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This. Cable TV started the same way in the 1970s, i.e., pay for no ads. And here we are. It will work because most people have IQ<100.
It worked in the past because there were no internet. Today, people can get access to pirated shows as easily as following a Telegram group. You don’t even have to hunt torrents anymore. So it’s even more important for service providers to ensure good experience for the paying customers. Netflix going after their own paying customers just because they share their paid multi-screen accounts is already a mistake. Netflix will only alienate its own customers by going for ads. Ads will only be excusable if it’s free.

Ask the Chinese OTTs. Even free with ads is not really working as people will simply go to piracy where it’s free and no ads. Nobody wants ads at any price.
 
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Perhaps the conversation then ought to be “what is Netflix not doing right that people evidently feel they are getting less value from it each month compared to 4-5 cups of coffee?”

I have thought about it (this argument is nothing new), and I believe the answer comes down to “jobs to be done”.

When I buy a cup of coffee (hypothetically, I can’t take caffeine), I know what I am getting every single time. It perks me up, and is often an accompaniment to a boring meeting.

Conversely, Netflix is not succeeding at its job of entertaining me, when I am spending more time searching for what to watch, than actually watching content. It’s a slog, and I find myself defaulting to YouTube and TV+ these days. Even Disney+ original content isn’t resonating with me these days.

It’s a far cry compared to a few years ago when people were so certain that Apple would stand no chance in the face of media giants like Netflix and Disney. Perhaps the lesson here is that success often isn’t about who is first, about who is left standing at the end of the day.
I also find myself watching YouTube fairly often these days. There are a lot of good content creators on there making content on all kinds of topics interesting to a wide variety of people. I’m subscribed to about a dozen channels dedicated to either cars or guitars.
 
LOL. What did he just smoke? Nobody like ads at any price, period. It will only push people more into piracy and degrades the Netflix brand into the level of the Chinese OTTs (who do use ads, lots of them, on their free tiers). This move is a mistake imo.
Your statements are not backed up by actual data. If you look at what's happening over at Paramount, Comcast (Peacock), etc., you'll see that ad-supported is more popular and it's what's attracting the most users/seeing the most growth.

If given the choice of ads vs no ads at the same price point, of course people would choose no ads.

But if the choice were between a lower priced plan with ads vs a higher priced plan with no ads, the data shows that more people are opting for the former.

Just ask Comcast's CEO https://www.reuters.com/business/me...recovery-drives-quarterly-revenue-2022-01-27/

In a call with investors on Thursday, Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts said the “vast majority” of Peacock’s paid subscribers choose the $5 tier over the $10 tier. Going forward, the company will focus its strategy around the ad-supported tiers.


Look at Hulu. Their Ad-supported service is, like many other ad-supported streaming service providers, see a higher Average Monthly Revenue Per Subscriber number. When Hulu's ad-supported tier was $5.99/mo, it was reported that it generated more than $15 per subscriber compared to their ad-free tier that was, at the time, $11.99/mo

Even though it charges $6, the service generates more than $15 in revenue per subscriber each month, because of the high-cost advertising sold against those customers, according to two people familiar with the business.

. . .

Hulu made over $1.5 billion in ad revenue last year.

Higher sub revenue (and profit) means they have more money to put back into developing content.
 
NetFlix should let members vote on the content that they're going to make. I'd love it if they showed everyone proposals and then users could vote on which ones to make.
What is this, who wants to be a millionaire? Poll the audience?!

/s
 
Netflix - the king of the bait and switch pricing structures that never gets held accountable for such practices.
I don't think you know what bait and switch is.


A “bait and switch” takes place when a seller creates an appealing but ingenuine offer to sell a product or service, which the seller does not actually intend to sell. This initial advertised offer is “the bait.” Then the seller switches customers from buying the advertised product or service that the seller initially offered into buying a different product or service that is usually at a higher price or has some other advantageous effect to the advertiser.

Not only is Netflix upfront with their pricing and what you get under each tier (https://help.netflix.com/en/node/24926) but you can actually subscriber to any one of the 3 plans. There is no "bait"
 
An ad-sponsored FREE tire, would be ok.
If they add a cost to that, they are nuts.
Geez. First it was "Buy 3 tires, Get 1 free."

Now it's get a free tire if you put an ad on your car? What will they think of next?

ad.png
 
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Agree with everyone else that Netflix is hardly worth paying for at any price, but I do not like this trend toward more ads. You know how this is going to go. Slowly the prices will creep up anyway, and soon we’ll be back to cable, where we’re paying to be shown ads 1/3 of the time.

The supposition in the article that “Netflix is too expensive and I don’t mind ads” is absolutely antithesis to the way I see it, but unfortunately apparently a lot of people (especially older people raised on broadcast TV) do think this.
 
This is what really annoys me. I live alone and have no use for watching multiple screens simultaneously but I definitely do want 4K.
And the ******* is if you can afford the TV you can afford 4K. I have a 70 inch 4K tv. It was a Walmart clearance item I got lucky to find it was like 500 bucks. I live by myself and at the size the lower quality looks like crap.
 
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Sorry, but that's idiotic. You may not like their licensing or pricing options but it is not stealing.
So you think it’s totally ethical to have to pay for 4 streams as an individual? You say me sharing my streams I PAY FOR is stealing. So literally I am paying for something I can never use legally.

I have argued this for years. Quality of content has zero to do with number of household members. Netflix’s arrangements with providers makes quality of provided stream have no impact on their revenue. They just use it to charge more than everyone else.

You want to prevent sharing/stealing? Offer number of streams and quality of said streams. You want 2 4K streams it costs this. You want 1 4K stream it costs that. Saying you pay for 4 people for 4K is unethical highway robbery. Plain and simple. They know what they are doing.
 
Realized a while ago that due to Netflix refusing to integrate with the TV App that I was never used Netflix and canceled.

Something so basic yet Netflix refuses to integrate.

Between that and the racist/groomer content this is all within Netflix’s control and yet they keep doubling down. 🤦🏼‍♂️
 
It's more like they'd be paying you. If an ad-free version is $9.99/month and an ad-supported version is $4.99/month then they'd essentially be paying you $5/month (via a plan discount) to allow them to run ads.
The way I see it, I'd still be paying them 5 bucks a month to show me ads. The content, which is what I came for, is ruined. So I'm kinda not getting a lot.
 
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👏Say👏it👏with👏me👏why👏do👏I👏pay👏for👏a👏family👏plan👏to👏have👏4K👏when👏I👏live👏by👏myself.👏

Netflix can die.👏👏👏
Family plans only make sense with… families. The fact Netflix bundles quality of streaming tech with number of TVs to watch, plus now wants to restrict where physically those screens are, makes the individual plans and the family plans not practical. Netflix needs to do some reflecting.
 
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The way I see it, I'd still be paying them 5 bucks a month to show me ads. The content, which is what I came for, is ruined. So I'm kinda not getting a lot.
And the content itself will inevitably get worse.

There's a thing called consumer segmentation. Currently, Netflix quality is perceived higher than the Chinese OTTs in my country by the public because they're positioned at premium pricing, and that price segment do demand better content. This is in contrast with the Chinese OTTs who focus on mass market with ad supported free tier. Their contents are mainly bottom of the barrel telenovelas/soap operas series, simply because that's what that lower market segment prefers.

It's the same basic idea of Apple vs PC OEMs like Acer. Apple doesn't offer laptops less than $1000, while Acer sells laptops down to $300-$400 price ranges. Those laptops would be considered crap by most people here, but those kinds of laptops are what can be done and demanded for that segment. This move is like Apple saying "well, we see a lot of people buying $400 laptops, so we're going to do one as well." It might sound good number wise, but it's unwise for brand and positioning.
 
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Why do companies always fall prey to this mentality of fixing things that aren't broken? The exact reason I love Netflix is because I loathe sitting through ads or having interruptions to movies and shows. And yeah, I realize they're creating "tiers" but it won't be long before all that advertising money creeps into the other tiers. We've seen this pattern so many times before. Company produces awesome product. Company tweaks product slightly to get more money. Company ruins product by focusing on getting more and more money. It's a shame Netflix isn't smart enough to avoid this.
 
It’s a shame netflix is still charging extra for higher res video. 480p (or is it 720p? Article says 480 but I think it was 720p) in their base subscription? What year is it? 2010?

A content producer should hope for everyone to be able to view their content the way it is supposed to be viewed. Not in some crappy 480p/720p resolution.
 
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