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358 comments
  • Infinitely reproducible digital media has little inherent value. As the article acknowledges, the value proposition Netflix offered was convenience. If pirate sites offer more convenience than Netflix offers legitimate users, Netflix will lose. I find it baffling they are fucking around with ads and locking down access, making their experience worse. Same with Amazon Prime. It's like they forgot their own business model.

    • Exactly. Steam figured this out early on and it's how they have maintained their dominance in the game distribution business. It's the same lessons the entertainment streaming platforms must learn - your value is convenience. Add more walls between consumers and content? you will be cast aside.

    • Yo, Netflix! This one right here! Read it and understand plz

  • Press releases like this are corporate signaling to US Congress that they would like some lawfare and are willing to pay for it.

    Pirate streaming growth itself doesn't 'threaten legal services' as TF suggests. Any threat that arises is created by industry's market response. It comes back to margins. Netflix could decide overnight to invest in a long-term 'hearts and minds' approach that includes a quality platform user experience free of hostile design, non-discrimination amongst devices, relaxed household access rules, attentive customer service, commitment to finishing programming properly, improved stream quality, etc. Becoming the Valve of streaming represents an expenditure increase, though. You're now a lower margin business with a very sticky and content customer base. That's not a story industry wants to tell its investors, knowing they will respond with 'you should be petitioning for bills that enable more market captivity'.

    They do the right thing only as a last resort, because the right thing is expensive.

  • Yeah back in the golden era of streaming you only needed Netflix, most of the shows on there were good, and everything would eventually be on there. So piracy was too much of pain in the ass to bother with to save $10 a month.

    Now there's 10 different streaming services most of them cost a lot more than $10 per month, you have to wade through pages of crap to find anything worth watching. If you hear about a show or movie that sounds interesting you can't just wait for it to show up on Netflix. You have to go and search for which streaming service has the show you want and there's a good likelihood you're not subscribed to that one.

    It's now far easier to search on the 'bay for what you want to see (you have to do a search anyway) and they always have it. Yeah I guess you're not instantly watching it, but you're not instantly watching a thing you want to see on a streaming service now anyway, because have to scroll past a wall of crap to find anything.

    My general feeling on piracy is that when you're young and don't have much money, you can't afford to pay for it anyway, you may as well pirate it. When you get older and can afford it then you should pay for movies and video games and stuff. But when they make it more of a pain in the ass to buy something than it is to pirate things, then I dunno what to say. I have money and want to pay for a service that I can just chill and watch cool stuff, but they seem more interested in various schemes to impress shareholders than providing me the thing I'm willing to pay for.

    • You also won't instantly watch anything on that streaming you found the movie you wanted on "justwatch" since you have to make a new account, go get your credit card to fill out the form, etc.

  • So here's a novel idea, maybe stop driving people away from your business with constant rate-hikes, removal of content, killing new shows after 1 season, etc...

  • They didn't seem to have any problems before they started fucking around with their pricing and policies and everyone else also started their own streaming services, splitting everything across multiple subscriptions instead of 1, convenient service.

    I could keep up with what's available where and shuffle my subscriptions around every few months to see what I want when it's new... But it's way easier to just use a torrent site now.

  • I was rather happy with Netflix for nearly a decade. The price was reasonable and family members could also watch. When I moved out I upgraded to the 4K package (split 3 ways between family members) and it was fine at first.

    But there were several caveats:

    • 4K only works on TVs, on my 1440p monitor I could only watch 1080p. Sucked, but it's not too bad
    • Price kept going up, in the end it was 18€ a month. That's okay split between 3 people, but otherwise far too much for what is offered
    • Series that I liked kept getting cancelled, while trash was getting renewed or they messed up the later seasons (Looking at you, The Witcher..)
    • They cracked down on password sharing, suddenly you need to be in the same WiFi to count as home or you need a travel code (limited to 2 a month and only for 2 weeks each), so if you regularly move between places it's a no-go for a service you pay for

    I finally cancelled it, sick of their shit. Which also has the benefit of no longer having to take care of the account for the family. Unfortunately my dad accidentally took over the account (while trying to create a new one) and keeps paying the 4K price (I suggested at least going down to 1080p as the quality is shit either way). Simply idiotic :-/

    Personally I tried out Real Debrid and it has been pretty alright so far. The quality is better too, which is ridiculous.

  • Hey Netflix, you need to compete on price AND the service offering. Make piracy feel inconvenient compared to paying and subscribing and you'll retain the userbase that is willing to pay. You'll never get those who aren't willing to pay no matter what.

358 comments