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Youtube Entertainment

Netflix Says It's More Scared of Fortnite and YouTube Than Disney and Amazon (cnbc.com) 135

An anonymous reader shares a report: It's not Disney's new streaming video service or HBO or Amazon that Netflix is worried about, the company said this week in its letter to shareholders. Netflix estimates it has already earned about 10 percent of all U.S. television screen time. The company also shared viewership statistics for some of its exclusives, boasting that "Bird Box" netted 80 million viewers in its first four weeks on Netflix, while "You" will get about 40 million over the same period.

Instead, it's newer forms of entertainment -- such as Fortnite and Google's YouTube -- that got shout-outs in the company's letter as stronger competitors. "Our focus is not on Disney+, Amazon or others, but on how we can improve our experience for others," Netflix said in its shareholder letter. "We compete with (and lose to) Fortnite more than HBO. When YouTube went down globally for a few minutes in October, our viewing and signups spiked for that time."
Further reading: Netflix's Biggest Competition Isn't Sleep -- It's YouTube.
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Netflix Says It's More Scared of Fortnite and YouTube Than Disney and Amazon

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  • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Sunday January 20, 2019 @12:47PM (#57992062)

    I know Netflix was talking in the abstract about competition for time, but it led to a thought...

    You know what would be a really interesting deal, is for Netflix to be able to be played INSIDE Fortnight. Like you could literally have a wall material or a tag that was a Netflix stream of your favorite show, or moment in show...

    Video tagging could be used to taught others just like the dances and tags now do, even better it could be used to distract the unwary.

    Or you could simply wait out some dead stretches of time in-game enjoying a bit of some show you wanted to see.

  • by DogDude ( 805747 ) on Sunday January 20, 2019 @03:13PM (#57992640)
    I'm perpetually astounded by the number of TV shows, movies, series, games, etc. out there. I can't even keep up with what's out there, but I know that some people do. Entertainment used to be something people did when they had a few minutes between working and regular household activities. For many people, consuming entertainment seems to be their primary activity, and everything else they do, revolves around that. Holy shit, that's boring as fuck.
    • I suspect that it's happening because it's becoming harder and harder for people to communicate with each other IRL. We are gradually becoming scared of experiencing reality without a digital filter.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      The household activities have been pushed out because people just don't have time (between work and binge watching tv shows). People get a cleaning lady to come.

    • With automation and post-scarcity, the "work" and "chores" are done by machines; so what do majority of humans do other than getting entertained thru' the visual/auditory inputs?
    • by Luthair ( 847766 )

      Entertainment used to be something people did when they had a few minutes between working and regular household activities. For many people, consuming entertainment seems to be their primary activity, and everything else they do, revolves around that.

      You're probably about 70-years late on that hot take. Television has been common for a long ass time.

    • Movie and TV shows can be measured in number of viewers because people typically watch a movie or show episode once.
    • YouTube viewers and Fortnite players cannot be measured this way because there are no end to the show.

    If you want to compare all of them, you need a new metric: Hours per person per year. Take the total number of hours by all persons spent watching movies or TV shows or playing Fortnite or spent on YouTube in a year, divide it by the population. That gives you the average number of hours

  • I get why they are not worried about Disney, I'm not subscribing to Disney's service just to see their movies and Amazon's Prime Video, from what I have seen of it is mostly a pile of junk with handful of notable exceptions. Fortnight I'm not really interested in but many other people are so I can see how they would be a valid concern.
    • Fortnight is big, but I think that on that note, the simultaneous impact of Splatoon 2 and Smash Bros. Ultimate are probably being underestimated.

    • They're not scared of Disney/Amazon because they are all all-you-can-watch buffets. Doesn't matter whether you watch 33%-33%-33% or 25%-25%-50%. You can have all three without much trouble (and not even that much money.) And you can certainly pay for all three if each have some serieses you like. But Fortnight will take all your money if you're not careful, and YouTube will condition you not to pay for videos (with cash, just with ads.)

  • Telling your parents you're gay.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I've shifted to YouTube and would cancel Netflix if my wife would let me.
  • I find myself watch things on YouTube more and more these days. There are tons of videos on all kinds of topics, including some of my hobbies. Much of it in easily consumable 10-15 minute clips. And it's free.

    Hollywood productions and increasingly Netflix ones, are just full of political slant and anti-Trump stuff. Frankly, I'm getting a bit sick of it. I just want to be entertained, not lectured.

    • I let my streaming radio sub expire, and have found using Youtube just for music playlists to be very effective, and fewer commercials than the non-sub streaming radio. The biggest downside is that the commercials it does play are usually very few in a loop, like when you watch a TV station's streaming channel versus broadcast.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • I don't think the vast majority of their long term customers have any idea how to roll their own ROMS. I used to. If I cared about watching Netflix on a mobile device, I'd be careful which devices I put custom ROMs on. I'm quite happy to save Netflix for watching at home on my Nvidia Shield and 65" TV. I can't stand squinting at mobile screens. Plus my phone company likes to throttle stuff now that A Shit Pie has nixed Net Neutrality. They'd rather I subscribe to their digital video package.

  • The company has run on a lucky fluke, being top of streaming when no one else was around, but now competent competition is emerging and they are worrying about markets they aren't even in or have plans to enter. It was nice knowing you Netflix.

  • In the end, Netflix will have only one movie--in a thousand categories.

"...a most excellent barbarian ... Genghis Kahn!" -- _Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure_

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