
Lessons From Netflix - taylorbuley
http://www.kitd.com/2012/07/lessons-from-netflix/
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cletus
While all this is true, there's more to it than that. Netflix caters to a
market that lies between cable and iTunes/Amazon. It's a place to get second
run or otherwise non-premium content. I've been rewatching Life recently,
which I really liked (then and now).

What's more, at $8/month it's low enough where I'll just have it just in case
I want to watch it. I watch on average probably an hour of TV a day. Why would
I pay $80+/month to have cable for this and then have the schedule dictated to
me?

Netflix can be watched on tablets, phones and computers. This is _much_ better
than the cable alternative. I don't even own a TV and don't think I ever will
again.

I'm a big fan of these "opinionated" services... as long as they get them
right. This really is the key to Apple's success. 10+ years ago I wanted to
dick around with installing hardware, drivers, configuring OSs, etc. Now? Now
I just want stuff to work and nothing works as well or as pleasantly as my
Macbook Air or iPad.

But I digress.

The sad thing about Netflix is that Hollywood seems to have decided they're
the enemy now rather than seeing it as an opportunity to monetize content that
otherwise would've probably earned them little or nothing. Worse, the content
providers all seem to want to go out on their own, which is a terrible
experience for consumers.

If only there was legislated demarcation between content creation and content
distribution.

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samstave
I LOVE Netflix. I have a 7.99 streaming account which is 90% used by my kids
to stream movies to my iphone, play on the projector in the playroom, the
blue-ray streamer upstairs and occasionally view on my laptop.

While the content isn't terribly recent - my 7 Year Old doesn't notice or
mind.

One thing I am amazed at is how smooth and high quality Netflix streaming is
over 3G to my phone.

Youtube buffers even on my full broadband at home. (Youtube is hands down the
worst video experience online, at this time).

I will always have a netflix streaming account - I get so much value for my
$7.99 a month. Also, I let me mom use my account to stream as well.

Netflix is like the tortoise from the tortoise and the hair. Slowly and
steadily setting up a rock solid amazing service.

Youtube just raced forward as a video service got massive way too quickly now
just has horrendous infrastructure and intrusive ads and totally broken
keyboard controls.

It is actually time for youtube to be disrupted. I am surprised apple has not
taken on youtube yet, actually.

(Again, I am comparing the streaming experience between youtube and netflix,
not the content/business)

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jellicle
I have more or less the opposite opinion. Netflix's UI is terrible. Trying to
decide what you want to see involves a full-text random search of your
unindexed brain, followed by a title-only search on Netflix, followed by
finding out the title you want isn't there. Repeat ad infinitum.

Quick! Say out loud, right now, the name of a movie you want to see! Say it!
Not one in theaters! Not one that came out within the last year! Something
older than a year, that you didn't see but want to. Come on, clock's ticking.

I'll bet you didn't say a name. That's a HARD task for humans, dredging up
some movie name that you've only seen a few times in your life.

You certainly can't use, say, advertising or current events to find a movie,
because Netflix doesn't have any current movies.

For anyone outside the U.S. there isn't even a queue feature, so there's
absolutely no way to save a movie idea that you have now for later watching
except by writing it down on a post-it note and sticking it to the television.

Oh, and don't think about using it to watch porn or anything, since you can't
disable or get rid of the RECENTLY WATCHED section which will reveal your TV-
watching habits to anyone who might ever sit down at your TV or computer.

And don't bother to make it compatible with Linux; people who are technically
inclined enough to use this new-fangled "streaming" only use Windows or Mac.

Several websites offer better experiences than Netflix (combining Rotten
Tomatoes ratings; showing lists of new stuff Netflix just got in; that sort of
thing). Netflix does not seem interested in stealing their ideas.

~~~
mnicole
We use it over XBL and the biggest problem we face (outside of the search/lack
of content issue) is that if someone so much as accidentally knicks the
controller, drops it on the ground or accidentally presses a button while
moving it, it makes a transition without verification. Most of the time, the
button accidentally pressed either starts the movie from the beginning or
begins rewinding/forwarding the content. This is pretty terrible UX to begin
with, but then on the UI side, there's no marker where that action started
taking place or an "undo" function. This happens at least once every time we
use the XBOX version, so we've taken to unplugging the controller entirely to
avoid it.

~~~
macspoofing
Invest in the xbox remote control. Xbox 360 for me is about 80% Netflix, and I
find having a dedicated remote control to be invaluable.

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kevincennis
Lost me at "The UI is very well designed..."

~~~
tsycho
Do you have specific complaints?

I personally think the Netflix UI is significantly better than the UIs of
Amazon or HBOGo. And on the Roku, it's orders of magnitude better.

~~~
kevincennis
Sure. The whole "hover your mouse over this arrow and we'll scroll the poster
art at a rate of about 30px per second" is super frustrating. I actually ended
up getting so annoyed that I built a Chrome extension to replace that
interaction with horizontal scrollbars.

~~~
eswangren
+1 that was a horrible, horrible UI change. So much so that I wrote them an
email just to complain about it. I don't know what they were thinking with
that one.

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AWolk
First off, thanks to all of you for breathing new life into something I wrote
a couple weeks back.

Netflix doesn't have a perfect interface, but it's leagues better than
anything else that's out there, particularly the UIs provided by the
cable.telco and satellite pay-TV providers (collectively known as MVPDs these
days - Multichannel Video Platform Distributors) Seriously, if I set out to
design a bad UI, I would not be able to surpass them in awfulness.

I hear some of you are frustrated by the search and discovery functions. My
company is in this space and we debate the best way to solve the 3 main use
case scenarios: 1\. I want to watch another 5 episodes of "Breaking Bad" 2\. I
want to watch a comedy movie, maybe something with Tom Hanks 3\. I have no
idea what I want to watch

There's a lot of grey between those three areas and that's why Netflix quirky
genre categories are so popular.

In terms of search, there are a lot of 3rd party apps, both web-based and
otherwise. I personally like Clicker, which is web-based and can also show you
which of the services (Netfkix, Hulu, Amazon) you have can serve up the movie
you want to watch.

"Rights issues" is a TV/Movie industry term that refers to the battle over
which of the various distribution companies has the right to broadcast TV and
movie content, on what platform (e.g. If Comcast is paying NBC for the right
to broadcast their shows on TV, do they have to pay more to also be able
stream them to your iPad or is that covered by the original agreement) Because
so much of this is new and because the industry is very profit-oriented, the
lawyers are having a field day.

Final point, which I noticed a few people picked up on, is that the Netflix
all-you-can-eat menu lets you experiment without consequences: you don't like
a movie, it's not like you've just wasted any money paying for it.

And for the XBox remote dropper - if it's really become a problem, maybe you
want to find another place to keep it? Just a suggestion.

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irishloop
One thing I gotta say that a lot of Netflix bears really don't seem to get:
it's not that easy to replicate how well Netflix just works. A lot of
financial analysts believe that anybody from Time Warner or Walmart could just
jump in and easily perform what Netflix has done.

But if you've ever used Amazon Prime or HBO Go, you know it's actually
significantly more complex than that, and Netflix has only made it LOOK easy.

Whether or not that leads to long-term success, I don't know, but I do know
that people seriously trivialize how difficult it is to stream tremendous
amounts of high-quality traffic with very few hiccups.

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adamio
I wonder if Netflix's neglect to innovate in this area is a result of
concentrating all their efforts on content. All the UI features in the world
won't mean much if you lose all relevant content feeds.

This also brings up time between search & view. In its DVD days, title search
+ recommendations may be good enough given the dvd queue dwell. But instant
watch desires instant find.

The content also affects this. Maybe with a heavy new release catalog -
recommendations work for majority of users. With a deep archival catalog,
better search works for majority of users?

~~~
iamdave
_I wonder if Netflix's neglect to innovate in this area is a result of
concentrating all their efforts on content._

Valid inquiry, imo. I think content is something Netflix rightfully should
dedicate a contingent of resources to at multiple levels-licensing, sourcing
and implementation. They have a model people are clearly buying into, and the
catalog _is_ getting better, but leaves much to the imagination.

It'd be curious to see Wired or another magazine actually do the investigation
to find out why so many studios are holding back from the platform.

~~~
pyoung
I am not sure an investigation is needed. It just comes down to money. Netflix
doesn't want to raise rates (recall the huge backlash they received that last
time they did that) and probably can't afford the license costs that are being
demanded for premium content.

Realistically, consumers need to realize that you get what you pay for.
~$8/month is less than the price of a single movie ticket, and much less than
the cost to purchase a single movie on dvd. Premium cable costs 10x that
amount and the on demand selection of movies are just as bad..

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powerslave12r
> It also doesn’t have rights issues.

I'm not really sure what to make of this.

~~~
bcrescimanno
I believe the "rights issues" he's talking about are explained in detail after
that: he's talking about his own right to view the available content at any
time. I agree that "rights issues" is probably the wrong way to explain that
concept; but, as intended, it's a valid statement.

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eswangren
NetflIx doesn't get new releases. I don't care why they don't, but the fact
remains that they do not. I cancelled because of this. I really like NetFlix
as a company, but the lack of selection kills it for me.

