Netflix plans to open brick and mortar locations | Hacker News Reader

Netflix plans to open brick and mortar locations

npr.org

22 pointsAndroidKitKat37 comments

So, like a movie theater? But with a restaurant?

Yeah I'm totally ready for LLMs to take over a couple of C-suites. Can't be any worse than what we have here

Why not get ahead of the curve? Start a company and make all your decisions based on the outputs of your favorite LLM.

Put your money on the line please

Because I'm not a public company keeping my stock artificially high with buy backs or a VC-backed money pit pumping out bad idea after bad idea.

But if I were, sure LLM all the way baby! Probably even get SoftBank to fund me

So make a bad idea, start out as a private company, maybe even get seeded by YC for your bad idea.

If they're a dime a dozen, then whats stopping you? I'm encouraging you to do it. You have my full support.

> keeping my stock artificially high with buy backs

How do buy backs artificially raise the price of a stock? A stock among ten is worth more than one among a million, ceteris paribus.

> a VC-backed money pit

Netflix went public in 2002 at $15 per share [1]. After adjusting for stock splits, it's now just shy of $5,000 on the back of billions of dollars of annual profits. Not VC backed. And not a money pit.

[1] https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/if-you-invested-%2410000-in-...

> like a movie theater? But with a restaurant?

The article explicitly states "Netflix has not announced what it will be selling at the locations," and "it sounds like Netflix is trying to do what Disney does". Disney doesn't operate movie theaters.

I could totally see a Stranger Things, Squid Game or Bridgerton theme park bringing in a billion a year. To the extent we have evidence vindicating the existence of a well-paid C suite, it's companies like Netflix and this comment.

Blockbuster Video is back!

Netflix content quality has fallen off a cliff. You have to turn on a foreign VPN (while in America) to even get decent American content...

I've switched to TubiTV which is free but has a few gems in a sea of crap.

Similarly, the built in free ad supported tv (FAST, as they say) offerings built into modern smart TV’s are fantastic.

Those who know, know the “ad supported” aspect is a misnomer - nobody actually buys the ad slots so instead you have regular ~2 minute breaks with pleasant background music and a nice animated backdrop that allow you to go to the bathroom, get a snack, talk to your watch buddies, “chill”, or even just remind you to maybe get off the couch and go do something with your life. And you never have to worry about what show to pick! Just tune into one of the ~7 decent channels and go with it.

This is something I just don't understand. In the early days of streaming live channels, there was the fight with SAG about commercials appearing on streaming without any additional residuals for the actors. So they just put up the "we'll be back" slates. Now, they have auctions that happen to run an ad in your FAST stream. However, I've seen issues where the auction has issues and an ad is not returned fast enough, so the slate is there instead. That will get worked out though, or nobody will keep using that ad provider.

Also, any new FAST channel will need to do the typical SV "give it away" while building users, and then pull the rug out from everyone once they reach critical mass. People are not going to pay for ads on a channel with no eyeballs. So you get the channel running, and then when there's enough eyeballs the ads will start coming.

TL;DR: your empty commercial pod will not remain empty forever. the kinks will get ironed out, and your pods will be full of ads.

Well it’s been like this for years and years. “Things won’t always be this good” is hardly an argument not to enjoy them while they last.

> You have to turn on a foreign VPN (while in America) to even get decent American content

Part of that is because American content already has American distribution. If I'm Disney, Paramount, MGM, NBCUniversal, etc., I won't give Netflix my content for cheap in America. Either Netflix needs to pay me a lot for that content (more than your collective subscription dollars would pay for) or I'm going to want you to sign up for my my service (like Disney+). Many of these companies don't have good overseas distribution yet so they will license their content to Netflix for a cheaper price in overseas markets.

Part of the reason Netflix's quality has fallen off is that everyone started watching Netflix and stopped paying for content in other ways. When Netflix streaming was in its early days, a lot of content producers saw Netflix streaming as an easy way to increase their revenues. Of course, they quickly figured out that while they were getting new money from Netflix, it was eating into money they used to get from DVD sales, TV, etc.

The golden years of Netflix streaming was an artifact of content producers licensing their content to Netflix for cheap before they realized Netflix was going to cannibalize their other revenue streams. It was something that wouldn't last.

There are a few things I'm going through on Netflix and I'll almost certainly at least pause it when I get there. I subscribe to far more good video content than I have any real interest in watching and there's very little out there I consider must-see.

Which countries have the best selection?

It really depends, but generally large EU countries as they have English options.

We unsubscribed from Netflix. Their selection is one of the worst around now.

And somehow they convinced themselves that cancelling shows constantly is good. I'm tired of getting into a show and finding out it's gone. We don't even bother pirating Netflix shows because of the inevitable letdown.

Same conclusion. Cancelled Netflix, mostly watch Tubi. Tubi does get a bad rep because it does have a lot of really, really bad movies. But it also has a lot of really good movies. You just have to find them, and they make little effort to help you with that, for some reason.

This title makes it sound like they're going for a movie theater or a blockbuster model, but the quotes from Netflix representatives sound much more reminiscent of a theme park:

> "We've seen how much fans love to immerse themselves in the world of our movies and TV shows," Simon told Bloomberg. "And we've been thinking a lot about how we take that to the next level."

they should make the inside look just like a Blockbuster from 1989 but all branded Netflix.

Fond memories of blockbuster.

I still have my Donkey Kong country edition from the blockbuster competitions. https://www.mariowiki.com/Donkey_Kong_Country_Competition_Ca...

Going to a video store with your friends or girlfriend to get movies for the night or the weekend was a fun experience. You came home excited about your choice, you were committed. It felt like an event.

Streaming service browse screens are joyless. You're usually taking a flier on something out of a poor selection. There's no penalty to turning it off so you don't have to be committed to watching or paying attention.

It sounds like they’re trying to emulate Disney/Universal to some extent. I can imagine them having themed restaurants, gift shops, etc. similar to what you see in theme parks.

> the company is hoping the physical retail, dining and entertainment locations it plans to open starting in 2025 will attract many people.

hmm they have this concept in LA, I guess its working

They've had this concept forever. It's called a mall. Netflix's seemingly only innovation on this idea is operating the mall as a monopoly instead of as rental real estate.

I wish we had judges that actually enforced anti-monopoly laws.

…….. okay

I wish we had commenters that actually understood monopoly laws.

See as soon as I saw the Netflix microservices architecture diagram I knew they are being run by dumb dumbs. Because pornhub does more video streaming than NFLX and yet they need that level of complexity? So no wonder they are opening brick and mortar now. They might also open up a t shirt or paraphernalia store tomorrow.

Whoever came up with this needs to be fired.

So like a Planet Hollywood, but less cool?

They can then be called "clicks and mortar"

Click and Morty? Wait, wrong streaming platform

Bricks and Streams. They can theme their restaurants like one of those wilderness themed places.

jfc just sell me a copy of Dark and Inside on DVD (or w/e), that's all I want

I guess Netflix prices are going up again.

This feels like a silly use of money that will eventually get shuttered. Physical stores with rent, employees, merchandise, etc have thin profit potentials vs doubling down on their existing platform.

That’s exactly what I took out of it. Prices are gonna go up. But not for everybody, the crappy tier will remain affordable but 4k in 2023 will require the top tier.

Please tell me they'll marketing like this:

"Need to beat the heat? Netflix and Chill!"

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