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The average netflix experience, for films:

- look through the first category, feel disappointed

- look through other categories, see the same films in multiple categories

- waste 20 minutes before either turning off or in refusing to totally dump the sunk cost, choose a film you don't really want

It's like the inverted set of the Criterion Collection.

I share your feelings. I have the impression their catalogue shrunk so much there's almost no interesting content at all. They shove up their bland "original creations" everywhere, but it's not what I want. I understand they will be more profitable if I watch their creations, but they simply don't appeal to me, not even one of them.

They could provide a more positive user experience if they overhauled their terrible user interface. They focus too much on making you believe there are thousands of choices, when it’s probably closer to 10-20.

This is clearly evident in how they keep items you’ve already watched in the same list of things you haven’t watched. Why would any sane person do this?

No, the poor catalogue is the root cause of my antipathy.

Same here. I find that I've turned to Youtube to satisfy any content cravings. It's not perfect, suggestions sometimes never have anything to do with what I've been watching the past 12 hours, Youtube's algorithms have a clear bias against certain content and sometimes I can't bother to wade through pages and pages of slosh to find what I know fits my tastes, but at this point I have a good idea of the search terms to use when I want something to watch, and if all else fails I can always just rewatch an ancient creator's old content.

Meanwhile on Netflix, it is nearly impossible to find what interests me by just turning it on and flipping through the initial feed. It also feels like there is never enough of the content I want to watch. I found 'Kingdom', 'Love,Death and Robots' and 'Sex Education' completely by accident, and on ending each series and falling in love with their concepts, I get exhausted when I see there is no season 2, because it means it will probably be a while until I hit the jackpot again. Even one of my favorites - 'Black Mirror', seems to be dropping in quality.

I haven't opened Netflix in 2 months and probably will cancel my sub soon because the wait it just not worth the price.

I find it annoying how content is so easily discoverable in YouTube but with Netflix, it's almost like the site is actively trying to stop you from discovering new content in there. For example, I share a Netflix account with a relative who has somewhat different tastes from me and I find shows/movies on her account's front page I find interesting that I would never have found on my account except if I search for that specific show.

I think you might be underestimating the brilliance of YouTube's algorithm. There's no other video service that comes close. I have the same complaints about Netflix's discovery UI, but it's way better than Amazon's recommendations.

You're likely right about Youtube's recommendation algorithm being much better than Netflix's. But I was thinking more in terms of how Youtube's UI allows for much easier exploration compared to Netflix. For example, when I click on a video, Youtube gives you a huge list of related videos but Netflix gives you a small list and only for some movies/shows.

> As someone who recently cancelled my Netflix subscription after idly flipping through it and realising nothing here holds my interest anymore

Can't disagree with this. I cancelled Netflix not too long ago because it felt like it was another version of Facebook for me. Somewhere to scroll aimlessly and endlessly with nothing interesting enough to commit to, but interesting enough to keep me scrolling. Almost like the next swipe of my thumb would finally locate something to watch. Once I was able to buy the entire series of The Office (US), my reason to keep Netflix was gone. Once Disney+ launches I am wondering how Netflix will fare.

(Full Disclosure: My Facebook was deleted several years ago)

If you can't find anything on netflix you will be disappointed in Disney+

We plan to start rotating. Subscribe to Netflix for a few months, then switch to Hulu and watch what they have, then switch to BritBox, then HBO, then VRV, then whatever else or back to the start. They all make it pretty easy to stop/start your subscription and I think they all/most retain all your account info between times as well. This becomes even more attractive as other new services start up. Seems like it should scale well as the longer the rotation the more new shows are there each time through.

Australian Netflix user here as well, very similar story with a couple of exceptions:

1. Kids, one in particular loves a number of shows on Netflix and is happy to re-watch them. They do plenty of other non-screen activities, so Netflix remains a decent 'downtime' option

2. Kids. I just don't have the kind of time to watch movies and TV shows the way I used to. I just finished the two seasons of Psycho-Pass, which took me a couple of months to get through. And that's still with most episodes requiring multi-mid-episode pauses for reasons of 'parenting' (be it parental intervention or prevention of kids viewing disturbing scenes).

As a result, I churn through less content, slower, and therefore Netflix probably has a greater use to me longer term. My budget refuses to stretch to multi-streaming-platform subscriptions, mostly actually due to ideological reasons.

(I'm paying for the top Netflix option with a view to convincing a couple of relatives to get off their expensive Foxtel subs - with minor success).

My biggest issue with netflix is that their entire discovery tool is built around their subscription based model, which means they've deliberately avoided features that users would strongly prefer for a better search experience.

Would be nice if there was single point of being able to buy movies & tv shows episodes at very reasonable costs. Perhaps duration based - 10 cents per 10 minutes. A 2 hour movie would be $1.20 etc.

I think that's a really cool idea but at the same time I think about the mobile carriers and how it used to be the case that you could only pay-per-minute or pay-per-text or pay-per-GB and overall unlimited plans seem to have won out. I wonder if that trend would apply with entertainment too.

I have largely the same issue. As opposed to a year or two ago when I regularly used both Netflix and Prime Video, these days I have subscriptions to those as well as the Foxtel and Stan offerings just to keep the same sort of depth of library. I’ve drawn the line at 4 services, with a total spend very close to what I was spending previously on cable, such that if a new show airs on something I’m not subscribed to, I’ll either cancel one or just skip it. Competition only works when all players have the same content, if everything is an island of exclusive offerings then I’d suggest thats something entirely different, and probably not something that’s sustainable since customers have only a finite monthly budget for entertainment.

Since streaming services keep shows in their library for quite a while, and with binge watching being popular, it may be a good strategy to cycle through the services periodically. The problem is that they don't have a way for you to just "pause" a service, and if you have multiple family members in the household you have to get buy in from everyone.

I've also started watching Youtube more. Totally agree re fragmentation. I'm not interested in dealing with their greed and stupidity. Same with sports. Different deals for different regions etc. I like watching sports but I'll just not watch it if it's not easily available. Usually it's only on in the background anyways as I do something else like my accounts etc.

Or just sign up for one service one month and a different one the next month. No one’s forcing you to keep all four subscriptions active.

Services sometimes have terms like "Once you cancel, you can't rejoin us for six months". At least, I remember that in MoviePass' T&C. I was confused, though, since I assumed they'd want me to convert again, since they should want my money.

I'm not signing up for a service for 1 month, and then going through the back catalogue in that 1 month. I want to watch media when I want to, not when it wants me to. Think of it like TV, I tune in when I want something to watch and change the channel until I find something.

Simply needing to switch between services and time my subscriptions is enough for me to not bother. TV/Film is burntime for me, not a dedicated hobby. If I need to stuff around figuring out which service has which shows that I might enjoy, you've lost me and I'll go watch something on youtube.

Netflix originally had all the varieties of shows I needed. It doesn't anymore. If someone shows me another service that is accessible to Australians that has a better catalogue, I'd probably switch to it permanently.

That's less convenient in many ways than piracy, you have to keep track of which one you're currently subscribed too, which shows are on which subscriptions, can only watch shows from the current subscription. I'm not paying for less convenience.

yeah the Australian Netflix at least has a very fragmented selection nowadays. The only things that keep my interest are really their originals.

I think Stan has most of the more well known shows these days, and I think it's better value for money than Netflix

> This makes the piracy route become more and more attractive again - and I don't like that this is the case. I want to pay people for their content.

People like to say this, but, no offense, it just doesn't seem true. It sounds like a justification. (And I'm not judging, I'm just not convinced by this reasoning).

Signing up for 3-4 streaming services is pretty easy. If you use something like an apple tv or fire tv you can even use a global search that links you into the app where the content you searched for lives. If you're willing to pay per episode or movie to rent or buy everything you watch on itunes or amazon, it's even easier and you can get almost anything instantly.

I do agree that in general, the more different streaming services are released the more that people's incentives are starting to tip back towards pirating. But I don't think there's much other reason beyond just cost.

I mean I can subscribe to 5 different streaming services and pay $50-60/mo, and how far away are we from having a service that provides a collection of streaming services (i.e. cable TV).

The problem that's happening lately is that streaming services were a way to get away from the expensiveness of cable, but now we're returning the the exact same problem we had then.

To be clear, I don't pirate and haven't except for niche stuff that I can't get my hands on otherwise.

If money was tight and I didn't have other hobbies I might consider it. But at the moment selling me 3-4 streaming services for $80 a month when I can just watch youtube instead, or pick up a good 4 year old game for $10 is a tough sell to me.

There's excellent Plex servers for <$10/month, which give access to tens of thousands of shows and movies, with the guarantee that anything remotely popular is part of that offering. Versus the more legal option of paying hundreds of dollars a month to access content spread between 5-10 different apps, with stupid limitations such as "no offline viewing" or "check in home every n days", not to mention the incompatibilities due to DRM etc.

Piracy is definitely more convenient nowadays.