Would Netflix have to do this if it actually had content people wanted to watch? It's just sad watching it double down on this pulp because every other copyright holder took their ball and went home.
A few years ago, I subscribed to Netflix. That was it (no cable, no other streaming). The amount of good content was reasonable.
Now, I have to cycle through Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Apple, and Amazon. I unsubscribed to most of them most of the time, and resubscribe as a show or movie comes to my attention (Dune will get me resubscribed to HBO for a month or two, etc).
I still spend less on streaming than I did on cable, but if the whole ecosystem gets any more fractured or any more expensive or any more annoying to navigate, I'll probably start cancelling and just find something else to do.
Unfortunately, finding books isn't much better, or I'd likely spend more time reading than watching TV. But a bad book, for me, is 100x worse than a bad TV show.
I know many people say books take longer to enjoy, but a bad TV series can take ~12 hours per season. Most people can probably finish a novel in 12 hours.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Disney+ library is rather small, but I find at least half the shows to be enjoyable, so that's where I turn to first.
I've found a much better model is friends or critics' recommendations cross-checked against Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb ratings. (Which implies you need some people to use the scattergun approach, but I'd rather not be the guinea pig).
This way it doesn't matter if good Netflix shows are "needle in a haystack".
I guess it's down to how you frame it? Some people see 100 different flavors of ice cream. I see 100 different flavors of chocolate ice cream. Both perspectives are accurate. Which one is more useful to you perhaps depends on how much you like chocolate ice cream.
very well said. that line is spot-on.
for my taste / prefs, I could notice a clear state of uselessness around late 2019. I stopped netflix subscription starting Jan 2020.
Ultimately my canceling of Netflix went along with canceling big tech as my disillusion has grown across the board: * Amazon (this was hard to cancel, my prime subscription is still paid for the next 6 months) * Facebook (still use the messenger app to chat w/ friends though) * Google (search and Chrome - but still use gmail of course and at work)
I'm going to cancel something from Apple to do a full de-fanging of FAANG :)
Actually here's what I'll cancel: Apple Arcade. Everything they release now is just a "+" game from a non-Apple-Arcade title. "Somegame+" where it means no ads and maybe a little extra content. Originals on Apple Arcade are now harder to find and everything in my new/recommended/trending/etc is a "plus title".
Yes, Netflix has content people want to watch.
That’s not a fact up for debate, it’s is absolute certainty and proven beyond all reasonable doubt. To suggest otherwise is on par with arguing that the moon doesn’t exist.
Just cancelled my sub and won't be activating it again until Christmas. I should then get a decent month of viewing before I cancel it again.
In the meantime I'll be paying amazon much more money for stuff outside of the Prime offering that I want to watch and am willing to pay for (albeit grudgingly).
I canceled my Netflix sub. Maybe this is why? Netflix became desperate to be legitimized by "big Hollywood"/"big entertainment". It used to be the new thing that didn't need to conform with its titles.
When there's only one service to pay for or even two or three most people don't have a problem with paying a fee to have access to everything they want to watch.
But when there's fifteen services to pay for, even if they collectively cost less than the above example, many simply give up and turn back to piracy.
Conveninece also means different things for different people. For me is includes being able to re-watch my favorite content whenever I want and on whatever device I want - no exeptions - even if the the internet is down, even if the creator no longer wants to make it available. The only thing that can guarantee that is something that gives me DRM-free files that I can manage however I want. Unfortunately for movies and shows noone provides this - best non-piracy option are physical discs but even those are so filled with anti-piracy measures (and other questionable technical decisions) which only serve to make the experience worse than piracy.
Also, copyright infringement is not theft. It's copyright infringement and it's only a problem if you accept the notion that copyright is a legitimate system to begin with.
(Also infringement isn't theft but if you haven't been convinced by now...)
In this sense, thousands of movies and albums (stuff recorded before 1970) would be public domain now based on the 1901 copyright terms...
Why respect their rights when they don't respect ours? There is absolutely no reason to recognize their "property" as legitimate.
It’s important because it’s the reality.
Today, my janky RSS feed setup dumping stuff to a network folder is better for discovering new shows and movies. I’m more likely to see new content released through my tracker, browsing in 10 seconds than spending minutes scrolling through Netflix, and Hulu, and Prime. Just to see if there’s something new.
These services make it hard to use. I’d pay extra if Netflix just gave me an RSS feed and let me filter it. The fact that pirates are able to do this, volunteering is only part of it.
otherwise i can't see how this will be sustainable this is going to be more expensive then tv channels were . Yes the content have much better production value but who will be able to afford so many stream services other then just people hopping after consuming what they wanted to watch.
maybe there will be a pay to watch service that has everything and you just pay for the right to watch the specific content.
Yes, they can last the way it used to be. Well, they did slightly increase the price because they were forced to spend ridiculous amounts of money on their own content, but they are doing just fine.
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/272561/netflix-net-incom...
Storage and delivery wise its much chaper than YouTube (which is 100000 times bigger in storage needs due to user generated content), and makes all this available for $9 without ads...