Are Netflix and the Like Dying?

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Jan 30, 2020
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My opinion has been that Neflix rose in popularity because of their early entrance to the field and more or less paving the way for a high quality streaming service. This made them a popular gateway for other content owners to get their content to people outside of cable.

As time has gone on, other content owners have created their own platforms and they are all pretty good as far as platforms go. At this point, the balance starts to swing away from Netflix as they need to rely on their own original content to appeal to it's subscribers more and in this department, they are decades behind the likes of Disney, Discovery and Paramount who have been in the business of content creation for their entire existence. Netflix has a lot of catching up to do in a competitive content market.

I cut cable and added a bunch of streaming services as a replacement at the start of this year. I have Hulu, Disney, Paramount, Discovery, Prime, Peacock and FRNDLY subscriptions plus I had a cable internet line installed just for streaming......and my monthly bill is still like 40% cheaper than I was paying for cable so i'm still saving money even with a dedicated internet line added in. I do not have a Netflix subscription as their original programming just doesn't appeal much to my wife or myself.
 
Jul 17, 2017
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pencilandpipe.home.blog
I left Netflix because the quality of content isn't on par with what can be found elsewhere. Amazon Prime Video and Britbox provide quality in greater quantity. In the beginning, Netflix was great, but slowly as other companies took their content away and started their own services (ie Disney+) Netflix became a trove of slapped together sub par content. Not to mention the clear agenda pushed in a majority of their programs. This is all my personal experience and opinion with Netflix, but I'm sure I'm not alone it witnessing what felt like a steady decline. They were the innovators and market leaders, but others have stepped up and improved the platform.
 
Jul 17, 2017
1,777
6,649
NV
pencilandpipe.home.blog
My opinion has been that Neflix rose in popularity because of their early entrance to the field and more or less paving the way for a high quality streaming service. This made them a popular gateway for other content owners to get their content to people outside of cable.

As time has gone on, other content owners have created their own platforms and they are all pretty good as far as platforms go. At this point, the balance starts to swing away from Netflix as they need to rely on their own original content to appeal to it's subscribers more and in this department, they are decades behind the likes of Disney, Discovery and Paramount who have been in the business of content creation for their entire existence. Netflix has a lot of catching up to do in a competitive content market.
Didn't see your reply before posting mine. Spot on.
 
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Rockyrepose

Lifer
Oct 16, 2019
1,387
13,906
Wyoming USA
Bastardization of historical convention and lore in an attempt to inject inclusivity may not always be what a large demographic is seeking in entertainment and could potentially have something to do with it. I'm not polarized by this, just throwing it out there. With the ever increasing streaming competition and societal shifts to overly politicize pretty much everything, a subscriber might enjoy consuming a large amount of content but drop service over one program.

I personally seldom watch Netflix but my wife does. I find it a strain to attempt to follow most programs season after season after season. It often seems the writers also struggle to maintain quality creativity in order to drag the prized pig up the road. There are a few exclusions.
 

OldWill

Part of the Furniture Now
Feb 9, 2022
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Blanco, Texas
Simon, I'm also looking forward to Operation mincemeat. A cousin of mine (Alan Hillgarth OBE, CMG) played a crucial role in the operation. He was Churchill's man in Spain as British Consul & it was his job to make sure the Germans got the fake papers whilst at the same time being seen to do everything to prevent them doing so.

He was in Ben Macintyre's book of the same name & Man Of War by Duff Hart-Davis, both excellent books on the subject.

Regards,

Jay.
Is Operation Mincemeat coming to Netflix? This is a book that I found extremely readable as an amateur student of WW II history. If so, I will definitely look out for it.
 

jpmcwjr

Lifer
May 12, 2015
26,264
30,356
Carmel Valley, CA
Ah, the stock market will fluctuate. I am not worried that Netflix's goose is cooked. Sure, some retrenchments, but they will survive. The company is still worth more than my investment portfolio!

I feel that streaming is here to stay. For now, I sub to Netflix, Prime, Brit Box, Hulu, PBS Passport, F-1, and occasionally others for a short period.

Edit: I forgot to mention AppleTV! Slow Horses 5/5. alone is worth it.

Oddly, perhaps, I find Netflix has 2-3 times more content that I like than Prime. Britbox would be second.
 
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hawky454

Lifer
Feb 11, 2016
5,338
10,234
Austin, TX
Let's see our stories how we really are.
Good point, this is how I feel, I don’t want to watch shows like Leave it to Beaver and The Brady Bunch because that shit is so far from real life it’s just a joke but it worked at the time. My parents generation just don’t understand this, I remember telling them the story line of Breaking Bad, they asked me why any one would want to watch something like that… my question was, why would anybody not want to watch that?

Streaming services aren’t going away but there are too many of them, it’s become a pain in the arse to keep up with them all. I think streaming services will evolve and we’ll see more companies like Netflix acquire other streaming services to corner the market, which will benefit the customer. Just my theory.

10 years ago, I only subscribed to Netflix, I currently subscribe to 5 different services.
 

alaskanpiper

Enabler in Chief
May 23, 2019
9,438
43,997
Alaska
Netflix isn't going anywhere. They simply had a value correction from what was a ridiculously overvalued stock price as a result of the pandemic, followed by their decision to pull out of Russia which massively contributed to their subscriber losses (which would have been gains as usual if not for their own decision regarding Russia). On a global perspective, particularly in Asia, their potential for continued growth is still quite large.

There is certainly more competition in the market, but the price has already adjusted for this. I think their stock will normalize over the next several months to around the $350 mark and then continue to fluctuate based on the typical head/tail winds that impact companies of their size in their sector.

If they announce any sort of plan to counter current negative investor sentiments, such as cracking down on password sharing or a lower cost ad based subscription, investors will come back on board even quicker with typical emotional spontaneity. "Oh my God they're dying, the giant will fall! Everybody RUN! But wait....the giant has a plan! THE GIANT HAS A PLAN! EVERYONE GET ON THE GIANT'S BACK!"

Of course, anything can happen, but that's my take.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,211
60,640
It doesn't surprise me if Netflix and other web dependent movie services go out of business. There is the presumption that these are easy to use, and I will grant that my wife and I are not tech adept. But we use devices all the time for many purposes. But when it comes to the "simple matter" of getting a movie we want to watch to appear on our flatscreen TV, little luck.

We have occasionally managed this, but by a sort of odd luck, and not always the movie we set out to see. We've missed many movies we wanted to watch and spent an hour or two trying to access, including talking with the help line in the Philippines and so on, who were also unable to make it happen.

People don't like to admit these difficulties, because it is so un-hip to do so. But in fact, these services are not user friendly nor readily accessible. So if they go out of business, our household won't miss them because they've never worked for us.

Blockbuster, the old DVD rental, was a pain in the bondoon, but at least you could choose the movie, take it home, and actually watch it. Isn't that the idea?
 

Singularis

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 11, 2019
620
3,045
Wausau, Wis
My wife and I are currently streaming nothing except for the occasional old movie (film noir era movies in particular) on ok.ru for free. It's amazing the way they told stories back then in such concise and minimalistic fashion. And personally, we just don't like to get sucked into a series that keeps stringing you along. Too much commitment, not enough time.

Bonus feature in the old movies: you see real men smoking real pipes with regularity.
 
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Streeper541

Lifer
Jun 16, 2021
3,194
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Spencer, OH
Local video stores used to rule the roost. Then came Blockbuster chains. Then mail order Netflix. Then Redbox. Then streaming Netflix. Now all sorts of streaming.

I won't go into the evolution of societal norms or morality.

What I think you're seeing is a combination of both technological evolution and societal changes. Not a new phenomenon really, just the next one in the series.
 

jpmcwjr

Lifer
May 12, 2015
26,264
30,356
Carmel Valley, CA
Tom-

I think a lot of this has to do with what hardware one has, as well as a level of software savvy when it comes to streaming.

A DVR is, for me, indispensable. Always record anything you think you might like to watch, then delete when you've seen it or checked it out.

AppleTV is also a boon to me, but at ca. $400 for a box, it's not worth it for a lot of people. But it's the only thing that gives the most UHD (4K) content.
 
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