Netflix - Not bad! Qwikster - uh, never mind...

The only thing I'll miss with the starz deal is Spartacus.

They're producing that $100 million original series with Kevin Spacey, with a pilot episode directed by David Fincher, so that's something.

They're producing that $100 million original series with Kevin Spacey, with a pilot episode directed by David Fincher, so that's something.

I saw that. It's a remake of the BBC House of Cards series, yes? That sounds like their target demographic.

There are always going to be centralized distribution models, and amazon, hulu+, crackle, whatever apple's got planned, etc., are leagues behind netflix in terms of library depth, but are also viable options and potentially successful models for the not-so-distant future. obv. the current netflix streaming vision (divorced from the dvd distro business) is failing to attract the right kind of attention from the right kind of studios, and flogging a huge but actually pretty-shitty library - unless they've got some commitment from the studios for new top-shelf content - as its own thing is hardly the best way to reward the long-time subscribers who've helped make netflix the juggernaut it is today.

welll the only one thats currently comparable to netflix is amazon, as hulu and crackle are studio-owned and whatever it is that apple introduces will be overpriced, DRMd to oblivion, etc. and amazon's streaming shit is just a side business for the company anyway.

the thing is that if netflix fails itll make centralized services *more difficult* (rather than opening up a space for them), since studios will see an opening (as sony already has w/ crackle) to create their own streaming services.

netflix's library sucks not because they haven't "attracted the right kind of attention" but because the studios are holding out and hoping that it will die so that they can come in and do their own thing. the future of "the content business" is distribution and studios are desperate to get in on it--i think this is a *horrible* idea (media companies are already too big and it makes movies and tv shows [and news and the internet] suck!)

so while in some sense netflix is screwing its customers right now--its also (imo! others may disagree) looking out for their... well, i dont want to say best interests, but looking out for better interests than anyone else currently involved in this whole sordid industry. (especially since the government is clearly not looking out for your interests.)

I mean Netflix/Quixster is emphatically not a new business model, and its current success is in large part due to savvy decisions made 5-10 years ago. It's in a dangerous position in that it has no easy avenue toward content creation, nor a direct pipeline to private resources it can offer/withhold exclusively. And maybe it's currently lacking the leverage to acquire new content. I mean, even Disney has a vault to fall back on during lean years. As middle-man/purveyor (but not producer) Netflix Quixster has got to position itself as offering something that other companies can't, and that comes in the form of 'choice.' If it can build up a library independent of its DVD business, and offer exclusives or an agglomeration of Good Titles in a centralized clearinghouse, it'll survive. If Quixster can't convince potential content providers to share content (b/c producers can always do it on their own, at their own terms) for convenience's sake, they've lost the market. Divorcing Netflix and Quixster may make negotiations a little easier, but it's very risky for the brass to risk losing subscribers when they need all the market dominance they can muster.

― remy bean, Monday, September 19, 2011 5:34 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah see i agree with all of this--and i agree that theyre taking a risk here, too. but its probably a risk id take! people underestimate how quickly this all will change, i think.

whiney otm itt, i didn't even realize there was a price raise or that i should change my plan because whatever dvd i want just showing up in my mailbox is still magical and incredibly cheap to any child of the blockbuster era, who gives a damn if the price goes up a little

this is me basically. Besides, when I watch movies I want to escape my computer.

also i guess it's only more expensive now if you stream AND rent dvds regularly? what percentage of their customer base could that possibly describe? seems like most people lean hard to one or the other.

i do both actually but id probably pay twice as much as i do now--its replaced cable for me

Ah, see, I don't pay for cable -- I rent cable dramas all the time though. For bachelors Netflix has been an awesome experience, well worth the subscription I've paid since 2004: watch a movie a night, return it, get it another. I keep my queue down to five or six movies at most though cuz long lists startle me.

yeah it's like 16 bucks a month?

now I'm making the terrible mistake of watching a Chabrol movie while typing this shit.

@ max

I think I agree w/ you on yr. last post: I'm in favor of the change, just not quite as violently (or as poorly expressed as it was in the mea culpa email). And not as hard a cleaving. Really, I guess, we only disagree on the idea that the 'studios are holding out and hoping that [Netflix/Quixster] will die.' I don't see that as their plan – I don't think they have anything that coherent in mind – and I think they're so motivated by unreasonable and unrealistic greed that they're missing the point of their own business.

yeah, in all truth its probably some combination of the two, depending on which executive you talk to

also i guess it's only more expensive now if you stream AND rent dvds regularly? what percentage of their customer base could that possibly describe? seems like most people lean hard to one or the other.

i totally do both. most of what i want to watch is on dvd, but my gf and i watch a lot of streaming documentaries, and she likes to find streaming tv series to watch while exercising, etc.

Yeah, I use both. Sometimes I want to just watch *something*, but I often want to watch something specific, and whoops there are no more video stores.

the thing abt the big movie studios and their relationship to digital distribution is they know they have to position themselves for the inevitable future but at the same time they cant bring themselves to turn off the much more lucrative dvd money faucet, so theyre sort of paralyzed watching their empires crumble before their eyes

streaming documentaries? sounds like something the Envelope Pushers are into

i mean something like netflix w/every move ever will in the near future exist, either that or people will turn to piracy, that is the lesson of the music industry

The story last week about the subscriber drop had a venn diagram of stream/mail/both. I'll see if I can find it.

yeah apologies if i'm stumbling in here kinda late and speculating on things that have already been documented

i want to believe that is the case, but i'm worried that a gradual itunesing of taste (the slow push toward available media, and the definition of 'taste' w/in the readily available media) will be more destructive to the weird fringe of movie-dom than it has w/ music.

^ xp to cr?m

This is the diagram from before the 1M revision in subscriber numbers, but I think the proportions are roughly the same.

http://news.cnet.com/i/tim/2011/07/25/chart.jpg

its true the future moviescape could prove exclusionary to art at the v fringes, but overall i think everyones invited to the party cause why no you know longtail etc xp

Could it? I know my taste has grown exponentially thanks to the Internet.

If you already love movies, finding an Ophuls or Chabrol flick that was never released on VHS is a huge part of the excitement.

yeah i think youre basically right here alfred

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/9/15/saupload_12724_131609569056213_rocco_pendola.png

So 80% of the dropped million is on the mail side.

http://www.splatf.com/2011/09/netflix-qwikster-facts << netflix: lol who tf cares abt dvds

really a very good point that i hadn't considered. i watched all the louis malle documentaries a few years ago after ordering special on greencine when they weren't avails on netflix, and i was so excited i chucked 'em into the VCR straightaway and watched with a greater enthusiasm than if I'd just come across them in the queue.

@Qwikster I'm about to go play soccer n I got stug by a fucken bee

That guy needs to hold out for more than $1K. What a lowball offer.

did the twitter guy really sell for $1k? if people are that willing to let netflix dictate terms, I wonder if netflix could double the pricing but keep more than half the customers...

actually if they lost half the customers, they'd still come out ahead because of reduced bandwidth costs, license per head fees. hmm (thinking of emailing ceo about modest proposal...)

He just said he'd been offered $1K. No indication he's planning to take it.

those diagrams are interesting but i'd much rather see one of what services people are actually USING as opposed to what they're paying for -- for instance people whose Netflix activity isn't 90%+ just streaming or just renting (which i am the latter but am still signed up for both because i've been lazy/ignorant of the changes)

i imagine a lot of the cancelers were just like 'i do not use any of this shit anyway'

good point -- rate hike probably weeded out a lot of people who were like "i've had the same three unwatched discs on top of my tv for the last 6 months"

those are of course netflix most valued customers fwiw

haha also good point

how many of you guys still buy DVD's -- Amazon, wherever?

ive bought like 2 dvds in my life, never understood wanting them tbh

i only buy DVDs if i think they have a lot of ahem rescreening value now -- all-time favorite movies, stuff with a lot of cool extras that i want to watch over a long period of time, collections of TV shows that weren't on for like 8+ seasons

last DVD i bought was Serious Man, before that um uhh this when it was new http://www.amazon.com/Monster-Movies-Gammill-Tinnell-Upchurch/dp/B000CEX30S I guess don't understand owning movies either.

that's how I've become with books too. I'm trying to shift my thinking about music too.

I will buy a DVD if I can't get it on Netflix.

saw/bought the abyss for the first time on vhs recently... it's a very strange movie!

That was my next question. How many of you guys still USE your VCR's?

(I used mine to watch Dead Ringers three weeks ago)

Qwikster
Don't believe that nigga that sed the bought my shyt cuz it aint tru
35 minutes ago