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Ask HN: Why aren't there specialized "Netflixes"?
If there were independent movie rental stores (which I assume had some sort of agreement to be able to stock their titles), why aren't there (specialized) independent online movie streaming stores? To be more specific, let's say I want to specialize in Westerns, for example, what would it take to open a Westerns-only online "Netflix", with titles I would want to offer?
- minimaxir 13y agowhat would it take to open a Westerns-only online "Netflix", with titles I would want to offer An unquantifiable amount of venture capital for infrastructure and licenses.
- AznHisoka 13y agoBecause Netflix knows we're not genre watchers. Just because I enjoy "Game of Thrones" sure as hell doesn't mean I'll enjoy "Harry Potter" just b/c they're in the same "fantasy" genre.
- personlurking 13y agoAlthough I happen to spend 85% of my film-watching time on foreign films. Assuming they can be called a 'genre' then I would take Netflix seriously if they said a film I just watched is like another film I should see...only they don't offer much in terms of foreign films.
- dragonwriter 13y ago> If there were independent movie rental stores (which I assume had some sort of agreement to be able to stock their titles), why aren't there (specialized) independent online movie streaming stores? Independent movie rental stores were viable for the same reason as chains with multiple locations were viable: you needed geographic proximity to customers to rent them movies. While some independent stores may also have had a degree of genre-focus compared to, say, the national chains, IME it was usually a fairly weak focus that reflected the local interests and demographics (and, actually, the chains would stock different titles in different stores the same way.) A genre-specialized Netflix would have much of the fixed costs of a full-fledged Netflix, would be competing with Netflix and other full-spectrum streaming sites to acquire content, and would have an uphill battle getting the visibility to attract users. Scale often has advantages.
- personlurking 13y ago"A genre-specialized Netflix would have much of the fixed costs of a full-fledged Netflix, would be competing with Netflix and other full-spectrum streaming sites to acquire content, and would have an uphill battle getting the visibility to attract users." This was my thinking, though I didn't know if it was correct or not. I made the post because all the big players, even together, don't have most of the great (foreign) films I've seen. This makes it so that my only option is to hope and wait until they do (though the problem is I've already seen them, so the new problem is that I'd want 'related films' for the ones I've already seen). To say 'this film is like that one, you should watch it', they'd need to know what I think is actually good.