But Is It on Netflix? - Streaming Video Service Thread: Hulu, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Disney+, Peacock, YouTube TV, AT+T Watch, Philo, Playstation Vue, HBO Max, HBO Now, Facebook Live and many more

Trashfuture had a good episode on Netflix and their stalling growth recently.

i don't think hbo max has been shutdown or absorbed.

!!!

BOOM! @hbomax will be available for @roku devices as of tomorrow. Details soon on @vulture

— TVMoJoe (@TVMoJoe) December 16, 2020

Finally!

Between snaking all the 2021 WB releases and now this, it's almost as if HBO really, really wants people to watch HBO Max.

how many of the services in this thread’s title have been shut down or absorbed into other offerings? i count at least three (hbo max, quibi, playstation vue)... does at&t watch still exist?

I love Shudder so much

sorta surprised they haven't been snapped up by a bigger player yet

or just integrated into the AMC app

the fact that they put up multiple at least good new-to-me genre movies every month is a miracle

ones which are part of a wider telco/broadcast offering probably have more stamina to ride it through than standalone offerings. in theory there are huge war chests from mergers to create new content

AT&T took on $170 billion in debt to buy/merge with Warner/DC/HBO and DirectTV, they're probably in a far worse position than standalone offerings.

Yeah it's a good point. I guess my view right now would be that it's all about revenues/subscriptions/top line. Jostling for position effectively, the investment phase. So they don't mind carrying debt, especially as the general and imv correct consensus is that OTT will become the primary distribution method for media in the next... oooh when do i want to say? five years seems in the right ballpark.

Standalone offerings don't really have any other revenue streams. And to be honest it's necessary to distinguish between content creators and aggregators like Netflix and sole aggregators of rights ownership like . I'm sure I've got a market map somewhere. Obv as Bezos charmingly said, you're also selling a pair of shoes or idk a fridge with Amazon Prime, so their model is set.

Although my last manager was a awful prick in many ways, one thing he did once say to me has stuck with me, which is that the broadcast and film media entertainment ecosystem is 'just' a way of pushing money around. It doesn't create huge capital wealth, compared to other industries. I don't know how true this is, but it felt apt enough to me to want to explore.

In terms of assets, one really interesting area is how you measure the value and depreciation of media assets. How Netflix have treated this is really interesting.This fascinating article comes to the conclusion that they're balancing depreciation v much in their favour, but it's not clear why. My answer would be the fundamental unsustainability of the Netflix business model, though it depends what their goal is tbh.

Anyway, I'm rambling like a sheep shits, at random and everywhere, but it's an area i need to do a deep dive on for work reasons, and also cos i'm interested.

The ones I really don’t get are aggregators with no subscription model like Tubi. Streaming commercial rates are very low as I understand it and even if they own the programming (some of which is very decent) they still have to shell out for bandwidth.

Tubi launched in 2014 with a $4 million investment from venture capital and a couple of entertainment execs, as a platform owned by an ad sales company. MGM and Lionsgate put $6 million investment, plus content libraries, in the next year. They sold to Murdoch's Fox Corporation for $440 million cash this year.

interesting, thanks sic.

I assume that none of them are making money at all, just convincing different investment bros to dump cash onto their debt piles every year by showing colourful charts that illustrate increased subscriber percentages.

Netflix could possibly be closer to profitable if they actually rolled episodes out weekly. their big expense is making more shit so that they can keep dropping new releases, as viewer interest gets burned off in ten days, instead of returning for ten weeks & building investment in a story & characters.

i think netflix are profitable but cashflow negative due to the upfront capital costs of chasing subscriptions in new markets, hence the reason their stocks are classed as junk aiui. (which is - again aiui - a perfectly legitimate stock class, but yeah, AAA rating this is not).

bonds, not stocks. i am not an expect in this area.

Fired up the Roku today and HBOMax is there!

What is so Max about HBOMax, does it contain like creatine or something

Speaking of which, is it just me, or does HBO Max show up as plain old HBO in Roku? Which I'm sure is the same thing, but man does this company have a branding issue. HBO, HBO Now, HBO Go, HBO Max. Are they just now HBO again?

No it's HBO Max still. I think you might need to add the HBO Max for some older Roku devices. As I understand it, not all of them auto updated.

Of the ones I don't subscribe to, the services Y for which I reasonably often notice "I'd watch X if I had Y" are Shudder and STARZ.

The one I subscribe to that I never watch anything on is Amazon Prime Video.

you should watch Patriot

For some reason, whenever I see mention of Patriot, I conflate that awful 2000 Mel Gibson movie with that AMC show about Revolution era spies.

you should watch Patriot

― na (NA), Thursday, December 17, 2020 11:53 AM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

1000x yes

and yeah man did they tank it with that awful title

My favorite show of the past many years

i downloaded epix specifically to watch perpetual grace ltd. specifically bc it's the same creator and much of the same cast as patriot but i still haven't gotten around to actually watching it

I watched the first ep I think and didn't follow through, maybe my expectations were too high...it didn't seem bad but didn't get its hooks into me like Patriot

Opening theme
"Train Song" by Vashti Bunyan (season 1)
"Sure Shot" by Beastie Boys (season 2)

That's a... change in tone.

incredible soundtrack both seasons

Thirding the recommendation for Patriot. Fantastic idiosyncratic show with a search proof name. It's almost like they didn't want anyone to find it.

I can't figure out what show you guys are talking about or what service it's on

OANN+

you are mean

ok i found it (using the clue of perpetual grace!)

Patriot is on Amazon Prime. One unexpected quality -- fair bit of dark humor.

Does Patriot have a conclusion, is does it end on a never-to-be-resolved cliffhanger?

kind of in between ... it set up a possible third season that didn't happen but it's not really cliffhanger either

i think netflix are profitable but cashflow negative due to the upfront capital costs of chasing subscriptions in new markets,

will be interesting to see if coronavirus changes this approach at all - apparently subscriptions are way up with everyone stuck at home, but obv they haven't been able to keep making new series in most markets

(to the point of cancelling Glow entirely just so they didn't have to pay to keep the sets in storage)

okay, i'll add Patriot to my backlog. Boy it really does not look good! I wouldn't watch this if you guys weren't so avid about it!

top of the backlog!

(to the point of cancelling Glow entirely just so they didn't have to pay to keep the sets in storage)

This decision really frustrated me, Glow was really starting to grow into something really special and got better with each successive season. I really don't want this to become the norm for streaming services to cut the legs off under every single show before it can grow organically or find solid footing.

What's crazy is that until relatively recently, and for sure still with lots of network shows, a single season of a single show might have as many episodes as two (or even three) seasons of a Netflix show. NCIS, for example, had 20 episodes in 2019, and usually 24 the seasons before that. To date something like 350 episodes of a show I've never seen and never will see. Or, like, even a cult show like Buffy all those years ago, 22 episodes a season. I suppose the difference is that a lot of these streamed shows are closer to movies in terms of production/look/promotion etc., but I have no idea what the actual budget of something like Glow, or Stranger Things or whatever is. I assume a lot more than that of NCIS.

Glow was really starting to grow into something really special and got better with each successive season. I really don't want this to become the norm for streaming services to cut the legs off under every single show before it can grow organically

Dunno if it'll make things worse or better for you, but S4 was already written as a final season due to Netflix calling time on it (and had started shooting).

Yeah, I was aware of that, which made it seem like an even weirder decision to can it when they did.

Hulu is jacking up their "live TV with no ads" package to $71 a month, which is not appreciably less than cable any more but notably less reliable. If I didn't have to deal with Time Warner, I would consider switching back for the duration of the NBA season. I might anyway!

Jeez, what is that up from?

$61. Not a small leap!

Time Warner is $45 a month for the same package! Shit's gotten weird.