by jaimefjorge on 3/27/17, 10:59 AM with 369 comments
by irishloop on 3/27/17, 4:02 PM
For me, the stand-up specials like Dave Chapelle and Louis CK alone are huge and welcome additions, never mind the many, very good lesser known comedy specials on there.
Their agreement with Dreamworks has only helped, allowing me to enjoy surprisingly good films like Zootopia.
Even great cable channels like FX (The Americans, Legion) and AMC (Mad Men, Better Call Saul) are not available for any reasonable price as standalone cable packages, so I'm not sure what the comparison is in terms of quality. HBO at 15/month?
But even HBO shows are hit-or-miss. And while their movie selection is generally pretty great, I still find myself not watching it all that much.
It seems to me that Netflix provides a pretty high level of content at their price point.
by thirdsun on 3/27/17, 12:41 PM
I understand that not everything Netflix does is tailored to me, particularly due to Netflix' growing, increasingly mainstream audience, diverse and varying preferences, more ground to cover, etc.
However lately Netflix' content simply seems to lack substance to me. It feels as if it's just the superficial result of throwing a promising combination of those very specific tags/categories the services is famous for onto the assembly line and ending up with a show or film that, while ticking all the boxes and not being bad at all, is still pretty far off the masterpieces of the medium. I'm not sure if classics like The Wire, The Sopranos or Mad Men could have been created with such a formulaic approach and I'm missing shows of that caliber on Netflix. Maybe the service should offer brillant content creators the freedom and opportunity to do the shows they want to do, instead of dictating the theme and framework.
by flexie on 3/27/17, 12:29 PM
That's roughly 3/4 of what the three cinema chains in my city show. That leaves some 25 percent to the remotely realistic movies - the ones with characters and stories that could be true, at least in a distant future. There are nights where the only movies the cinemas show, are fantastic ones. Where the only cinema experience would involve wearing 3D glasses and watching childish characters save the world.
Personally, I am fine with the establishment taking some beating. But I sure hope there will be more than just a handful of providers of content. Hollywood, HBO, Netflix, Amazon. That's not nearly enough.
by meesterdude on 3/27/17, 12:17 PM
Meanwhile, I've enjoyed a number of "low-budget" shows they've had (like ice pilots) and a number of the kung-fu movies they have available. But to be fair, a LOT of the low-budget stuff they have is trash too.
It's clear (to me) that there is some effort to pad their content, to seem like they have a fuller collection, even if it's only a collection a raccoon would love. This, taken with the idea they tote of "having only the best performing people" displays a mismatch in cultural ideas and actual output.
For me, I want netflix to succeed because another content producer is a welcome addition to the scene, and i hope they stay independent and don't get bought up by disney. I know in a few years they'll have a collection of original content to rival the older players.
by lefstathiou on 3/27/17, 12:35 PM
Additionally, Netflix's international growth was hampered by their inability to efficiently negotiate international distribution rights.
by Belphemur on 3/27/17, 11:33 AM
It seems in the end, we're really returning to the cable era.
Be ready for packages giving you access to Netflix, Amazon, and channels...
by Fishman343 on 3/27/17, 11:40 AM
As an observer, what still seems odd to me is the low number of shows or movies they are producing with that massive budget - last year "The Get Down" apparently cost $16 million per episode while the entire, huge hit, first season of "Stranger Things" cost $13 million.
I would have thought that would inspire them to look for more of these low budget, low risk, big payoff shows, especially when you run a subscription service - surely a series that people binge over 2 weeks, with the potential for more seasons to keep people subscribing is better for you than a one time film? Nope, $100 Million on a single film this year.
by aresant on 3/27/17, 11:26 AM
(1) https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/business/netflix-profi...
by yk on 3/27/17, 12:04 PM
I guess both Amazon and Netflix try to capture precisely that role, in that case they could charge almost whatever they want while they are not forced by competition to have high quality (and therefore expensive) content. Plus I am afraid that the market tends to produce a monopoly, because a individual subscriber will look for the service that has more content.
[1] Hetzner currently charges EUR 1.40 / TB of additional traffic, so marginal distribution costs are in the range of EUR 10^-3 / Movie.
by jessriedel on 3/27/17, 12:46 PM
https://www.google.com/amp/wap.business-standard.com/article...
and non-AMP versions
http://wap.business-standard.com/article/international/netfl...
by tboyd47 on 3/27/17, 4:33 PM
One major result of Netflix's rise is that the TV format for entertainment is starting to be seen as on par with or better than the feature film format.
There's something obvious about this from a viewer's standpoint. People are naturally drawn to abundance and regularity. Rather than having 100 discussions about which movie to watch together with my wife over the course of a year, then find that only 20 or so of them are on Netflix, and maybe 5 of them turn out to be stinkers, we can simply pick a show we both know is about a B+, and watch 100 episodes, not ever being disappointed. Also, if I watch the pilot of a great show, then I know I have a whole season to go through, with days of entertainment. If I watch a great movie, then welp, I've just watched a great movie and maybe in a few years there will be a sequel.
From an artistic standpoint, there are freedoms that open up due to having established characters, routine plot conventions, etc. There was an article on HN a while back where Conan O'Brien mentioned that this is why he did exactly the same walk to the stage every single night, or something of that nature.
by TylerH on 3/27/17, 8:38 PM
Let me curate my own lists and my own history per profile, including removing stuff from dynamic lists. I don't want to have to go into my account settings (something only the account owner can do) to remove recently watched items from my account history and then have to wait 24 hours for it to actually happen.
Let me build new lists and manually dump a tv show or movie into them.
Let me search all offerings, sortable and filterable alphabetically and/or by release date.
Let me view my profile's total viewing history if I'm interested. Even for titles that are no longer viewable on Netflix. A neat feature would be to group these by title. So you can show just "The Office" or "Game of Thrones" or "The West Wing", which can be expanded to a list of seasons, each of which can be expanded to a list of episodes, showing which ones I've watched and which ones I haven't.
--- --- ---
As enjoyable and useful as Netflix is, the fact that it still remains essentially a completely non-customizable list of "what's popular" is just incredibly lazy on their part.
by deegles on 3/27/17, 4:49 PM
I would estimate I watch about 200 hours a year, Netflix is releasing 1,000 hours of content this year[0]. This trend will only accelerate, especially considering all of the other providers pouring money into content.
I wish that video content licensing could be regulated similar to radio music, where the license holder receives a flat rate per play (this could be adjusted to be per-minute with modifiers for SD/HD/etc). That would open up a whole new market of streaming websites that could focus on cataloging and recommending content, instead of me having to pay for many websites full of content that I cannot physically spend the time to find the best of. Some streaming devices have cross-service search functionality built in, but it could be much better.
[0] http://bgr.com/2016/10/19/netflix-originals-1000-hours-progr...
by anothercomment on 3/27/17, 7:36 PM
Best for users would be to have all content available everywhere, not having to subscribe to multiple streaming providers.
That said, if that is the game they have to play, I am happy if at least it results in some worthwhile series.
by JohnJamesRambo on 3/27/17, 12:33 PM
by 6stringmerc on 3/27/17, 3:43 PM
by JackFr on 3/27/17, 4:51 PM
by barking on 3/27/17, 12:19 PM
I am under no illusions about how netflix might behave if they ever achieve a monolithic dominance but so far it's great.
by rdlecler1 on 3/27/17, 1:15 PM
by ctdonath on 3/27/17, 2:36 PM
I'm not interested in "Netflix originals". Focus on the core competency of archiving & delivery; let others make the content.
I've worked at IBM, Smith Corona, Kodak, CNN, AT&T, others - a major takeaway is: businesses which don't stick to their core competency/purpose die.
by thomastjeffery on 3/28/17, 1:13 AM
by literallycancer on 3/27/17, 3:47 PM
And since you can only watch it in the browser, you can't use things like madVR or frame interpolation tools to get smoother panning scenes.
1 - Even a blu ray rip of around 3GB looks better. Think a 2 to 2.5 hour movie.
by jccalhoun on 3/27/17, 2:50 PM
by echelon on 3/27/17, 7:15 PM
I live in Atlanta, and the cost of production here is much cheaper than California. I've been mulling over the merits of someone here launching a streaming platform for some of the locally-produced content.
by Jedd on 3/27/17, 2:23 PM
That's such a delicious juxtaposition of wistful observation, and observer's job title (or 'contribution to society' if you prefer).
by 1ba9115454 on 3/27/17, 1:13 PM
Bosch over on Amazon was pretty good.
by sgwealti on 3/27/17, 12:00 PM
by jordanpg on 3/27/17, 11:51 PM
This DVD business is the only place I am aware of for renting a great many movies. RedBox has very limited offerings. If it ever does fold, consider that for movies that don't appear in anyone's streaming catalog or a catalog you subscribe to, the only other (legal) option you'll have is to buy the DVD somewhere.
I don't know what things will look like in 10 years technologically, but if the Netflix DVD business ever goes away, there will be movies that are permanently inaccessible for rental.
by matteuan on 3/27/17, 2:21 PM
by erelde on 3/27/17, 11:51 AM
by junto on 3/27/17, 1:39 PM
I don't understand why the Expanse series two is being held back from Europe. Is it already available on Netflix in the US?
by smaili on 3/27/17, 4:43 PM
by dghughes on 3/27/17, 12:43 PM
I guess I'm a dinosaur from the olden days of TV where once per week you watched a show. Then a break for summer and the new season started in the fall.
These days it's binge watch an entire show and wait 18 months for the next season. I can't stand that who can sit still for that long?
I bet Netflix would prefer a slower production and release schedule rather than a blast of a dozen episodes. Even the actors must hate that they must also have to wait until production starts again.
Production quality is suffering too which may indicate shows are being made too fast. On Iron Fist I noticed in each episode a red laser dot and grid shining on the actors. And in one episode you could see water dripping off the camera lens housing.
by Keyframe on 3/27/17, 6:12 PM
by ulfw on 3/27/17, 12:27 PM
by MisterBastahrd on 3/27/17, 5:49 PM
by hkmurakami on 3/27/17, 5:46 PM
[1] distribution
[2] original content
by mschuster91 on 3/27/17, 8:26 PM
I have untouched-DVD rips from Star Trek Voyager. Single episodes run around 2 GB of data, while the same Netflix episodes are ~200MB.
Not only does Netflix not carry the bonus stuff, but the quality is seriously braindead - weird moire effects in the intro, for example, and it just looks pixelated.
In fact, the "scene rips" tend to look better than what Netflix offers! And it's certainly not due to low network quality, I've got a 100/20 connection and stuff like Shadowhunters is clear HD.
by shmerl on 3/27/17, 3:13 PM
by nilanjonB on 3/27/17, 6:31 PM
by vwbuwvb on 3/27/17, 1:39 PM
by JCharante on 3/27/17, 5:01 PM
by krupan on 3/27/17, 6:01 PM
by michaelmcneff on 3/27/17, 11:51 AM
by maverick_iceman on 3/27/17, 3:58 PM
by kingmanaz on 3/27/17, 2:44 PM
...yet all I watched was Columbo, Poirot, Midsomer Murders and Murder She Wrote.
If only some of this "original content" was original in being upbeat or uplifting.
by grabcocque on 3/27/17, 12:36 PM
How DARE people want to work for Netflix intead of us, just because it pays better, is sexier and cooler, is technologically cutting edge, and allows much greater freedom from executive meddling?
NOT COOL GUYS.
by barking on 3/27/17, 12:14 PM
by malloryerik on 3/27/17, 11:46 AM