
Netflix Is Raising Prices. Here’s Why - artur_makly
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/business/media/netflix-price-increase.html
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ivraatiems
I don't see how this balkanization of content - Netflix only has Netflix,
Disney has Disney, NBC has NBC, etc. - is going to do anything but hurt both
companies and consumers.

Suppose that right now I can watch 70-80% of the TV shows I'd like to see by
using only Netflix and Amazon Prime (the only two services I actually
subscribe to). If that's reduced by moves like this to 20-30%, then the price
I need to pay (even disregarding individual services raising their prices) to
see the same amount of content is going to shoot up.

Even if all these new streaming services are priced decently, uses will soon
have to pay for two or three times as many of them to get the same content.
That just seems like a great way to encourage us to stop paying at all, and to
go back to either not watching as much, or (for some users, I'm sure)
obtaining them illegally. One of the big issues in defeating piracy was that
it was sometimes more convenient than obtaining the content legally; this
change may resurrect that issue. (I'm not saying it's OK to pirate, but there
are a lot of people who don't have a problem doing so; it seems reasonable
consequence to infer here.)

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thedaemon
You are forgetting 1 aspect. Advertisement. I gladly pay extra to not watch
commercials.

I agree with most of your statement. Netflix a few years ago was the only
service I needed. They had tons of content from multiple providers. Today it's
very few shows outside of their own content. I'm about to cancel honestly, I
don't want Netflix's 90% crap content. Amazon Prime is probably the worst of
the services from a content perspective even though they are the richest
company. Please do yourself a favor and swap to Hulu from Amazon, at least
with it you can get some of the latest TV Shows and cartoons.

Per your pirate commentary: The problem I am having is finding a service that
has the show or shows I want. Some of the content owners make it impossible to
stream the content anywhere, even if you want to pay money! Thus, forcing us
to have to go out of our way to find the products, probably illegally.

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ivraatiems
> You are forgetting 1 aspect. Advertisement. I gladly pay extra to not watch
> commercials.

Yes, it's good to point that out. I think people _are_ willing to pay more to
have no ads, and have on-demand access to content.

I would throw in another thing I could have thrown in originally as well,
which I didn't really think of - the TV equivalent of "killer apps." The
reason I stick with Amazon is because they picked up a couple of shows I
really, really love - The Man in the High Castle and The Expanse. I don't want
to lose access to those.

Similarly, I briefly subscribed to CBS All Access while the new Star Trek:
Discovery season aired last year - and when Season 2 comes out, I'll likely do
so again. I love Star Trek so much that I'm willing to pay the $7 per (call it
$3 per episode) month just for that... but as soon as it stops coming out, I
cancel.

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tsycho
Unfortunately, Amazon Prime now has ads. Not as much as cable TV, but still
very annoying now that I am used to no ads.

I watched the Illusionist last night on Prime video, and not only was there a
minute of unskippable ads at the start, but there were 30 seconds of ads in
the middle of the movie as well.

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squarefoot
I may have an extreme position on the subject, but to me unskippable
advertising is violence plain and simple.

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apacheCamel
I think it is very interesting to see all of this come down and the criticism
it receives. Back in the day, it felt like many people (I have no hard numbers
here nor would it be easy to find them) wanted their cable provider to offer
channels a la carte. They wanted to select and choose what they watch and only
pay for the things they need. Now these big services (Netflix, HBO, Disney...)
which helped bring the downfall of cable are doing what everybody originally
wanted by breaking up into a multitude of services for you to pick and choose
what you want. People are once again upset but now for them having to
subscribe to so many different services. I think it mostly has to do with
price, but I still imagine paying less for a handful of services than the
cable packages we were all forced into.

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LinuxBender
Somewhat off-topic: If Netflix continues to resurrect and pick up shows from
other providers that I like, then I don't mind paying an extra couple bucks
per month.

Recently they picked up Lucifer [1] after Fox canceled it and millions of fans
lit up twitter. I am looking forward to this, as Netflix typically allows
darker and more adult friendly versions of a show.

[1] -
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4052886/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4052886/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

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anth_anm
> is working on an ad-supported model streaming service that it plans to make
> available in early 2020.

and hopefully fails by 2021.

I see an ad, I pirate instead. That simple.

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PhantomGremlin
_I see an ad, I pirate instead. That simple._

I recently wanted to view a few back episodes of some random TV show, to see
if I would be interested in it. I found the back episodes on Hulu. After about
5 minutes of the first, the screen went to commercial and said something like
"1 of 8".

No, I'm not going to sit thru 8 commercials in a row. So I just exited and
totally forgot about that show.

I.e. it's not just pirating as an alternative. Many people simply say "fuck
it, I have other things I can be doing".

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pasbesoin
I barely watch anything any more on Netflix streaming. When I do try something
new -- especially one of their "Netflix originals" \-- I increasingly feel I
am being fed the same set of tropes. (E.g. There's only so much dystopia I can
take. Especially when it recycles the same plot and dialog points.)

This price bump may be it, for me. I'm too inclined to just keep on keeping
on. I don't do "resolutions", but this year, one intention is to stop that.

Besides, I increasingly feel like I'm funding, with my subscriptions, the very
people -- and their lawyers -- who keep making things worse and worse.

(Reading the recent reporting that Netflix software engineers average 300K a
year hasn't really helped my attitude, either. So, THAT's what I'm paying
for... (?) )

~~~
PhantomGremlin
_(Reading the recent reporting that Netflix software engineers average 300K a
year hasn 't really helped my attitude, either. So, THAT's what I'm paying
for... (?) ) _

Business media has been saying that Netflix's content acquisition costs are or
shortly will be in the neighborhood of $10 billion per year. You're paying a
lot more for the content than for the software engineers.

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lewisj489
" Netflix’s most popular plan, which gives a customer two simultaneous
streams, will get the largest increase, to $13 a month from $11. Still, it’s
cheaper than HBO, whose streaming service costs about $15 a month. The $8 a
month plan will now cost $9, and the high-end version, which allows for four
simultaneous streams, jumps to $16 from $14. (The new prices took effect
Tuesday for new subscribers. For existing customers, the increases will start
in about three months.) "

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jakamau
Have licensing agreements changed at all in the past 10-15 years?

It seems like shifting to a model of [Base License Fee] + X Revenue/Hours
Streamed would improve the situation and allow IP holders to commodify
streaming services.

You would still have exceptional cases like HBO and Disney where it would be
worth the effort to run their own streaming service to capture all the
revenue, but I don't see the average consumer willing to subscribe to an
endless number of streaming services (maybe 2-3 tops for an average US
consumer).

