority dont have high disposable income? 1. "McDonaldization of Society" covers the path McDonalds took. Its drilled into anyone who goes to B-school. 2. Get Other corporations to subsidize consumption to make their crap sticky(loyalty programmes they call it) - so you have firms with massive cash mountains like AT&T/Comcast/Apple/Amazon/Reliance etc bundling content to push their trash 3. Total Attention available is a finite resource. As content exploded with the internet all corporations got sucked into wars of Attention Capture. So we get an era of Marketing/Advertising/Demand engineering budgets growing at faster rates than actual product design or product quality budgets. They have learnt attention capture or theft is enough to get corps to pay the bills. Quality is optional. 4. Dependence on low interest rates, global interest rate/corp tax rate/labour/forex arbitrage and Banks to issue high interest credit to the sub prime masses. M&A to swallow up competition. Basically Financilization, where financial engineering can allow firms to hit revenue/growth targets irrespective of quality of good or servive playing these games, naturally quality goes into background. These have all become runaway processes that no one controls anymore.

mensetmanusman 2y ago

Has anyone compared the Netflix 3 body problem to tencent's?

alephnerd 2y ago
The Netflix one is trash. The Tencent one is fairly close to the book. Downside is there is definetly some "rah-rah" nationalism and the pacing isn't the greatest, but all in all I'd say the Tencent one is a pretty strong adaption. If an abridged version of the Tencent adaption was bought by Netflix it would have done very well.
- mplewis 2y ago
  As a big fan of the books, I preferred the Netflix adaptation to the Tencent one.
- routerl 2y ago
  > The Tencent one is fairly close to the book. Not really? It both overexplains simple concepts (e.g. the billiard table scene) and underexplains important concepts. The Netflix show just has awful writing, and only cares about visuals. My favorite example of bad writing is the very last scene, where three characters are having a conversation, then one of them suddenly gets up and says "let me show you something". So they drive for (seemingly) hours, apparently in perfect silence, only to get out of the car, look over a field, and deliver a handful of pithy lines, followed immediately by "okay let's go back". (For book readers: this is the "bugs vs. humans speech"). Anyway, they're both ephemeral garbage. I guess 3BP will be like Dune, where it takes decades for a decent adaptation to show up.
wumeow 2y ago
The Tencent version is overly long and drawn out, has mediocre visual effects and production, censors key parts from the book, has bad english-speaking actors, but has decent writing and is interesting to watch. The Netflix version has awful writing for the scientist protagonists, dumbs down or omits parts of the book (the audience is too stupid to learn what the CMB is for instance, and barely any time is spent in the vr game), zips through the story real fast because they decided to cram all of the first book and part of the sequel into 8 episodes for some reason, but has great visual effects.

rahimnathwani 2y ago

My wife and I live together, and we have a single Netflix account, using my email address. Whenever my wife travels for work (3-4 weeks per quarter), her hotel room's TV has the Netflix app built in. When she logs in, she is often prompted to update the 'Netflix Household'. I then have to confirm this by clicking a link (assuming I see the notification in time! otherwise she just can't log in). I contacted Netflix support and asked them this question: If my wife is travelling to a hotel, and she logs into the Netflix app on the hotel TV, can I still watch Netflix on my home TV? The support agent told me the answer is 'NO' (yes, they answered in capitals). This surprised me, because a Netflix help page says "A Netflix account is meant to be shared by people who live together in one household.". This describes exactly our use of Netflix. My wife and I live together in one household. But she sometimes travels for work (obviously without me). The support agent told me that to support this use case (one person using Netflix on a hotel TV whilst the other person is at home) I'd need to pay for an additional user. (This wouldn't be an issue if she were watching on a phone or tablet, because portable devices apparently continue to work as long as they're used for Netflix at home at least once per month.)

jrajav 2y ago
You just explained the headline. Netflix has successfully weaponized edge cases for profit - the "success" part crucially hinging on surviving the initial news cycle and coming out the other side with their reputation intact. The money grab was spread across so many disparate demographics and use cases that none could coalesce to a single, easy-to-message gripe. All it cost them was a few key slices of trust from discerning customers. Take enough of those slices and your business will fade - but who cares, for this financial year?
- rahimnathwani 2y ago
  The thing is... we subscribe to several TV streaming services, but IIRC Netflix is the only one whose app is on the TVs at this particular brand's hotels. And it's become even more inconvenient to use external HDMI devices. At the last hotel I stayed at, the TV unit was permanently on 100% volume, and the effective volume was controlled by the external box. This would be fine, except that: - at low volumes, it was hard to hear voices clearly, as the audio signal coming from the box into the TV was really low, and the TV was amplifying not only that signal, but also background hum - attaching an external device to the TV (like a TV stick) means the TV remote can no longer control the volume

1-6 2y ago

Going forward, subscriber numbers won’t be included in their reporting. They’ve probably reached their peak and Wall Street doesn’t like it.

scary-size 2y ago

Got an email today that prices are increasing in May. From €17.99 to €19.99 for the „big“ subscription.

bravetraveler 2y ago
Like clockwork, I cancelled over this years ago

tracker1 2y ago

I think it just comes down to being one of the better off many bad options. There are too many streaming services now and people are cutting back after trying many. In the end, Netflix is about the best at a constant stream of new content while having good usability and quality. It's not a run of garbage reality TV. I think Amazon Prime Video runs a close second and mostly for the tie in with delivery service. Though I'm not sure how well that will hold with a lot of people. Delivery effectiveness has slipped, with extra charges for the fastest delivery and now there's ads. YouTube has a lot of new media and think it likely does well enough for subscriptions with the music and family plan. Everything else looks sucks. HBO Max has slipped on original content and movies. Paramount is really hot or miss and heaven help you if you run a pihole or similar. NBC/Universal is almost worse. Disney is slipping, even though they're bundled with everything. Hulu has way too many ads, and the live TV option is just insanely expensive. In the end, nobody is going to pay for more than 2-3 services for the most part. I'm the end, Netflix is still one of the better options for many. I've liked more shows on Amazon myself.

salesynerd 2y ago
I agree. For me, a person living in Southeast Asia, Prime Video is a great choice - very cheap monthly price combined with a decent number of good movies and shows from Hollywood as well as across the region. Disney+ is cheaper than Netflix but the content is disappointing, unless you have young children who like all things Disney. Personally, I subscribe to Netflix opportunistically, e.g., I'll do so when the latest season of Stranger Things start airing and discontinue after watching the episodes.

happytiger 2y ago

Netflix isn’t good, it just sucks less. It’s really commentary on how bad streaming services are becoming.

nusl 2y ago

With the ongoing clusterf*ck of streaming services only getting worse over time, I've begun dropping out of using them at all anymore and reverting to previous means. Managing your own media, even if simple, has proven to be way superior to trusting a company that changes their ways at a whim and breaks years of trust. How long until streaming media is just as infected with adverts as everything before it, that it was supposed to replace, and someone starts a whole new thing for ad-free media and we start the circle anew?

sonicanatidae 2y ago
Most of us purchase these services, and pay happily, until the inevitable enshittification step, then it's back to the high seas, because I'm willing to pay for services, but I'm not willing to pay more, to get less, because some assclown has quarterly numbers to make.

Log_out_ 2y ago

3 body problem side effect?