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Businesses Movies Television

Netflix Subscriber Count In the US, Canada Dropped By 1.3 Million Over the Last Three Months (theverge.com) 119

Posted by BeauHD from the it-could-be-worse? dept.
After Netflix reported losing subscribers for the first time in over a decade last quarter, the company's Q2 earnings report revealed (PDF) the number of worldwide subscribers dipped by 1 million, including a drop of 1.28 million in the US and Canada alone. The Verge reports: That's better than its projection of losing 2 million worldwide, but the subscriber shortfall in the US and Canada is double the 600,000 drop it reported for Q1. Netflix now reports it has 73.28 million paid subscribers in the US and Canada, and 220.67 million worldwide.

Revenue increased 9 percent year over year from $7.3 billion in 2021 to $7.97 billion this quarter. Although the streamer ran into a couple of hiccups in recent months, including two separate layoffs affecting hundreds of workers, there was some good news. The season 4 release of Stranger Things boosted the series to the second most-watched show on the service, trailing behind the Korean-language hit Squid Game, which Netflix announced in June will be returning for a second season. Last week, Netflix announced a partnership with Microsoft on a new lower priced ad-supported subscription plan that it expects to launch by early next year. Netflix execs remain optimistic about the prospect of an ad-supported tier, noting that "over the long run, we think advertising can enable substantial incremental membership (through lower prices) and profit growth (through ad revenues)."

The company also recently began its crackdown on password sharing by creating an "extra member" fee for users who share accounts with people they don't live with. "The extra member fee of about $2 to $3 per month was implemented in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, with Netflix saying it would evaluate the rollout before making changes in other countries," reports Ars Technica.
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Netflix Subscriber Count In the US, Canada Dropped By 1.3 Million Over the Last Three Months More

Netflix Subscriber Count In the US, Canada Dropped By 1.3 Million Over the Last Three Months

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  • All the news reminded me I never signed in anymore (Score:5, Insightful)

    by HamidPayaamAbbasi ( 7143815 ) on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @07:47PM (#62717448)
    More than anything the news cycles about them creating an ad tier and cracking down on password sharing reminded me that I haven't really liked anything on Netflix in a while and was only paying for it because of password sharing. I checked and no one even logged in for 3 months and cancelled it. I replaced it with nothing. Streaming media has become cable and I didn't like that 10 years ago either.

    • Re:All the news reminded me I never signed in anym (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Moridineas ( 213502 ) on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @09:08PM (#62717568) Journal

      More than anything the news cycles about them creating an ad tier and cracking down on password sharing reminded me that I haven't really liked anything on Netflix in a while and was only paying for it because of password sharing. I checked and no one even logged in for 3 months and cancelled it. I replaced it with nothing. Streaming media has become cable and I didn't like that 10 years ago either.

      Yup. I realized some time ago that we were now subscribed to:
      -Disney (kids)
      -Paramount (Star Trek)
      -Netflix (Office/misc crap)
      -Hallmark Channel (don't ask)
      -AppleTV (free)

      I built a Plex server, cancelled all streaming, ripped all my dvds and blurays, actually PURCHASED some more blurays and some digital copies, and we have not missed streaming at all.

      p.s. Severance on AppleTV was really good.

      • -Hallmark Channel (don't ask)

        Oh, we're not gonna just sneak that one by there, bub. It's a Michael Landon bromance thing, isn't it?

      • I've been doing this since DeCSS was released and have an amazing home collection. Turns out if you spend the equivalent to a cable bill on actually owning media every month you can keep up with all the good shows and movies out there. Lots of media comes with digital codes these days where I don't even have to break out the ripping software anymore. Now if only I'd take the time to figure out Plex instead of just mounting SMB shares and using VLC & Infuse. I really don't understand the popularity payin

        • I'm honestly not a huge fan of Plex. I mean, it's very convenient for the family. They can use an app on AppleTV, etc., see cover art, episode descriptions, and it mostly just works. I've had problem with automatches being wrong (and that keep coming back, even when corrected). I also don't know how to deal with the various sub-tracks that I read that show up as weird artifact things on the Plex screen. I mostly find it frustrating because it tries to do so much and to be so smart. I just want dumb and easy

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • I think the key factor is "paying for a bunch of things you don't want."

          Netflix costs $20/month for 4k. Yeah, that's less than cable, but they also no longer have much stuff I want to watch, and a lot of stuff I DON'T want to watch.

          Disney+ costs $8/month. My kids were mostly watching the same 5 movies on repeat.

          Paramount is $10/month. I want Star Trek, but again, I owned some of the DVDs, I dislike most of the new Star Trek, and I don't care about most of the other shows that are available.

          Hallmark is $7/mo

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by splutty ( 43475 )

      Pretty much this. I realized that for the last year or so, everything I actually enjoyed watching was now no longer on Netflix and scattered across some 4 or 5 other streaming services, or not available at all in my country.

      So I canceled. If they have a (complete) series of something I want to watch, I'll resub for a month, probably. Although the service had become more and more annoying over the years as well. (Why is the UI of ALL the streaming services such an absolute garbage mess on a PC...)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by phlinn ( 819946 )
        Netflix's UI is WORSE than it's competitors. Biggest complaint? Autoplaying snippets. It's especially annoying when I've just stopped cycling through the list for a fraction of a second. Once it decides to load the video, I HAVE to wait for it to finish before I can move on, pausing the whole UI. Don't give me a snippet unless I actually select an item to get details please.

        It does doe one thing right that some competitors don't, autoplaying the next episode of series but NOT moving on to another mo

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by kwerle ( 39371 )

          https://help.netflix.com/en/no... [netflix.com]

          Hope that works for you. Man, does that suck.

          The thing I like about netflix that doesn't seem to exist (easily) on amazon prime is that once I watch a thing on netflix I rate it right there in the UI. Then if I see something I've rated, I know I've watched it. I don't know how people remember what they have/not seen on amazon prime.

    • Can you explain what was or is wrong with cable TV? I read /. and it always say cable TV is bad, I wonder what is wrong (is it a US thing?). For the explanation imagine I just know free-to-air TV.

      • Re:All the news reminded me I never signed in anym (Score:4, Informative)

        by fropenn ( 1116699 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2022 @08:48AM (#62718536)
        Cable TV is expensive (usually at least $100 a month) and includes lots of advertising and endless channels that you will never watch or want (or show things that you don't want your kids to stumble across). In addition, the shows you might enjoy are on at specific times and if you want to time-shift with a DVR, well, that's an extra $15 a month and oh you have to rent a box for it to work at all for another $12 a month and if you want it on a second TV that's another $15 a month and oh we decided prices are going up by $20 next month and there is nothing you can do because we are the only company in town who offers cable.

  • Here's why (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @07:58PM (#62717458)
    Netflix is losing money because:
    1. Lots of their original content providers have pulled content from Netflix and setup their own streaming services (Disney, Paramount, etc...)
    2. Despite offering less quality content, Netflix have actually increased their prices [statista.com]
    2. Netflix has discontinued good shows they produce themselves and that makes people hesitant to invest in watching new shows.
    3. Netflix have a few good shows but these are also available on Blu Ray/DVD (e.g. Stranger Things, The Crown etc...) or people subscribe for a month and binge and then cancel it.
    4. Netflix has focused on profits rather than on their purpose which has made them think short-term rather than long-term

    • Re:Here's why (Score:4, Interesting)

      by fluffernutter ( 1411889 ) on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @08:57PM (#62717550)
      All true, and especially 2. I really just want to find a show I like and watch it for years. I don't want to be constantly looking for new shows to watch because they ait for 2 seasons / 20 episodes and they get cancelled just as I'm getting into them.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by argStyopa ( 232550 )

      plus, despite you perhaps not wanting to mention it:
      5. The content they DO produce is suffused with 'woke' posturing, to the detriment of actual story, characters, dialogue, and plot. Just throw another trans or character in drag in there, everyone will love it, I'm sure.

      • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

        by narcc ( 412956 )

        Yeah, about that. Outside of a few bigots, literally no one is freaking out about seeing non-white people or non-straight people in tv shows and movies. Really.

        It's a complete non-issue. You know what I saw the other day? A black person playing an aristocrat in a fictional period drama. Do you know what I thought about that? Absolutely nothing. I didn't freak out. I didn't cry. In fact, I barely noticed she was out-of-place because it doesn't matter that the queen in some show set in a fictional Vi

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          If you are talking about the period drama I think you are, the actress in question was chosen because she could bring her life experience to the role. The queen in question was an outsider, and that was a major aspect of her life in Victorian era Britain.

        • Re:Here's why (Score:5, Insightful)

          by quall ( 1441799 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2022 @07:00AM (#62718306)

          Yet if someone like Disney made Black Panther diverse, then those same people crying about lack of diversity would probably have a fit. Can you imagine if even just 30% of the black panther tribes were swapped with Latinos, Asians, Trans and White people? The movie would be ridiculous. It's both a regional piece and meant to be an imagining of African history.

          But you have companies like Amazon, who takes a book series that was quite literally made to be English mythology, and then swapped every other character like you mention. Being diverse was how they original framed it when they released their "fan reactions". An English mythology with nearly every white male removed? Yeah ok lol. How will that not be ridiculous again?

          Nobody cares if these characters are in a story, but when it's obviously forced, and they go out of their way to bring in the politics around it, it's pretty tiring. I see people bickering about it everywhere on the internet, so why would I want to see it in my entertainment too?

          I will admit though, whenever I see a trans person in a show it's just as ridiculously. Not ridiculous out of hate, but more from a comedic perspective. Yet it's not meant to be used as comedy. It's akin to placing a clown into a serious role. The only mentally unstable clown I enjoy watching is in Batman.

          • The only mentally unstable clown I enjoy watching is in Batman.

            Glad to hear you don't watch Tuck-Tuck on the Faux news.

            To me the only fundamental issue with shifts of characters from obviously white to PoC in period pieces is that they actually amount to brownwashing, "Trying to appear as being supportive of Black, Brown, Indigenous and People of Color", through whitewashing, "a deliberate attempt to conceal unpleasant or incriminating facts" — because if you saw how a black person was really treated in that society, it wouldn't be as depicted. They bill themselv

          • +1. Nothing more to say

        • Yeah, about that. Outside of a few bigots, literally no one is freaking out about seeing non-white people or non-straight people in tv shows and movies. Really.

          No one freaking out, and not pissing off fans are not the same thing. There are plenty of people who aren't happy and don't like what netflix does to shows. And while you yourself may be a masochist forcing yourself to watch something you don't like, there are other people who don't.

          You can include all the gay trans black yellow red green blue whatever the fuck you want in a show. When you shoehorn it into a position where it doesn't belong, that's the problem.

        • I don't know people that freak out over it. Usually, they just cancel the service.

          I get you don't understand why white males get tired of seeing white males typically being the villian or the idiot. I know that the reverse was true, but there is definitely an overcorrection here.

          I'm sure there are some freakouts but that is on both sides (see response to Chapel on Netflix or Rogan on Spotify.)

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by narcc ( 412956 )

            The right definitely freaks out about it. They're in an absolute panic when they see someone non-white or non-straight in a role they don't think they "deserve".

            Look at all the tears just in this thread over seeing a trans person on Netflix. It's sad and pathetic.

        • Wish I had mod points for this one.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Going woke is what elevated The Orville from mere knock-off to an actually decent show. Season 3 embraced wokeness and turned out all the better for it, even revisiting some previous plots where they shied away from taking any kind of moral stance, resulting in the best episodes they have ever made.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          I see there are some anti-woke Orville fans who are very upset with the new series. I guess they will have to stick to re-runs of the first two and TNG era Trek.

          The Orville this season has covered slavery, trans rights for children, forcing people who had abortions to pretend they killed a child (like Republicans who force them to have funerals or listen to heartbeats etc.)

          Sorry guys, The Orville is fully woke now. In previous seasons they avoided taking a moral stance on issues like that, deferring to loca

          • Maybe it was the demands of the studio, but for whatever reason McFarlane is now willing to push a very clear, in-your-face, TOS-era style moral message. The show is all the better for it.

            Is the show good now, though? I watched the first season and it was OK, if not very well made in general. I don't really expect much out of first seasons usually, with actors trying to find their roles and so on. But we just tried to watch a second season episode and failed in the first scene, which was a very poorly acted argument about a relationship. And it was between two het characters, so even if I cared about that (which I don't, Bortis' relationship has never offended me in the slightest, and I watc

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              The first season was what I'd describe as "basic". Lots of well work Trek plots that weren't original when Trek did them. Competent for the most part, but basically it really suffered from being a Trek knock-off.

              The second season started very badly with three bottle episodes that mostly fell flat. It got better later in the season though, but still only Voyager levels of adequate sci-fi.

              The other major issue with the first two seasons is an unwillingness to take a moral position. It's a lot like TOS era Tre

              • There's an argument to be made that if The Orville hadn't existed, Strange New Worlds wouldn't be what it is. It's nice to see Trek not take itself so seriously again. Let's be honest, the entire concept is goofy. Why not have fun with it?

          • The Orville's main problem isn't the themes they explore. The main problem in the current season is the ham-fisted writing and utterly inept actions taken by the crew in pursuit of story points, rather than logic points. Did we really need to relive the 2016 election so blatantly? Was there no way to subtly poke that bear, rather than come screaming down the turkpike yelling TRUMP HILLARY 2016 WITH FLASHING LIGHTS, BITCHES!

            I still enjoy the show for what it is, but let's not say that it somehow became "bett

        • Going woke is what elevated The Orville from mere knock-off to an actually decent show. Season 3 embraced wokeness and turned out all the better for it, even revisiting some previous plots where they shied away from taking any kind of moral stance, resulting in the best episodes they have ever made.

          I didn't see it as them shying away from take a "moral" stance. I saw it as the difference of showing a well rounded story that let the audience decide rather than telling an audience what to feel. The story was already written by people of a certain ideology (as Season 3 apparently shows), so it naturally leaned to a side but I guess that is not enough.

          I am a few episodes behind in Orville and now I am a bit disappointed to read this.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            It wasn't well rounded. As I explained they never really got into the details, still don't. It just boils down to "we don't like this, but it's your planet/culture".

            Even first season TNG managed to get beyond that.

            Enjoy the rest of the season.

      • Huh? Have you been in a coma the last several months, during which Netflix bent the knee to Dave Chapelle and hopped on his anti-LGBT hate train? Netflix even fired some of their trans employees and changed their "company culture" site to what amounts to a "LGBT people need not apply" notice in order to demonstrate their obeisance to Chapelle and "team TERF".

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I'm not a business person, can you explain how 8.6% growth in revenue is losing money?

      • I'm not a business person, can you explain how 8.6% growth in revenue is losing money?

        Bbbut ... the wokeness!!!

        • You can have revenue growth but invest way more than your growth is, resulting in net loss.

          • You can have revenue growth but invest way more than your growth is, resulting in net loss.

            They've beaten their EPS for the last four quarters: https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com] The net income of companies may flutter, Netflix's went down by 6.4% to $1.6 billion, down from $1.7, market analysts and pundits will continue to shriek like little bitches get their panties in a twist over this, business will continue to go on as usual.

      • Re:Here's why (Score:5, Informative)

        by Noobsa44 ( 1101755 ) on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @09:51PM (#62717676)

        TL/DR: I'm not sure this is really just a troll, but I think it deserves a legit answer. Heard the old joke about losing money on every transaction but making it up in volume? Revenue up != Profits, it might in fact mean losses are up. Accounting is funny that way.

        The "loss" of money is in the growth rate expectations. If you have a P/E (Price / Earnings) of 10, you're likely expected to do no more than keep up with inflation--0 growth. If you have a PE of 40, 80 or 150 (where I saw Netflix a year ago or so), you've got an embedded expectation of growth. Why does this matter? Because when you throw money into a business, you expect to get X money back out of it in Y years. If you've got a PE 18 as Netflix does now, you've got a bit more than inflation built into expected growth. 8.6% growth is not keeping up with inflation, thus the PE is likely too high.

        Okay. Now with that out of the way, why is it losing money? Well lenders want to lend to companies that are likely to survive and if the company seems more at risk (or inflation is higher) they will demand a higher interest rate. Equity owners want to invest in companies that make profits, now or in the future. If revenue growth-inflation is 0, then profits better be coming now and thus will be less inclined to fund a company with additional equity. Yet Netflix is a heavily debt driven company with relatively little profits. If the interest rate on their debt goes up (due to inflation, risk) then the profits they do get go down even further. So they are losing 9% to inflation (both costs and loss of value of the purchasing power of the dollars they have today) and they may end up paying way more for their debt in the future. That is in a sense losing money, even with revenue growing, even if profits are nominally(*) growing. I should note, I'm not saying they are or will lose money with revenue up, I'm not a fortune teller nor have I dug into their accounting. I don't know where interest rates will be when they need to refinance their debt. I'm simply helping to explain some ways that revenue up does not mean things are going well.

        (*) A fancy word for "before adjusting for inflation"

      • Re:Here's why (Score:4, Informative)

        by edwdig ( 47888 ) on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @10:17PM (#62717718)

        Netflix isn't losing money. They're still making huge profits. But they lost customers for 2 consecutive quarters. They had gone 10 years with growth every quarter. They had never lost customers two quarters in a row before.

        It's the trend line that's concerning. They're fine now and will be for a while if they do nothing, but constant headlines of "Netflix is declining" will eventually cause more serious harm to the business.

    • Exactly. WTF is with shows having at most 10 episode seasons? And then most of them get discontinued even if they're good. The network executives don't seem to understand that most people probably aren't going to watch a show if they're of the binge mentality (which these companies encouraged) and can only see 10 episodes at a time. I'll wait until season 3 and if the show is still around maybe I'll binge it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by _xeno_ ( 155264 )

        Exactly. WTF is with shows having at most 10 episode seasons? And then most of them get discontinued even if they're good.

        It's worse than that, though, they require shows to prepare for two seasons, and then inevitably kill most of their shows after one. So you're taking a bet when you watch a show on Netflix that it'll do well enough to get a second season to finish the story. I don't particularly care to watch half a story just for Netflix to decide it's not profitable enough for them to tell the other half.

        I'll wait until season 3 and if the show is still around maybe I'll binge it.

        Especially on Netflix, because if you don't wait, there's a good chance you'll get a couple of seasons that suddenly en

      • Exactly. WTF is with shows having at most 10 episode seasons?

        WTF is it with your desire to draw something out beyond the welcome of its story arc? The over long season of USA television is a fucking cancer, not a blessing. Most American sitcoms become boring as batshit in the middle as a result of writers phoning in anything they can think of to try and get their story to last the required length.

        That and many of those 10 episode seasons on Netflix have 1hour episodes, compared to 20min episodes for lots of normal TV. i.e. just as long, and just as boring in the 2nd

        • > WTF is it with your desire to draw something out
          > beyond the welcome of its story arc?

          Okay, that's an argument against full-length seasons for serialized Trek like Picard or Discovery. But it doesn't hold water for episodic Trek like Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, and literally every other Trek show made. With the exceptions of the Dominion and Xindi war arcs of DS9 and Enterprise, and the occasional 2-parter; pre-CBS-streaming Trek was entirely episodic and had full (26 or so episodes) length s

          • Exactly. Shows used to be around 24 episodes a season. Now we have crap like Picard which stalls out after 10 episodes. Sure, they're an hour long and thank God not blown out with ads, but we're having to subscribe to some streaming service to see them too. And it isn't just one streaming service: It's splattered all over different platforms. (This is where the likes of Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu could have cleaned up but they totally blew it.)

            Btw, for those who actually give a shit: https://www.reference.c [reference.com]

    • Revenue increased 9 percent year over year from $7.3 billion in 2021 to $7.97 billion this quarter. Maybe you don't know how to read or missed this fact.

    • On the other hand, Netflix isn't losing money because they made profits over a billion dollars last quarter.

    • Let me add another one.The price point is bad for a number of people. If I want a HD stream, I have to buy their "two screen" package. I live alone and everyone else I know who wants Netflix is already subscribed to it, so it's not like I'm going to share the password. The two screen package is something like $17 a month with tax. Cut that down to $10 a month, give me a single screen with HD, and I'll consider it. Why they hang to that "basic" plan at quarter HD baffles me.

  • Driving people away (Score:5, Insightful)

    by computer_tot ( 5285731 ) on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @08:02PM (#62717470)
    I think Netflix has two main problems: 1. It has new competition in the form of other successful streaming platforms like Disney and Amazon. 2. The experience it provides keeps getting worse. I used to have a Netflix account, a handful of years ago. They had enough content to pass the time, a decent recommendation system, no ads, and the interface was pretty straight forward. Over time the interface got louder, more obnoxious, there are more things moving around on the screen and getting in the way when I'm trying to search or scroll. It became unpleasant to use. Eventually I realized less of what I wanted to see was on Netflix. And, what I wanted to see, was less of a draw than their interface was annoying. I cancelled a few years ago. I sometimes visit friends who still have it, but almost nothing we want to see is on Netflix and searching for stuff is a pain so they usually don't use it either.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The best shows Netflix ever made were the Marvel ones. Daredevil and all the related shows. Jessica Jones season 1 was probably the best superhero TV show ever made, far better than anything Disney has produced lately.

      The loss of those and the mass cancellation of a lot other stuff, much of it before it was even produced, has left Netflix looking a bit threadbare. In a few years they will have a Stranger Things finale, and maybe another season of Squid Game, but it's just not enough to maintain long term su

  • Remember Netflix DVD? It's still a good option (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Tony Isaac ( 1301187 ) on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @08:54PM (#62717538) Homepage

    When Netflix started losing all their good content because studios were setting up their own streaming platforms, they tried to replace it with their own content. While they've had a few hits, most of the original stuff is crap.

    We decided to switch back to Netflix DVD, which still has the entire library of shows it always had. We're able to watch shows that span a number of streaming services, including Disney, Paramount, Starz, and others. I know it's the 21st century, but DVD does still work!

    • Netflix DVD subscriptions were great when you could still find rare older movies among the library. As time goes on those older movie discs get fubared, and they either can't replace them, or refuse to. It's a real bummer for old movie buffs that enjoyed the library that once existed, but Netflix has turned its focus to the online streaming phenomenon and refuses to cultivate their extensive DVD library beyond the absolute basics.

  • You're losing subscribers, Netflix? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Oligonicella ( 659917 ) on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @09:08PM (#62717572)
    Stop pushing agenda.

  • What makes Netflix important to anyone but those who work for them? Why is this news for nerds?

    It's space filler for bored housewives.

  • Havent been on NF in a while, but try weekly releases instead of single full releases. at least it will keep people subbed for 1 week per episode

  • Blame inflation (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mark-t ( 151149 ) <markt AT nerdflat DOT com> on Wednesday July 20, 2022 @12:20AM (#62717842) Journal

    People are needing to cut back on luxury expenditures, given that the cost of living increase over the past year is more than double what is has been in decades.

    When needing to tighten my belt, entertainment is always the first thing I cut.

    • 1.2million people didn't quit Netflix because of inflation. The reality is their product is no longer as compelling as it was, and facing stiff competition from newcomers.

      We'll probably ditch Netflix soon too. Get everything we need on Disney+ and HBO.

  • I have not watched Netflix for months... why am I paying for it again ?

  • I've just got an NF subscription after waiting for all of Stranger Things to be released. I've just binged that, Umbrella Academy and have my eyes set on a couple of other things. I will renew ONCE, since there is a show coming out in August I want to see. Then I'll sack it.

    Of course this means I don't get to indulge in gossip about the latest twists... Some people seem to need to... ;)

  • TV, cable, Youtube, Netflix... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2022 @05:20AM (#62718172)

    They all came and went for exactly the same reason: Playing it safe where people went away from the last one because they did.

    OTA TV came to us in the 50s. And it was new, exciting and awesome. The networks dared something new and we liked it, it sure was an improvement over radio! New shows, new exciting things. I love Lucy? Remember? Yeah, believe it or not, kids, back then a female lead in a sitcom that was wearing the pants in the relationship wasn't just something new, it was OUTRAGEOUS!

    But eventually TV became stale. Predictable. They didn't want to alienate their customer base (read: The companies advertising with them) and stopped being innovative. In came cable. Remember the early Fox shows? Holy fuck, that was something new! Instead of the snorefest that established sitcoms were, they dared doing something new! They didn't care if they pissed anyone off, they just went with it. And yes, there were public outcries up the ass. Remember "Married... with Children"? Rerun it if you dare. Want to know why you won't? Lemme remind you of a quote: "A fat woman came into the store today".

    I don't need to say more, do I?

    Eventually, cable started to play it safe and we moved on. To YouTube. A place where everyone could broadcast anything. Until YouTube, too, feared they'd alienate paying advertisers if they let their users swear on the channel or talk about "controversial" topics, so what's left is cat videos and influenzas hawking crap to unsuspecting youths.

    So we went to Netflix. Because that's where the shows that we wanted to see went after cable didn't want to show them anymore. Now Netflix does exactly the same.

    And, wonder over wonder, what happens...

    • You can go back further than "Married With Children" for sitcoms they wouldn't dare make today. Have you ever seen reruns of "All in the Family", for example?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        You can go back further than "Married With Children" for sitcoms they wouldn't dare make today. Have you ever seen reruns of "All in the Family", for example?

        You must have stopped watching TV in the 1990's when Married with Children was on. They could definitely make it today with out any issues. You couldn't have made GOT or the Walking Dead back in 1990 because the censors would beat you bloodier than your worst scene because you dared to show a boob or uttered the word "cunt", let alone had *gasp*a gay*gasp*. Lets not even think about something like The Boys.

        TV has become less prudish, not more. Compare how visceral TWD is compared to the Zombie flicks of

        • TV has become less prudish and more "sensitive". In the end, the censorship shifted, but it didn't exactly vanish. You can be gay now on TV, but you can't make gay jokes anymore. Not that I'd complain, I sure don't need reruns of Three's Company, or any of the "funny stereotypical fags" that we got in various series.

          It wasn't even funny back then.

          But we need to call a spade a spade and accept that we do the same we always did: We censor away content that we deem inapproprate. For whatever reason. I may agre

      • How about Monty Python?

        Or something more recent, MadTV?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      I think it's a bit more than that. If you look at shows on other streaming services, a lot of them are very conservative. Things like Severance, For All Mankind, all the Disney Marvel/Star Wars stuff, Cobra Kai, Mythic Quest, Mr. Robot, Homeland, Watchmen, Chernobyl and many more, are not really controversial or outrageous. Quite the opposite in many cases.

      It's that they are good. Unconstrained by typical linear TV formats, season and episode lengths, syndication needs, and well funded. Netflix was the firs

      • One person' entertainment is another person's offense.

        Ever watched The Honeymooners? My parents both loved the show, I considered Ralph a despicable, sexist asshole that I really wished to send straight to the moon himself occasionally... I guess it's a generation thing. Get a load of this "50s entertainment [youtube.com]" and you might agree.

        Times change, and so does what is acceptable, what's considered funny and what's considered offensive.

        I was hoping that streaming would offer everyone what they want. If you want Th

  • I've been a Netflix customer since before it had streaming, and I only cancelled the Blu-ray subscription last year when there was literally nothing new and interesting to watch. That aside, content on Netflix is notoriously slow. I get that the pandemic happened, but two years in between short seasons of the Witcher, and there's no release date for season 3?

    Why do original content seasons have to be so short? There were 178 episodes of TNG over 7 seasons. Farscape had 88 over 4 seasons. Why can't there be

  • Don't like Netflix, goodbye. Why complain ! It's a personal choice for everyone. For my family and me, we still find plenty of content to watch. My "Watch" list is so long I don't know when I will catch up with what I like. I watch some stuff off Amazon Prime. Other streaming services I don't find appealing with their content - personal choice. Just laughing at all the whiners ! Don't like it - don't watch it !
  • My biggest qualm with Netflix is that their model seems based around producing more hit shows than they are willing to bank toll for the long term. I'm generally not a consumer of the newest must see lastest TV. Compund that with Netflix canceling shows left and right, and now I have no reason to subscribe until the series finale. If the show gets axed, then I don't sub, and I don't get left with an unfinished story. My other qualm is the autoplay snippets when you're browsing content. I might have kep

    • Compund that with Netflix canceling shows left and right, and now I have no reason to subscribe until the series finale. If the show gets axed, then I don't sub, and I don't get left with an unfinished story.

      Yes, this. These streaming networks keep shooting themselves in the foot by canceling popular shows because they're only slightly profitable. The irony is that they should know how this works by now because they explicitly found a way to profit from reselling syndicated content! If you don't keep it going for years, you can't build up a fan base that keeps watching it, paying for it in new formats and on new services, buying merchandise and so on. If I can't trust that the series is going to continue, it do

  • People are making choices, whether economic, political views or competition from other streaming services. Netflix doesn't offer content that's any better than other services, so it comes down to differentiation and compelling content at a price point that people can respect.

  • Nice while it lasted (Score:3)

    by freedom_surfer ( 203272 ) on Wednesday July 20, 2022 @09:20AM (#62718634) Homepage

    It sure was nice while it lasted.

    You will be missed old friend.

  • I am a long time subscriber to the top tier, and a casual consumer - exactly the kind of client they like. My mother uses my password to stream standard def from time to time. When they come knocking about that, I'll calmly explain that they can check their records to confirm my claim of high payment, low utilization, and that if they simply look the other way on my sharing, our status quo can continue - otherwise, please cancel my account.

    I'm willing to place a casual wager that that's the last I'll hear

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