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A comment on Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012). Parent comment

Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by munificent on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @05:22PM (#38944239)
> A little secret is that the content rights holders negotiated draconian streaming contracts that are outright prohibitive to Netflix. Netflix is trying to do everything possible to hide the fact that their streaming library is small and shrinking.

I think that's fairly well-known at this point, though I agree it should be more widely known.

I think the real secret is that Netflix discovered that their users aren't trying to watch the best movies, they're just trying to kill time. Apparently you can substitute good films for generic junk and people will keep their subscriptions.

Really, the business model for Netflix has some weird perverse incentives. They make money from monthly subscriptions. They lose money when actually streaming content to users. So the ideal user from their standpoint is one who keeps paying but never watches anything.

Thus, the company is incentivized to put out just enough good stuff that you can't miss that you don't cancel, but otherwise produce garbage you don't want.

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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by dcow on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @07:20PM (#38945577)
I genuinely don't think Netflix discovered or believes that. I think if they could they'd have the highest quality and most extensive library possible. I think other media companies got stupid business school level FOMO and tried to copy Netflix when they didn't realize that Neflix is the Steam of videos/shows and as a user I don't want N streaming apps I want one or two. So the market is selecting for a few high quality streaming implementations because the market doesn't want 20 separate cable bills all tallying more than a single cable bill with content licensing. Netflix will be the streaming service I purchase again once their library comes back online, unless Apple TV+ is competitive at that point.
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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by tourmalinetaco on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @07:46PM (#38945826)
For us Netflix has been replaced, we don’t keep subscribed to it as everything they have that we want is available elsewhere and with better deals. So personally I would say it could be the Steam of streaming; if Steam was split into many more platforms which all provided a large chunk of desired content while Steam wallowed with the scraps for revenue via price-gouging and account limitations.
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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by imbnwa on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @08:58PM (#38946437)
Apple isn’t interested in replacing Netflix, they’re purposely keeping it “small batch artisanal”
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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by yincrash on Thursday January 11, 2024 @12:28AM (#38948119)
"It's not TV, it's _Apple tv+_"
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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by jacoblambda on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @09:33PM (#38946718)
Isn't apple tv currently in talks to merge with paramount plus?
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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by jmisavage on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @09:55PM (#38946902)
Nope. You’re thinking of Warner Brothers Discovery and Paramount.
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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by jacoblambda on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @10:49PM (#38947326)
https://www.tomsguide.com/news/apple-tv-plus-and-paramount-p...

?

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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by klausa on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @11:52PM (#38947781)
A "bundle" and "merger" are a very different things.
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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by dataflow on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @11:54PM (#38947790)
Merge or bundle? Merge is a company thing, bundle is a product thing.
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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by jerrysievert on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @11:25PM (#38947575)
oh, that would be horrible, I canceled "max" after the discovery takeover, I'd hate to cancel paramount+ as well, they have a good catalog that discovery would eviscerate.
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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by PaulDavisThe1st on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @06:00PM (#38944732)
I pay $16.55 per month for Netflix. I generally watch movies with my spouse. That cost is less than the cost for both of us to go to a movie theater. If Netflix has one item per month of roughly movie length or longer that we want to watch, the price seems worth it just for that.

In recent years, this has still not been a sure bet month to month, but over a year, 12 scores are pretty much guaranteed.

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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by lolinder on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @07:31PM (#38945701)
With the theater you're buying a very different experience than Netflix, though. A more apt comparison would be to movie rentals, which you consume on the same screens and with the same people.

Amazon will rent you most movies for <$4, so 4 movies per month is the number for Netflix to beat, not 1.

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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by PaulDavisThe1st on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @07:40PM (#38945775)
This is always going to be a very subjective assessment. I don't doubt that the comparison makes sense for you, but it's not the way my spouse or I see it.

Also, most movies I might go to a theater to see cost substantially more than $4 on amzn.

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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by shkkmo on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @07:51PM (#38945873)
Paying monthly to Netflix vs. paying per use with Amazon isn't a subjective difference. If you are only watching 2 movies a month of average, then Amazon is objectively a better deal than Netflix as you not only pay less, but have more options. (Amazon movies are generally $4 or $6 to rent.)
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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by PaulDavisThe1st on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @08:11PM (#38946075)
Given that we do both, the actual question is whether Netflix manages to offer us one exclusive offering per month that ticks the box. This particular January, it is setting itself quite nicely for the year :)
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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by boulos on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @10:36PM (#38947216)
Movies yes, but often a single episode of a show is say $2. That means if you watch a season in a month, you're up to $16-20 pretty quickly with 8-10 episodes.
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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by FalconSensei on Friday January 12, 2024 @01:26PM (#38971879)
This is why I legit jack sparrow shows.

You can rent movies on many services like google, itunes, youtube, etc... But for shows, you only have the option to buy each episode, which makes no sense.

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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by hetspookjee on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @07:05PM (#38945458)
I rent any movie I’d like for like 3-4eu instead of a monthly subscription with a tiny offering.
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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by PaulDavisThe1st on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @07:41PM (#38945780)
From where?
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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by lagadu on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @08:08PM (#38946053)
Not the OP but I know I can rent both from Google and from my ISP, I imagine there are more services available.
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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by throwaway2037 on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @08:48PM (#38946364)
Google will stream a huge number of films for less than 5 USD each. You can see the list of countries here: https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/2843119?hl=en#z...
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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by FalconSensei on Friday January 12, 2024 @01:29PM (#38971919)
go to JustWatch.com. They'll tell you where to stream or rent/buy any movie/show you want
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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by superfrank on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @11:38PM (#38947662)
Netflix isn't just competing against movie theaters though, it's competing against 10 other similarly priced streaming services. If they let their quality degrade too much people are going to start choosing other services as their movie theatre alternative (likely already happening).
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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by mumblemumble on Thursday January 11, 2024 @12:25AM (#38948099)
I rent individual movies for $3-4 apiece, and that turns out to be a big win over Netflix because I typically only watch 1-2 movies per month, and the rental service has a bigger library.

But I think that I'm a very unusual consumer in that respect. If I liked to watch TV series more then I'd be bingeing those, and that's where I think Netflix really attracts consumers, not movies. I don't think there's an economical way to do a la carte viewing of TV series on a regular basis.

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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by ghaff on Thursday January 11, 2024 @07:30AM (#38951343)
Someone I know who was a fairly early-on high level technical person at Netflix (and later AWS) once told me that people came to Netflix initially for the movies and stayed for the TV shows.

And, yes, on an hourly basis they're probably comparable but renting a film now and then feels reasonable to me whereas paying per TV episode feels expensive.

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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by ghaff on Thursday January 11, 2024 @07:26AM (#38951312)
Buying a DVD on Amazon isn't much different in price and paying for an a la carte streaming rental if available is probably cheaper.

With the fragmentation, streaming services start to make more sense if you're someone who likes to have the TV on as background. They make less sense if you watch a few hours of deliberately selected video a week.

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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by rdedev on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @07:01PM (#38945422)
Guess this also explains why they cancel good shows after a few seasons but not sure how well the hypothesis extends to reality.

Netflix rarely does good shows that are created exclusively by them. My go to example is the Witcher series. What they are amazing at though is picking up projects from small scale studios and helping them produce it. Nimona, Klaus and Arcane are some of the stuff I remember on top of my head. Wish they stick on to that, helping small scale studios reach a wider audience

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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by psnehanshu on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @10:56PM (#38947375)
Gyms also have the same incentive. Their ideal customer is one who pays for the membership but doesn't come.
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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by HEGalloway on Wednesday January 10, 2024 @11:26PM (#38947582)
That is me with mubi! I keep paying but I rarely watch any films. I find that I need to be in the right headspace to watch any serious stuff but when I do, I do watch a couple of them and I don't really mind paying. I like to joke that I'm their ideal customer haha.

Unlike netflix where I downgraded my plan to the lowest tier, there's literally nothing on it and they also keep on cancelling good tv shows. I think they should focus on serious stuff and work with more indie directors. But then again I can't blame them because they're just following the trend.

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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by astrange on Thursday January 11, 2024 @12:00AM (#38947848)
The ideal customer of any company is someone who just gives you money, of course, but if that actually happened those customers would eliminate themselves eventually by running out of money.

(This is part of what economics means by "markets are rational" - the irrational people go broke.)

Netflix and gyms are pretty similar here.

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Re:Netflix never used its $1M algorithm (2012) by pharmakom on Thursday January 11, 2024 @02:12AM (#38948819)
A bit like gyms, then.

Maybe Netflix should add loads of learning content so people feel good about their sub.

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