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Comment by purple_ferret | Hacker News Reader

It's interesting that Netflix's strategy with content is almost the complete opposite. Pump out junk reality TV and test lots of shows for a season only to drop them once they don't put up acceptable numbers (i.e. get past the Initial Probationary Period)

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Netflix's quality of content on original shows really took a nose-dive the past few years. They had a stable of excellent shows with writing punching above the pack compared to network TV or cable: HOC, The Crown, Stranger Things, Narcos to name a few. But recently some of those shows have been spun out/watered down to death, and a ton of junk has been released by them. I'm rather bearish on this company think barrier to entry for this space is rather low. Look at the success Disney+ has had regarding its service. Now throw in every major media company doing the same thing and I see netflix slowly dwindling down in the next few years as others with owned content dive into that space.

I agree the barrier to entry should be low, but it apparently isn't from a tech perspective, hence this article. See the comments further up the thread. Maybe the HN crowd is just unusually sensitive to app quality, but I think Apple showed pretty conclusively that consumers respond well to quality tech. It shouldn't be really hard to run a video streaming and recommendation service at scale, but, it is. That tech isn't off the shelf, you have to build it. And to do that you need to be able to hire and attract good technologists.

This matters because a repeating theme seems to be that the only people who can build competent tech teams are engineers. A generic media executive will find it much harder going because they don't have any intuition for the skill gap being discussed by Hastings here. Disney+ seems to have managed it but only by buying buy theirs from a sports streaming firm that had already proven themselves effective, if I recall correctly. Obviously there's a limited number of opportunities like that.

So I guess it's a question of what's harder - for an engineer to build a great content operation, or a media guy to build a great tech operation. So far it seems like maybe neither are possible, although Netflix has had some great content perhaps that's more luck than anything else? If so then it'd make sense for eventually these firms to form a truce, with Netflix focused on the retail/online store aspects and other firms creating the shows.

The people who were coming to netflix with these shows can now schedule a day full of meetings in Los Angeles with every single major streaming service who are looking for the same. Imo, netflix is simply being poached.

I'm not really a watcher of Netflix, but could you give some examples of what you're talking about? I didn't even know that Netflix did reality TV for example. And everything I've ever read or heard about top-tier actors and directors who work with Netflix is that they really respect the art and let the artists work. I've only read a lot of stories of a lot of creative freedom and a long leash. So would be curious to hear the other side.

The Circle (was very popular), Love is Blind, Too Hot To Handle, 100 Humans, Dating Around, Glow UP, Back with the Ex, Nailed It, Interior Design Masters, Next In Fashion, Sugar Rush, Skin Decision, etc

Every show about dating, cooking, design, fashion, plastic surgery you could imagine.

These are just some Netflix Originals that showed up when I searched The Circle

Hah, I guess since I don't really watch reality TV shows, the Netflix algorithm will just never recommend them to me.

Quality content is highly opinionated. Generic 'kind of watchable' TV is not.

Pretty much like old tv cable, but netflix is able to iterate faster lol

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