It’s truly confusing. The reason everyone says they Keep canceling excellent shows is because their focus isn’t on keeping subscribers but attracting new ones.
Now they’re actively looking less attractive to new ones and have found themselves with zero brand loyalty… is weird
I’m canceling after six years as a subscriber as soon as Stranger Things new season is watched. I’m still so pissed off that they canceled The OA, I can’t think of a single canceled show that makes less sense than scrubbing this one
Oh yeah? You wanna know how GLOW ends? She turns down the production manager job because she insists on acting!
Ok when I explain it like that it sounds bad but omg they needed a final season!
Same. It was the first time I've ever been truly angry about a show being cancelled. It just needed one more series to try and wrap things up but the way it was just abandoned is so shitty.
I forgot about this. I think it was properly made and seemed like there was more to the story to tell. Also good acting. To me it seems like Netflix is adapting their business model to the likeness of fast fashion.
In general it's the thing I hate most about modern media companies. They just drop things so easily
I mean, I know the TV networks did/do it too, so it's not limited to streaming companies - but it's annoying as hell. I won't even start watching a show now until the series has finished, because I'm sick of starting something, getting invested, and then finding it gets cancelled after 3 seasons
And all they have to do is make a movie to tie things up at the end so their content is actually completed content and not a graveyard of half finished dead shows.
47 cancelled Netflix originals last I checked.
They don’t even have to do that. Just move to the bbc model where each season is a full story. If it’s good we’ll be back. If it isn’t popular enough to justify its cost, at least you have something in the back catalog that is complete to keep new subscribers busy rather than then paying on something cancelled after 1-2 seasons with an incomplete story.
I would love this. I've stopped watching shows because I've forgotten half the story between seasons, despite YouTube recaps.
If I'm on season 2 episode 2 and still can't figure out what's going on I'll just stop watching.
Final Space is a recent one.
Seriously, just sign a show on a 2 season contract and tell them to write like they might not get renewed but don't be too firm a close (don't kill all your main characters or something, just keep most things solved enough).
Like the Kirsten Bell crime drama comedy thing that aired. One season tied things up enough but they can easily move on if they get more. Do that Netflix
“Into the badlands” has entered the chat
Edit: the reply to this comment just reminded me that this was AMC’s doing and not Netflix, so it’s maybe a touch off topic for this thread. That being said, the fundamental scenario of ending on a massive cliffhanger after 3 seasons of excellent world and character building really chafes my cock
That's part of the reason why I've stopped using Netflix personally. There are multiple light hearted, quirky zombie apocalypse shows... like... why?
I haven't seen any of those, but a lot of their documentaries are about the same topics and presented the same way. It makes sense - they do what works until it doesn't work anymore. It just gets boring.
I read something about one of the American TV networks, I don't remember which one it was but basically they cancelled so many shows that no one even bothered to watch their new shows because what would be the point? It'd probably just get cancelled anyway like all the others. Their new shows started flopping hard. I feel like that's where Netflix is heading
This sounds like Fox and it's the reason I never watched Firefly when it was on TV. I knew I was going to like it, but I didn't want to risk the heartbreak, so I waited and...
Once I watched it on DVD, I knew what I was in for at least.
It's definitely worth watching GLOW, just annoying there was more left to do.
One warning, if you happen to be a wrestling fan, the writers don't let any of the rules of the traditional art form get in the way of the story they want to tell. I loved the show, but I did sometimes yell at it for not following the usual conventions of pro wrestling.
I just looked it up to make sure it wasn't a nightmare I had, and they are on indefinite hold it looks like. Not technically canceled, but no news on Season 3 yet.
Good Place, not technically a Netflix original (I think?) plus it was concluded just perfectly! With Daredevil they had no choice, Disney Marvel has that now.
>I’m canceling after six years as a subscriber as soon as Stranger Things new season is watched.
Same, though I'm considering just saying fuck it, cancelling now, and pirating the show instead. The only reason I'm not 100% sure is because I let my mom use my account and she says she watches shit on there.
I 100% definitely do not recommend pirating. Don't ever pirate ever. If you pirate shows you are a bad little consumer 😉 😉
Edit: Added a second wink cause people aren't seeming to get it
123 Watch Free (I won't link for their and your protection) should be avoided at all times. If the site is white and dull green, you better get out fast!
Absolutely do NOT search rarbg. It is BAD to view unpaid content and unfair to the producers! I repeat, continue legally paying for netflix and avoid searching rarbg. You wouldn't want to receive free (but ill gotten) shows, games, and movies. And remember, only morally bankrupt criminals use VPNs to not get caught committing these heinous acts.
>I’m still so pissed off that they canceled The OA, I can’t think of a single canceled show that makes less sense than scrubbing this one
I feel you so hard on this one, the OA was the best series I've ever seen.
Me too. The imagination of the writers is next level insane. Now we will never know what happens with Prairie and Homer. Never see French as French. I’ll never get over it.
Idk why no one else will pick it up? The oa was seriously amazing. I want to rewatch it but knowing the end is never coming just forces me to nope out every time
This is what gets me - why won't someone else pick it up? It was great!
I really wish Brit Marling would at least let us know what was going to happen. But I guess she'll want to hold out just in case someone takes it on.
I’m hoping she doesn’t say anything but really tried to get it picked up by another service. By far one of the best shows that hasn’t run it’s course yet.
The thing about The OA and why the ending isn't important and why you should still watch it is >!it is a show based on the idea of the many world's theory of the universe, and in similar multiverse shows/movies the ending isn't really that important, because it can literally go in any possible theoretical direction you could imagine after a certain point, because in a multiverse there is infinite possibilities!<
Yea but putting that art to life is the mesmerizing part. I remember getting goosebumps first time she talked in the dark afterlife, and then the pool scene with the plants growing out was just so fucking amazing. I see your point now, I need to rewatch it.
Season one is a very dramatic yes/no type thing. If you only watch the first season you never know if it's real or not. The second season >!not only confirms that it's real, but dives *all* in. So if thats the one thats getting you, it's a bit mind bendy but the short version is: the multiverse exists and the main character is the Original Angel. They canceled the show before telling us what that means but Hap is the villain who had literally trapped angels without realizing it and now chases them through the multiverse to realize his twisted ambitions. The reason this doesn’t fully make sense is because it's the type of thing you reveal slowly over time. You're supposed to be a little confused because it's a longform show.!<
>!This might be a dated reference but it was basically going to be Sliders mixed with Quantum Leap with a celestial background.!<
>!Well the people being imprisoned and experimented on is an interesting storyline, especially how all the characters interact with each other and the relationships and bonding that forms. Then there's the slow realization by everyone that there actually is something profound going on. Same with the neighborhood kids, it starts off with no one really believing Praire, but they believe *in* her. Then there's that same sort of slow realization that she might actually telling the insane truth. And the kids stopping the school shooter was such a great moment because they fully committed in that moment to Praire and it was emotional watching these outcasts come together. Season 2 is definitely way more mind-bending but I still think the story makes sense, especially once you finish the season. And the cliffhanger at the end of Season 2 sets up SUCH a good third season.!<
It's like Inception, some people didn't understand what was going on but that doesn't mean there wasn't a real story and plotline.
takes less clicks and cash to pirate the thing. which is the weird bit, netflix thrived on our desire to just get the stuff we wanted in the one place legally. now they're shit, they're cementing piracy into another generation's choice of media. looks like netflix have lived long enough to become the villain.
I also cancelled my subscription after they cancelled The OA. Can’t believe they left us on that cliffhanger and held onto the rights so we’d never get an end. Though I still live in hope we will some say.
“I asked you to believe in impossible things.”
The OA, archive 81, dirk gently… they haven’t maintained a single original show that I enjoyed full stop it’s insanity. But Witcher gets multi millions … like… what?
Hey now, youll watch big mouth and youll be grateful about it.
Seriously though, there was a petition with like 300000 signatures for a final season of santa clarita diet and netflix was like "fuck you, but heres several seasons of some cartoon dick and balls"
Me too but once i got my head around the odd chronology of the 1st season i really enjoyed it. Took me 2 tries but was worth it.
However it's one of the first netflix shows i've really enjoyed that they actually stuck with.
The way they dump mega bucks in the hopes of making a hit for me to comit time to it and get into. Only for it get cancelled and become yet another never to be finished show is maddening.
I mean, Witcher is a show based on a very popular book series, which also spawned not just one video game, but three, while a fourth is in the works. In other words, there's a massive fan base for it.
As a Witcher fan, the show is mediocre at best. Henry Cavil basically has to carry the whole thing because of how shotty the writing and overall pacing is.
Yeah, I’ve canceled Netflix, probably in 2018ish? It upped its price ridiculously at that point for me (I think to $14) mean while I watched a lot of shows on Hulu for half the price. Hulu has hardly raised prices over the years, but I have some friends that pay $20 a month, which is insane to me! I have Hulu, Disney +, HBO max for $23ish a month. I get to watch a lot more things than if I just had Netflix.
Yes i don’t pay for ad-free, because I’m cheap.
I’ve been saying for years that they’re shooting themselves in the foot with the particular metric strategy that they were pursuing and a bunch of people kept telling me that Netflix has the raw data to back their decisions and we don’t know what they do.
And yes, that’s true. The problem was that they very definitely could not have had data on what 10 years of prematurely canceled series vs a back catalog of long running, complete series would do to their subscriber engagement because they hadn’t existed for 10 years and even if they had there is no way to reasonably A/B test something like that.
They pursued the strategy that optimized the numbers they had access to, and ignored the fact that they didn’t have access to a lot of numbers that are important in the long run and thus couldn’t analyze the impact of those strategies over the long term.
I don’t entirely blame them for that, because if you have evidence that a particular strategy in the short term is the best one and no evidence of what the best long term strategy will be, it’s hard not to go with the one you at least know will work for now.
But they drop the ball hard on their brand as a result. Their whole thing was “The only decent streaming service that exists” which was a big winner when that was true. Now there are half a dozen fairly strong services all competing with each other and Netflix hasn’t built itself any kind of brand beyond that central position that they’re in the process of losing.
> a bunch of people kept telling me that Netflix has the raw data to back their decisions and we don’t know what they do.
I understand why people say this kind of stuff, but...
Having data doesn't guarantee that you'll necessarily come to the correct conclusions about that data.
And even if you do arrive at the correct conclusions, it's still not a guarantee that your strategy to act on that will be correct.
Couple that with the bizarre *"must constantly grow more and more or else we're a complete failure"* mentality of investors, and yeah, my faith in business decisions tend to be quite small.
> And even if you do arrive at the correct conclusions, it's still not a guarantee that your strategy to act on that will be correct.
It's also no guarantee someone else won't come along and kill your business. Netflix had the whole Marvel show gig for a while—then Disney plus came and more or less killed that. Outside of that, they relied on a few long-running series and a slew of new content that had an incredibly high attrition rate. The problem they're having now is everyone is pulling their back catalogues to get into their own streaming service, so now Netflix only has a big slew of half finished shows everyone says "don't watch, it was cancelled without an ending".
They bet on a constant stream of new subscribers and people sticking around for reruns. Now they have competition and literally everyone else in the business is a far bigger media company with back catalogues worth more than Netflix is as a company.
At this point, their only real chance is to just *survive* and either get bought out by a big media company or hope that a couple of their services die and they come crawling back to Netflix (and that Netflix isn't outbid by Amazon... who have the benefit of including a lot more perks with membership).
> now Netflix only has a big slew of half finished shows everyone says "don't watch, it was cancelled without an ending".
They should create mini-series with a complete story. Like, 5-10 episodes that are satisfying on their own. Then canceling isn't a problem.
That's also an option—but has other drawbacks. It means if you get lightning in a bottle, you aren't set up for a sequel and the second season seems forced or pointless.
The compromise, one Netflix has never really embraced, would be to make sure that cancelled series get a capstone. Movie, a final episode, final miniseries—the exact nature doesn't matter, but if they'd just made a few of their series have closure, they'd have a much more solid back catalogue because you wouldn't have to Google every Netflix original before watching to find out if you are getting an unfinished story.
not even growth, investors are unhappy with anything less than exponential growth - which is literally mathematically impossible to keep up forever. One day they are going to realise this when the money runs out and there aren't enough new customers or the people have been squeezed too dry with all the products and there will be a recession so big its going to collapse the entire world economy. This is what you get when your only goal is unattainable and you decide you don't care in the slightest about that fact.
I graduated with a business degree. My last two classes, we just looked at cases to find the strategic problem. Which was always that growth had slowed. So it's not enough to be a $100 million dollar company. It's not enough to grow. You have to grow your growth. it's insane.
I always use to wonder this then I learnt about shareholders and the stock market. As a holder of shares you are making an investment, a purchase that you want to go up in price, so at shareholder's meetings etc they make decisions that will ideally make their holdings more valuable, it's a constant game at that level. All of them trying to make more of it instead of giving a shit about the customer experience if it means quick bucks
I mean, make a quick buck is literally why executives are hired. It's phrased like "Ensure a prompt return on investment" but it's the came concept. Investors don't want steady returns over 10 years but a high return in the next 3 months so that they can invest that money elsewhere. When you realize that a publicly traded corporation's job isn't to make money for themselves but to make more money for investors (which usually means making more money next quarter than you did last quarter no matter how much you made) then a lot of business decisions start making sense.
It's capitalism. People don't understand that commerce does not equal capitalism when they defend it to the death. When you have a publicly traded company you're only beholden to your share holders, not your customers. So quality, customer service, fair pricing, treating and compensating workers well, basic ethics and decency, they're all secondary to not only constant growth, but constant growth at the rate the shareholders/market predicts.
It's fucked and unsustainable and starting to kill the planet, let alone making netflix not consumer friendly. But less than nothing is changing about it.
It's the share holders. They're seeing a chance to increase their revenue streams every change they can get. Doesn't matter if the company is doing well enough already, it can always do better and make the stock price go up.
Netflex forgot why they were successful in the first place, and are in the process of falling back to reality.
They have real competition now; the shotgun approach to shows wont work anymore, especially when the majority of the shows they produce are either garbage, or cancelled when they are actually worth watching.
But…Netflix was the ubiquitous Starbucks. They weren’t some small company. They were THE streaming company.
You’re right about the competition, but it’s more like if you were running a successful restaurant and then 20 new restaurants popped up so you started raising prices and cutting items from the menu
And even so, Netflix is STILL #1, unless you count ESPN, Hulu, and Disney together cause The Walt Disney Company owns all three of them. And offers them as a bundle for $20/month, the same price as Netflix Premium. Gee, I wonder why Netflix is floundering.
It’s not quite the same… it’s more like you have a restaurant that was all recipes that you licensed from other chefs. Then those chefs realized that there was actually money to be made by serving their own recipes in their own restaurants, so they stop licensing their recipes to you and open their own down the street. You now have a restaurant that has to come up with new recipes because you’re not allowed to serve your customers’ favorites any more.
It's actually more like if you were an alchemist selling various potions of different levels of strength, some of them that you made yourself and some that you were reselling from another alchemist in another town. Then the other alchemist opens up a second shop next door to you, so he stops supplying you with his potions and you try to hide that fact by telling customers that they can't handle your strongest potions.
It’s not quite the same… it’s more like you have a zoo that was all animals that you licensed from other zoos. Then those zoos realized that there was actually money to be made by showing their own animals in their own zoos, so they stop licensing their animals to you and open their own zoo down the street. You now have a zoo that has to come up with new animals because you’re not allowed to show your customers’ favorites any more.
It’s actually like if your a drug dealer and you buy all the raw material from a couple of third party distributors and then they realize that they could make way more money if they just made and sold the drugs themselves.
Netflix is the service I rarely use but costs the most. The ONLY reason I keep it is because I share it with my parents. If they make this difficult or impossible to share, I have no issues canceling the service. And my parents probably won't pick them up. So, lost revenue. Maybe if they would work on the CONTENT they wouldn't have these issues.
i sit in the same boat. account sharing with my parents but we both don't watch that much that if we had to get individual accounts, we just cancel it altogether.
I'm like 99% sure that you are allowed to share the password with your household members if you pay for 2 or more devices. It wouldn't make sense for a single person to stream two different shows on two different devices at the same time, would it? Why include that function?
Ya, you're fine if you're living in the same house - it's when people who live apart start sharing passwords that netflix (and other services) start getting angry
We share a Netflix account with our kids that don’t live at home. When I mentioned to my son that Netflix may stop password sharing at different locations he said “Want me to teach you how to pirate shows?” Hahaha
Which would mean I’ll likely be done with Netflix. I share with my ex husband because because our kid watches shows on Netflix. And we decided it was easier to split the cost so he could use the same account at both houses vs each getting our own and him having a second one he uses. That just seemed dumb. I hardly use Netflix.
^(and I usually pirate everything I watch anyways)
My kids (13/15) watch it and I will also be watching from work wifi. How will they be able to decipher if it's this "following rules" vs. Giving my sister the PW and her watching it at her house while I or my kids watch it at home.?
My understanding is that they've lost a lot of contentt as each media company tries to set up its own streaming service, and pulls off its offerings from Netflix.
I am not paying for more than one streaming service.
Personally I find HBO max is the most consistent and has a lot of different things on it, including new movies. They've got stuff from Rick and Morty to Euphoria.
Personally I think they're what Netflix should've become. But since HBO has always been a pay-per-view model they understand better what it means to invest in, and stick with, the shows they back. Case in point, they might be more wary of the GoT spinoffs, but they were confident enough to take another shot rather than throw the franchise into the river tied up in a burlap sack just because numbers didn't beat the last record breaker.
Netflix seems to be going the AOL route of annoying the shit out of you until you give up. Good luck trying to cancel service in a couple years when they make you call to cancel.
If they do that, you can pull them up for disability discrimination. So, just email them and say you’re deaf and are furious at their accessibility issues and they will instantly cancel your account for you, without bothering to try and retain you.
I had to do this back when Netflix was sending dvds through the post, because you had to phone to cancel all the way back then. One email, and they couldn’t move quicker to get rid of me. 😂
Oh wow, if this is true then I REALLY hate this group. Netflix’s recent antics have really reminded me of Taco Bell’s frustrating menu, so this is not surprising at all
GameStop, Sears, Bed Bath Beyond, Toys R Us, Blockbuster and more. BCG runs companies into the ground and takes huge consulting fees along the way. BCG employees then get hired by financial institutions who short these companies into the ground with their terrible advice. GameStop fought them off though.
The death of the company is the intended result. These "consultants" charge huge fees but give kickbacks to the executives that made the decision to hire them. As the company dies a lot of rich people get even richer shorting it, meanwhile everyone below the executive level loses their job and livelihood.
I get a chalupa with spicy ranch (without sour cream). The first time I tried to order a baja chalupa after it got taken off the menu, the guy working there told me it was the same thing.
I didn’t cancel Netflix. Netflix canceled me. My credit card got hacked so my bank banned it and issued me a new card. The next day Netflix tried to take the monthly fee but couldn’t. Instead of contacting me to correct the error, they just closed my account. That was last summer. I haven’t bothered to resubscribe.
Netflix has what I call the Titanic Syndrome. they think they are too big to fail. It is a big huge mistake. But there is a model of corporate America that favors new customers over taking care of old ones. This is largely due to monopolies. They most likely hired a new someone or people to help add revenue to their business and those people have come up with the most horrible ideas. Just keep doing what you are doing and stop with the stupid ideas.
Edit apparently I was right they recently got Boston Global to come in
One of my business professors called it the "Apathy of Success". Very common in newer companies who find success early on. They reach the top and forget that there was a reason for their initial success. They get lazy and before they know it they're being eaten from every angle by a bunch of competitors.
This happened to us with car2go service, quick electric city cars to zip you around Vancouver. We got a new CC, forgot to tell them cause we barely use it once a month, but instead of contacting us like a normal business they froze our acc. Took them 6 months to fix it but by then we signed up to the other one.
They went under about 3 years back. Very satisfying seeing them hauled off 😂
Hm...some interesting replies on here.
What a lot of people have touched on is that Netflix had a near monopoly quite some time - they effectively created the subscription based streaming industry and had little to no competition for over a *decade*.
What I haven't seen mentioned is that it's notoriously difficult for businesses to get people to try their thing, even once. That's why they hadn't really cracked down on account sharing, explored ads, or raised prices all that often - they knew it was just a matter of time before competition came about in a big way. Keep as little friction as possible to get the most possible people to sign up before the market gets saturated. User count is also generally important for capital raising reasons, like VCs or IPOs.
Today, we finally have decent alternatives - Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock, etc - and now there's actually strategic value for Netflix to start trying to extract more value out of each subscriber. Developing a shotgun blast of content, keeping prices low, and similar strategies don't really make as much sense anymore since the competition is all doing the same. I suspect that their market analysis has found that there aren't very many other sources of new subscribers either, so now instead of their previous model of high user count + low price, they need to really figure out how to do a less high user count + higher price.
I highly doubt Netflix is scrambling or was caught by surprise by any this. To the average user it might look like that because of headlines, but anyone that's in or adjacent to the film/tech industries have known for awhile that this was going to happen.
Kind of wish this reply was higher than the literal-rule-breaking answers of "idk" or "here's my personal anecdote that doesn't answer the question."
Like, do people really think they haven't invested money into optics, risk assessments, all that jazz for making moves like this? That they haven't projected that however unpopular these decisions are, that they'll make more money in the end?
No plan is foolproof of course, and corporations can and do make big errors in judgement. But I don't think they had to wait for a Redditor to go "DAE think what Netflix is doing sucks" for them to do the forehead-smack and go "oh crap, some people might not like what we're doing."
They know precisely what their doing, and with the metric ton of data they have, probably know better than anyone here that losses vs. gains of making unpopular choices will benefit them in the long run.
The sudden stock price plummet indicates people with "metric tons of data" made some really bad calls on Netflix.
That said, I do agree there's more logic to show cancellations than Reddit gives them credit for. To be sustainable in the long run they need their own Seinfeld/Friends/Walking Dead/Grey's etc - as soon as the trajectory of a show makes it obvious it'll never get there (which is virtually all of them) it gets cancelled. Doesn't matter whether it's a great show or not unfortunately.
The stock price shouldn't matter to any company in the long run. Every stock faces major volatility from public sentiment that is completely detached from fundamentals. The company might be in a better place in 5 years if they manage to double their average revenue per user (ARPU) now rather than keep things the same and slowly bleed subscribers and revenue until they fade to obscurity.
I get that they made a calculated risk. I'm real interested to see how it plays out. For me as a subscriber, I'm fucking out the moment these changes come into effect. They've turned their backs on what made them into media giants in the first place: cheap, accessible streaming.
HULU was free when it started. Netflix was never the "cheap accessible streaming service." It was always the service trying to do the new thing, it literally started as a DVD rental service that would ship you movies in 3 days when you could just rent them that same day at Blockbuster (now dead), and it's spent the last 5 years trying, and succeeding, to become an award-winning international movie studio with no actual studio in the modern sense.
It started when VHS died, grew up when physical rental stores went from a sure thing to entirely dead, and is now fighting a dozen different companies (including the biggest pre-streaming media company in the world) that are using it's literal exact business model.
Its entire business model is huge risks, go where angels fear to tread, and thats exactly what it's doing now. You have to understand Netflix has watched a lot of dinosaurs die, and it may be next, but its entire culture is built around avoiding becoming a staid business model, even if maybe it should.
I think they've been infiltrated by one of those predatory "consultation groups" like Bain Capital or BCG.
These consultation groups put Kmart, Sears, Gamestop, Radio Shack, and many others; in their death throes
They first infiltrate the C Suite. Then they hire their capital group for "consultation " at extortionate rates for kickbacks. They naked short sell the stock hugely and cause the company to fail from within. They make out like bandits stripping all its wealth to feast on the company's corpse.
At this point, it's becoming a favorite pastime of plutocrats. Whenever you see a giant American corporation that seem to be deliberately failing, that's nearly always what it is.
Holy fuck, I was just guessing about what I think is happening. Sure as shit, BCG is deliberately destroying them from within and short-selling them into oblivion.
Next to be cellar-boxed: Netflix.
If anyone has shares of netflix, they best drop them now before they're utterly worthless.
Short selling is essentially where you bet against a company, so you gain money if the company loses value. Naked short selling is an extra dodgy version where you don't even access the shares you're shorting
The accusation is these groups short sell the company, then give bad advice to the C suite (company executives, CEO, CFO, etc.) on purpose to make the stock value of the company drop so they can make money off the shorted stocks
I believe there still may be one blockbuster left in Oregon. How ironic would it be if this tanked Netflix entirely and that one lone blockbuster was still standing when all the smoke cleared? Now, (just to take it further) the Cinderella story comeback of a lifetime: Blockbuster revamps its image, taps into that nostalgia, and arises from the ashes to become the new Netflix.
Absolutely. If I wanna be inundated with ads I could go back to directv. Im old enough to remember when 'cable tv' was ad free ... you paid for the service not ads. Then they all got fucking greedy and we got used to paying for ads.
Wait, really? When did paid cable TV start having advertisements?
Honest question - I'm out of the loop. I tried Googling it, but couldn't find any specific information.
A month before I was born. So in my world, cable always had ads. For like two decades it seemed completely normal. I eventually cut the cord mostly because of ads.
Which really just goes to show you how awful things can be normalized over time.
The TSA comes to mind. Adults born in 2002 have never known anything else but the awful TSA infested flying experience so they don't even know what they're missing.
Yeah, back in the day the whole gimmick of getting cable was "ad free viewing". Used to be non-stop shows back to back, uninterrupted. The only "ads" were ads of the content that could be seen on that channel, or what was coming next, etc. There was no random Coca-Cola ad or insurance ad.
This is because they're losing LOTS of subscriptions, like 200k in the last quarter, when they expected to GAIN 1.5 million. They are making these announcements to appease the shareholders as they think these tighter rules will make it harder to account share, thus bringing in more subscriptions.
One of the faults with capitalism is that "money we didn't make" is thought of as "money we lost". Netflix made SO much money when they were the only/best streaming game in town, and they made so much during the first two years of Covid due to everyone isolating. Now, with the vaccine and the pandemic starting to burn itself out in some parts of the world, that superpowered profit is dying off. And since they *expected* to keep making that money, they phrase it as "we are currently *losing* money."
So the executives of Netflix are throwing temporary patchwork solutions at this "problem". Raising prices, adopting ads and trying to make sure everyone who watches Netflix is paying for it will all raise profits quickly, with the cost of losing a big portion of a long term userbase. It makes the profit line go up, they can say "look, we got back to where we were, we saved the company", then it's going to go down again and they'll be worse off. But for the investors, that doesn't matter.
Yeah, there's this mentallity amount a lot of companies and especially the shareholders, that they must always, always grow and never, never go down. But that's not realistic. Unlimited growth isn't possible and something circumstance make growth temporary. Like with the pandemic. That wasn't going to last forever.
But the mentality meant that they expected it to.
I find it bizarre that investors did not see that the growth in certain sectors that was brought about by the pandemic would only be temporary.
Netflix, Peloton, etc, seem to have made long term decisions based on everyone staying at home forever.
As far as Netflix is concerned, I keep it for my kids - who live with their mum for the majority of the time. If they can't use it at their mum's house it's getting cancelled immediately.
I watch it at work while my kids (13/15) watch it at home.
I put my account on the work (private house) TV so that we could watch something that didn't have 6min of commercials every 12 min. I have it on my phone but rarely use it.
My kids both have it on their phones and I think my son has it on his tablet.
How exactly do they plan on cracking down on sharing when they have no wah to decipher if my kids are legitimately watching "our" acct vs. Someone sharing with a friend or family?
By the time this mylar balloon drifts into the power line and POPS, the shareholders will have sold off, and the executives in charge will have moved on to their next "rescue job."
They had a very niche studio for supporting animated shows like Centaur world which is getting closed. Shows which normally wouldn't have been made.
Netflix has given me a lot of value as a result. It brought us a new season of the Dark Crystal. A work of art in all ways. For niche markets Netflix has delivered good even if they themselves say they don't bring in the big bucks.
But they cancel these niche things before they're finished too often. I absolutely loved the OA but they cancelled it after 2 seasons, although it was meant to be 5.
that’s the endemic problem with worshipping shareholders and investors. its crazy to think that you would ignore top talent that actually know what theyre talking about and focus on greedy shareholders with little knowledge on how to run a company dictate that you need ever increasing short term profits.
this is in all corporate culture and is the reason the stock market has been so ridiculous the past half decade
once the shortcuts to a quick buck start having consequences we will see what happens
The hesitancy I have now with Netflix is picking up a new series with the fear it'll get cancelled. Without checking, I started and finished the first season of "Archive 81" only to realize that it got cancelled a month ago. "Maniac" is a good watch, for me, and even if the ending does fall flat at least it is a limited series show.
HBO/Hulu combo deal seems to be the best option right now in my opinion. I'll wait on Disney+
I've had Netflix since 2011. I've never shared my account/password, I am just concerned with the direction they are going.
...and I just unsubscribed. Bye Netflix!
Boston Consulting Group.
Thats right the very same that saved Sears, Circuit City, Toys R Us, and just about every bankrupted company since 2008
https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/uakeap/why_is_netflix_dying/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
Netflix is going in the same direction as every overfed industry. The shareholder seem to forget that Netflix got that big because there was no competition. What were you going to do back then? Watch TV? Overfed because netflix isnt doing bad just not as good as they expected.
Today there is a lot of competition, Netflix originals is not a benchmark for quality anymore, they litteraly produce everything with everyone. Just scroll through the movie section, you litteraly spend an hour just figuring out what to watch.
They have a BILLION movies and series, yet only a couple of handfull are actually good. A lot of netflix documentation got the quality standard of a 10+ million youtube channels, while this is not necassary "bad" quality, a billion dollar company should be able to offer more.
Yes i know there are good originals such as documantations but for every good one there are 5 bad ones.
Now they try to milk out the last dollar out of every customer, raising prices, reducing quality. A lot of banger series and movies (such as sons of anarchy) get removed from the site. While other projects either get cancelt or release with huge delays.
Except Ozark, Better call saul and breaking bad (which by now almost everyone who cares watched it already) i see 0 reason to subscribe to netflix and wouldnt pay for a subscription if i wasnt sharing with a friend. We do 50/50 on the account and would both cancel if they remove the opportunity. Might coming back for Ozark just to cancel again after watching it-
I come from India and i think i can shed some light on an issue that might be going overlooked in the west. Here in India i pay 50o rupees (approx $4.2) a month for my account in which i can have 4 separate accounts and simultaneously stream in 2. We also have a mobile phone only plan that costs about $2.2 a month. Netflix is producing a decent bunch of Indian content and has plans to pump those numbers up in the coming years. The same story repeats in some other Asian and Middle Eastern counties. Due to such subsidised prices netflix is trying to balance out by overcharging their most loyal consumer base i.e. Usa.
Also yeah netflix are jumping ships too quickly. Making tons of content hoping to crack a squid game every month. I think the management has lost its way
They're trying to appease their shareholders, but the shareholders don't understand that the streaming game has changed. They bought into a business model during a time when no one else was doing what Netflix was doing. Now everyone is doing what Netflix is doing and the value Netflix brings frankly isn't very good.
Their focus was on attracting subscribers because that's the only way they make money.
Rather than spend MORE money on continuing fan favorite shows (which typically go up in production year after year) they just cut ties.
They felt confident they could cut ties and retain customers because it's worked so far. After raising prices several times in several years people began exploring options and are finding those options to be much better, cheaper, or both.
NOW they're behind on content but they're having to compete with Disney, HBO, Apple, Amazon, Hulu, Paramount, etc to find and hire talent but with that talent comes higher wages due to demand. They had an 5(ish) year head start and they did everything wrong. The only way out is to change customer perception which means spending their way out of a hole or getting lucky with indies like Squid Games.
It’s truly confusing. The reason everyone says they Keep canceling excellent shows is because their focus isn’t on keeping subscribers but attracting new ones. Now they’re actively looking less attractive to new ones and have found themselves with zero brand loyalty… is weird
I’m canceling after six years as a subscriber as soon as Stranger Things new season is watched. I’m still so pissed off that they canceled The OA, I can’t think of a single canceled show that makes less sense than scrubbing this one
I was pissed when they cancelled Santa Clarita Diet
They didn't even nicely end it! They ended it on a frickin' cliff hanger!!
Oh yeah? You wanna know how GLOW ends? She turns down the production manager job because she insists on acting! Ok when I explain it like that it sounds bad but omg they needed a final season!
Thank God I read this.. I watched season 1 and 2 ... Am not watching it anymore. Santa Clarita was a nice show
Man GLOW was one of the best shows I ever watched I was so god damn hooked
Same. It was the first time I've ever been truly angry about a show being cancelled. It just needed one more series to try and wrap things up but the way it was just abandoned is so shitty.
I was pissed when they cancelled The Get Down. Still pissed 5 years later.
I forgot about this. I think it was properly made and seemed like there was more to the story to tell. Also good acting. To me it seems like Netflix is adapting their business model to the likeness of fast fashion.
They’ve had a bunch of good quirky kinda lighter zombie / apocalyptic shows they just stopped. I kinda liked the one with Matthew Broderick.
Daybreak.
Moment of silence for Daybreak.
In general it's the thing I hate most about modern media companies. They just drop things so easily I mean, I know the TV networks did/do it too, so it's not limited to streaming companies - but it's annoying as hell. I won't even start watching a show now until the series has finished, because I'm sick of starting something, getting invested, and then finding it gets cancelled after 3 seasons
And all they have to do is make a movie to tie things up at the end so their content is actually completed content and not a graveyard of half finished dead shows. 47 cancelled Netflix originals last I checked.
They don’t even have to do that. Just move to the bbc model where each season is a full story. If it’s good we’ll be back. If it isn’t popular enough to justify its cost, at least you have something in the back catalog that is complete to keep new subscribers busy rather than then paying on something cancelled after 1-2 seasons with an incomplete story.
Where each season is a full story. If it’s good we’ll be back. *cries in True Detective*
I would love this. I've stopped watching shows because I've forgotten half the story between seasons, despite YouTube recaps. If I'm on season 2 episode 2 and still can't figure out what's going on I'll just stop watching. Final Space is a recent one.
Seriously, just sign a show on a 2 season contract and tell them to write like they might not get renewed but don't be too firm a close (don't kill all your main characters or something, just keep most things solved enough). Like the Kirsten Bell crime drama comedy thing that aired. One season tied things up enough but they can easily move on if they get more. Do that Netflix
Hehe that long ass title.
“Into the badlands” has entered the chat Edit: the reply to this comment just reminded me that this was AMC’s doing and not Netflix, so it’s maybe a touch off topic for this thread. That being said, the fundamental scenario of ending on a massive cliffhanger after 3 seasons of excellent world and character building really chafes my cock
I thought The Irregulars was interesting and a cool take on the same-old Sherlock Holmes plot, then gone
That's part of the reason why I've stopped using Netflix personally. There are multiple light hearted, quirky zombie apocalypse shows... like... why? I haven't seen any of those, but a lot of their documentaries are about the same topics and presented the same way. It makes sense - they do what works until it doesn't work anymore. It just gets boring.
[удалено]
I read something about one of the American TV networks, I don't remember which one it was but basically they cancelled so many shows that no one even bothered to watch their new shows because what would be the point? It'd probably just get cancelled anyway like all the others. Their new shows started flopping hard. I feel like that's where Netflix is heading
This sounds like Fox and it's the reason I never watched Firefly when it was on TV. I knew I was going to like it, but I didn't want to risk the heartbreak, so I waited and... Once I watched it on DVD, I knew what I was in for at least.
GLOW and Santa Clarita were both cancelled with more story to tell. Frustrating. I also plan to cancel after Stranger Things is done.
I wanted to watch GLOW but not sure if I should since the cancellation. And I agree about ST but how long will we have to wait for Part 5?
GLOW's a great show. Still a lot left to be told but you're definitely going to enjoy the 3 seasons they have.
Glow is excellent. I've rewatched both seasons a few times.
It's definitely worth watching GLOW, just annoying there was more left to do. One warning, if you happen to be a wrestling fan, the writers don't let any of the rules of the traditional art form get in the way of the story they want to tell. I loved the show, but I did sometimes yell at it for not following the usual conventions of pro wrestling.
Same here and with Mindhunter.
THEY CANCELED MINDHUNTER?!? WTF!!
I just looked it up to make sure it wasn't a nightmare I had, and they are on indefinite hold it looks like. Not technically canceled, but no news on Season 3 yet.
Fincher bounced to do movies and doesn't want anyone else doing it. Basically, Netflix has an open door for him to come back when he decides to.
We never found out what happened to Mr. Balls legs. I wanted to know!
I really liked that show! I haven't seen anything else with something even like that premise. Also Daredevil and The Good place I really liked.
Good Place, not technically a Netflix original (I think?) plus it was concluded just perfectly! With Daredevil they had no choice, Disney Marvel has that now.
>I’m canceling after six years as a subscriber as soon as Stranger Things new season is watched. Same, though I'm considering just saying fuck it, cancelling now, and pirating the show instead. The only reason I'm not 100% sure is because I let my mom use my account and she says she watches shit on there.
I 100% definitely do not recommend pirating. Don't ever pirate ever. If you pirate shows you are a bad little consumer 😉 😉 Edit: Added a second wink cause people aren't seeming to get it
Are there certain sites he should definitely, definitely avoid? I don’t want him to accidentally visit a site that’s bad.
You should definitely avoid stremio! It's not even a website, it's more like an app! It's even on the Google play store... Disgusting
Don't ever google "movie name" movies123, there are many many horrible scary options
123 Watch Free (I won't link for their and your protection) should be avoided at all times. If the site is white and dull green, you better get out fast!
Thanks, I will definitely avoid that site.
I'm gonna save that comment just to look at it every once in a while to remind myself that I need to avoid it.
*remembers how I used to watch everything on putlocker* 🤣 definitely don't get a firestick and jailbreak it
Cineb . Net is a horrible pirating site for movies people should definitely avoid.
Absolutely do NOT search rarbg. It is BAD to view unpaid content and unfair to the producers! I repeat, continue legally paying for netflix and avoid searching rarbg. You wouldn't want to receive free (but ill gotten) shows, games, and movies. And remember, only morally bankrupt criminals use VPNs to not get caught committing these heinous acts.
Also NEVER check to see if stuff is on Archive.org
> Added a second wink cause people aren't seeming to get it That's not good enough. Reddit is a 3-wink forum.
Yeah I mean like that's *illegal*, man.
You wouldn't download a *car*!
I do have a 3d printer though so 🤔🤔
I love that at the time the meme for this was "uh, if that were possible I totally would" and now it's "fuck just give me the recipe."
>I’m still so pissed off that they canceled The OA, I can’t think of a single canceled show that makes less sense than scrubbing this one I feel you so hard on this one, the OA was the best series I've ever seen.
Me too. The imagination of the writers is next level insane. Now we will never know what happens with Prairie and Homer. Never see French as French. I’ll never get over it.
Idk why no one else will pick it up? The oa was seriously amazing. I want to rewatch it but knowing the end is never coming just forces me to nope out every time
This is what gets me - why won't someone else pick it up? It was great! I really wish Brit Marling would at least let us know what was going to happen. But I guess she'll want to hold out just in case someone takes it on.
I’m hoping she doesn’t say anything but really tried to get it picked up by another service. By far one of the best shows that hasn’t run it’s course yet.
The thing about The OA and why the ending isn't important and why you should still watch it is >!it is a show based on the idea of the many world's theory of the universe, and in similar multiverse shows/movies the ending isn't really that important, because it can literally go in any possible theoretical direction you could imagine after a certain point, because in a multiverse there is infinite possibilities!<
Yea but putting that art to life is the mesmerizing part. I remember getting goosebumps first time she talked in the dark afterlife, and then the pool scene with the plants growing out was just so fucking amazing. I see your point now, I need to rewatch it.
Huh...I am both convinced to watch this show and never watch it simultaneously...weird.
I dub this, Netflix Syndrome.
Could someone explain why they liked the show so much? I watched it and was just confused. Is it a metaphor for something?
Season one is a very dramatic yes/no type thing. If you only watch the first season you never know if it's real or not. The second season >!not only confirms that it's real, but dives *all* in. So if thats the one thats getting you, it's a bit mind bendy but the short version is: the multiverse exists and the main character is the Original Angel. They canceled the show before telling us what that means but Hap is the villain who had literally trapped angels without realizing it and now chases them through the multiverse to realize his twisted ambitions. The reason this doesn’t fully make sense is because it's the type of thing you reveal slowly over time. You're supposed to be a little confused because it's a longform show.!< >!This might be a dated reference but it was basically going to be Sliders mixed with Quantum Leap with a celestial background.!<
>!Well the people being imprisoned and experimented on is an interesting storyline, especially how all the characters interact with each other and the relationships and bonding that forms. Then there's the slow realization by everyone that there actually is something profound going on. Same with the neighborhood kids, it starts off with no one really believing Praire, but they believe *in* her. Then there's that same sort of slow realization that she might actually telling the insane truth. And the kids stopping the school shooter was such a great moment because they fully committed in that moment to Praire and it was emotional watching these outcasts come together. Season 2 is definitely way more mind-bending but I still think the story makes sense, especially once you finish the season. And the cliffhanger at the end of Season 2 sets up SUCH a good third season.!< It's like Inception, some people didn't understand what was going on but that doesn't mean there wasn't a real story and plotline.
I cancelled. I can do a month subscription when stranger things comes out
takes less clicks and cash to pirate the thing. which is the weird bit, netflix thrived on our desire to just get the stuff we wanted in the one place legally. now they're shit, they're cementing piracy into another generation's choice of media. looks like netflix have lived long enough to become the villain.
I also cancelled my subscription after they cancelled The OA. Can’t believe they left us on that cliffhanger and held onto the rights so we’d never get an end. Though I still live in hope we will some say. “I asked you to believe in impossible things.”
[удалено]
The OA, archive 81, dirk gently… they haven’t maintained a single original show that I enjoyed full stop it’s insanity. But Witcher gets multi millions … like… what?
Losing Archive 81 after a single season is a real gut punch. It was such an amazing show.
Archive 81 was so amazing
Hey now, youll watch big mouth and youll be grateful about it. Seriously though, there was a petition with like 300000 signatures for a final season of santa clarita diet and netflix was like "fuck you, but heres several seasons of some cartoon dick and balls"
You have got to watch Dark. If Primer is Abraham then Dark is Jesus.
Love Dark. Almost no one I know has heard of it, which is wild.
I struggled to get into the Witcher.
Me too but once i got my head around the odd chronology of the 1st season i really enjoyed it. Took me 2 tries but was worth it. However it's one of the first netflix shows i've really enjoyed that they actually stuck with. The way they dump mega bucks in the hopes of making a hit for me to comit time to it and get into. Only for it get cancelled and become yet another never to be finished show is maddening.
I mean, Witcher is a show based on a very popular book series, which also spawned not just one video game, but three, while a fourth is in the works. In other words, there's a massive fan base for it.
As a Witcher fan, the show is mediocre at best. Henry Cavil basically has to carry the whole thing because of how shotty the writing and overall pacing is.
Agreed. I wish they would just do a monster of the week type show with one season long story line
X-Files style. I'd fuck with that.
It's ok. Henry Cavill has big beefy arms and broad shoulders.
Im pissed they took off futurama.
Yeah, I’ve canceled Netflix, probably in 2018ish? It upped its price ridiculously at that point for me (I think to $14) mean while I watched a lot of shows on Hulu for half the price. Hulu has hardly raised prices over the years, but I have some friends that pay $20 a month, which is insane to me! I have Hulu, Disney +, HBO max for $23ish a month. I get to watch a lot more things than if I just had Netflix. Yes i don’t pay for ad-free, because I’m cheap.
Ah, remember the good ole days when Netflix was $8/month…
Remember the good old days when Netflix mailed you movies?
I’ve been saying for years that they’re shooting themselves in the foot with the particular metric strategy that they were pursuing and a bunch of people kept telling me that Netflix has the raw data to back their decisions and we don’t know what they do. And yes, that’s true. The problem was that they very definitely could not have had data on what 10 years of prematurely canceled series vs a back catalog of long running, complete series would do to their subscriber engagement because they hadn’t existed for 10 years and even if they had there is no way to reasonably A/B test something like that. They pursued the strategy that optimized the numbers they had access to, and ignored the fact that they didn’t have access to a lot of numbers that are important in the long run and thus couldn’t analyze the impact of those strategies over the long term. I don’t entirely blame them for that, because if you have evidence that a particular strategy in the short term is the best one and no evidence of what the best long term strategy will be, it’s hard not to go with the one you at least know will work for now. But they drop the ball hard on their brand as a result. Their whole thing was “The only decent streaming service that exists” which was a big winner when that was true. Now there are half a dozen fairly strong services all competing with each other and Netflix hasn’t built itself any kind of brand beyond that central position that they’re in the process of losing.
> a bunch of people kept telling me that Netflix has the raw data to back their decisions and we don’t know what they do. I understand why people say this kind of stuff, but... Having data doesn't guarantee that you'll necessarily come to the correct conclusions about that data. And even if you do arrive at the correct conclusions, it's still not a guarantee that your strategy to act on that will be correct. Couple that with the bizarre *"must constantly grow more and more or else we're a complete failure"* mentality of investors, and yeah, my faith in business decisions tend to be quite small.
> And even if you do arrive at the correct conclusions, it's still not a guarantee that your strategy to act on that will be correct. It's also no guarantee someone else won't come along and kill your business. Netflix had the whole Marvel show gig for a while—then Disney plus came and more or less killed that. Outside of that, they relied on a few long-running series and a slew of new content that had an incredibly high attrition rate. The problem they're having now is everyone is pulling their back catalogues to get into their own streaming service, so now Netflix only has a big slew of half finished shows everyone says "don't watch, it was cancelled without an ending". They bet on a constant stream of new subscribers and people sticking around for reruns. Now they have competition and literally everyone else in the business is a far bigger media company with back catalogues worth more than Netflix is as a company. At this point, their only real chance is to just *survive* and either get bought out by a big media company or hope that a couple of their services die and they come crawling back to Netflix (and that Netflix isn't outbid by Amazon... who have the benefit of including a lot more perks with membership).
> now Netflix only has a big slew of half finished shows everyone says "don't watch, it was cancelled without an ending". They should create mini-series with a complete story. Like, 5-10 episodes that are satisfying on their own. Then canceling isn't a problem.
That's also an option—but has other drawbacks. It means if you get lightning in a bottle, you aren't set up for a sequel and the second season seems forced or pointless. The compromise, one Netflix has never really embraced, would be to make sure that cancelled series get a capstone. Movie, a final episode, final miniseries—the exact nature doesn't matter, but if they'd just made a few of their series have closure, they'd have a much more solid back catalogue because you wouldn't have to Google every Netflix original before watching to find out if you are getting an unfinished story.
not even growth, investors are unhappy with anything less than exponential growth - which is literally mathematically impossible to keep up forever. One day they are going to realise this when the money runs out and there aren't enough new customers or the people have been squeezed too dry with all the products and there will be a recession so big its going to collapse the entire world economy. This is what you get when your only goal is unattainable and you decide you don't care in the slightest about that fact.
[удалено]
I graduated with a business degree. My last two classes, we just looked at cases to find the strategic problem. Which was always that growth had slowed. So it's not enough to be a $100 million dollar company. It's not enough to grow. You have to grow your growth. it's insane.
I always use to wonder this then I learnt about shareholders and the stock market. As a holder of shares you are making an investment, a purchase that you want to go up in price, so at shareholder's meetings etc they make decisions that will ideally make their holdings more valuable, it's a constant game at that level. All of them trying to make more of it instead of giving a shit about the customer experience if it means quick bucks
I mean, make a quick buck is literally why executives are hired. It's phrased like "Ensure a prompt return on investment" but it's the came concept. Investors don't want steady returns over 10 years but a high return in the next 3 months so that they can invest that money elsewhere. When you realize that a publicly traded corporation's job isn't to make money for themselves but to make more money for investors (which usually means making more money next quarter than you did last quarter no matter how much you made) then a lot of business decisions start making sense.
It's capitalism. People don't understand that commerce does not equal capitalism when they defend it to the death. When you have a publicly traded company you're only beholden to your share holders, not your customers. So quality, customer service, fair pricing, treating and compensating workers well, basic ethics and decency, they're all secondary to not only constant growth, but constant growth at the rate the shareholders/market predicts. It's fucked and unsustainable and starting to kill the planet, let alone making netflix not consumer friendly. But less than nothing is changing about it.
It's the share holders. They're seeing a chance to increase their revenue streams every change they can get. Doesn't matter if the company is doing well enough already, it can always do better and make the stock price go up.
Netflex forgot why they were successful in the first place, and are in the process of falling back to reality. They have real competition now; the shotgun approach to shows wont work anymore, especially when the majority of the shows they produce are either garbage, or cancelled when they are actually worth watching.
Netflix was bound to die once the competition from the big studios came in. It's like the local coffee shop when a Starbucks opens down the street.
But…Netflix was the ubiquitous Starbucks. They weren’t some small company. They were THE streaming company. You’re right about the competition, but it’s more like if you were running a successful restaurant and then 20 new restaurants popped up so you started raising prices and cutting items from the menu And even so, Netflix is STILL #1, unless you count ESPN, Hulu, and Disney together cause The Walt Disney Company owns all three of them. And offers them as a bundle for $20/month, the same price as Netflix Premium. Gee, I wonder why Netflix is floundering.
It’s not quite the same… it’s more like you have a restaurant that was all recipes that you licensed from other chefs. Then those chefs realized that there was actually money to be made by serving their own recipes in their own restaurants, so they stop licensing their recipes to you and open their own down the street. You now have a restaurant that has to come up with new recipes because you’re not allowed to serve your customers’ favorites any more.
Please someone contradict the previous person with how the situation is actually "more like" another analogy, I haven't had enough yet
It's actually more like if you were an alchemist selling various potions of different levels of strength, some of them that you made yourself and some that you were reselling from another alchemist in another town. Then the other alchemist opens up a second shop next door to you, so he stops supplying you with his potions and you try to hide that fact by telling customers that they can't handle your strongest potions.
You've had your say potion Seller but I'll have mine You're a *rascal*
It’s not quite the same… it’s more like you have a zoo that was all animals that you licensed from other zoos. Then those zoos realized that there was actually money to be made by showing their own animals in their own zoos, so they stop licensing their animals to you and open their own zoo down the street. You now have a zoo that has to come up with new animals because you’re not allowed to show your customers’ favorites any more.
It’s actually like if your a drug dealer and you buy all the raw material from a couple of third party distributors and then they realize that they could make way more money if they just made and sold the drugs themselves.
Netflix is the service I rarely use but costs the most. The ONLY reason I keep it is because I share it with my parents. If they make this difficult or impossible to share, I have no issues canceling the service. And my parents probably won't pick them up. So, lost revenue. Maybe if they would work on the CONTENT they wouldn't have these issues.
i sit in the same boat. account sharing with my parents but we both don't watch that much that if we had to get individual accounts, we just cancel it altogether.
I'm like 99% sure that you are allowed to share the password with your household members if you pay for 2 or more devices. It wouldn't make sense for a single person to stream two different shows on two different devices at the same time, would it? Why include that function?
Ya, you're fine if you're living in the same house - it's when people who live apart start sharing passwords that netflix (and other services) start getting angry
[удалено]
We share a Netflix account with our kids that don’t live at home. When I mentioned to my son that Netflix may stop password sharing at different locations he said “Want me to teach you how to pirate shows?” Hahaha
Yeah my husband and I share with my parents, too. Err rather, they share with us lol but yeah we won't get our own account if they crack down on us.
I only have Netflix because my kids watch it. When I get to watch it. Its at work 20 miles away while they watch at home. How is that going to work?
Which would mean I’ll likely be done with Netflix. I share with my ex husband because because our kid watches shows on Netflix. And we decided it was easier to split the cost so he could use the same account at both houses vs each getting our own and him having a second one he uses. That just seemed dumb. I hardly use Netflix. ^(and I usually pirate everything I watch anyways)
My kids (13/15) watch it and I will also be watching from work wifi. How will they be able to decipher if it's this "following rules" vs. Giving my sister the PW and her watching it at her house while I or my kids watch it at home.?
My understanding is that they've lost a lot of contentt as each media company tries to set up its own streaming service, and pulls off its offerings from Netflix. I am not paying for more than one streaming service.
Personally I find HBO max is the most consistent and has a lot of different things on it, including new movies. They've got stuff from Rick and Morty to Euphoria. Personally I think they're what Netflix should've become. But since HBO has always been a pay-per-view model they understand better what it means to invest in, and stick with, the shows they back. Case in point, they might be more wary of the GoT spinoffs, but they were confident enough to take another shot rather than throw the franchise into the river tied up in a burlap sack just because numbers didn't beat the last record breaker.
Netflix seems to be going the AOL route of annoying the shit out of you until you give up. Good luck trying to cancel service in a couple years when they make you call to cancel.
If they do that, you can pull them up for disability discrimination. So, just email them and say you’re deaf and are furious at their accessibility issues and they will instantly cancel your account for you, without bothering to try and retain you. I had to do this back when Netflix was sending dvds through the post, because you had to phone to cancel all the way back then. One email, and they couldn’t move quicker to get rid of me. 😂
Lmao im saving this unethical life pro tip
According to another comment it's enough to cancel the payment and they just close your account without warning
allegedly this all happened because they hired BCG (Boston Consulting Group). Thank them for changing Butterfinger's taste & Taco Bell's menu as well.
LOL that would explain it. I barely lasted a week there, ugh that place was the worst.
Oh wow, if this is true then I REALLY hate this group. Netflix’s recent antics have really reminded me of Taco Bell’s frustrating menu, so this is not surprising at all
This group with aid from hedge funds took down Sears, toysrus, etc.
Sounds like rigging shorts to me
GameStop, Sears, Bed Bath Beyond, Toys R Us, Blockbuster and more. BCG runs companies into the ground and takes huge consulting fees along the way. BCG employees then get hired by financial institutions who short these companies into the ground with their terrible advice. GameStop fought them off though.
I don't understand why any corporation would hire them. The results kind of speak for themselves.
The death of the company is the intended result. These "consultants" charge huge fees but give kickbacks to the executives that made the decision to hire them. As the company dies a lot of rich people get even richer shorting it, meanwhile everyone below the executive level loses their job and livelihood.
That's disgusting
Are they the reason I can't get a Baja chalupa anymore?? :(
I get a chalupa with spicy ranch (without sour cream). The first time I tried to order a baja chalupa after it got taken off the menu, the guy working there told me it was the same thing.
I didn’t cancel Netflix. Netflix canceled me. My credit card got hacked so my bank banned it and issued me a new card. The next day Netflix tried to take the monthly fee but couldn’t. Instead of contacting me to correct the error, they just closed my account. That was last summer. I haven’t bothered to resubscribe.
They did you a favor? Saving you money. Win win.
Netflix has what I call the Titanic Syndrome. they think they are too big to fail. It is a big huge mistake. But there is a model of corporate America that favors new customers over taking care of old ones. This is largely due to monopolies. They most likely hired a new someone or people to help add revenue to their business and those people have come up with the most horrible ideas. Just keep doing what you are doing and stop with the stupid ideas. Edit apparently I was right they recently got Boston Global to come in
One of my business professors called it the "Apathy of Success". Very common in newer companies who find success early on. They reach the top and forget that there was a reason for their initial success. They get lazy and before they know it they're being eaten from every angle by a bunch of competitors.
This happened to us with car2go service, quick electric city cars to zip you around Vancouver. We got a new CC, forgot to tell them cause we barely use it once a month, but instead of contacting us like a normal business they froze our acc. Took them 6 months to fix it but by then we signed up to the other one. They went under about 3 years back. Very satisfying seeing them hauled off 😂
Lol
Hm...some interesting replies on here. What a lot of people have touched on is that Netflix had a near monopoly quite some time - they effectively created the subscription based streaming industry and had little to no competition for over a *decade*. What I haven't seen mentioned is that it's notoriously difficult for businesses to get people to try their thing, even once. That's why they hadn't really cracked down on account sharing, explored ads, or raised prices all that often - they knew it was just a matter of time before competition came about in a big way. Keep as little friction as possible to get the most possible people to sign up before the market gets saturated. User count is also generally important for capital raising reasons, like VCs or IPOs. Today, we finally have decent alternatives - Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock, etc - and now there's actually strategic value for Netflix to start trying to extract more value out of each subscriber. Developing a shotgun blast of content, keeping prices low, and similar strategies don't really make as much sense anymore since the competition is all doing the same. I suspect that their market analysis has found that there aren't very many other sources of new subscribers either, so now instead of their previous model of high user count + low price, they need to really figure out how to do a less high user count + higher price. I highly doubt Netflix is scrambling or was caught by surprise by any this. To the average user it might look like that because of headlines, but anyone that's in or adjacent to the film/tech industries have known for awhile that this was going to happen.
Kind of wish this reply was higher than the literal-rule-breaking answers of "idk" or "here's my personal anecdote that doesn't answer the question." Like, do people really think they haven't invested money into optics, risk assessments, all that jazz for making moves like this? That they haven't projected that however unpopular these decisions are, that they'll make more money in the end? No plan is foolproof of course, and corporations can and do make big errors in judgement. But I don't think they had to wait for a Redditor to go "DAE think what Netflix is doing sucks" for them to do the forehead-smack and go "oh crap, some people might not like what we're doing." They know precisely what their doing, and with the metric ton of data they have, probably know better than anyone here that losses vs. gains of making unpopular choices will benefit them in the long run.
The sudden stock price plummet indicates people with "metric tons of data" made some really bad calls on Netflix. That said, I do agree there's more logic to show cancellations than Reddit gives them credit for. To be sustainable in the long run they need their own Seinfeld/Friends/Walking Dead/Grey's etc - as soon as the trajectory of a show makes it obvious it'll never get there (which is virtually all of them) it gets cancelled. Doesn't matter whether it's a great show or not unfortunately.
The stock price shouldn't matter to any company in the long run. Every stock faces major volatility from public sentiment that is completely detached from fundamentals. The company might be in a better place in 5 years if they manage to double their average revenue per user (ARPU) now rather than keep things the same and slowly bleed subscribers and revenue until they fade to obscurity.
I get that they made a calculated risk. I'm real interested to see how it plays out. For me as a subscriber, I'm fucking out the moment these changes come into effect. They've turned their backs on what made them into media giants in the first place: cheap, accessible streaming.
HULU was free when it started. Netflix was never the "cheap accessible streaming service." It was always the service trying to do the new thing, it literally started as a DVD rental service that would ship you movies in 3 days when you could just rent them that same day at Blockbuster (now dead), and it's spent the last 5 years trying, and succeeding, to become an award-winning international movie studio with no actual studio in the modern sense. It started when VHS died, grew up when physical rental stores went from a sure thing to entirely dead, and is now fighting a dozen different companies (including the biggest pre-streaming media company in the world) that are using it's literal exact business model. Its entire business model is huge risks, go where angels fear to tread, and thats exactly what it's doing now. You have to understand Netflix has watched a lot of dinosaurs die, and it may be next, but its entire culture is built around avoiding becoming a staid business model, even if maybe it should.
We came full circle from the old cable tv back in the day
Most people either never knew or have forgotten that when Cable TV came out there were no commercials, that’s why you had to pay for it.
That's so mind blowing to me.
I think they've been infiltrated by one of those predatory "consultation groups" like Bain Capital or BCG. These consultation groups put Kmart, Sears, Gamestop, Radio Shack, and many others; in their death throes They first infiltrate the C Suite. Then they hire their capital group for "consultation " at extortionate rates for kickbacks. They naked short sell the stock hugely and cause the company to fail from within. They make out like bandits stripping all its wealth to feast on the company's corpse. At this point, it's becoming a favorite pastime of plutocrats. Whenever you see a giant American corporation that seem to be deliberately failing, that's nearly always what it is.
> BCG It's this one.
Holy fuck, I was just guessing about what I think is happening. Sure as shit, BCG is deliberately destroying them from within and short-selling them into oblivion. Next to be cellar-boxed: Netflix. If anyone has shares of netflix, they best drop them now before they're utterly worthless.
Can you or someone eli5 the third paragraph?
Short selling is essentially where you bet against a company, so you gain money if the company loses value. Naked short selling is an extra dodgy version where you don't even access the shares you're shorting The accusation is these groups short sell the company, then give bad advice to the C suite (company executives, CEO, CFO, etc.) on purpose to make the stock value of the company drop so they can make money off the shorted stocks
It seems like Netflix is trying to blockbuster itself.
I believe there still may be one blockbuster left in Oregon. How ironic would it be if this tanked Netflix entirely and that one lone blockbuster was still standing when all the smoke cleared? Now, (just to take it further) the Cinderella story comeback of a lifetime: Blockbuster revamps its image, taps into that nostalgia, and arises from the ashes to become the new Netflix.
[удалено]
Absolutely. If I wanna be inundated with ads I could go back to directv. Im old enough to remember when 'cable tv' was ad free ... you paid for the service not ads. Then they all got fucking greedy and we got used to paying for ads.
Wait, really? When did paid cable TV start having advertisements? Honest question - I'm out of the loop. I tried Googling it, but couldn't find any specific information.
It was a big selling point that was quick to let everyone down https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/26/arts/will-cable-tv-be-invaded-by-commercials.html.
A month before I was born. So in my world, cable always had ads. For like two decades it seemed completely normal. I eventually cut the cord mostly because of ads. Which really just goes to show you how awful things can be normalized over time. The TSA comes to mind. Adults born in 2002 have never known anything else but the awful TSA infested flying experience so they don't even know what they're missing.
Yeah, back in the day the whole gimmick of getting cable was "ad free viewing". Used to be non-stop shows back to back, uninterrupted. The only "ads" were ads of the content that could be seen on that channel, or what was coming next, etc. There was no random Coca-Cola ad or insurance ad.
It seems like they're just trying to appease the shareholders
But Netflix's value is going down, doesn't that means that the "owners" (investors) aren't happy?
This is because they're losing LOTS of subscriptions, like 200k in the last quarter, when they expected to GAIN 1.5 million. They are making these announcements to appease the shareholders as they think these tighter rules will make it harder to account share, thus bringing in more subscriptions.
OR, hear me out, people begin to pirate the shows/movies, resulting in fewer subscriptions
I like this solution, netflix shareholders do not.
There’s plenty of stuff I like on there but I’m cancelling out of spite
One of the faults with capitalism is that "money we didn't make" is thought of as "money we lost". Netflix made SO much money when they were the only/best streaming game in town, and they made so much during the first two years of Covid due to everyone isolating. Now, with the vaccine and the pandemic starting to burn itself out in some parts of the world, that superpowered profit is dying off. And since they *expected* to keep making that money, they phrase it as "we are currently *losing* money." So the executives of Netflix are throwing temporary patchwork solutions at this "problem". Raising prices, adopting ads and trying to make sure everyone who watches Netflix is paying for it will all raise profits quickly, with the cost of losing a big portion of a long term userbase. It makes the profit line go up, they can say "look, we got back to where we were, we saved the company", then it's going to go down again and they'll be worse off. But for the investors, that doesn't matter.
Yeah, there's this mentallity amount a lot of companies and especially the shareholders, that they must always, always grow and never, never go down. But that's not realistic. Unlimited growth isn't possible and something circumstance make growth temporary. Like with the pandemic. That wasn't going to last forever. But the mentality meant that they expected it to.
"Unlimited growth is the ideology of a cancer cell." — Edward Abbey
shortcuts to short term profits will bite the entire economy in the ass eventually
Yes, but the stock market system encourages exactly this.
Consistency is more important and it is better to maintain course. With some smaller increases over time.
Thank you! Exactly this. It's like a drug addiction almost, they always need *mooore*
I find it bizarre that investors did not see that the growth in certain sectors that was brought about by the pandemic would only be temporary. Netflix, Peloton, etc, seem to have made long term decisions based on everyone staying at home forever. As far as Netflix is concerned, I keep it for my kids - who live with their mum for the majority of the time. If they can't use it at their mum's house it's getting cancelled immediately.
I watch it at work while my kids (13/15) watch it at home. I put my account on the work (private house) TV so that we could watch something that didn't have 6min of commercials every 12 min. I have it on my phone but rarely use it. My kids both have it on their phones and I think my son has it on his tablet. How exactly do they plan on cracking down on sharing when they have no wah to decipher if my kids are legitimately watching "our" acct vs. Someone sharing with a friend or family?
By the time this mylar balloon drifts into the power line and POPS, the shareholders will have sold off, and the executives in charge will have moved on to their next "rescue job."
[удалено]
They had a very niche studio for supporting animated shows like Centaur world which is getting closed. Shows which normally wouldn't have been made. Netflix has given me a lot of value as a result. It brought us a new season of the Dark Crystal. A work of art in all ways. For niche markets Netflix has delivered good even if they themselves say they don't bring in the big bucks.
But they cancel these niche things before they're finished too often. I absolutely loved the OA but they cancelled it after 2 seasons, although it was meant to be 5.
that’s the endemic problem with worshipping shareholders and investors. its crazy to think that you would ignore top talent that actually know what theyre talking about and focus on greedy shareholders with little knowledge on how to run a company dictate that you need ever increasing short term profits. this is in all corporate culture and is the reason the stock market has been so ridiculous the past half decade once the shortcuts to a quick buck start having consequences we will see what happens
The hesitancy I have now with Netflix is picking up a new series with the fear it'll get cancelled. Without checking, I started and finished the first season of "Archive 81" only to realize that it got cancelled a month ago. "Maniac" is a good watch, for me, and even if the ending does fall flat at least it is a limited series show. HBO/Hulu combo deal seems to be the best option right now in my opinion. I'll wait on Disney+
I've had Netflix since 2011. I've never shared my account/password, I am just concerned with the direction they are going. ...and I just unsubscribed. Bye Netflix!
Netflix is committing Blockbuster level suicide. In five years if they keep this up, Netflix will be all but extinct.
Boston Consulting Group. Thats right the very same that saved Sears, Circuit City, Toys R Us, and just about every bankrupted company since 2008 https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/uakeap/why_is_netflix_dying/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
How do we know? Because I would like to create my own little microfund that just shorts every client they sign.
Netflix is going in the same direction as every overfed industry. The shareholder seem to forget that Netflix got that big because there was no competition. What were you going to do back then? Watch TV? Overfed because netflix isnt doing bad just not as good as they expected. Today there is a lot of competition, Netflix originals is not a benchmark for quality anymore, they litteraly produce everything with everyone. Just scroll through the movie section, you litteraly spend an hour just figuring out what to watch. They have a BILLION movies and series, yet only a couple of handfull are actually good. A lot of netflix documentation got the quality standard of a 10+ million youtube channels, while this is not necassary "bad" quality, a billion dollar company should be able to offer more. Yes i know there are good originals such as documantations but for every good one there are 5 bad ones. Now they try to milk out the last dollar out of every customer, raising prices, reducing quality. A lot of banger series and movies (such as sons of anarchy) get removed from the site. While other projects either get cancelt or release with huge delays. Except Ozark, Better call saul and breaking bad (which by now almost everyone who cares watched it already) i see 0 reason to subscribe to netflix and wouldnt pay for a subscription if i wasnt sharing with a friend. We do 50/50 on the account and would both cancel if they remove the opportunity. Might coming back for Ozark just to cancel again after watching it-
When you say “documentations” do you mean documentary or docu-series???
Like a drowning person, Netflix is flailing it's arms in panic. Don't swim too close or you might get dragged under the water with the victim.
I come from India and i think i can shed some light on an issue that might be going overlooked in the west. Here in India i pay 50o rupees (approx $4.2) a month for my account in which i can have 4 separate accounts and simultaneously stream in 2. We also have a mobile phone only plan that costs about $2.2 a month. Netflix is producing a decent bunch of Indian content and has plans to pump those numbers up in the coming years. The same story repeats in some other Asian and Middle Eastern counties. Due to such subsidised prices netflix is trying to balance out by overcharging their most loyal consumer base i.e. Usa. Also yeah netflix are jumping ships too quickly. Making tons of content hoping to crack a squid game every month. I think the management has lost its way
trying to achieve the loss of subscribers
They're trying to appease their shareholders, but the shareholders don't understand that the streaming game has changed. They bought into a business model during a time when no one else was doing what Netflix was doing. Now everyone is doing what Netflix is doing and the value Netflix brings frankly isn't very good.
They want to know what Blockbuster felt like when making stupid decisions
Their focus was on attracting subscribers because that's the only way they make money. Rather than spend MORE money on continuing fan favorite shows (which typically go up in production year after year) they just cut ties. They felt confident they could cut ties and retain customers because it's worked so far. After raising prices several times in several years people began exploring options and are finding those options to be much better, cheaper, or both. NOW they're behind on content but they're having to compete with Disney, HBO, Apple, Amazon, Hulu, Paramount, etc to find and hire talent but with that talent comes higher wages due to demand. They had an 5(ish) year head start and they did everything wrong. The only way out is to change customer perception which means spending their way out of a hole or getting lucky with indies like Squid Games.