I think watching TV has shifted to "I wonder what's on, that looks interesting I'll watch that" to "There's a million things on, but I just want to watch X, and if X is not available then there may as well be 0 things on".

I used to go to Netflix for a few core shows (and still do) but they've slowly moved off. 30 Rock, Buffy, Sunny in Philly - all are gone, which means the number of shows I actually care to watch on Netflix was cut in about half.

They may have a million other titles, but it's extremely rare that I'm in a "browse and pick something" mood these days.

It's also why I hate the fragmentation. All 3 of those shows are from different networks - one day they will all be on their own respective subscription based websites. And I'm gonna just go back to pirating.

> 30 Rock, Buffy, Sunny in Philly

> It's also why I hate the fragmentation. All 3 of those shows are from different networks - one day they will all be on their own respective subscription based websites.

All 3 of those shows are on Hulu, so you only need to sign up for one additional subscription. So far. I expect that the fragmentation will only get worse from here.

I subscribe to Hulu (Always Sunny, Brooklyn 99, Bob's Burgers, Rick and Morty), Netflix (Black Mirror, Arrested Development, Bojack Horseman, Great British Baking Show), and Disney+ (The Mandalorian). I'm paying $31 a month for these subscriptions. I keep wondering if I'd be better off buying DVDs/Blu-rays and ripping them all to a plex server instead, but that seems like a lot of work, even if it would pay off in the long run.

'So Far' is the key. They also used to all be on Netflix.

Money isn't an issue, it's mostly just annoying to have N services to juggle. Pirating's really easy - I use exactly one pirating website, and it's free. Way simpler.

There's 57 channels and nothing's on. 57 channels and nothing on.

I can't remember ever having a movie in mind and then finding it on Netflix. If I have two hours to kill, I don't browse Netflix to choose from their selection (though my wife does once every blue moon).

For me, Netflix is just another channel with maybe some interesting shows this season.

This is like going to Trader Joe's and complaining that you can't get brand name items. There was a time when Netflix had a lot of major films. But the industry has found other ways to capitalize on those since.

There's a difference between a deep library and a comprehensive library. Netflix's library is quite extensive, so shallow isn't the right word for it. But it isn't a corpus that includes everything you could possibly want to watch--nowhere really is right now, and historically, corpuses like that have been rare and short-lived.

If Trader Joe's scattered their jams randomly throughout the store, we'd be upset too. Apricot jam in the "quirky and fun spreads" section along with hummus, grape next to peanut butter in "old time classics," strawberry in a section that isn't shown to you at all - you have to be told by a friend that it exists and ask a worker for it by name.

I've overextended the analogy.

The content available on Netflix is great, but the discoverability UX is atrocious.

> The content available on Netflix is great

Only if you are in the US

Not even then. They advertise a lot of stuff, and it's almost all unwatchable.

A corner store might have a ton of options for "foodstuffs", but only a couple types of milk. Sure, it would be hard to eat everything in the store, but it's still a small selection compared to a grocery store.

It would be hard to watch everything on Netflix, but it would be a short list to scroll through, especially when you apply some filters (e.g. romantic comedies with a rotten tomatoes rating > 70%).

Doesn't your post pretend all content is the same/of the same quality? And that a user's interest are purely just "content" ?

It's about the quantity of shows you'd be interested in, not the quantity you can throw on the television.

It's not that people want to watch everything, it's that everything they want to watch is different than everything you want to watch.

why do you think everyone wants to watch the same things? what's the downside of having a big library? why should my subscription fee pay for the license fees of stuff that doesn't interest me? (just like Spotify, although their library is impressive).

> why do you think everyone wants to watch the same things?

> why should my subscription fee pay for the license fees of stuff that doesn't interest me?

So obviously different people will have different interests... yet you don't think your monthly payment should subsidize any of those other things? How do you imagine that working exactly?

Tbh the library of netflix in most EUW states is ironically small compared to the USA one.