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Comment by brownbat | Hacker News Reader

> You get one thing – [release day availability]

I'd bet it's not zero days, but one stop shopping. So the consumer saves the overhead of wondering, "wait, is this on Hulu? Netflix? Amazon? iPlayer?" The entire catalog is in one place.

I think Netflix and Amazon are getting to the point where their catalogs are deeper than usenet.

Of course, most film junkie's "essential 100" lists will still probably hit somewhere less than 10% representation on Netflix: http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/films-on-spike-lees-...

Still an availability problem though.

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Netflix (and probably Amazon too -- I have Prime but the UI for the video service is so bad I normally don't bother with it) is falling into the cable model of hundreds of channels but nothing to watch. More often than not I will spend 15-20 minutes browsing Netflix to find something interesting that I haven't already watched, and end up just switching it off because there's not much there.

It's the same as opening the fridge, finding nothing you want, and going back a bit later with lower standards.

It's not that there is nothing there, your standards just need adjusted before you can appreciate what is there.

I guess the same can be applied to cable, but you have to really lower those standards to appreciate dozens of home shopping networks, reality TV and infomercials.

Too true.

They used to run competitions to improve their recommendation engine, because it was a big cost for a customer to get shipped a lemon.

They stopped that, I think they're running a different game now, where they just juice the expected rating to convince people to stream stuff that's really just ok.

> I think Netflix and Amazon are getting to the point where their catalogs are deeper than usenet.

In the US. Even in the UK, the offering is not even close, and in the rest of Europe, well though luck.

Then you have the choice of paying for a vpn and a netflix, and -maybe- you get lucky. Or you start wondering why would you send money to people that do not want you to see their stuff at any price.

One-stop shopping and the legal "protection" of not appearing on a bittorrent peer list. (It's still illegal, but less detectable.)

The media companies have largely caught on to Usenet and have been issuing automated DMCAs on Usenet content immediately since the early 2010s. Since the posts are stored on a centralized server, the providers can and do comply with DMCA takedowns with automated software. As a result, popular TV and Movies with correct titles are usually taken down quickly.

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