Netflix's gamble pays off as subscriptions soar | Hacker News Reader

Netflix's gamble pays off as subscriptions soar

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68 pointspanabee70 comments

It bothers me to no end that audio tracks and subtitles aren't available globally on Netflix. I live in the Netherlands but my kids are half Danish. It's difficult to keep them exposed to Danish when not in Denmark.

Netflix has nearly all children's cartoons dubbed in both Dutch and Danish but we can't access the Danish audio tracks from the Netherlands.

I had really hoped that a global service like Netflix would allow global access to languages. I understand that show/movie licensing is per country, but subtitles and audio tracks? why? :-(

IMHO, this whole idea of "you live in $COUNTRY so you only get to communicate in $MAIN_LANGUAGE_OF_COUNTRY" doesn't belong on the internet. Taking an IP-based guess, sure, many websites do that too. But at least most websites allow you to pick a different language if you wish. Netflix, not so much.

IMHO, this whole idea of "you live in $COUNTRY so you only get to communicate in $MAIN_LANGUAGE_OF_COUNTRY" doesn't belong on the internet.

As a Belgian, I can assure you the majority of the internet does not even get that part right. I get websites in the wrong language all the time.

PSA: The majority language in Belgium is not French.

Yeah, the weirdest thing is that HTTP Accept-Language has been around for decades and is usually configured correctly (to the OS system language). No idea why people use geolocation for language at all, on the web.

Localization is easy with javascript. Just look at navigator.language or navigator.languages[0]

And I suggest following gettext's lead in this regard, so that on your code you would have something like:

i18nstrings = {'My string':<?= _('My string') ?>, 'Second string':<?= _('Second string') ?>};

then you can just do stuff like elem.innerHTML = i18nstrings['My string'];

Of course, you process the language header in the backend.

I reviewed a couple of i18n libraries for javascript but ended up liking this approach more. It was simple and effective.

People in English-speaking countries are really bad at thinking about localisation since they're not exposed to these issues personally.

Better hope the Chinese don't take over our economy any time soon, I'm sure their devs have the same view on this.

Yep, this. As a Flemish Belgian (Dutch is my first language) it's a bit annoying that Netflix in general doesn't publish anything in Belgium if there are not at least Dutch or French subtitles available. It's a good thing the original audio tracks are almost always available, but just how limited the selection is just because of their subtitle requirement is sad.

The younger generation here really doesn't mind watching originally English content in English, with English subtitles (or just no subtitles at all). Even content that isn't originally English, I'd be fine having audio in the original language and English subtitles. But Netflix won't do that.

If they loosened their language restrictions a bit I am sure I would get sooooo much more content...

I suppose this is because they are afraid to upset certain segments of their users. In the German Netflix you'll often see angry comments in the review section of any show that isn't completely dubbed. Maybe they could avoid this by having a separate "original language only" section.

Or just having it as an optional language setting.

It's nice that they're applying pressure for content producers to comply with various disability discrimination laws and supply subtitles.

> PSA: The majority language in Belgium is not French.

In my experience it doesn't work either way, french-speaking walloons get dutch, vlaming get french, and I assume german-speaking walloons get danish or icelandic just to fuck with them, possibly Schwiizertüütsch to taunt them.

I'm sorry that this is not constructive:

> In my experience it doesn't work either way, french-speaking walloons get dutch, vlaming get french, and I assume german-speaking walloons get danish or icelandic just to fuck with them, possibly Schwiizertüütsch to taunt them.

But these words are better than faux IKEA names.

If that amuses you it gets even better if you replace the leftover translated names by the "original" version:

> In my experience it doesn't work either way, français-speaking wallons get vlaams, vlaming get français, and I assume deutschsprachige gemeinschaft get dansk or íslenska just to fuck with them, possibly schwiizertüütsch to taunt them.

I was baffled when I realized in Netflix Spain most shows and movies only offer spanish subtitles, and not [CC] subtitles in their original language.

There was a Chinese blog site I wanted to get sheet music from, but the blog host used IP to figure out I wasn't in China and just sent a page saying a translation wasn't available and redirected to the front page. I tried accept-language headers and everything but they insisted that I couldn't read the sheet music.

That's why it's always good to have several VPNs with different locations.

Did you try a Googlebot or Baidubot user-agent?

Presumably they didn't want to attract the attention of the international copyright police.

Same here, I'm looking for a movie or a series that I can watch in english but have subtitles in Romanian. If you know any...

In Germany the Netflix app shows different available audio tracks and subtitles depending on the user profile language, at least for the "Netflix Originals". Have you tried setting the language of the kids profile to Danish (via the "Manage profiles" screen in the Netflix web app)?

I just tried that, but can't seem to see any changes. Thanks for the hint though!

I just tried this again on the German Netflix website: Danish was listed and selectable for the audio track and subtitle of "Troll hunters" and "Tarzan and Jane" after switching the Kids profile language to Danish, but not when the profile language was set to German or English.

And I would like an option for no subtitles on english-speaking movies/shows. As I am making demands, I would love english subtitles on english-speaking movies/shows too. It is a great to practice english as a second language

Wow, that's a shame.

I was a Netflix subscriber before but got tired of seasons of shows inexplicably disappearing when watching them, and I just finished reading the article ending on this note:

> What Netflix has made clear is that it’s no longer content with signing up content to show only in select markets, it’s instead focusing on deals that can be shown in every country.

Which made me very happy, only to come on here and see your comment. I hope they fix this.

I've been a Spotify subscriber since 2010, and a user since 2008. I don't get my music anywhere else because there's simply _enough_ on there. This is what I want from a TV(/movie) service.

While I'm a bit miffed they seem to be going away from acquiring other content (which I still want access to), at least their direction of global availability is sound.

Sad to hear about audio tracks and subs though. That's inexcusable.

It seems that you need a VPN. Best way to bypass stupid restrictions like that.

Of course, the downside is that you will probably have to get two accounts so that you can still get stuff in Dutch. I was doing this stuff while in China, still a bit slow but doable.

I used to do this, a Netflix account is global. Meaning that the selection you get is based on where you currently are, this is great for when you're traveling.

Netflix has however been blocking every VPN under the sun. You can try your luck and get a VPN with a static IP that's just for you... But they seem to have started blocking these too.

Furthermore people don't mind paying for Netflix since you get a ton of value from it. When you add in the cost of a vpn + static IP from that VPN provider you've more than doubled it.

I cancelled my subscription when I couldn't hop to different countries and could only use the Belgian selection. I just went back to doing what I did before I got Netflix.

Same problem here in Italy, most movies (even American ones) does not have english subtitles, but only italian ones.

There's a workaround it you use Chrome, you can install SuperNetflix [1] and then import your own custom made subtitles [2]

[1] - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/super-netflix/aioe...

[2] - http://subflicks.com/

Isn't this often a rightsholder issue? They don't want to undercut some market so they only license the content for a specific language and forbid subtitles.

International IP law is a morass of conflicting interests and market protectionism.

Netflix is great when you have kids. Uninterrupted cartoons with no commercials where you can pick suitable shows for any age group, properly translated, always available. Their original series there don't seem to score too highly yet (kids hate all of them aside from Lego Friends), but there's enough on offer.

I did drop down to the cheapest, lowest end subscription though. I stream via a Wii (kids don't mind the quality) and because of the DRM restrictions in browsers, I also only get to see the low quality streams anyway.

I'm hoping the stronger position of their Netflix Originals can eventually tone down the DRM crazy-ness.

Considering Netflix is tying DRM to CPU and only Kabby Lake PC's and later will get Netflix 4K support outside of approved devices it's doubtful.

Also bare in mind that almost none of the so called "Originals" are actually produced by Netflix.

What Netflix calls originals is pretty much "you can't see it almost anywhere but on netflix", and this isn't even universal, this usually means that Netflix has secured the primary broadcasting rights in a one or more regions.

This is why in the UK shows like Better Call Saul, Sole Survivor, The Expanse and many others are marked as Original even tho they are broadcasted on TV in the US and in many other regions.

Unrelated to Netflix, but if you've watched The Expanse and liked it, I can really recommend the original novel series; the show covers roughly the first half of the first book, Leviathan Wakes, and the sixth book arrived late last year, with at least one more still to come. They're an absolutely brilliant combination of space opera and hard sf, and while I gather one of the authors counts George R. R. Martin as a mentor, they are unlike him in being able to keep up a timely release schedule. Along with Stross's "Library Files" series, they're easily some of the best new sf I've seen in the last couple of decades, and I can't recommend them strongly enough to fans of the genre and especially of the show.

did you mean Leviathan Wakes?

I did! I mixed it up with the title of the latest, Babylon's Ashes. What I get for commenting before sufficient coffee to complete the boot process; fixed, and thanks for the catch!

I listen to all of my music on Spotify. Even though both the Windows and Android apps are pretty terrible, they work well enough, the search works and it has 99% of everything out there. I pay £10 per month but would happily pay double if they put the price up.

I've never been content with any video streaming service, I even have Amazon Prime for delivery reasons and that includes videos, but I don't use it. I just Google for something and stream it illegally. The few that I've tried just have such limited selections I find it frustrating. I also find the "you might like" suggestions almost always terrible. Also Amazon Prime Video's search is so abysmal it's always easier to steal than work out if you already can legally watch it.

I'll happily pay £10+ per month when someone makes the Spotify of video, but unfortunately at the moment Google + illegal is better.

> I'll happily pay £10+ per month when someone makes the Spotify of video, but unfortunately at the moment Google + illegal is better.

The situation is worse than not being able to stream: You can't even _buy_ DRM-less movies. Very much in contrast to music.

I buy lots of lossless, digital music that I truly own and can play anywhere I want. I'd love to do the same with movies, but it's just not possible. Buying a movie from a service that may or may not be around in a few years is not an option for me.

We just cancelled our Sky subscription because we'd eventually realised that none of us was watching "live" TV.

I binge watched "The Crown" during a recent bout of flu and was deeply impressed.

If I could do without sports and HBO stuff (Westworld, Game of Thrones), I too would cancel Sky.

Have you considered Now TV? You get sky channels in bundles, live + catch up, online or with a (very cheap) modified Roku box. The entertainment (http://www.nowtv.com/entertainment) package includes Sky Atlantic for £6.99/mo, and sports (http://www.nowtv.com/sports) you can choose £6.99/day, £10.99/wk or £33.99/mo.

We did this - Cancelled Sky in favour of Netflix + Now TV's Entertainment bundle.

Not looked back, despite the many, many calls from Sky.

Sky's main mechanism for customer retention appears to be call center staff basically pleading to have you stay - a few years back when the bought the ISP I was using the quality of service collapsed and I cancelled the account and they kept dropping the price and wouldn't go away until I said I didn't want their service at any price (even free).

At least with sports, football in particular, there's something interesting happening here in europe: DAZN is a legal streaming service that allows you to watch Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and a bunch of other sports live and on demand for 10 €. All officially licensed. Of course I still need my Sky subscription for Bundesliga and Champions League but Sky is slowly running out of arguments.

I hadn't heard of DAZN, I'll have to look into this. Thank you.

Edit: From their website: "DAZN is currently available in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Japan."

So you subscribe to BT too for UCL? Not being able to watch ANY Champions League games live was ever so slightly annoying, and I dislike BT so am not going to subscribe. It's amazing how much the viewing figures were impacted by BT gaining all the rights, only a handful of people watch most matches (legally).

Sorry, I didn't realize that access to DAZN is that limited. I'm from Germany and as a huge football fan a Sky subscription is a given - I need it for Bundesliga and Champions League. There's no way that I'll deal with shitty, ad-ridden illegal streaming sites in video quality. Sky used to show Premier League in Germany for years, but this season the rights to DAZN. It's a huge blow for Sky, particularly since they lost La Liga a few years ago as well.

Have to agree The Crown was very good and not normally something I would have bothered watching.

Ha I binged The Crown while I had the flu before Christmas

I'm currently subscribed to Netflix, HBO GO and Canal+ (French/European premium TV channel), and HBO GO has the best catalog, by far. The problem with Netflix is that there are "Originals", and not much else. While the production quality of these shows is superb, the artistic values are nowhere near what the movies on HBO can offer. Which is a shame, because Netflix pretty much nailed the user experience part.

> It has put some of its budget into non-English language shows, such as “3%”, a Portuguese sci-fi series. Intriguingly, Netflix noted that many English viewers opted to watch the dubbed version, providing an unexpected added audience.

I watched 3%, but as the English dub is really horrible (I'm used to really great German dubs) I switched to Portuguese + subtitles after a few minutes.

I wish governments would start with compulsory licenses for streaming broadcasts, just like they do for radio. Original content is fine, but in a few years you are going to need subscriptions to a half-dozen streaming services just to view the things you want.

Licenses for radio only work because governments have control over the means of distribution (spectrum allocation). The internet does not (or at least, should not) work like that.

They already have "control" of copyright enforcement over the internet, they can at least use this power for good to give us nondiscriminatory license agreements.

Content has certainly improved of late but still not to the point where I'll subscribe month after month. Amazon seems to have the edge (Prime extras aside) since they fill a lot of the gaps with pay per view content that I don't mind actually paying for from time to time.

Why not use iTunes for pay per view/purchasing content? Their library seems very comprehensive.

I'm currently using Netflix and iTunes. I also have a prime account, but there's rarely anything I want to watch (the exception being Mr Robot).

I don't buy anything Apple but, out of interest, is their pay per view offering more economical than amazon's?

Google Play Movies is another alternative for pay per view

Not sure, but for me it's more that the selection is better, I don't think you can get Westworld (series) on amazon yet for example.

Not usually as cheap, but the breadth of the catalog is remarkable. I'll go with Amazon for price reasons if both have what I want, but it's not rare that Amazon doesn't and iTunes does. (And Netflix almost never does. At this point I'm keeping it for season 2 of The Expanse and basically nothing else.)

I've bought a lot from iTunes, deals come around often enough. June and Decemeber. There are a fair number of films for 99p rental too.

Although their prices for the my favourite long tale films are seemingly always "moderate".

Network connectivity from the UK is occasionally an issue, Apple were planning to build a data centre in Ireland, but the locals were restive, I have a quality ISP.

iTunes is also dependent on who it makes deals with. I watched "Y Tu Mama Tambien" Netflix just before it was removed, and I can't get it anywhere else to watch it again.

BBC Store, and BFI have apps and a wider selection. The intention being you play it on your phone and ChromeCast or AirPlay it to your TV; I look for the BFI finnessing their app.

iTunes doesn't have a workable interface unless you have an Apple TV.

I was upset that only after registration I was informed there was no support for linux. That's wasting the free month.

How can I get netflix to display on debian testing, out of principle without chrome?

Supposedly it chrome works, but chromium didn't. Firefox is supposedly getting support, but not officially and so it didn't work for me. I was thinking to keep torrenting while paying, but actually the selection on the public trackers is rather limited to new releases or lonely slow seeders. Avoiding the hassle of finding sources and exposing buggy clients to the scene is the main advantage, but then the netflix selection is limited as well, which is good for competition, I suppose.

I consider myself a pretty hardcore free software enthusiast, and I'm okay with using the Google-branded browser to play Netflix. My feeling is that if you're playing copyrighted content, you're in the restricted intellectual property space anyway. Netflix "owns" the rights to play these videos, so they get to say what platforms they play on. It would be better if they played on a fully open source platform (hopefully they will soon), but it would also be better if copyright law wasn't completely insane.

Frankly I'm just glad I can play Netflix on non-Android Linux at all, because that wasn't the case originally. For what it's worth, Netflix runs smoothly on Google Chrome on my Arch laptop. Amazon prime also plays, though the interface is clunkier. I use chromium as my default browser but I aliased nf='google-chrome-stable https://www.netflix.com'

> My feeling is that if you're playing copyrighted content, you're in the restricted intellectual property space anyway.

Of course, but it goes both ways, so the argument is indecisive at first glance. Now you can go down a slight slippery slope and weigh each side of the argument. But it's basically the only reason I am hesitant, so after all you may be right. Surely, not finding the hoped for selection biased my opinion. Yet before finding the player broken by drm I had more great shows added to my list than I currently could reasonably watch.

Original content is great but I fear in a few years Netflix can more or less dictate what we can see on TV.

And maybe Im in the vocal minority, but I prefer Friends and Seinfeld to House of Cards or Orange and OItNB.

There are tons of original comedies on Netflix also ;) I don't see how Netflix would dictate what you see on TV, they have more competition now than ever, and it's good.

Were getting better content and more of it.

Yep - the "reach the comedic stratosphere and you'll get an HBO special" is being replaced with Netflix or Amazon specials for every comedian who can make a profitable special. As a comedy fan it's great.

You're comparing 90's sitcoms to modern hour-long dramas? The death of the 20 minute laugh-track sitcom is in no way Netflix' fault, is it?

the article is about netflix removing bought content and replacing it with their own stuff

edit: old -> bought

The opposite of "original content" isn't "old content". It's non-Netflix content.

A minor correction but some "Netflix originals" are bought content, some of which are produced by the BBC.

Well Netflix just made a deal with Seinfeld to produce a few shows.

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