Netflix: What Went Wrong

Promising a globally popular powerhouse like myself $100 million had nothing to do with it!

I dropped Netflix because I finally reached the threshold of “it’s not worth it” after they again raised prices after watching original Netflix stinker after stinker movie (remember the terrible Toni Collette/Anna Kendrick space movie?) and only an occasional show that was worth watching and usually only worth watching the first season.

Clearly I wasn’t the only one who felt that the content didn’t justify the higher prices anymore. I already have prime, Hulu, and cable shows via Fubo.

Also, when you notify everyone that you’re about to crack down on password sharing and multiple households at the same time you raise prices for the third time in a few years, you’re going to lose popularity. They don’t need to try to bleed every last user dry AND raise prices.

Maybe Elon will buy this one, too. Shake things up a bit.

I think the real reason is that it gained too much competition and hasn’t fought hard enough to defend its place. Netflix used to be the only main streaming service and that has changed dramatically these past couple years with every company now jumping in on their formula and offering something good.

NF got lazy and fat. Just like a typical American. No surprise.

Instead of bleeding subscribers by raising prices and cracking down on password sharing they should look at those executive salaries. $18 million a year?

The problem with Netflix has always been that it valued quantity over quality. Even when they have a big hit, it's usually something incredibly disposable. Think of all those movies that the company trumpeted as the most-watched movie ever, like Bird Box. Who has even thought about that one in years? Or they have shows like Tiger King, a massive phenomenon at the time that people now look back at with embarrassment.

For all that people legitimately complain about Hollywood studios, they tend to have a quality control that Netflix never really developed, which is why even most of Netflix's successful shows collapse quickly. Their entire model was 'let's throw money at this.'

That blackface cartoon was a mistake.

Different studios are aligning with different services, which waters down availability. I have most streaming services, except Disney+. I find I have an easier time finding something to watch outside of Netflix. I think this supports most of the comments made thus far.

R7, literally the entire article is about how they got rid of the quality control by getting rid of Holland. They did have quality control during their height of popularity when she was in charge of it.

[quote]“It’s called Insatiable-gate within the halls of Netflix,” this source says. “It gave the power of greenlight to several people. It caused absolute demoralization and chaos. Everybody thought it was a terrible thing Ted did, allowing one team to greenlight something that another team had passed on.” Though the show was critically panned (it sits at 11 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), it performed well enough to get a second season. “It sent a message to Ted because it did OK numbers,” this source continues. “Ted, wanting to increase content by a huge amount, started to look to Bela as what the company should be. Cindy kept saying we should still be betting on high-end creators and making some cheaper things, too.”

In case it's not clear to everyone...Sarandos was fucking Bajaria. No doubt in my mind. Go ahead and guess which one is the smart one and which one is the one the old white guy went with instead...

I'm going to binge the final half-season of Ozark this weekend and cancel this shit. Then I'm going to have to call my mom and break the news (who I'm sharing my password with). Netflix truly has turned into garbage.

Geez, R11, just keep it for your mom then. It's not that expensive.

[quote]The problem with Netflix has always been that it valued quantity over quality.

As someone who has had Netflix since they started streaming videos: this wasn't always the case.

They did value quality over quantity at some point. Then they slowly changed over time.

They got cocky and realized that because of their larger user base they could take any show and put eyeballs on it.

Then they started pumping out more and more content and stopped caring about quality. They cut the costs of the shows they do put on. They shortened shows, then seasons, then split the seasons and used trickery to pay actors, writers and production teams less and less.

Then they lost their licensing for their bread and butter content once companies starting taking it back.

They bit off their noses to spite their faces. Remember when they had the Marvel TV shows? As a couple of the show runners indicated, THEY were the ones that pulled the plug on those early not Disney.

All the studios have their own streaming services now. Unlike the studios, Netflix doesn't have 100 years worth of a back catalogue when it comes to titles. Hence them greenlighting everything that comes their way and paying top dollar in order to lure big names. Of course the quality dropped and of course they're running out of money. There was no need to pay Dwayne Johnson $60 million for Red Notice but they did because they wanted to use his face to attract subscribers. They'd do better to make cheap shit like Selling Sunset. They get more bang for their buck with Crishell and Co over multiple seasons than they do from a one-off with Dwayne.

R12 I'm hardly cheap but I want Netflix to know that they suck.

Herd mentality overriding logic - as is always the case with capitalism. It was obvious it was a pandemic specific boom. And like very pandemic boom company, it will crash. The idea of perpetual growth on which capitalism rests is so crazy. No one wants to think long term. Executives are incentivized to focus on the quarter not the year or even mult-year stability. Screw them all.

[quote]Clearly I wasn’t the only one who felt that the content didn’t justify the higher prices anymore.

Yes -- yet nowhere in this article or in comments to the press and investors over the last week has Netflix acknowledged that rising prices might be a contributing factor to its current woes.

If they think that adding an ad level or getting rid of binging and going to an episodic formula will increase anything, they're nuts. That will just piss off those who are still watching and lose even the sign up for a month to watch something every couple of months people.

R17 I know. There’s a total denial here of the fact that Netflix raises their prices far more often than other services AND is going to charge more for multiple households to prevent password sharing. These are two very important factors when considering why 200k subscribers SUDDENLY dropped off.

The article was focusing on leadership changes and different ideas guiding the company.

Umm okay, but you can’t keep price gouging people without expecting pushback at some point. And pulling a Metallica-with-Napster move trying to clamp down on sharing and still remain popular.

Things have shelf lives, and increasingly short ones in this era. All the internal culture and culture war stuff is definitely interesting but it's just a case of a company that doesn't have as much money as it did (relative to size), can't grow as much as it did (or starts declining), and offers product which doesn't entice consumers as much, which makes them less likely to accept price hikes. I don't find the Netflix saga spectacular or unique in any way. I guess because it was such a maverick in the entertainment industry that it warrants this sort of coverage. It will still be around among many streaming players, at least until purchases by and mergers among all the big services happen.

I pay for two users...it shouldn't matter to Netflix who those two users are.

So, to sum up: Mega-dweeb Sarandos axed the person who built Netflix’s cred as a platform for groundbreaking premium content (Holland) because she hurt his tiny-dick ego by questioning his bad decisions, and replaced her with a scheming yes-woman from a middling legacy studio (Bajaria), a woman whose face screams “eyes on the prize” in the worst way, who then proceeded to greenlight a bunch of trash while the platform raised prices repeatedly.

Gosh, I can’t imagine why they’re losing subscribers.

Plus there's more competition and people can't afford all the services, or simply don't want to pay for all of them.

There are still plenty of people who don't really pay attention to their subscriptions and let them linger, but I think more and more people in this subscription-based culture are letting subscriptions go entirely, or adept at turning them on and off when there's content they desire and/or when there's a subscription deal to be had (like how I get Showtime and Starz add-on channels on Prime whenever they're 99 cents for a month). I feel like for many viewers, Netflix getting rid of releasing all episodes at once won't force them to keep their subscription longer, but will more so eliminate the subscriptions of people signing up for one or two months to binge on a show. Or they'll still do a one-month binge by waiting until the end of a show's run so all episodes are available.

Wall Street and the media are every bit as much to blame for overvaluing Netflix as the service itself is for sucking.

they started to allow ellipses in their movie summaries...

r10 doubt it would have survived as the other factions seems they were more concerned about the "fat shaming" than it did poorly.

Look at the Deadline comments when Holland exited and Bajaria was promoted

Anonymous on September 8, 2020 7:50 pm

UNI let her go because she was a snake, Netflix (Ted Sarandos) let her slither in. Now Netflix is just like everyone else.

Jack on September 9, 2020 10:38 am

Correct statement and perfect verb for Bella.

Bajaria sort of looks like Danica Patrick

My bf was on Netflix in the other room and when I tried to log into it on my laptop it wouldn't let me so they are really watching who uses it now. But I think we should both be able to use it at the same time?

You may not be on a plan that allows multiple simultaneous viewing

Their justification probably is that if it's an individual account there would be no reason for two devices to be running Netflix at the same time. They'll probably introduce family plans if they already haven't - "save when you buy a plan that authorizes use for up to five devices."

"They don’t need to try to bleed every last user dry AND raise prices."

The hell you say. It's a formula that's worked for us for years. How else do you think we could afford to buy NBC and Universal Studios?

NF is like Amazon or Paramount +. Few new offerings. Go on, do a search of new movies on Amazon and you'll see 40-year-old movies "just posted to prime". New movies cost in addition to the service. The apps are amateurish at best. and searching or even their listings are difficult to work. So we will spend up to an hour searching for something "new" only to hit on an Amazon movie with a 5-star rating only to discover it was a Sci-Fi channel movie. NF is the first, the other will have the same problems.

90% of Netflix's content is utter shit.

They should fire Sarandos and replace him with Holland who will then fire the snake.

I agree r33. And Amazon's interface is TOTAL SHIT. They need a complete overhaul.

[quote]They'll probably introduce family plans if they already haven't - "save when you buy a plan that authorizes use for up to five devices."

They have family plans "within the same home." So you can stream to, 4 devices, at once. But that's also been a backdoor to anyone with your password using your account and being able to watch it at the same time as you in a different location.

They'll likely just limit it to one address.

Problem is, other services (especially HBO Max) don't care at all.

R37 This also hurts Netflix’s image and makes them look like greedy cops trying to clamp down on sharing. I think that’s partially why people are dumping it—some think they’re going too far in combination with the price hikes.

people are getting sick of the force fed blackrock investment divisive agenda forcefully written into every show. "big mouth" and that awful disgusting monster agency spin off are great examples.

r39 WTF are you talking about?

I have no sympathy for anyone using someone else's account.

I would actually love it if Netflix went back to renting you a set number of films per week that you request, as they once did by mailing you the DVDs, but they probably wouldn't want to pay for the viewing rights for 3rd party content.

I would make a long list of arty shit that was made 40-60 years ago that I haven't gotten around to.

R42 I miss those days of getting the long awaited DVD in the mail! I could rent obscure films I couldn’t watch anywhere else (rare lesbian films for me) that are still hard to find and no major streaming service like Hulu wants to pick them up even now.

The market for indie and obscure films is nowhere to seen—major streaming services are still lacking with that unless you get a niche subscription like The Criterion Collection. That’s why Netflix was so amazing back then—just $7 or $8/month and you could have an obscure or artsy film at your door within 5 days or so and could do this at least a few times per month.

I’d pay their raised fee and resubscrive if they went back and added that service again.

The other problem, and I don’t know if it’s the same with other streaming services, but they are quick to cancel good shows. I got into shows like “The End of the Fucking World” and “I Am Not Okay with This”. Both critically acclaimed shows that had buzz and cancelled them.

It’s like what’s the point of getting into a show if it’s most likely going to be cancelled.

They still mail DVDs, R43.

They should take the shows that are quality (but relatively cheap to produce), that had minor success and push it artificially to 'Top 10' this week.

Just recycle what they already have to the bulk of their viewers that aren't really discerning, and just watch what everyone else watches.

I swear alot of people just watch what everyone else is supposedly, even if it's out of their usual comfort zone.

"I have no sympathy for anyone using someone else's account."

Do they need it? I'm sure account sharers' lives won't go off the rails if they can no longer share.

"It’s like what’s the point of getting into a show if it’s most likely going to be cancelled."

To enjoy it for the limited time it's around.

[quote]"I have no sympathy for anyone using someone else's account."

Well SMELL YOU

[quote]I miss those days of getting the long awaited DVD in the mail! I could rent obscure films I couldn’t watch anywhere else (rare lesbian films for me) that are still hard to find and no major streaming service like Hulu wants to pick them up even now.

As someone mentioned, they still offer DVDs, but that part of the service is hanging on by a thread. In the past few years, most cult, foreign, obscure and classic movies have disappeared. And if you do find one of those movie still available, it's usually a "Very Long Wait" and you'll be waiting 6 months or more to receive it.

I think their viewing will go up the next few weeks with the new Ozark season but it will not help with subscriptions since it is the last season.

The bloom was off the rose for me when I saw how the Ryan Murphy output is. I know, I know. But spending millions of dollars on costumes and so little attention paid to writing and directing something coherent in Ratched and The Politician revealed how little disciplined Netflix is.

From the film side, I felt the same about Scorsese’s The Irishman. Wasting that money de-aging men in their 70s and 80s who cannot disguise the decades in their posture and their voices was folly. Someone needed to tell Scorsese no, and Netflix couldn’t.

I am rejoining Paramount+ once the new season of Mayor Of Kingstown is release and no earlier. If I weren’t signed up to Netflix for my mother, is so the same.

Do the other streaming services allow password sharing?

It’s amazing how much money was wasted on awards campaigns for little remembered Irishman.

The Top 10 in the US today is largely garbage

It's the Megan association. She's poison, she turns to shit everything she touches.

I do wonder if Netflix regrets shelling out so much money to Harry & Meghan. They also paid the Obamas a lot, has that been successful? I am not into preachy stuff so I won't watch any of it from the Obamas or H&M.

[quote]The bloom was off the rose for me when I saw how the Ryan Murphy output is. I know, I know. But spending millions of dollars on costumes and so little attention paid to writing and directing something coherent in Ratched and The Politician revealed how little disciplined Netflix is.

They obviously won't be renewing his $300 million deal.

99% of their programs are shitshows, that is what went wrong, horribly wrong!!!

I have watched a lot of Ryan Murphy but I had to turn off The Prom series.

The Prom was a movie, you idiot.

This reminds me of the Great Video Game Crash of 1983: too many shitty video games (remember ET?) running on too many shitty consoles ( Atari, ColecoVision, Odyssey, Vectrex et al.). But this begs the question of who’s going to be the next Nintendo to Netflix’s Atari?

They are like HBO, just when I think I am out they pull me back in by playing something I want to see.

DVD's and all that mailing is cumbersome, though. And being able to watch whatever, regardless of who produced it, was really the appeal of that.

Now you have to sub to 10 different channels to even come close to the selection we had in DVD rentals from Netflix, and still can't find the obscure stuff.

Just let me watch 10 or 12 art films of my choosing every month and I will pay your $20 mo and you won't have to make Netflix produced garbage that I won't see as anything but a last resort anyway.

But that's probably too niche, and the rights to show all of those things would double the subscription price or more.

R64, try The Criterion Channel. For some reason I had never heard of it, but I tried a trial subscription and then signed up. I think it's a hundred bucks a year. I watch a few movies a week and the selection is great and ever changing. I had tried Mubi for the same thing, but the selection was not nearly as good and I was constantly having streaming/technical problems, which I haven't had after a month of the Criterion Channel.

I haven't had cable for years, and TCC kinda scratches my TCM itch. With Robert Osborne gone, TCM really has nothing TCC doesn't have more of, and on demand.

I just may have to do that, R65.

I wonder if there ever be a pay per view option, a portal where you can select to pay for a single item?

You would still have to subscription options to each streaming service, but the price per view would be significantly lower than what YouTube or other providers charge. Similar to the prices once paid at a video rental store.

The people ditching Netflix could still be customers as the occasional pay per viewer.

Better to get some money out of such people than completely losing their custom.

They decided to go with quantity over quality..big mistake

Amazon Prime does that, R67.

Cindy Holland is obviously well connected at THR. I'm sure Bajaria is a snakey cunt, but she did buy Squid Game so gets a mild pass.

They were popular because they were the one-stop shop for movies and TV shows for years, but they stopped trying to keep any of the older stuff and instead spent all their time producing new content, but it's not exciting enough and there's not enough of it. They pay Chappelle nineteen bajillion dollars for a few specials instead of using that money to get specials from 10 really good comedians instead. Episodes of The Witcher apparently cost $10M each. Bird Box cost $20M and it looked cheaper than something like Get Out, which didn't even have a $5M budget.

Then Netflix wants us to pay for all this money they've spent, which is a ridiculous way to do business.

They overspent on content that no one wanted to see.

I'm normally subscribed to three or four streaming services but Netflix is rarely among them. Basically it's only Stranger Things that makes me go back for a month or two. Netflix is filled with so much utter shit I get nauseous trying to find something to watch. Stranger Things is something truly special, though. I keep waiting they'll fuck it up as well.

Obviously Netflix has tons of quality content but for some reason HBOmax and Disney+ keep me as their customers month after month. I've been planning to cancel Disney+ but they know how to keep you hooked by releasing an episode weekly which suites me much better since I don't have time to binge 10-20 hours a week. It was Moon Knight that has kept me in the past few weeks, before that it was Boba Fett and now I'm waiting for Obi-Wan Kenobi. They obviously have tons of classics as well. I just watched 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea which was great, as were Hocus Pocus and Big Business. It's been decades since I last saw them.

I also currently have Apple TV+ since I got 9 months for free after buying a new TV and a PS5 but I'd never see myself paying for that service. They do have quality content but their library is super tiny.

If you have T-Mobile you should look into their Paramount+ offer of a free year. They also have an offer for Apple but I didn't qualify. You needed to be on a Magenta plan for Apple.

Had Disney+ for awhile but after less than a year basically ran out of content I really wanted to watch (don't care anything about Marvel movies, which I realize is a huge draw for many). Their endless disclaimers attached to anything pre-2000 irritated me, too. So preachy.

I don't understand why people are mystified. Netflix raised prices to a point at which demand fell off. You can explain this with simple demand/supply curves and nothing else. There might be other things going on, but no one wants to acknowledge an obvious answer.

Yet, plenty of people have acknowledged that answer, even on this thread.

[quote]The bloom was off the rose for me when I saw how the Ryan Murphy output is. I know, I know. But spending millions of dollars on costumes and so little attention paid to writing and directing something coherent in Ratched and The Politician revealed how little disciplined Netflix is.

[quote]They obviously won't be renewing his $300 million deal.

They renewed Shonda's contract last year and they rightfully bumped up her deal. She gave them their number one rated show in history (now number 2 after Squid Game came out.) So she was in a great place to argue she deserved more.

One one of Ryan's shows managed not be completely destroyed by critics.

[quote]I don't understand why people are mystified. Netflix raised prices to a point at which demand fell off. You can explain this with simple demand/supply curves and nothing else. There might be other things going on, but no one wants to acknowledge an obvious answer.

That's the true problem: Netflix won't admit that raising prices year after year is the actual problem. They're pointing everywhere else and making all the wrong moves.

I started my subscription late last year, so it hasn't been very long. Before that, I had heard about specific big Netflix shows, but never saw any of them. Once I subscribed, I started adding those older shows to My List. What surprised me is that shows that used to be big are now just hidden away. I didn't expect to have to fish such shows out of the garbage bin. It makes me realize that some of the shows showcased today will be tomorrow's refuse, so there's nothing actually special about them.

At one point it seemed like every third show on Netflix was about some fucking Central American drug cartel. I had zero interest.

I admit I enjoyed the Narcos series. There were some really hot men in them, and it makes for great background tv because the music isn't annoying and the Spanish is easy to tune out.

What went wrong?

What the fuckshit programs they are releasing in May? They expect people to pay money for these shitshows?

I’m looking forward to Stranger Things. Then I’ll probably cancel until The Crown is back. Personally I think a large part of the problem is the success of streaming and the fact all the networks now have their own platforms with impressive back catalogs. How anyone can afford multiple streaming subscriptions I don’t know. I suspect the whole streaming industry will suffer as people struggle just to afford food.

NARCOS was awesome in its first two seasons (2015-2016) when it was set in Colombia and was all about the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar. And it starred and was narrated by blonde, blue-eyed hunk Boyd Holbrook as the DEA agent who brought down Escobar. But this was before the industry went woke, so there was still great writing/casting/production values.