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Comment by passwordoops | Hacker News Reader

It's the go-to strategy for us as well, but I'll bet you dollars to donuts this is the next target for some sort of crackdown

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They will simply make monthly plans absurdly expensive unless you commit to a 1-year contract. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Having a middleman cut out and being able to watch on whatever device you want, whenever you want, is not things staying the same.

My experience of being able to search the TV app on iOS or tvOS or macOS and then being given the option to play, buy, or rent the media is pretty seamless. And subscriptions are simple to cancel, so starting them is not a concern.

Complete opposite of dealing with cable/satellite TV contracts and advertising breaks when watching stuff.

You miss the point. First, no middle man had been eliminated anywhere, the platforms have simply replaced them with better offers for the consumer right now. Secondly, Doctorow's law of enshittification more or less dictates that once users and content creators are locked in, the tech company will start to deliver poorer quality service and squeeze as much revenue as possible out of you.

So currently, sure I can move around and it is better than the cable companies, but the trajectory of where the platforms are headed is not a good one and trending towards behavior more aligned with what the cable companies do.

https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/

Ironically a one year contract isn’t even an option for Netflix right now (in the US, can’t speak for other countries). Honestly not sure why, since it seems like it’d be more profitable for them, even with a slight discount.

You’ll have to call Netflix to cancel and they’ll just pass you around the call Center until they hang up by accident.

More like, if you cancel, your account gets deleted for good, so you lose your profile with users, history, recommendations. You can pay x/month to pause your membership.

Come on, we all know deleting your data would be a premium-only feature.

Netflix recommendations are useless, so this sounds like a win to me. Random is more interesting then "let us fail at understanding you based on limited demographics".

Netflix already deletes your account after 10 months, probably for this specific purpose.

Is that a new policy? I’ve had Netflix off and on since 2008 (for DVD rentals) and still have info from them. I’m pretty sure we’ve been gone for longer than 10-month windows.

I’d seriously consider paying them a fee for that! I certainly hope they go in that direction.

It's 2023. My ChatGPT based AI agent will continue calling and deliver persuasive Haiku poems requesting a discount on my package. It will persist until it achieves it's desired goal...

I assume the Netflix AI team will develop an agent that convinces your AI to agree to a more expensive plan. They are known for their technical excellence afterall.

They just laid off their technical excellence would you settle for the overworked, fearful group that remains?

FTC is enforcing against companies that do this. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2021/10/...

> You’ll have to call Netflix to cancel and they’ll just pass you around the call Center until they hang up by accident.

Nonsense. Cancelling is easy: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/407

$20 for a month, $120 for 12 months

So either pay $240 for 10 different “channels” or pay $120 for one…

More like 3, with (hbo) max and disney+. What would the others be?

Agree. I think they would've numbers by now how many are doing like that. Like if its 0.01% maybe not worth the effort now. Once its reach 0.1%, its time to empower customers by providing weekly/monthly/quarterly plans at different pricing points.

Rotating content.

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