General Entertainment Update: Netflix begins "right-sizing" its workforce (i.e., layoffs)

[Ghost_MH]

1 hour ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

One of my giant pet peeves of Disney+ is that if you pick the "continue watching" option, you can't then change the episode. Why?! So if I'm binging Futurama and I want to skip and episode, I can't use that feature, I have to find it manually and then navigate to the episode I want. Prime is just as bad because it treats each season like a show, so sometimes it doesn't realize that you want to go from Season 2 to 3, it just ends.

 

Hulu isn't much better. Everytime my son wants to rewatch a season of TMNT, I need to delete the series from his history of release it'll play one episode, skip to the end credits of the next episode, then the end credits of the following episode, and so on. Like why wouldn't they just be set to restart episodes when playing them in a series?

 

Amazon is clearly the worst offender here, but it's crazy to me how simple things like this are so broken.

 

Crunchyroll treats different languages options as separate seasons for some crazy reason. Then when a series had too many language options, it's splits the language options in two separate series.

 

Also sucks that it works best in Netflix and Netflix is also the service I'm least likely to watch a season of anything on.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

I've still got a ton of stuff I wanna watch on Netflix, so I have no plans to cancel. It's my most used streaming service.

[AbsolutSurgen]

I don't watch enough TV to justify Netflix -- but my daughter does.  I'm always finding something worth watching -- La Casa de Papel (Money Heist) at the moment.

[Fizzzzle]

Netflix still pumps out more quality content than anyone else, but it gets drowned out by a bunch of shit, too. There's Bridgerton, Squid Game, Arcane, The Witcher, The Last Kingdom, Peaky Blinders, Ozark, Umbrella Academy, Stranger Things, Lupin, British Bake Off, and those are all just like... recently or coming up soon. And all off the top of my head, I probably forgot something.

 

No other streaming service touches the amount of content that Netflix produces with a 10-foot pole. And yeah, a lot of it sucks, but even if 75% of the content is terrible, the 25% left is still more than what anyone else does by quantity.

 

So yeah, there's the issue of Netflix just canceling shows immediately after releasing them. And there's something to be said about quality over quantity. But Netflix is still, in my opinion, the best service for "I don't know what I want to watch" other than YouTube. 

[Greatoneshere]

17 hours ago, Jason said:

Netflix estimates 100 million households are sharing passwords and suggests a global crackdown is coming

WWW.CNBC.COM

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Netflix has been willing to turn a blind eye toward password sharing when it was growing subscribers, but losing customers can change behavior quickly.

 

 

17 hours ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

Netflix Officially Adding Commercials

POPCULTURE.COM

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It's the end of an era for Netflix. While the service has long been praised for its total lack of [...]

Byyyyeeeeee

 

 

These two things are bad, to be clear.

[skillzdadirecta]

1 hour ago, Fizzzzle said:

Netflix still pumps out more quality content than anyone else, but it gets drowned out by a bunch of shit, too. There's Bridgerton, Squid Game, Arcane, The Witcher, The Last Kingdom, Peaky Blinders, Ozark, Umbrella Academy, Stranger Things, Lupin, British Bake Off, and those are all just like... recently or coming up soon. And all off the top of my head, I probably forgot something.

 

No other streaming service touches the amount of content that Netflix produces with a 10-foot pole. And yeah, a lot of it sucks, but even if 75% of the content is terrible, the 25% left is still more than what anyone else does by quantity.

 

So yeah, there's the issue of Netflix just canceling shows immediately after releasing them. And there's something to be said about quality over quantity. But Netflix is still, in my opinion, the best service for "I don't know what I want to watch" other than YouTube. 

Apple and HBO may not have as much content but on average they both put out more higher quality stuff than Netflix does. You're almost guaranteed a well made show from those two streamers. Netflix can be hit or miss.

 

Netflix' arrogance did them in... they really underestimated the competition from the streaming giants and how much of a toll that would take on them. Disney+ especially which is essential for families with kids. Coupled with Marvel and Star wars, you're pretty much required to have Disney+. Amazon and Apple both have other services that can carry their losses. Netflix doesn't have that.

 

I don't think the binging model really hurts them as much as others do. I think binging has changed the way we watched TV. A lot of people will wait for a weekly show release all of their episodes to watch them all at once, effectively binging them and if a show catches on on Netflix, people WILL watch to see what all of the fuss is about.  Their eagerness to cancel shows hurts them on the producer side more than anything else. Why would an established producer take their show to netflix if they aren't sure they would be cancelled suddenly? 

 

The lack of Sports and Live News are also holes Netflix never solved. This isn't the end of Netflix but it is a lesson learned. An expensive one.

[Reputator]

1 hour ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

 

These two things are bad, to be clear.

 

Those are reactions to their impending demise that will only hasten their impending demise.

 

Rather amusing!

[SoberChef]

Even as something as simple as a stand up comedian putting up a special, a few weeks or months later when they ask "What are my numbers?" and all Netflix says is if they're good or bad, no actual information given to those that created the content that was placed on their platform to begin with. It's always come off as a one way street of "my shit don't stink, only the dead body of physical media continues to rot." Their pretentiousness is indicative of just how greedy they are as well as how blind they are to the fact that their shit does in fact stink & they ain't the only game anymore. 

[SimpleG]

1 hour ago, skillzdadirecta said:

A lot of people will wait for a weekly show release all of their episodes to watch them all at once, effectively binging them

See I do this and everyone looks at me like i am fucking weirdo. Something comforting about sitting down on a weekend and just blasting through it. 

[SimpleG]

26 minutes ago, SoberChef said:

"What are my numbers?" and all Netflix says is if they're good or bad, no actual information given to those that created the content that was placed on their platform to begin with.

Netflix Animation Erased: Executives Fired, Shows Canceled and Accusations of ‘Staged Data’ (Exclusive)

WWW.YAHOO.COM

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Creators migrated to the streamer because of unprecedented creative freedom, now they’re facing a very different reality

 

Elizabeth Ito, whose deeply brilliant “City of Ghosts” was recently nominated for a Peabody Award and currently sports a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, reiterated, as many did, how much they enjoyed working with both the executive teams and Netflix’s marketing department. But she suggested that Netflix’s 360-feedback culture, which is espoused in its culture memo and trumpets full transparency as one of its core tenets, went out the window when the show was threatened with cancelation. Ito and others have complained of being presented with “staged data,” data meant to prove a point that Netflix has and squash conversation around it. Ito described the data as explaining, for the first time, “What they should have gotten for what they spent on the show.” (Netflix confirms their decisions are made using data, which takes into account viewing versus cost.) Creators have described the process as “manipulative.” One producer sent the data back, asked questions, and received a separate, different set of data that still reinforced Netflix’s position. Ito was left wondering, “Well, are you going to make more or not?” Netflix did not. Ito is now at Apple.

[skillzdadirecta]

49 minutes ago, SimpleG said:

See I do this and everyone looks at me like i am fucking weirdo. Something comforting about sitting down on a weekend and just blasting through it. 

You're not the only one. I do it with certain shows and so do a lot of my friends. They'll wait until their DVR'S have recorded a decent amount of a particular series and watch it at their leisure. There are VERY few "must watch" day and date shows these days. Even the ones that are aren't as ubiquitous as something like Squid Game or Bridgerton or even Tiger King. All three of those are Netflix shows. Netlfix probably should have cracked down on Password sharing a lot sooner as well. Expect all of the streamers to start cracking down on this soon too.

[GeneticBlueprint]

59 minutes ago, SimpleG said:

See I do this and everyone looks at me like i am fucking weirdo. Something comforting about sitting down on a weekend and just blasting through it. 

 

I don't think you're a weirdo. I get that appeal.

 

But one of my favorite joys in life currently is finding a show I love and having a podcast I love also cover it. And participating in discussion and theorizing and all that. That just doesn't happen too often when stuff is released all at once.

[CitizenVectron]

1 minute ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

 

I don't think you're a weirdo. I get that appeal.

 

But one of my favorite joys in life currently is finding a show I love and having a podcast I love also cover it. And participating in discussion and theorizing and all that. That just doesn't happen too often when stuff is released all at once.

 

I think, just like medium, some release formats benefit some types of stories more than others. Sometimes I appreciate a binge, other times I appreciate waiting and talking a bit, sharing the cultural experience.

[skillzdadirecta]

For me, binging a good show is like reading a great book. You know those books you just can't put down or read every spare moment you have? That's the same experience binging a great show provides. Week to week is fine for some shows... especially ones you have no choice to watch that way. But binging is fine too. and there are some shows that are designed that way.

[Fizzzzle]

Game of Thrones never would have gained the traction it did if each season was released all at once. The water cooler discussions of the show were, like, the entire appeal of the show.

 

I think I'm generally more in favor of weekly release shows for the most part. There are some shows, like The Witcher for example, where I feel like it wouldn't work as well. No matter what the recap was before the episode I would feel totally fucking lost for like the first 10 minutes of every episode. That's been happening to me a little bit with Moon Knight.

 

As for the whole "releasing a show weekly allows it to gain traction" argument.... Not always. A show has to be really good out of the gate. Remember the Constantine show from years back? It kind of flopped initially, they announced it was cancelled after like 6-7 episodes. By the end of the season, that show was actually really fucking good. But it was too late. That's one example I can think of where if the show was released just as one binge, it might have stuck around.

[Keyser_Soze]

No one is talking about Halo except that they're confused by why it exists. Probably would have benefited from releasing all at once.

[SuperSpreader]

12 hours ago, Reputator said:

 

Those are reactions to their impending demise that will only hasten their impending demise.

 

Rather amusing!

 

They'll get bought by Amazon or something for the tech

[Guest]

I don’t think the argument about weekly vs. all at once is about how viewers enjoy the content themselves, it is about how viewers engage with one another.

 

All at once has a propensity to make a show nothing more than the flavor of the week. Seems to be more difficult to keep something in the cultural conversation that way. Who knows.

[skillzdadirecta]

It depends on the show. We don't know if Game of Thrones would have become a phenomenon if it releaed all at once or not. The show didn't really become a mega hit until what, season 3 or 4?  By then folks who were watching it spread the word and other people started wondering what all the fuss was about and they started watching too. The rest is history. And HBO doesn't get enough credit for really starting the whole binging model before Netflix even went to streaming. HBO used to do marathons of shows they wanted to promote, often coupled with "Free weekends" where cable subscribers who didn't have HBO would get HBO for 48 hours in order to sample the content. They would then marathon whatever show they were promoting at the time to get people hooked. It was very successful for them and it was how I myself discovered several shows of theirs including The Sopranos, The Wire, Boardwalk Empire and of course Game of Thrones. 

 

and Netflix has had several shows that became "water cooler" shows despite dropping all of the episodes at once. Stranger Things, Bridgerton, Tiger King and of course Squid game. Audiences adapt and both methods of releasing shows work now... it's really a matter of preference and how the show is designed. If it's a slow burn show, where a lot of the early episodes are spent world building and developing character, you may benefit from dropping more than one episode at once so people don't write your show off as being "slow" or "Boring" as I saw people do with Boardwalk empire which really didn't "pick up" until episode 5 or 6 of the first season. If your show is based on established characters or has familiar, easy to digest concepts and doesn't rely on a lot of nuanced storytelling, you can probably get away with releasing an episode at a time... like The Mandalorean. Shit, look at how many people were ready to write off Book of Boba Fett on this very board. That show probably would have had a better reception if all of the shows released at once.

 

Like i said, moving forward i think we'll continue to see both approaches and even a hybrid approach like what HBO is doing with Tokyo Vice, releasing episodes in "chunks". Three episodes here... two episodes there.. It's all good.

 

For narrative scripted TV, people have definitely adapted to the binge model and I think it's here to stay. Also I don't think it's to blame for Netflix' current woes... COMPETITION is. It's really that simple.

[GeneticBlueprint]

Netflix seems to be the only streamer still doing the binge-release model. Most other streaming providers seem to be going the weekly release route with their original content.

[johnny]

Something like Winning Time on HBO Max might not be the most popular show but it is getting attention every week because of how certain people are portrayed and my friends talk about it every week. If it came out all at once you would maybe get two weeks discussion out of it. 

[Guest]

I think Squid Game is a great recent example of how you can have a big cultural moment without lasting cultural conversation.

 

I don’t think there is a right answer to what should be done, but interesting to see the way the industry seems to be heading

[Dre801]

I use HBO Max more now.  Haven’t bothered with Netflix since the first round of Ozark Season 4 episodes.

[Keyser_Soze]

Not all shows that release on Netflix are released in a lump. Memories of the Alhambra (which you should watch but you won't because you'll start and stop at Squid Game) was released on a weekly schedule.

[skillzdadirecta]

40 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

I think Squid Game is a great recent example of how you can have a big cultural moment without last cultural conversation.

 

I don’t think there is a right answer to what should be done, but interesting to see the way the industry seems to be heading

Because there isn't a "right way". We're gonna get variations of all of these models moving forward. Binging, weekly releases AND "Chunk dumps". Amazon goes back and forth... some shows they release weekly, others they dump all at once. Not sure what mechanism they use to determine it. And I worked on enough Squid Game stories to tell you it was part of the cultural conversation for a WHILE after it released. Not much is gonna stay in the zeitgeist too long nowadays anyway because there's always a "Shiny new thing" vying for our attention.

 

 

[skillzdadirecta]

Another problem Netflix has and needs to solve is their lack of revenue sources. Most, if not all of their Revenue come from subscribers. Do they license their shows out for distribution on other platforms or networks or syndication? Can you even buy their big movies on DVD or Bluray if you wanted? That's a LOT of money they're leaving on the table given how much content they own.

[GeneticBlueprint]

16 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Another problem Netflix has and needs to solve is their lack of revenue sources. Most, if not all of their Revenue come from subscribers. Do they license their shows out for distribution on other platforms or networks or syndication? Can you even buy their big movies on DVD or Bluray if you wanted? That's a LOT of money they're leaving on the table given how much content they own.

 

They had these really cool editions of Stranger Things for the first two seasons where the Blu ray set came in one of those old hard-shell VHS style boxes. Irritating AF making it fit on my shelf in the spot they should go because they stick out like a sore thumb. But I definitely appreciate the aesthetic considering the source material.

[johnny]

20 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Another problem Netflix has and needs to solve is their lack of revenue sources. Most, if not all of their Revenue come from subscribers. Do they license their shows out for distribution on other platforms or networks or syndication? Can you even buy their big movies on DVD or Bluray if you wanted? That's a LOT of money they're leaving on the table given how much content they own.

only thing ive seen them do is put some of their top movies on criterion 

[skillzdadirecta]

15 minutes ago, johnny said:

only thing ive seen them do is put some of their top movies on criterion

Really? I didn't know that. They should license some of their older shows that they are no longer producing like Orange is the New Black and GLOW for some revenue. Hell somebody would even license Cowboy Beebop from them, I'm sure.

[Iculus]

I'd be curious to see a breakdown of where YouTube stands here. Mr. Beast recreated Squid Games, and had significantly more views than Netflix. 

[skillzdadirecta]

2 minutes ago, Iculus said:

I'd be curious to see a breakdown of where YouTube stands here. Mr. Beast recreated Squid Games, and had significantly more views than Netflix. 

How many people are paying for Youtube? That's the question. Youtube gets views but it's free. Are they still in the scripted business? Cobrakai started there and moved to Netflix.

[Iculus]

1 minute ago, skillzdadirecta said:

How many people are paying for Youtube? That's the question. Youtube gets views but it's free. Are they still in the scripted business? Cobrakai started there and moved to Netflix.

I was thinking eyeballs more than subscriptions. 

[skillzdadirecta]

Just now, Iculus said:

I was thinking eyeballs more than subscriptions. 

Well I would imagine a free service would have more eyeballs than a paid one.

[Keyser_Soze]

Also Mr. Beast is one of the top earners on Youtube. Everyone watches that shiet.

[Fizzzzle]

10 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

How many people are paying for Youtube? That's the question. Youtube gets views but it's free. Are they still in the scripted business? Cobrakai started there and moved to Netflix.

You can still pay for YouTube premium (I do), but all it does is remove ads and allow you to download videos. They officially abandoned "YouTube Originals" around the end of last year.