39% of Americans Say Netflix Has Best Original Content of All Streaming Services, Survey Finds (variety.com) 79
The lion's share of U.S. consumers say the streamer has the best original programming, according to a new Morgan Stanley survey. Variety reports: Netflix remains the most frequently cited as offering the best original programming -- with 38% of survey respondents picking it as No. 1, per the Wall Street analyst firm's 2021 streaming survey. That's roughly in line with Morgan Stanley's previous surveys. On the 2021 survey, 12% of respondents said Amazon Prime Video offers the best original programming, followed by Disney Plus, Hulu and HBO Max which each scored 6%-7% of total responses.
Among Netflix customers, the top reasons cited for subscribing to Netflix were "broad selection of content" (55%), "good original programming" (51%), "adds content I like" (49%) and "no commercials" (46%). In 2021, Netflix is projected to spend about $19 billion on content according to a forecast by financial research firm Bankr, up about 10% from last year. Netflix retains the No. 1 spot as the most widely used streaming service with 58% of respondents saying they use the service. Amazon Prime Video came in at 45% (up 400 basis points year over year), Disney Plus was at 31% (up 650 basis points), and HBO/HBO Max was 20% (up 500 basis points).
Among Netflix customers, the top reasons cited for subscribing to Netflix were "broad selection of content" (55%), "good original programming" (51%), "adds content I like" (49%) and "no commercials" (46%). In 2021, Netflix is projected to spend about $19 billion on content according to a forecast by financial research firm Bankr, up about 10% from last year. Netflix retains the No. 1 spot as the most widely used streaming service with 58% of respondents saying they use the service. Amazon Prime Video came in at 45% (up 400 basis points year over year), Disney Plus was at 31% (up 650 basis points), and HBO/HBO Max was 20% (up 500 basis points).
Basis points? (Score:2, Troll)
Seriously? Basis points are used in financial markets, not surveys. Use percentages. Seriously, I would (almost) PAY to get decent editors.
400 basis points is 4%.
38% is “Lion’s Share”? (Score:3, Interesting)
I guess the definition has changed since I was in school. Is this part of that “new math”?
Re:38% is “Lion’s Share”? (Score:5, Funny)
TFS said "the lion's share", not "the Lions' share" - note the capitalization and position of the apostrophe.
38% sounds about right for Mr Lion alone. Then there's Mrs Lion and the rest of the pride. Any leftovers go to the hyena pack with the biggest marketing budget.
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I didn't read the article, but I assume it was victory by plurality (kinda like how our previous president won the 2016 Republican primaries). Give a bunch of options that all kind of suck and the one that appeals lowest common denominator of folks who enjoy suckage, wins.
IMHO, Netflix's original content just kind of reminds me of that movie with Weird Al where he ends up running a run-down local TV station, creates a several bizarre TV shows on a nonexistent budget, and people end up loving it. Weird Al
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Re:38% is “Lion’s Share”? (Score:5, Informative)
Meriam Webster sez: Definition of lion's share: the largest portion [merriam-webster.com]
At more than 3 times their nearest competitor, I'd say that is correct.
A lot of people think that the lion's share means nearly all, but that is relatively recent / American thing.
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I love when dumb people try and sound smart. Then get modded up by other dimwits.
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To me it has always meant 'more than anyone else involved'. At 38% in a market with more than two players it's almost guaranteed to fit that definition.
Discuss the content (Score:3)
The comments are off to a great start. Yeah we know the editors suck but can we address the comments?
I mean Netflix does have the broadest content, right? They basically primarily are just missing exclusives, though it can be annoying when they deprecate content.
The original programming is generally pretty good but "Stranger Things" may be the one example of that lasting a few seasons. Altered Carbon season 1 is great but season 2 feels like a bit more of a drag. "Marco Polo" was also one of my favorites. There specialty seems to be more in sci-fi and/or thriller aspects of how "mental" something can be. I think good examples of this are "Russian Doll" and "Hemlock Grove". There is a lot of more A-typical things I think they produce which attract a large crowd with multiple seasons but as a nerd I am more into the sci-fi, fantasy, and thrillers. "Mind Hunter" was also pretty good combining a kind of historical perspective with just how crazy these types are. Some counter examples of good content outside Netflix seems to be some of HBOs work like Euphoria and GoT but they have a longer history of producing some really great series -- so for Netflix to be "late to the game" and have the content it has seems like quite an achievement. Netflix also seems to do better at doing more internationally produced series. I feel like there are a lot of different content providers I enjoy but Netflix probably has a strong majority of anything more recently produced.
I don't understand the "no commercials" thing though, are people comparing this to free services? I guess Hulu even adds that mix but Hulu seems like it rarely has anything worthwhile. Anyways, my opinion doesn't matter, I live in China and I pirate everything now. Cheerio.
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The Netflix Marvel stuff was good too, especially Jessica Jones, Daredevil and Luke Cage. Even Iron Fist started to get good in the second season.
House of Cards wasn't bad either, some less than stellar seasons but overall worth a watch. The original isn't bad if you can track it down too.
Alice in Borderland is fun if you fancy something a bit different and non-Western. Oh, and Lost in Space is fun too, not the greatest sci-fi but not unenjoyable.
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Their Marvel content is excellent but a very different itch than what I am often looking for. Jessica Jones was great and Luke Cage good too.
I still need to finish House of Cards but it started great and went more downhill. I need to track down the original though. This series feels less original and more in line with a remake of other stories. Same for Nightflyers.
I think I have seen Alice in Borderland but probably should check it out again. Thanks for the recommendations.
Lost in Space is another one I di
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IMHO House of Cards was on life support after Season 4, and even in season 4 my WTF meter started ringing. Much how the movie the Matrix should have ended with the first movie. I mean did, it DID end with the first movie. House of Cards is probably better enjoyed with season 1-3, and no wrapping it up loose ends, just leave it at that.
I have no proof to back this up (hence, Slashdot) but it really seems like the original writers of many a great series only have about 1-3 seasons of material before they g
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You did see season 1 where he started off looking the exact same way, right? As for season 3, the reason he went back to the pirate look was because Dex stole his identity via a new DD suit and made himself Public Enemy, so if Matt were to appear in his DD suit, he'd be mistaken for Dex and likely shot on sight.
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I don't understand the "no commercials" thing though, are people comparing this to free services?
It gives that as a reason "for subscribing" to Netflix so I would imagine it includes comparison against all sorts of alternatives not just other pay per month online services. That said, Amazon Prime isn't at all shy about advertising Amazon's other services which is far and away its most annoying aspect - you search for something in a bar that specifies "prime video" and get a mass of stuff they want to sell you. It could be a lot worse - they could make you sit through ads before watching each item - but
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The original programming is generally pretty good but "Stranger Things" may be the one example of that lasting a few seasons.
Breaking Bad? House of Cards? Orange is the New Black? There's quite a few. You need to widen your viewing horizons.
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Breaking Bad?
Is not Netflix original content.
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Barely edging out... (Score:3)
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its definitely polling bias. Reading the article I distinctly got the impression that the people they surveyed had not tried all the content on all the platforms.
Based on the survey, Morgan Stanley’s analyst team, led by Ben Swinburne and Brian Nowak, said that “Disney’s bundling strategy appears to be working,” with 58% of Hulu’s users also using Disney Plus — up one percentage point from 2020. That said, 84% of Hulu customers also use Netflix.
So basically they are saying that Disney+ and Hulu tied because of bundling? That doesnt answer the question of which one had the best content. That certainly explains how AppleTV+ made the list at 2%. I got 1yr free of that and haven't found 1 original show I could watch for more than 10 minutes.
HBO has always seemed to limit themselves to 1 or
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On top of that, some of their content are as low as 360p.
Yes and no (Score:3)
But the back catalogue is just abysmal. I've lost count of the number of times I've tried to search for a movie or show and their search has helpfully recommended things "like" what I'm looking for but not the thing I actually want. Worse than fucking useless.
As for other streaming channels I've tried - Amazon Prime is unadulterated garbage - it has had a couple of good series like The Boys but mostly its a pale imitation of Netflix and the user interface is horrible in a way only Amazon could manage. Disney+ is a slick streaming service, almost beat for beat copy of Netflix and has a lot of franchise content but there isn't much beyond that and frankly I don't see it filling out, especially with mature / challenging content.
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I was gifted Disney+ and after cruising through The Mandalorian I've spent most of my time on the Nat Geo part. I own the original Star Wars stuff, the more recent Star Wars I have no real interest in, and same with Marvel...been there done that, I just don't see myself desiring to re-watch. Maybe after a few years? YMMV but after my subscription is done I won't renew. Disney just doesn't have orig content for me.
It will be interesting what they will do post -Covid, with new kids movies which I assume
90% of netflix is... (Score:4, Insightful)
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^ Yeah this. Netflix does produce some good things, but they produce a lot of garbage too.
Whereas HBO, the misfires are pretty rare.
And Disney+ may not have done a lot of original content yet, but they did make 3 crazy good things straight out of the gate so let's hope that continues.
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They should release them 1 episode per week if they are trying to keep people glued to the screen.
Bah, humbug. NetFlix does do this and when it happens on something worth watching then one has to wait until the entire year passes to they can accumulate enough episodes to make watching worthwhile. If one wants an "episode per week skipping weeks with bozo events like hockey games, foozeball, etc.", then one may as well stick to ordinary broadcast TV.
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That is part of the reason for trickling episodes but the other is possibly even more important, buzz and talk and the shared community experience of rehashing the last episode while hotly anticipating the next.
You can't buy that kind of advertising and it's priceless, literally.
Re: 90% of netflix is... (Score:2)
Which 3 "crazy good" things would that be?
Keep in mind: I am not a toddler, or little girl, nor is my name Karen or my hair blue, and Star Wars had 2 1/2 films, decades ago, and fandom is a mental illness of people with failed lives (usually called "workers").
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The Mandalorian, WandaVision and The Falcon and Winter Soldier.
If those sorts of things aren't your cup of tea, so be it. But they are excellent contributions into their genres regardless.
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Complete rubbish.
Sure, but I'm sure what 10% isn't rubbish will vary by customer. Just as in software - remember the "80% of the features in Excel aren't used" [joelonsoftware.com] claim?
Re: 90% of netflix is... (Score:2)
No, you are wrong. 90% of Excel users don't need 80% of the features. The other 10% are the ones needing different parts of those 80%. And it's of couse a half bell curve. So again you could serve 90% of those 10% with 20% *of* those 80%. And so on.
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and 62% of Americans don't agree (Score:2, Insightful)
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Hmm, no, this is not what it means. You could say as well, that 93% of people think Hulu isn't the best (which would then be the "Lion's Share of Disagreement").
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You must think Lion's share means something else. They said Netflix has 38% of the share. When there are 8-10 players in the the streaming space now and no other company is higher than 10%, then yes. Netflix has by far the lion's share of the streaming space votes.
The Flip Side of the Coin (Score:2)
Re:The Flip Side of the Coin (Score:4, Informative)
But after a while of having Netflix offer me a show based on my viewing history and start watching, only to discover that no, we're not waiting for Season 2 to finish filming, there will never be a Season 2, because Netflix already canned the show, it starts to get a bit lame.
I don't mind if shows have to finish. But for goodness' sake, please have the decency to bring a cancelled show to a graceful ending. When you cancel a program part way through a run, all you're really doing is showing that you don't really care for your audience, just your bottom line.
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The other weird thing about NetFlix content would be the number of serialized shows that they have which get killed off after the first one or two seasons. OK, so they have a ruthless investment ethic which means that if the viewership numbers head south, the show gets cancelled. Maybe that's why they're profitable.
But after a while of having Netflix offer me a show based on my viewing history and start watching, only to discover that no, we're not waiting for Season 2 to finish filming, there will never be a Season 2, because Netflix already canned the show, it starts to get a bit lame.
I don't mind if shows have to finish. But for goodness' sake, please have the decency to bring a cancelled show to a graceful ending. When you cancel a program part way through a run, all you're really doing is showing that you don't really care for your audience, just your bottom line.
That's hardly a Netflix specific phenomena, in general, most shows get cancelled without a series finale.
Though Netflix's style makes unexpected cancellations more common. On broadcast/cable if a show is struggling to bring in viewers they may get the cancellation notice part way through the season and thus get a chance to write a finale (providing the filming schedule isn't too far ahead of the broadcast schedule). But Netflix likes to drop entire season's at once to enable binging. This means they don't k
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.... all you're really doing is showing that you don't really care for your audience, just your bottom line
What do you think them spending 19 billion to generate content to keep people paying the monthly subscription was for? Free popcorn?
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One of the reasons I find it disappointing that shows get cancelled is because I'm a life-long sci-fi fan...
On the one hand I see what happened to Babylon 5. If you were to have judged that show just on the first 2 seasons, then you could understand why it might have been canned. But when you see it as a full 5-season arc [OK, thanks to studio threats, JMS had to cram the last 2 seasons of story in to Season 4 and then
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will never be a Season 2, because Netflix already canned the show, it starts to get a bit lame.
I stopped watching series shows for this reason. Then I heard that Lost had gone all the way to conclusion, so I watched the whole series.
Grr..
Shoddy Reporting (Score:2)
The body of the article then goes on to say, "Netflix remains the most frequently cited as offering the best original programming — with 38% of survey respondents picking it as No. 1, per the Wall Street analyst firm’s 2021 streaming survey."
In other words, before we even get a good look at the detail, the article headline disagrees with its own content.
Further
38% of survey respondents (Score:2)
Oh....
Slashvertisement (Score:2)
Blatant advertisement in the guise of "information for techies".
yawn
It's a low bar (Score:2)
So far, with a few notable exceptions, Netflix / Amazon originals have been mediocre at best. The Crown started out with a bang, but started to devolve after the first couple of seasons. There are a few other noteworthy originals, but very few.
What attracted my family to Netflix originally was its extremely broad selection, but that too has deteriorated with time.
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So far, with a few notable exceptions, Netflix / Amazon originals have been mediocre at best. The Crown started out with a bang, but started to devolve after the first couple of seasons. There are a few other noteworthy originals, but very few.
What attracted my family to Netflix originally was its extremely broad selection, but that too has deteriorated with time.
Netflix saw the writing on the wall many years ago - that's why they've focused so much on producing and owning their own content. Now that every content producer want to have their own streaming service, just purchasing temporary rights to content for their customers would have resulted in a very limited catalog.
A Leg Up (Score:1)
Netflix has the edge over the other streamers as they've been collecting viewing statistics for much longer and are now doing a paint-by-numbers approach to content creation. They've definitely got the butt-shot camera angle percentages dialed in.
Re: A Leg Up (Score:2)
You have a weied definition of "the edge".
Do you think they can keep viewers by re-hashing old crap forever?
Oh wait! What we called unacceptable and avoided with passion in the 90s has become the new norm! Kids aren' even able to imagine how much better it could be, if the Mafia would still take a bit of risk. It doesn't hurt them anymore because they never saw anything else.
True, but (Score:2)
True, but the average quality and quantity of content has deteriorated rapidly over the past few years. Amazon Prime has a far larger selection of novel content, and even some pretty good original content, though not approaching Netflix in quantity*quality of original content.
It's difficult to forgive Netflix's past (Score:3)
They kicked off the creation of five Adam Sandler films the world did not ask for nor need. Netflix has refused to apologize for this behavior.
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I should be posting this as AC,
"Murder Mystery" wasn't terrible.
Adam Sandler dilutes him work with a lot of crap (Score:2)
His stand-up routine "100% Fresh" is probably the best of the bunch he's done through Netflix. And I'd suggest Uncut Gems or The Meyerowitz Stories before Murder Mystery.
But Sandy Wexler, The Do Over, and The Ridiculous Six border on war crimes. And then there is a pile of lazy films like Hubie Halloween, the Wrong Missy, and Murder Mystery.
In other words: (Score:2)
61% think Netflix is "not the best".
Mwaaah (Score:1)
I also hated the "politically correct" inclusion, of not one, but two black antagonists. One of which gets to seed the new humankind with his genes along with his white wife on a new "Earth."
Baarffff! Hated it. And a Latino had to be included too, given the fact that they're overrunning our country.
Netflix in the USA ... (Score:2)
..But the competition mostly relies on single good shows and extremely long running soaps ...
Maybe (Score:2)
But Netflix is pretty much unstreamable in many places. And that original content isn't available on DVD.
Prime is better (Score:1)
At least with Prime you can 'rent' pretty much anything you want on demand for a few bucks. Netflix, you get what you get - and it's almost all mostly original content now. Getting harder to find a movie I want to watch.