Netflix Expects To Be Unprofitable In 2012 323
PolygamousRanchKid writes with an article in CNN Money about Netflix's prospects in 2012. From the article: "Netflix warned in its last earnings report that it expects to be unprofitable 'for a few quarters' starting at the beginning of 2012. The primary culprit is Netflix's pricey plan to expand its streaming video service into the United Kingdom and Ireland, but a wave of subscribers jumping ship hasn't helped. The filing also revealed that Netflix is in the process of raising $400 million from investors to help bulk up its cash stash. While that will give Netflix more money to invest in content, secondary offerings are sometimes considered ominous signs."
More content (Score:4, Informative)
They need more content...I watched nearly all the good movies over one winter off work.
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They need more content...I watched nearly all the good movies over one winter off work.
The "watch it now" content started at about 10% of the catalog, and it was a fair cross section (of the 500 movies in our queue, 50 showed up in "watch it now")
The difference between disc by mail and watch it now is that you can only get maybe a half-dozen discs by mail per week (3 at a time, assuming you're not "watching" them the minute they arrive and running across town to get them back in the mail before the 6pm last pickup). With watch it now, you can binge on 6 movies a day, or more if you want.
Most
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Theoretically you can watch more with streaming, but in practice I don't think that's a common enough problem. What it means is that I could watch a couple episodes out of several different series during the week. The main limiting factors for most people are time and the speed of mail. People probably do watch more streaming than discs, but then again they might not, I know before I canceled that I watched several times as many discs as streams. And since leaving I haven't missed streaming at all.
I have no
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In their Canadian implementation, everything I have tried looking for(pretty much anything you would see on Rogers/Bell) has not been on there. I have not enabled my free trial yet because of this.
If they put actual content on, I would gladly give them my money.
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That said, I did run out of content I wanted to watch after about 2 months. So I suspended my account. It comes back on as of Dec 1, I hope they have added enough content to make it worthwhile, or I will be suspending again before very long. After that if they still can't get content, I will be ending my account.
Re:More content (Score:5, Informative)
OK, let me do some random searches of stuff I want to watch...
(I PROMISE that these are as they come off my head, of stuff I am thinking of with no deliberately only looking for stuff they don't have)
Pulp Fiction: No :)
Stargate SG1: Oooh they have it now!
Stargate Atlantis: No
Dr Who (new): No
Top Gear(UK, New): YES!!
House MD: No
Lost: No (Not actually a bad thing)
Total Recall: No
Avatar: No
Airplane: No (But they have Airplane2??)
Shrek: No
Star Wars: No
Start Trek Series: No (But they do have three films, including the latest)
Die Hard: No
Inception: No
Crank: No (But they have Crank 2)
Family Guy: No
Futurama: No
Titanic: No (But, again, they have the sequel!. I don;t actually want to watch it anyway, I just thought of it is all)
Friends: No (For wifey)
Seinfeld: No
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels: YES!!!
Snatch: YES!!!
Saw: Yes, but only 1 & 2
The IT Crowd: Yes!
The Backyardigans: Yes
Special Agent Oso: No
Mickey Mouse: No
Grays Anatomy: No
Kill Bill: No
Shaun of the dead: Yes
Poltergeist: No
Etc, etc, etc. Need I go on?
8/32 - 25% success. :(
Granted, this is a FAR better success rate than when I last looked (more like 5%), but it's still pretty piss poor
When it gets to over 50% such that most (i.e. over 50% :) ) of what I am looking for is there, then I will part with my money.
I wonder what the pass rate is for that list on the USA version. I don't have a US proxy so can't check. I bet it is much higher.
Re:More content (Score:4, Informative)
Star Gate Atlantis - Yes
Airplane! - Yes
Doctor Who - All the new Who that has been release on DVD except Season 6 which was released two days ago in Region 2 only
Star Trek Series - I see original, TNG, Voyager, DS9, Enterprise, the Animated Series.
Die Hard - Yes
Family Guy - Yes
Futurama - Yes
Grey's Anatomy - Yes
Are you a troll?
Re:More content (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, Bell and Rogers are evil bastards, but in the Netflix Canada case, it's the Canadian divisions of the major movie/television production companies that are the villians. Like: Sony Pictures Canada, NBCUniversal Canada, etc, etc. (And yes, Bell and Rogers are somewhat involved, but in their role as content owners, not as ISPs.)
From what I understand, these big multi-national companies are not particularly happy with Netflix US, but they're kind of stuck because they have existing agreements and Netflix US has too many subscribers to ignore.
But then when it came time for Netflix and the movie/TV production companies to negotiate contracts for Canadian distribution, the productions companies said, "hey, wait, here's our chance to really stick it to Netflix. the Canadian market isn't that big and Netflix doesn't have a big presence there yet."
So they offered much worse deals to Netflix that Netflix just couldn't afford; or refused to license the content under any terms.
Basically, the people who own the content copyrights are starving Netflix Canada in hopes that it dies.
Re:More content (Score:4, Funny)
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I put my NF sub on hold since I did run out of things to watch. my queue is entirely on the 'no idea when we will pay to have this back again' list. so I suspended my account. didn't really want to, but they are being very 'slow' to restock various videos and series.
I'm more and more picky about what I waste time on, for tv; and I've about watched all there is that is worth watching. NF is slacking. I think they'll buckle and fall apart in a few years since they make so many bad business decisions.
Re:More content (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:More content (Score:4, Informative)
It's relatively common in the construction field to do that. Which is just as well because there's typically a lot less work in the winter anways. If they work enough they can even draw unemployment during the winter.
Re:More content (Score:4, Insightful)
Not great but a livable wage.....
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/All_K-12_Teachers/Salary [payscale.com]
At least... (Score:2, Funny)
Qwikster will be profitable. Oh, wait...
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Qwikster will be profitable. Oh, wait...
Qwikster could have been profitable. But it's saturated, which would have made it an income stock, not a growth stock. And nobody wants to be an income stock, because it's not sexy. In the long term the Disc by mail will be doomed by changes in 1st class mail. A stamp is going to 45 cents next year. Saturday delivery is doomed. And eventually the USPS will go to alternate day delivery to nearly half the number of carriers and trucks it needs. Redbox will be the way of the future, for the media of the
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You're just making things up out of whole cloth. What mental disease possesses you?
An unnatural fixation on charts and graphs. The one I'm looking at right now is a chart of first class mail volume. If you don't believe me, I have some NFLX to sell you...
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Overvalued for 10 years (Score:5, Insightful)
Anytime I ran any kind of "rational valuation" calculation on NFLX based on subscribers, income, potential for growth, etc. the market seemed to be out-pricing my ideas by a factor of 3 to 7... NFLX has been a very expensive stock for a very long time, I'm surprised it took this long for the bubble to deflate.
Still a good business model, when they aren't spouting off idiotic ideas about breaking it.
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Market imbalances is how money is made in stocks. An overpriced stock that pays no dividend has "short me" written all over it. I am never surprised when a stock falls in line with performance metrics, but I am often surprised at how long it takes before that happens.
NFLX has been a screaming short for a long time. The service split and price increase was so incredibly harebrained, it's almost as if management wanted to fail.
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If anyone has ever seen the asinine PowerPoint on the "Netflix culture" (follow their careers link), you'd understand why this company has been screwed for a while.
A more self-entitled group of assholes is hard to find south of Menlo Park.
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Luckily I am friends with some people who worked there (2/3 have left since) and I'm thankful I didn't pursue the job.
Anything constructive to add? I maintain that they're wildly self-entitled based on their own 'cultural' guidelines, which led to bad decisions like Qwikster. They're just like Apple in the 90s.
Netflix pissed off all the whiny brats (Score:3, Insightful)
Who got upset over their subscriptions going up a tiny amount. If those people wanted to protest something really gouging, it'd be the gas prices. Or the costs of medicine. Or fuck, go out and yell at the government or the banks.
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Or fuck, go out and yell at the government or the banks.
Actually, they're doing that. With sit ins, and tents, and pepper spray, and all the fixins...
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On the plane of existence where if the studios get their way Netflix dies and they implement their own streaming services for $50 / month, or for $3 per movie streamed.
The studios are incorrect by nearly an order of magnitude with respect to what streaming services should cost. Netflix has set the price level, the studios better start offering them content at rates that let them keep their prices lower than twice the amount they are charging now (yes I will pay twice as much for Netflix, but not 10x).
Appl
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Netflix may not work for some, but it cant match the greed exhibited by your average local-monopoly cable providers.
Re:Netflix pissed off all the whiny brats (Score:4, Insightful)
And this is why they are going to tank in the UK. Here we have already have Lovefilm, which was recently bought by Amazon UK, and is now an amazon subsidiary. Lovefilm already has a combined disc by post and streaming service. It is already usable on the iPad iPhone ps3 Xbox, and many tvs sold here already have support for Lovefilm.
And unlike netflix, Lovefilm have recently increased the number of discs you can have each month at no extra cost.
Competition is primarily blockbusters, who are doing great on there own. I fail to see how Netflix can make it.
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No, I'm pretty sure it was the higher subscription cost.
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No, I'm pretty sure it was the higher subscription cost.
At least for me it was a couple of things:
1) The price increase for a very marginal service (poor selection, poor quality)
2) Poor selection and poor quality
3) Netflix acting like a bunch of jerks - it DOES make a difference. Especially when it's easy and trivial to dump them.
Remember, this isn't your power bill, it's not even cell phone. It's entertainment.
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No, I'm pretty sure it was the higher subscription cost.
Not in my case.
I had cable and Netflix for awhile. I would have kept both, because Netflix was inexpensive enough for me to disregard. However, when what's-his-name told me I should give up a couple of lattes in order to pay him, I immediately decided that I didn't want to do business with him or his company any more.
I quit Netflix to send a message to them, and every other media company, that they won't get any money from me if they mistreat me.
Netflix still in a good position (Score:5, Insightful)
They lost a lot of subscribers due to their split-service gap, and they look to be having content issues...
However, they still seem in a good position to me. The service is fundamentally good, they still have a lot of ratings from users to help determine what content makes sense for them to buy, and (most importantly) they have a LOT of paths into the home - just about any device you can name supports Netflix.
They are in a rocky spot now but I just can't see who can replace them easily, or even reach the position they currently hold within a year or two.
Re:Netflix still in a good position (Score:5, Insightful)
They are in a rocky spot now but I just can't see who can replace them easily, or even reach the position they currently hold within a year or two.
You seem to forget Netflix' existance is allowed solely at the discretion of the MPAA. They're becoming unprofitable right now because the MPAA decided to charge more. They're like the OPEC of the content world. They don't care who lives and who dies, as long as they can keep writing their own paychecks.
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You seem to forget Netflix' existance is allowed solely at the discretion of the MPAA. They're becoming unprofitable right now because the MPAA decided to charge more.
That is just a pricing issue though. Netflix have taken those lumps already. As stated, the fundamentals of what they offer (device reach, still lots of content) mean they will survive, and probably thrive since there is no other company in the position they are in, nor will there be for some time due to the very difficulties you mention.
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This is why people should not be so quick to get rid of physical media. Physical media is personal property and comes with first sale rights and a large group of diverse sellers. You can buy just what you need, pay the market price for it, and find a 3rd party willing to sell it to you.
You don't have to put up with any of this "it's their content, they should be able to exclude you" kind of nonsense.
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You don't have to put up with any of this "it's their content, they should be able to exclude you" kind of nonsense.
Except it's probably infested with DRM. This is one reason why I still buy more DVDs than Blu-Rays, since DVD DRM is pretty much dead.
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> just about any device you can name supports Netflix
Linux PC!
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I have tried streaming, and the quality is not there. Its fine to watch on iPad or computer, but when you want to watch on a big screen TV, the quality just sucks
I watch it on a projector with a 5 foot diagonal. The quality is OK, especially the HD content.
Even worse, the selections on Netflix are very limited and old movies that nobody really wants to watch.
If all you are in it for is the movies, it's not enough by itself.
But what you and many other people seem to be ignoring is the vast amount of TV cont
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> Also there is a TON of kids programming
Which might be limited to 2 seasons out of 10, or similar such nonsense.
Then stuff "expires" and you can't watch it anymore.
Netflix streaming is like a single independent local broadcaster that might have a lot of diverse things but might have nothing that you actually want to watch.
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Obligatory Oatmeal reference (Score:4, Funny)
They had it coming. Oatmeal Netflix parody:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/netflix [theoatmeal.com]
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In that case you shouldn't care about the extra charge, since you don't have to have the service.
Your complaint WOULD be valid if they bundled the two and didn't give you a choice to only get the mail only option.
I'm sympathetic, but stop with the bonehead moves (Score:5, Interesting)
I understood when they had to raise prices. The studios have gotten crazy greedy on the whole streaming thing and their costs have gone through the roof. Netflix streaming is still BY FAR the best deal around. You can watch the entire runs of shows like Battlestar Galactica (original AND new, even 1980), The X-Files, Twin Peaks, Firefly, Family Guy, etc (many of them in HD, no less). Nothing else even comes close to the selection or quality of Netflix's streaming library.
But I'm a lot LESS sympathetic with some of their bonehead moves--like trying to separate their by-mail/streaming divisions with annoying separate websites and queues (a move destined to serve little purpose other than pissing off loyal customers like me) and paying $40 million for a bunch of shitty Dreamworks streaming rights (a move that's only going to encourage the greed of the other studios in the future).
Boneheaded Movies (Score:2)
If I could sort Netflix streamers by ratings (or by anything other than Netflix's lame categories), it wouldn't bother me that 99% of the streamers are crap. And if I could weight other people's ratings by raters who rate similarly to how I rate, then I might better find crap that I'd like anyway.
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And if I could weight other people's ratings by raters who rate similarly to how I rate, then I might better find crap that I'd like anyway.
Doesn't it theoretically do that already? I know it gives star rating estimations for stuff that we haven't watched yet based on past ratings. I thought that was done via the ratings of people similar to us, but i admit that i haven't really looked into it much.
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You can watch the entire runs of shows like Battlestar Galactica (original AND new, even 1980)
If Netflix are relying on Battlestar Galactica 1980 as a way to draw in customers, that explains why they're doing so badly :).
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Don't talk about greedy this or greedy that. Netflix is not a not-for-profit, they are greedy too. A lot of social scientists agree that men are mostly egotistical and driven by greed.
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This was done, because the studios were trying to devour the DVD business income in their negotiations for streaming content.
Hey you made $400 million, We want $200 million. But streaming only accounted for $40 million. So how do you keep the studios from digging into the pockets of the DVD side to gouge for streaming.
You split the company. Then the profits are held separately.
They just botched the explanation of why.
Good luck Netflix (Score:5, Insightful)
They face very stiff competition from other companies with much deeper pockets, so they are going to have it tough for a while. I like Netflix (their latest snafu with splitting the DVD rental / streaming plans didn't affect me - I'm streaming only), and as a technophile, I'm pleased that they have gone to great lengths to support such a diverse range of hardware. A lot of companies wouldn't have bothered with Wii, XBox, Android, etc. Netflix's decision to split off their DVD rental was simply waaaaay too early. That is an inevitability of course - anyone with the least bit of foresight can see that demand for physical media is going to drop off a great deal in the near future. However, Netflix must provide a mechanism to bolster the streaming support since the movies offered online are so hit and miss, and the only choice is DVD for now.
Take Lord of the Rings for example. Did you know that you can watch The Two Towers online, but not the first or third movies? Now what in the world is that about??? As long as that sort of garbage is going on, customers need a single unified interface and billing to get movies in whichever format is available.
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While I'm at it, I really have to agree here. I feel bad for Netflix because I know it isn't entirely their fault. The studios are really screwing them over and quite frankly it's almost criminal what they're doing at this point. God forbid they give reasonable pricing and just let us have what we want. No, they need to make 10x as much money while the number of people willing to pay for these ridiculous
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The Two Towers was released in that tiny window when New Line Cinema was under AOL-Time Warner's corporate umbrella instead of Time Warner proper, which controlled New Line when the first and third movie were released. During the time AOLTW ran the distribution for Warner Bros and New Line, they were much more aggressive about getting the produ
Tivo Redux (Score:4, Interesting)
The disk mailing side of the company is already saturated from a customer base side. Increasing postal rates and the eventual end to saturday delivery will make the service less viable. Eventually the postal service will go to every-other-day delivery of first-class mail, in order to reduce the number of carriers and mail trucks by 30 to 40 percent. The disk mailing side of NFLX is therefore a revenue stock now (with that revenue being eatten by the streaming side), and negative growth in the future. Sell...
Not this time (Score:3)
Then bigger companies, such as the cable companies, come in with a comparable product, and eat your lunch, because they already have a relationship with the customer
But what kind of relationship is that? It's not a good one.
TiVo was wiped out because all they could fundamentally do is offer a slight improvement to the cable box, once the cable companies started also including a DVR that was it. They couldn't offer additional content, just extra convenience.
Netflix is more than that, they offer a vast arra
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I tried TiVo once, and had to return the equipment for a refund. The firmware was crappy, and the user experience was abysmal. This was their 2nd generation system, no less.
As much as I'd like to see competition out there, I think the only company with the understanding of how to satisfy a customer is Apple and their iTunes service. I seriously think that they are the only ones who understand how to offer smooth experience for users of their technology, in spite of whatever snafus they have committed in the
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Since my Cable Companies DVR IS a TiVo, I wouldn't call them 'wiped out' TIVO is fine, the consumers are screwed. I mean, seriously needing a specific type of recorder to record channels? WTF. I SHOULD be able to by any DVR, plug it in and it work.
But no, I need to have a special DVR for direct TV the costs 200 dollars. That's why I don't ahve one
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Well, the cable companies are not the only possibility.
There's competing streaming video from Amazon, which can stream both rentals and streaming versions of DVDs you buy from them, and audio. It's also not hard to imagine a significant expansion of video for iTunes. Amazon and Apple seem to have good relationships with their customers, so this is a serious issue.
There's also Hulu+, and it's pretty clear that Google is trying to integrate YouTube movie streaming into G+.
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Holding-back half of the mail for a day just means that the USPS would need more warehousing, and more operatives to stack and de-stack that mail
True, there is a cost of holding mail. But the current resources would be sufficient when mail volume drops in half. The USPS is not continuous delivery. They hold your mail now for up to 1 day. Eventually, they'll hold it for up to two days. They also hold mail now on Sundays, which doesn't seem to be causing them too much trouble. They actively want to eliminate saturdays.
less efficient routes for the delivery vehicles because they have to drive past off-day locations to reach on-day locations.
Only if you don't understand operations management. You wouldn't do something stupid like even/odd addresses, side of the str
Netflix GoogleTV API? (Score:2)
I want to ride the wave of Netflix serving content at a loss for my own profit. Is there an example (preferably Eclipse) Google TV project demonstrating an app that accesses the Netflix catalog and streaming content?
Two OK Ideas (Score:2)
That turned to crap by pursuing both at once.
Netflix had ALWAYS planned to ditch their DVD service in favor of streaming; the original idea was to be done by 2007.
But the general infrastructure did not progress as fast as had been forecasted.
So divesting themselves of their DVD side was the logical progression. Except that their entire plan was ill-formulated and just altogether sloppy. Poorly timed, too, considering their loss of Starz and such.
Raising fees to accomodate the general paradigm shift - where
Too bad, cable needs competition (Score:2)
I think their second problem is that if you have cable, your On Demand is probably as good as Netflix and if you get a premium channel, it comes with an On Demand that blows Netflix out of the water.
I wish Netflix was going to give th
Netflix Did It Wrong (Score:4, Insightful)
Netflix clearly wants to get out of the DVD business and into the more profitable streaming-only business. Netflix could have just raised its streaming+DVD prices a little for a little while, say +$2 for 6 months. Then started charging a little more for DVD deliveries, while offering a rebate to streaming-only customers. After a few months of that structure, they'd have a distinct streaming-only customer group. Then they could have raised prices on streaming or DVD independently. Voila! Two distinct, differently priced products, each profitable, with DVD delivery able to be wound down while making the streaming-only product look better.
Instead they did it in a way that told their customers that they had to take whatever Netflix shoved at them. "Where ya gonna go?" Well, many went, and the brand is damaged even for those who stayed.
It's not too late for Netflix to do the underlying biz transformation right. But the marketing and corporate execs who backed the debacle should take a big hit. The marketing people should probably go, unless the corp execs want to give them a second chance on something like what I described. But probably they should go. There's never any reason to keep a marketer unless they're really a star (which is extremely rare) - there are plenty of non-stars who can take a crack at the next marketing bungle.
My guess ... (Score:3)
My guess is that they signed some deal with the content providers that they'd pay them for streaming their movies based on the number of Netflix customers ...
So, you unload the DVD customers to a separate company, and suddenly, they don't have to pay for the people who never would've been able to stream in the first place.
Of course, if this were the case, they should've said something ... telling the customers that it was a move to screw over the distributors might've given them some goodwill rather than ju
A large part (Score:5, Interesting)
A large part of their problems, ironically, can be blamed on iTunes. Or rather, what iTunes did.
Apple came into the market and swept a massive position of power and influence right out from under the music (or rather, content) industry's feet. Apple gained a novel and unrivaled position to dictate the terms of negotiation.
They're still stinging from that.
As a byproduct, they were far more 'prepared' for Netflix. Well, not prepared, as the industry is ancient, slow, bloated and generally can't see "the next big thing" until it's already slapped them across the face and taken their daughter out to dinner.
They were more Apprehensive, really.
They may not have known if Netflix would be a success (by-mail services could never be a threat, and when the streaming came about, similar "on demand" services were rather mediocre) but they knew well enough to keep the reigns on a potentially unwieldy beast.
So Netflix' (possibly unexpected to the Industry) fast growth and explosion in the public mindshare did not end up giving them anywhere near the same control and leverage for negotiations with content owners and producers. Netflix did not secure a completely dominant position, and were unable to supplant the general DVD purchase/rental and theater-going parts of the industry, or at least nowhere near as successfully as iTunes snowballed over CDs.
As such, they're entirely at the whim of industry conglomerates that view them now as something of an enemy, or an annoyance that is profitable enough not to deserve a swat yet.
If the industry wasn't so generally inept, there would have been an MPA-aligned style service already out and Netflix would be deprived of most of its content almost immediately.
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The problem with the content industry is that they have always sucked with their digital delivery. This is, unfortunately, a generalization that has no exceptions, and has equally applied from the time the first network set up a website till now. Jobs had repeatedly bashed them about it, and they still haven't learned their lesson.
Biz Plan Help for Netflix (Score:2)
I pay for the Nexflix streaming, but only because I have a 4 year old and the selection of content for that age range is decent and worth the price.
If you want profitability, look at tiered streaming pricing. Add a couple of bucks
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They have a lot of options to become profitable. (Score:5, Insightful)
Netflix has yet to offer video games or adult movies. Both those avenues will bring in tons of cash.
Damn! (Score:2)
I wish I could say I am going to lose money the next several years, please give me 400 million to tie me over!
Better Content (Score:2)
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Actual it has been shown pretty well that you can change peoples lives with a tax increase.
I'm not sure where the idea that you can't got started, or why people ignore all the times it has worked.
"Ask yourself how many smokers stopped smoking because of the tobacco tax"
It was something like 12%, over a decade. But that's icing. The real number are the amount of people who did't take it up.
Drinking as well.
Of course, that's just one aspect. The tax for tobacco goes to pay for education and medical treatment.
NYC (Score:5, Insightful)
In NYC, the government has actually created a black market for tobacco, complete with all the crime that comes with it. How did they do it? By making it too expensive to legally acquire tobacco -- same as any other instance of prohibition -- except that this isn't full prohibition, but some kind of quasi-prohibition where it's both legal and illegal.
This is what prohibition does (create a black market), whether you're talking about "sin taxing" or outright criminalization. If you look a little closer, you'll realize that creating a black market -- and all the violence and injustice that comes with it -- is actually more profitable than taxing and regulating. It simply depends on the drug and whether or not they can "pull it off". They tried it with alcohol and actually succeeded for 10 years until the people started waking up to the violence and the root cause of it all.
What they are doing in NYC is testing the waters, not reducing the number of smokers. They are looking for the sweet spot between legalized/regulated (tax revenue) and criminalized/prohibited (law enforcement revenue) that will simply rake the most money through the business of government.
Not quite as romantic as you pictured, is it? Don't think for a second that prohibitionists and "drug warriors" are after anything but cold hard cash, because you're fooling yourself.
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Tobacco consumption in Ontario went down when increased taxes lead to high per-pack costs. The Feds cut their portion, resulting in cheaper smokes, and increased consumption. Stricter laws about not smoking indoors also brought about decreased consumption. Most smokers cut down, but they didn't quit.
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Tobacco consumption in Ontario went down when increased taxes lead to high per-pack costs.
Isn't that just because they started buying cigarettes from America instead? I know cigarette smuggling from cheaper countries in mainland Europe was big in the UK a few years back, even to the extent of competing gang members murdering each other.
Netflix is great for active people (Score:5, Interesting)
I know that Bob is a regular troll here, but I'm a sucker and will respond anyway.
As an active individual I have no desire to adjust my life around a television schedule, nor pay $50+ a month for a cable service that I rarely use. Cutting that expense to $8 a month makes much more sense for a casual TV/movie consumer. It allows me to not worry about getting "behind" in a series as I can watch it at my own pace, and leave the house at any time without concern about what I am missing. It allows me to have down time when I need it (and as you should very well know, having relaxing time is very important for physical and mental health).
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Aye.
I exercise a lot and average watching less than an hour of Telly a day... probably quite a bit less than an hour.
The only reason I do watch television ever is to spend time with the wife and kids- otherwise we're all off in different directions.
Experts recommend you take some time to relax and don't spend all the time on the go. $8 a month is a good price for the casual TV watcher who doesn't need/want to be watching all the time.
You can subscribe to netflix and be a healthy individual who is not a co
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Netflix is not going to replace an 'overpriced cable service'.
You're just kidding yourself if you think it can.
An antenna and a Tivo would probably be more effective.
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It allows me to not worry about getting "behind" in a series as I can watch it at my own pace, and leave the house at any time without concern about what I am missing. It allows me to have down time when I need it (and as you should very well know, having relaxing time is very important for physical and mental health).
People have been able to do that since around 1980 with the VCR.
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That's actually illegal http://www.mnsportcompacts.net/forum/showthread.php?51865-Is-it-Illegal-to-watch-a-video-while-driving [mnsportcompacts.net]
if it's built in you'd have to illegally mod it to not pay attention to the car start / stop, there's an extra wire that does this in car dvd players.
Have I ever known anybody to get a ticket for this? No... still best not to give a reason.
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You pay almost as much per month for a DVR as you do for a Netflix service (unless you build your own) - DVRs actually seem a bad price to me.
Sports and News is all available for free (in most cases) online- at least any game I've wanted to watch I've been able to locate a free stream for.
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Yeah, I'm aware you can build your own.
If you have a spare $200-300 laying around to build a system.
At $5 a month that takes 40 to 60 months to break even- not to mention extra power consumption that would take for an always on device- although new HTPCs save a lot of money on those. Even if you have an old PC you can convert- the older ones were power hogs and would cost you a couple bucks a month just to run.
Most people would break even with time- and it's worth it to upfront money so the cable company c
Re:Good, but not for the reasons I had hoped for. (Score:5, Insightful)
Buddy, I watch netflix for the 2 hours I have to watch a movie between errands, work, and sleep.
It's not a lot to ask, and I'll be damned if I'll have someone with your attitude treating it like I'm doing something wrong.
Fuck you.
Re:Good, but not for the reasons I had hoped for. (Score:4, Funny)
I'm not your buddy, guy.
Re:Good, but not for the reasons I had hoped for. (Score:5, Informative)
Folks, it's a measly $8/month for unlimited TV and movies.
How enticing is that? You know what's even cheaper? GETTING OFF YOUR BUTTS
AND MOVING! Instead of asking the family "What do you want to watch
tonight?" ask "Where should we walk to tonight?"
You know, when I get home from work in the winter, it's dark, and usually cold. I do like to get the kids out when I can, but pushing it against the dark and cold leads to sick kids as often as not. And, so, then, we can hop in the auto and pop round to, well, where? The shopping mall? A restaurant? Just the petrol cost will dwarf $8/month.
Golden Girls quote: "What did we do before we sat around like dolts staring at the Television?" "Oh, I remember when I was a kid, we sat around like dolts staring at the Radio."
Get a hobby, build a workshop, wash your dishes by hand and mop the floor - yeah, these are all good alternatives, but for the hours between 6 and 10pm, there's not a lot of decent outdoor activity available in the winter.
Re:Good, but not for the reasons I had hoped for. (Score:4, Informative)
I don't think there's any reason to believe that being out in miserable weather will make you sick -- not if you're maintaining proper body temperature, at least. That's some wives' tale that has lived way past its expiry date. I know not everyone can live in a place where there's a walkable neighborhood, but perhaps you have a public park somewhere?
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"against the dark and cold leads to sick kids as often as not"
no. In fact, they are less likely to get sick.
Yeah it's a pain, I get it. I have 2 kids and live in Oregon, so it's dark at 5, rainy and often cold. However, the cold doesn't make people sick.
Re:Good, but not for the reasons I had hoped for. (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, its healthy for your kids to be exposed to cold, germs, etc...
Get them outside, go skating at the rink, go tobogganing, cross country skiing, downhill skiing, snowshoeing, sign up for a winter survival course just for fun, build a snowman....
Lots of stuff to do!
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You're not thinking outside the box. During the winter you simply have to get a different job, one were you have time to spend with your kids during daylight hours.
Re:Good, but not for the reasons I had hoped for. (Score:5, Insightful)
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GETTING OFF YOUR BUTTS AND MOVING!
Says the chiropractic troll while sitting in front of his PC writing furiously to get the first post at Slashdot!
Note to Dr. Bob -- your posts lose most of their enduring qualities when they contain material that may indeed be factual or relevant. Please skip all of that and get straight to subluxions.
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Im going to be charitable and assume you are not a troll.
Netflix should be taxed like tobacco and liquor: it's a destructive, disease causing force causing people to fall to pieces.
Part of freedom means the freedom to make your own mistakes and run your own life. I could probably look at your life, were it all visible to me, and see several areas where you could do much much better, but that is in no way a good reason for me to have executive control of your life-- that would in fact be one of the worse crimes, slavery.
So go ahead and encourage people to live better, to exercise more. Tell them the dangers of a sedentary life.
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> Folks, it's a measly $8/month for unlimited TV and movies. How enticing is that?
It depends on what the movies are.
If I am only interested in the cheapest available option and am willing to tolerate other people's limited choices, then I can just put up a big antenna.
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Wait, wait. I watch Netflix a lot and I think it's a great deal. I also run 20+ miles a week, have a resting heart rate in the 50s, and am in the best shape of my life. Would I have to pay your ridiculous tax, too?
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No, Netflix is a place you can watch it TODAY without waiting for the queue.
For the price of a double whopper combo at burger king, essentially.