
Dora, Diego, SpongeBob and Other Viacom Shows Leave Netflix - protomyth
http://allthingsd.com/20130528/dora-diego-and-spongebob-say-goodbye-to-netflix/
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Steuard
The worst part about this from a parent's perspective was that there was
absolutely no warning. My daughter was all excited for her once-daily episode
of Dora, and suddenly it wasn't there even though mommy and daddy said it
would be. (I take this whole thing as a broad lesson on the dangers of relying
on the cloud.)

By the end of the day, we'd signed up for streaming via Amazon Prime (which
includes Dora). And cancelled it via Netflix.

~~~
raelshark
We experienced the same - our toddler gets an episode of Wonder Pets every day
after she comes home from day care. When my wife drove her home that day she
got her all excited to watch it, and she was singing the theme song the whole
way, only for my wife to get home and select the show (still displayed in our
recently viewed list) just to get hit with an error message. Had to research
some to find out what had happened. We were actually lucky that we already had
a Prime account and found the shows there the next day when we read online
what was happening.

Really bad user experience and communication, combined with a very passionate
target viewer for those shows who doesn't understand license negotiations.

~~~
MartinCron
The next generation of toddlers _will_ be the first to understand license
negotiations.

~~~
gcr
They won't understand license negotiations; they'll understand the
consequences of poor license negotiations.

<editorializing>Then, bad licensing will become the norm. </editorializing>

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jonstjohn
Our 3 year-old watched Dora and Diego almost every day from about 1 1/2 to
just turning 3. It became somewhat of an obsession and he always wanted to
watch another show. On the other hand, my wife and I rarely watched shows or
movies, and only had Netflix (no cable) in the house. We finally decided to
ditch the TV all together, and 6 months later, it is going fantastic! Our son
was upset for a few days after we got rid of it, but now it is a pleasure to
watch him play with real things.

Anyways, not passing judgement on any parents and we'll probably get a TV
again some day. But it's been pretty awesome!

~~~
hkmurakami
now that I think about it, letting your young kids avoid the psychologically
targeted commercials is probably a very good thing developmentally.

~~~
jonstjohn
Part of it for us was the 'zoning out'. We had Netflix so no commercials, but
he'd sit in his chair for an hour or more and just suck his thumb and zone
out. Afterwards, he just wanted more. I guess that is a lot of the appeal of
TV, just escaping from the every day of what's around us.

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drharris
Yeah, my son won't care. In the 30 minutes per night we allow him on the iPad,
he binge watches like 8 different shows, and it doesn't matter which ones. He
watches Dora, but probably won't notice it's missing. I'm going to say this is
much worse for Viacom than Netflix.

~~~
wmboy
My kids have just started watching Diego (as in last night), so it seems the
licensing deal is still active in the Canadian Netflix library?

Unblock-us.com is the way to go, costs $5/month and means you can access all
of the Netflix libraries (US, Canada, UK and others).

~~~
nwh
If you're going to violate their policies, you might as well just fire up a
BitTorrent client as be done with it.

~~~
wmboy
I live in New Zealand... there's no other way to subscribe to Netflix.

~~~
rwolf
Right, there's not a legal way to subscribe so you're illegally subscribing.
For the children, or something.

~~~
wmboy
I'm doing everything I can to legitimately pay for the service. If it is
"illegal" then it's absurd and just shows you how dumb the laws are regarding
digital movies/music.

~~~
rwolf
In the "pros" column, you're just violating netflix TOS so in the worst case
they figure out you are lying about your country and delete your account.
Sounds like a pretty safe (but expensive) way to pirate movies to me.

~~~
dorfsmay
Netflix is ok with you travelling to another country and use their service
from there, but they warn you that content will be different.

So switching DNS is kinda like travelling fast...

If Netflix and the content provider decides that I'm a horrible person and
don't want my money, they can cancel my account, maybe I'll start considering
torrent'ing then.

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eranation
Yep, I was quite shocked (Yo Gabba Gabba is my daughter's favorite, gone as
well). But it seems my kids have short memory, thanks to the new Jake and the
pirates and Handy Manny and they seem to worry about it less than I do. (And a
part of me is kind of not-that-sorry that I won't have to hear "jumpy jump
jump jump jump jump", and "there's a party in my tummy, so yummy" in the near
future)

Yet still, I protest, and demand it back, no stability in this world, you
can't put your trust in nothing anymore.

EDIT: Backyardigans also gone?? this is outrageous. I would have canceled my
Netflix account if I had any control over it.

~~~
Steuard
"Don't, don't, don't bite your friends!"

Yeah, Yo Gabba Gabba and Backyardigans were two of our "backup" shows for
times when our daughter wanted something other than Dora. We were really
scrambling once we realized they were _all_ gone overnight. (In the urgency of
the moment we stumbled into "Curious George", which I have issues with. I hear
good things about "WordGirl", though I get the impression that it's got a
slightly older target audience.)

~~~
dgabriel
We still get these via amazon prime. We actually get much more than $80 in
prime instant videos and shipping.

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bluedino
Still on Hulu+, right?

For $7.99 a month I'll subscribe to 3-4 streaming services. It's worth it and
still less than the hundred bucks a month cable costs.

~~~
Smudge
I don't have kids, but if/when I do, I will avoid giving them TV access that
comes with ad breaks. I'd rather they become conscious consumers on their own
terms, instead of being spoon-fed ads from such an early age.

Case in point: I took a college psychology class where the professor flipped
through slides and asked the class to raise their hand if they could identify
who was it was being displayed. Most hands shot up immediately for slides of
Captain Crunch and Tony the Tiger, but figures like Donald Rumsfeld and Colin
Powell hesitantly got maybe 1/2 of the class.

If Hulu gave me the option to pay another $7.99/mo to remove the ads, I would,
but I guess that's not their intent.

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meritt
Can someone please create an account-sharing service that just blends
netflix/amazon/hulu/itunes/whatever-else together? I'll pay you $X/mo and you
provide me with a massive library of content. I don't care which provider it
comes through.

Thanks.

~~~
hayksaakian
would you be OK with

at least (22.64 <= 7.99 + 6.66 + 7.99 + a-la-carte) * 1.20

per month? (so that the provider makes money)

~~~
meritt
No, you'd do account sharing across the services. Oversell like cheap webhosts
do based on the fact that people vastly under-utilize services. You could
probably negotiate a cheaper rate from the providers as well since you'd be
presumably paying for hundreds of accounts.

Why should I pay for all the services when I'm only using one at a time? If
I'm watching Arrested Development on Netflix, someone else can watch Dora on
the Amazon account.

~~~
svenkatesh
In the process, the provider would violate his/her TOS at each service, and
get his/her account banned.

"Fail early" I guess.

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ilamont
Time to introduce your kids to Minecraft, if you haven't done so already.

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ctdonath
On behalf of my boy & girl, ages 3 & 5: "NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I want
Dora!"

Neverland Pirates had better be on there with a whole buncha episodes.

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darrenkopp
Good riddance. This is the second time Viacom shows have left Netflix. I would
assume that this time, like the last, is that Viacom wants more money than
Netflix considers their content worth, which is the same story as when Viacom
pulled their shows from DirecTV recently.

I'm guessing the content will show up again, but I hope they don't pay more
than they did on the previous agreement for the same old episodes.

As a parent, I'm glad Netflix made a large agreement with Disney.

Disclaimer: our kids aren't into Nick shows as is, they mainly watch the
Disney channels; all of us enjoy the marvel cartoons.

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protomyth
If Oscar's Oasis ever goes off Netflix, my nephew will be very, very mad. That
show is a serious addiction, not bad for grownups, and doesn't seem to be
available for purchase.

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darasen
I would mourn the loss of Wonder Pets and Avatar is actually a great shoe for
adults even. At least there is Phineas and Ferb (funnier than most sit-coms).

Odd taste aside there are so many streaming services now with so many
different licenses it is becoming hard to find one with my favourite shows.
And I still have a hard time getting the best BBC shows in a timely manner
(Sherlock, Doctor Who, etc...)

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msg
Mr Krabs, we hardly knew ye.

My son's on to Shaun the Sheep, Phineas & Ferb, and sundry others...

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tokipin
NOOOOOOOOOO

Spongebob and Avatar: The Last Airbender are like the 2 singular reasons for a
Netflix account. i'm going to have to reconsider reconsidering reactivating my
account

~~~
extesy
Nice use of triple negative. I had a little mental exercise trying to
understand the meaning correctly.

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cfinke
My two-year-old son is mourning the loss of The Backyardigans. Time to buy the
episodes on iTunes and fire up Requiem+pyTivo.

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vectorpush
Children's programming is a dime a dozen, no big deal.

~~~
protomyth
I have observed this is simply not the case. There is a lot of crud out there
and some genuine gems. Even 3 years olds have opinions on what they like.

~~~
vectorpush
_There is a lot of crud out there and some genuine gems._

Perhaps from your perspective.

 _Even 3 years olds have opinions on what they like._

That's true, but that doesn't mean they have discerning tastes; small children
like what they like and it has the potential to be pretty much anything.

~~~
protomyth
Like any art, some of it is great and a lot sucks. Just because it is directed
at children doesn't make it interchangeable or a lesser art. There is a rather
large difference between Pixar and Good Times Video. A 3 year old will not
watch stuff they don't like, as they will loudly tell you.

~~~
vectorpush
_A 3 year old will not watch stuff they don't like, as they will loudly tell
you._

This is true, what I'm saying is that a three year old does not have the
cognitive ability to appreciate artistic nuance; of course they have
preferences, they're just completely arbitrary and entirely detached from
anything that a developed adult could recognize as quality.

~~~
protomyth
I have to disagree with you. They might not express it in words, but they do
know quality.

