Against All Odds: Netflix

[Shawn Knight]

Home video rentals were a $16 billion industry when Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph decided to get involved in 1997. Netflix's million-dollar idea was to build an online video rental service in the image of Amazon, an up-and-coming e-commerce player that was in the business of selling books.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/article/2147-how-netflix-made-it/

 

[nodfor]

I rarely subscribe. Even though the content in my country (Greece) is a fraction of the content available to US subscribers, the price is almost the same (14 eur for premium)

 

[Lounds]

I've been a subscriber since they first launched in the UK, I'd rather pay netflix than pay for a TV License... the BBC really needs to rethink it's business funding model if it wants to exist in the next 15-20 years.

 

[Aryassen]

I'm a happy user of Netflix, and it would be difficult now to picture my media consumption without them. It was surprising to realise that they were so close to the chopping block more than one time; I honestly wouldn't have thought...glad they managed to avoid it though

 

[yeeeeman]

Netflix should be free and love from ads. Frankly I was never interested for paying them money for watching a movie now and then. When I want to watch a movie I can find it very easily on streaming sites.

 

[loki1944]

Streaming is a worthless option in my area between crushingly slow ISPs speeds and data caps(Verizon is so bad it gets down to worse than dial-up and Satellite is too laggy; both have very predatory data caps; of which you'll see 50% of it never go faster that 100 -300KB/s). Better off buying physically.

 

[JimboJoneson]

Netflix should be free and love from ads. Frankly I was never interested for paying them money for watching a movie now and then. When I want to watch a movie I can find it very easily on streaming sites.

Generally, you're paying to not have to suffer through ads and pop-ups.

As one who understands that the entire advertising industry is one big mind-eff, I will happily pay a few bucks to be able to stream without being exposed to them.

Another big Netfliz plus for me is they stream in 5.1 (need the PC app though) - this is is important to me considering I have a THX system I want to be able to make use of for my movies.

That said you do need to watch about one piece of content per week to make it worth the price. If you watch less than that, yeah, just finding a streaming site.

 

[p51d007]

Never had netflix, never will. The stuff they have, I don't care for anyway. I have tons of stuff ripped to my HDD, and watch it, or MeTv, Cozi, Antenna TV, Insp 99% of the time.

 

[Gezzer]

"Netflix has rarely missed in this department"

Actually they have quite a number of misses. IMHO they do worse then traditional providers in that regard. And what hits they do have? They cancel a large portion of those due to their stupid algorithm. Netflix blew it as far as I'm concerned. They should of bought a major player like Marvel instead they keep paying major bucks to others. Not smart...

 

[Reehahs]

I rarely subscribe. Even though the content in my country (Greece) is a fraction of the content available to US subscribers, the price is almost the same (14 eur for premium)

Blame the license holders of shows for this discrepancy.

I am happy with the Netflix's own content that I can view without geographical restrictions.

 

[nodfor]

Blame the license holders of shows for this discrepancy.

I am happy with the Netflix's own content that I can view without geographical restrictions.

The license holders can impose those restrictions but Netflix sets the pricing. Netflix's regional pricing isn't adjusted to account either for the fact that there is way less content, or for the fact that salaries in my region are a fraction of US salaries.

In fact I just did a google search on the matter and found a blog with some research in this where they rank each country's Netflix subscription plan based on pricing and availability of titles - the one offered to me is listed in the "10 least cost effective ".

Why should I be a regular subscriber if they treat me as a 2nd rate customer?

 

[Reehahs]

The license holders can impose those restrictions but Netflix sets the pricing. Netflix's regional pricing isn't adjusted to account either for the fact that there is way less content, or for the fact that salaries in my region are a fraction of US salaries.

In fact I just did a google search on the matter and found a blog with some research in this where they rank each country's Netflix subscription plan based on pricing and availability of titles - the one offered to me is listed in the "10 least cost effective ".

Why should I be a regular subscriber if they treat me as a 2nd rate customer?

That's a fair point and price should be reflection of the content available. However, some of the content cannot be offered as it may be subject to a country's local laws and bans.