[HN Gopher] No wonder Netflix is bleeding subscribers - it's bec...
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No wonder Netflix is bleeding subscribers - it's become the new
cable
Author : philk10
Score : 23 points
Date : 2022-04-21 19:48 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| PaulHoule wrote:
| It's amusing to see CNN circle the wagons by shutting down CNN+
| in favor of one "big tent" streaming service from the parent
| company.
|
| It's as if a cable channel is not supposed to develop a strong
| brand. I mean, MTV did, back when it played music videos, but as
| part of the Viacom stable the then 65 Sumner Redstone decided
| unilaterally that we wouldn't be able to watch music videos
| anymore.
|
| The ratings went in the toilet but who cares, Viacom is entitled
| to a certain number of cents per sub whether or not you watch and
| there is no way to accept or refuse MTV except to subscribe or
| not subscribe to the whole bundle.
|
| People might think you have a brand because you have a logo but
| there is no benefit for the company in making the consumer
| believe that you stand for something because the consumer doesn't
| have a disaggregated choice: once you subscribe it doesn't matter
| if you watch or not.
|
| It drives me nuts that people think GAME PASS from Microsoft is a
| good idea but I see it as "someday parents are going to be
| wondering why their kids aren't interested in playing video games
| anymore"... The answer will be that games wouldn't have been fun
| for twenty years and the parents just remember what it was like
| back when video games were fun, back when video game makers made
| money when they made fun games people want to buy. Once they got
| paid regardless, there wasn't any reason to make games fun
| anymore.
| diordiderot wrote:
| The majority of Fox News' cabal revenue comes from people who
| don't watch it
| _aavaa_ wrote:
| Silence brother! We do not speak openly about the cabal
| revenue.
| culpable_pickle wrote:
| I find your argument compelling, but slightly off.
|
| you can't just totally give up, but you need to find the
| cheapest way to be adequate, which turns into trash stuff that
| triggers something in our brain to seek out more of it.
|
| It's the same with sugar and junk food.
| etempleton wrote:
| When Netflix began original programming almost everything they
| put out was interesting even if I wasn't the target demographic.
|
| Their recent programming, beyond a few good shows and
| documentaries, is mostly lowest common denominator garbage. I
| think Netflix became data obsessed. The problem with that is good
| art or even entertainment is rarely made by analyzing a
| spreadsheet to determine what audiences want.
|
| So now they have an app where it is hard to find things, because
| I guess it is more "sticky," and content that is brain dead,
| because I guess their data suggests a lot of people will watch it
| relative to the cost.
|
| They should have remained focused on premier television. Big
| shows people want to talk to their friends about. Not Movies,
| because they do a terrible job promoting them and not reality TV,
| because no one is subscribing to a service to watch reality TV
| (though they will probably watch it once subscribed).
|
| I do think that the pandemic disrupted filming so they bought
| what they could to fill the gap, so hopefully the quality picks
| back up.
| jmoak3 wrote:
| >no one is subscribing to a service to watch reality TV
|
| I subscribe to Hulu to host Bachelor series watch parties.
|
| However, I strongly agree that Netflix content is braindead and
| the service charges you more than its content is worth.
| moomin wrote:
| If you haven't watched it, I highly recommend "UnReal". It
| gives you the experience of watching reality TV and prestige
| TV at the same time.
| diordiderot wrote:
| It's there a term for this phenomenon where a 'thousand cuts'
| of small optimizations that improve x or y metric kill a brand?
| kelseyfrog wrote:
| I'm not above neologizing.
|
| Garden Path Optimizing
|
| transitive verb
|
| 1. to be misled by progressive or incremental optimization.
|
| 2. to achieve sub-optimality by pursuing incremental
| optimization.
| mgh2 wrote:
| Let's reverse engineer what a PM will think with data:
|
| 1. 80/20 rule: Target best performing shows, replicate success
| to capitalize on fan loyalty/momentum (new seasons or spins):
| The Crown, Money Heist, Designated Survivor, Narcos...
|
| 2. Validation: Look at high movie ratings, copy those
| categories: Korean dramas, documentaries, telenovelas, reality
| TV...
|
| 3. Culture: Follow trending themes on social media - feminism,
| financial freedom, woke...incorporate them into the screenplay,
| regardless of bias, craft, or message
|
| 4. Engagement: As long as we capture user attention and
| addiction, reinforce this habit via recommendations with AI
| algorithms
|
| Like Facebook, they are focused on creating an _addiction
| machine_ for short term gain, and this strategy is reflected on
| their increasingly low quality shows - this affects the brand,
| leading to low trust and rising churn
| mcv wrote:
| It's both the drop in quality and the increase in cost. That
| turns Netflix into a really bad deal in the face of cheaper
| competition with more quality shows.
|
| Netflix used to rule with affordable access to the best new
| shows, but now they offer neither.
| deckard1 wrote:
| > The problem with that is good art or even entertainment is
| rarely made by analyzing a spreadsheet to determine what
| audiences want.
|
| Exactly. I made this point a month or two ago. I cancelled my
| Netflix account for the first time since _2004_. Because with
| all their data scientists and two decades of viewer data (more
| detailed than Nielsen ratings could ever provide), and
| _billions_ of dollars... they still can 't compete with AMC,
| HBO, etc. It's inexcusable. It's laughable. And it makes me
| think we are in a serious big data/data analytics bubble. When
| I unsubscribed, their crowning achievement was a "Top 10"
| leaderboard. Something any junior dev could throw together with
| a few SQL reports and a day or two of free time. That feature
| also highlighted the bargain bin nature of Netflix's catalog.
|
| The other problem they have is they have eroded viewer trust.
| You can't actually watch new shows because you _know_ they will
| be cancelled after a season or two. So new shows come out and
| no one watches and Netflix cancels them because of no one
| watching. It 's a snake eating its own tail.
|
| Plus people have realized they would rather wait until all
| seasons are out to binge watch than have to wait large gaps of
| time.
| moomin wrote:
| This habit of cancellation is, for me, the biggest failure of
| the lot. Some of their shows were very high quality and quite
| unique: One Day At A Time, The OA, The Baby-Sitter's Club.
| You know what else all of these shows have in common? They
| were cancelled at the top of their game.
|
| People forget that many huge shows, e.g. Breaking Bad,
| Battlestar Galactica, only became hugely popular several
| years into their run. The Wire is even more extreme: it only
| really became huge after the last episode was broadcast. But
| in each of those cases, someone made the call that a high-
| quality show was worth running, either because they hoped it
| would find a wider audience or because they believed it
| enhanced their brand.
| filereaper wrote:
| Netflix has gone from costing $9.99 CAD to $20.99 CAD over all
| these years, with loss of content like Friends etc... For which
| I'd have to go to another service.
|
| As a subscriber, I'm essentially footing the bill for Netflix's
| "spray and watch" technique which is getting hard to support when
| the content doesn't appeal to me. So maybe focus is key and
| perhaps don't cancel so many shows I was into before (Marco Polo,
| Daredevil, etc...)
|
| I'm keeping Netflix around but if they start preventing my family
| from using a single account which we've had for a decade now,
| that's the last straw and I'm cancelling the service.
| jfengel wrote:
| Daredevil, at least, wasn't their fault. Disney bought the IP
| and refused to license it. You can see it on Disney+.
|
| That still leaves them on the hook for lots and lots of other
| shows that they canceled. (My particular beef: I Am Not Okay
| With This, though the pandemic deserves a lot of blame for
| that.)
| flatearth22 wrote:
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