People Like Netflix’s Original Content More Than Its Other Content

I agree the market is too fractured and everyone subscribes for just a few shows on each service

- true a la carte; pay for exactly what you want (on disc or through some provider's store like iTunes, Amazon Video, Xbox Video, etc) - subscribe to a bunch of different services (the situation we're in now) - bundle them up

A la carte pricing will be more expensive than anything else, but you get some greater flexibility over the stuff you own. The situation we have now is annoying, but at least you can turn them on and off as needed (so you can pay for HBO only when Game of Thrones is airing). When you bundle them up, it's only a matter of time until you end up with the traditional cable bundle and all the customer abuses and fleecing that it entails.

Yes, if everyone is charging a fair amount. Add YouTube Red. 6 x $10 = $60/month. That strikes me as a better bargain than most cable packages.

I want that "last year's movies" that I used to be able to get from them, and now seems to be going to crap.

The quality of their original stuff is very good. And they've got good coverage of non-original TV, too (e.g., reruns of "Friends"). But when you get to movies-from-theatres, they're just not there at all anymore.

I think this is intentional on their part, but they need to be careful, because Amazon also seems to be doing well with a similar strategy (e.g., "Man in the High Castle"). Netflix's original mission of movies could be what sets them apart but it seems to be all but abandoned.

Because entertainment is highly subjective, so some people are bound to like it, and stuff which isn't broadly popular is cheap to pick up. Plus, its a cheap way to give the catalog the casual illusion of depth.

> I remember years ago people were amazed at how many quality, little-known, niche independent films they had. Why not get back to that in addition to original content?

The same reason they don't have lots of the other high-quality non-profit all content they used to have -- once they proved the market, plenty of other players jumped in (including, in many cases, the content producers), so much of the content isn't available to them and what is has more people bidding for it, often seeking exclusivity and willing to pay for it.

The same thing happened to HBO when other companies got into the "cable premium movie channel" business, and that's why HBO, for a long time, has also been driven by original programming.

If you don't own the content, and you aren't the only channel in a space, the content owners are going to extract all the value through competition among distribution channels. So, you either have to be essentially a monopoly channel (which usually isn't maintainable), or you have to rely on compelling original content as your main draw.

The Netflix catalog of non-original content does have some bright spots. But there's also a ton of really obscure documentaries, miniscule budget action movies, crappy Adam Sandler movies, reality TV garbage, etc.

One thing to note about the cost. There's one rather large difference between cable and multiple streaming services (at least where Netflix is concerned) and that is advertising. We may be paying more for this content, but at least we're only getting content and not having to wait through mis-targeted advertising... At least for now.

Life happens, and people get old and die. I appreciate their older works for what they are.

Chewing Gum is a recent favorite of mine.