Netflix Explains Its Mediocre Movie Selection

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This sounds like a cop out to me. I think Netflix just wants to spend more money on original content and TV series that people will binge watch. While that isn't necessarily a bad thing, bragging that people will watch the same amount of movies, whether they are crappy or not, is kinda lame.

“No matter what, we end up with about one-third of our watching being movies,” he told the audience. Netflix believes that by the time many blockbuster movies make it onto the platform — many months after being released in the cinema — a majority of fans have already seen them. “If you were passionate (about a movie), you’ve already seen it,” he said.
 
"a majority of fans have already seen them.". Not me I wait till their available after screening. I don't come to Hardocp to read up on top notch equipment for purchasing then sit in a noisy, uncomfortable seat, with kernels of corn charged at a higher price per oz than gold, and No beer to be found. :)
 
The real reason, is if they own the IP, they make boatloads of money. HBO doesn't make content because they want to, they make it because it makes them boatloads of money. Why pay for other peoples work, when you can make your own and profit greatly.

To be honest, i LIKE a lot of what Netlfix is doing with their original content. Most of their shows are at least OK to excellent, and sometimes even outstanding.

But, i also want to see movies. This is why i pay for the service. The original content is nice, and often amazing, but at the end of the day, i want to see movies that i didn't feel like going to the theatre to see.

Long story short, i want my cake and i want to eat it too,, goddamn it! ^-^
 
I kinda agree. I find myself watching TV shows not on Netflix and Prime than movies. Yeah I can fire up a movie for 90 minutes or watch The Sopranos for several days.
 
ultimately the answer comes down to money.. to get blockbusters it costs them more which in turn will obviously get passed on to the customer. raise the price to much you lose customers, don't have the blockbusters you might lose some but not enough to matter while still making money.
 
It's not just about what it costs Netflix to get certain movies on its service. It really comes down to them trying to nab new subscribers. If the selection of movies they have overlaps with HBO, Showtime, Starz, Amazon, etc... then they have no way to attract any new subscribers other than to create good original content, which is exactly what they are doing.

I actually got rid of Amazon Prime more than two years ago because the Prime movie selection was damn near identical to Netflix and Amazon did not have original content at that time. (I never bought enough from there to justify keeping the service for free shipping.)
 
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I mostly watch TV shows on Netflix, I don't normally want to commit to watching a 2+ hour movie and I'd rather watch a TV show. That and Hollywood movies seem to all center around the same repeated themes, stereotypes and in-jokes. They also seem to like to remake the same movie over and over, sometimes with different titles and character names and sometimes they just use the same ones. You can tell a much more complex story in a serial TV show than you can in a movie or even a series of movies. Maybe they have a lot of customers who mostly watch TV shows? I can certainly see where you're coming from if you're a movie fan, but it doesn't really bother me. Heck, this could just be a negotiating tactic.

Edit: You know what, I didn't notice that they said the movie selection in Canada (where I live) is a lot better than it is in the USA. So it's certainly possible that I'm just not seeing it because we have a better movie selection. Up here we normally assume than US Netflix always has a better selection, I guess that's not always the case.
 
Hay Netflix! Your lack of movies is why I dumped your shitty streaming plan when your prices tripled years ago.

On average I have 40 items in my queue. There might be ONE I can stream at any given time.

US television is SHIT. Period! There is not a god damn thing that has graced the TV in years that is worth a damn watching and that is all you stream.

And no I have not already seen it. The theater experience is garbage just like US television. I love having to drive around to find a non 3D version of some movies and still paying 15-20$ to watch it.
 
necrosis said:
Hay Netflix! Your lack of movies is why I dumped your shitty streaming plan when your prices tripled years ago.

On average I have 40 items in my queue. There might be ONE I can stream at any given time.

US television is SHIT. Period! There is not a god damn thing that has graced the TV in years that is worth a damn watching and that is all you stream.

And no I have not already seen it. The theater experience is garbage just like US television. I love having to drive around to find a non 3D version of some movies and still paying 15-20$ to watch it.
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What are you seriously on about?

Prices tripled?? Since when was a Netflix subscription less than 4 dollars? I'm also not going anywhere near the "There is not a god damn thing that has graced the TV in years" line because all I have to say to that is: Breaking Bad , True Detective (S1), and even Stranger Things (JUST to mention three...)

Stay angry there, gramps.
 
necrosis said:
US television is SHIT. Period! There is not a god damn thing that has graced the TV in years that is worth a damn watching and that is all you stream.
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Wow, your standards really are impossibly high. I thought the last few years have had the best TV content that has ever been produced in the history of the world. On TV, when was there ever camera work like you see in Better Call Saul, or fighting choreographies like you see in the CW's arrowverse, or creative character writing like you see in iZombie?

I have not seen a movie in a long time that even matches what US TV has produced lately.
 
Sonicks said:
What are you seriously on about?

Prices tripled?? Since when was a Netflix subscription less than 4 dollars? I'm also not going anywhere near the "There is not a god damn thing that has graced the TV in years" line because all I have to say to that is: Breaking Bad , True Detective (S1), and even Stranger Things (JUST to mention three...)

Stay angry there, gramps.
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He just misses the Brady Bunch is all, don't mind him.
 
Sonicks said:
What are you seriously on about?

Prices tripled?? Since when was a Netflix subscription less than 4 dollars? I'm also not going anywhere near the "There is not a god damn thing that has graced the TV in years" line because all I have to say to that is: Breaking Bad , True Detective (S1), and even Stranger Things (JUST to mention three...)

Stay angry there, gramps.
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Mr. Robot, Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, The Americans... just a few more and that doesn't take into account the big networks who have started providing much better content.
 
I like to watch the oldie shows like Rockford Files and MASH, sadly they removed MASH..Also like old war movies, Patton is on Netflix now not to mention a lot of WWII documentaries, but a lot of the movies I have no interest in watching..
One show I would recommend is Foyle War, the best series I have seen in a long time..
I have not watched any of the Netflix originals..
 
necrosis said:
Hay Netflix! Your lack of movies is why I dumped your shitty streaming plan when your prices tripled years ago.

On average I have 40 items in my queue. There might be ONE I can stream at any given time.

US television is SHIT. Period! There is not a god damn thing that has graced the TV in years that is worth a damn watching and that is all you stream.

And no I have not already seen it. The theater experience is garbage just like US television. I love having to drive around to find a non 3D version of some movies and still paying 15-20$ to watch it.
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I think you misspelled British television.
 
If you were "passionate" about movies you probably are not going to Netflix in the first place for movies, so what the fuck does that have to do with anything?

I watch movies on Netflix and other sources because there are too many to wade through, or more to the point there are too many to bank on $10-$14 bucks a pop to see if it's good. I like to watch movies on my schedule not that of a theater.
 
Better get used to it.

Now that the content industry has seen how lucrative streaming is, they will move to balkanize it so that every big media company has their own service and everything will be exclusive to something. Instead of being able to just subscribe to Netflix for an all you can eat buffet of content, you will now need to subscribe to 10 different services. CBS is already doing this with Star Trek and CBS All Access and there is no reason to think that they will be the only ones (AT&T trying to buy out Time Warner is an obvious attempt at getting a content library for a streaming service.) Everything will either be on a streaming service owned by the content provider or part of some exclusive deal with a third-party provider.
 
damicatz said:
Better get used to it.

Now that the content industry has seen how lucrative streaming is, they will move to balkanize it so that every big media company has their own service and everything will be exclusive to something. Instead of being able to just subscribe to Netflix for an all you can eat buffet of content, you will now need to subscribe to 10 different services. CBS is already doing this with Star Trek and CBS All Access and there is no reason to think that they will be the only ones (AT&T trying to buy out Time Warner is an obvious attempt at getting a content library for a streaming service.) Everything will either be on a streaming service owned by the content provider or part of some exclusive deal with a third-party provider.
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This isn't a new concept other than the content being 'on demand'. Cable TV has done this since day 1 with basic, advanced, and premium packages. The only difference now is that we can decide what pieces make up the package and not the cable provider.

I'm all for it. I've never once in my life paid for a set-top box+package and I never plan to.
 
I do watch "TV shows" on Netflix and Amazon (The Grand Tour), but I'd love to see some of the big movies too. WHERE do you go to get them, other than Redbox or the actual theaters? Blockbuster is gone. The grocery store no longer rents movies. Buy them all? Someone is going to suggest pirating and I'm going to preemptively say no.
 
Poseur said:
I do watch "TV shows" on Netflix and Amazon (The Grand Tour), but I'd love to see some of the big movies too. WHERE do you go to get them, other than Redbox or the actual theaters? Blockbuster is gone. The grocery store no longer rents movies. Buy them all? Someone is going to suggest pirating and I'm going to preemptively say no.
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We have the one disk account with Netflix. Can't you get new releases and such via mail (disk)? I don't think that changed?
 
If he was being honest he would have said "all the movie companies realized we were eating their lunch, and they decided to take their ball and go home."
 
Poseur said:
I do watch "TV shows" on Netflix and Amazon (The Grand Tour), but I'd love to see some of the big movies too. WHERE do you go to get them, other than Redbox or the actual theaters? Blockbuster is gone. The grocery store no longer rents movies. Buy them all? Someone is going to suggest pirating and I'm going to preemptively say no.
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https://www.amazon.com/movies-tv-bluray-bluray3d/b/ref=sv_mov_3?ie=UTF8&node=2901953011

Many advantages over streaming :

1.You own it so it doesn't disappear when your streaming service's contract with the content provider runs out.
2.Significantly higher video quality than streaming plus support for lossless audio and 7.1 surround.
3.Amazing new technology allows them to work offline without an internet connection. Good for travelling or when your internet connection goes down.
4.Special features.
5.Will still work 20 years from now.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Amazon prime has rentals of new movies. I can't figure out why Netflix won't do it too. Convert the disk rental into stream rental. I'll gladly pay $3/48hr to rent stuff I missed in theaters. I watch A LOT of movies, waiting for stuff to hit HBO or starz takes forever.
 
I guess it is time to be a netflix/amazon competitor to provide the services people really want at low prices. This is the classic manipulation of controlling the context to max their profits at the customer's expense.


Hey netflix and amazon listen to your customers! We want better access with better newer movies at low prices. Think about your customers!!!! The customer is always right!

If you choose to ignore the will of the customer, I shall summon the capitalist GODs to end your misery.
 
I Agree...but I also question why I have to drive my car to redbox for a dollar movie...why cant these digitals be a buck too :(
 
damicatz said:
Better get used to it.

Now that the content industry has seen how lucrative streaming is, they will move to balkanize it so that every big media company has their own service and everything will be exclusive to something. Instead of being able to just subscribe to Netflix for an all you can eat buffet of content, you will now need to subscribe to 10 different services. CBS is already doing this with Star Trek and CBS All Access and there is no reason to think that they will be the only ones (AT&T trying to buy out Time Warner is an obvious attempt at getting a content library for a streaming service.) Everything will either be on a streaming service owned by the content provider or part of some exclusive deal with a third-party provider.
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If only there was a website that didn't care about contracts, copyrights, exclusive content or even getting paid for that matter that had about every film and TV show under the sun...

Oh wait.
 
Pepole still bother with Netflix. They're still crying that Opt gear decided to go with Amazon. Prime is superior in every way.
 
skydriver said:
I Agree...but I also question why I have to drive my car to redbox for a dollar movie...why cant these digitals be a buck too :(
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Redbox was moving to digital but dropped it before it materialized. <---no reason was given
 
Das Boot appeared on UK Netflix a few weeks ago. Possibly the greatest war movie ever. Though its only the 2hours 30 mins version not the full 4 hours+ complete edition.

As an aside I would just prefer better search on Netflix plus Netflix seems to ignore 98% of movies made in the 20th century.
 
I think they are OVERESTIMATING how many go to the theater. They have conditioned customers to wait for the movies to hit streaming service and now they are pulling the rug out.

They only way they keep me is with the Marvel content and shows like House of Cards. Otherwise, it's useless.
 
daglesj said:
Das Boot appeared on UK Netflix a few weeks ago. Possibly the greatest war movie ever. Though its only the 2hours 30 mins version not the full 4 hours+ complete edition.

As an aside I would just prefer better search on Netflix plus Netflix seems to ignore 98% of movies made in the 20th century.
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UK/Ireland Netflix is a joke. I've felt like that was more to do with the crazy fragmented way the Content producers do licensing here, where basically SKY owns all content forever, so the streaming services just get scraps from the table, but increasingly I've felt like Netflix just doesn't give a crap about anything but it's own stuff and cheap shovelware.

If it wasn't for the Marvel things (and Stranger Things I guess) I wouldn't have given netflix my money for years now
 
They do offer Blu-ray/DVD rentals for an extra fee, if someone really worried about the movies their not getting they could always go that route. I'm not defending them, just saying that there are options.
 
It was only a matter of time before Netflix or any other streaming service for that matter (I'm talking about you Amazon Prime) shifted focus to original content. As has been mentioned several times previously in this thread, the potential return on investment is there. As production companies realized how large a market there is for a streaming service like Netflix, they began to request more money for their content, if they felt that they could get it. Some companies have opted to sign long term deals at comparably reduced rates to gain exposure (you see this with TV shows), but movies are a different animal. There is a lot of money tied up in the traditional movie delivery service (theatrical release > rental release > premium network release > standard network release > local network release) and Netflix started to squeeze into this business with a new approach. The buzzword is "disruptive technology".

Compared to the cost of licensing content in a market that is not receptive to change, creating original content is the way to go, especially if you value controlling costs.
 
xX326Xx said:
They do offer Blu-ray/DVD rentals for an extra fee, if someone really worried about the movies their not getting they could always go that route. I'm not defending them, just saying that there are options.
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I've read that their Blu-ray/DVD selection had gotten worse over the last few years (same can be said for Redbox). And it's nearing the end as people ditch physical media for streaming. But Netflix will keep milking it until it doesn't turn a profit.
 
I really want just a single service that has all movies and tv shows. Also I know that would likely cost me more than $10 a month as well. It would be nice if it just were available as a possible option.
 
Gotta love when people gripe about paying $10 (or less) per month on a service that produces so much great content - especially a service that can so easily be discontinued if one decides it doesn't have enough "good" stuff on it. As another example, since Westworld just finished its first season, I fired up a free month of HBO (via Amazon) to watch it and it would have easily been worth the regular price of $15 to do so; now that I've watched the show, I can cancel and not pay another dime until the next time it seems worth it to me.

tl;dr: All-you-can-watch streaming services are an incredible value even if they only have one or two things you want to watch.
 
necrosis said:
Hay Netflix! Your lack of movies is why I dumped your shitty streaming plan when your prices tripled years ago.

On average I have 40 items in my queue. There might be ONE I can stream at any given time.

US television is SHIT. Period! There is not a god damn thing that has graced the TV in years that is worth a damn watching and that is all you stream.

And no I have not already seen it. The theater experience is garbage just like US television. I love having to drive around to find a non 3D version of some movies and still paying 15-20$ to watch it.
Click to expand...

Jesus, if this was star wars Yoda would said "I can't work with this angry guy", drop his stick and walk off.
 
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