Netflix crackdown on password sharing

[Audioluvr!]

I like Netflix. The alternative is solitaire, darts, fixing crap around the house, enjoying 2ch audio with the family under candlelight.

 

[jinjuku]

I like Netflix. The alternative is solitaire, darts, fixing crap around the house, enjoying 2ch audio with the family under candlelight.

You just made me feel like a shlup. I wonder what would happen if I suspended all streaming services for a month.

 

[Hobbit]

Some of the free streaming apps on my Roku are pretty good. A few are like cable/sat with a lot of live channels (history, nat get, movies, hundreds of them) along with some on demand streaming. Others are mostly movies. Sure, not new releases. Of course, you can setup an account for free and stream movies rather inexpensively. Unless they're new.

These free stations all have commercials, but IMO, they're MUCH less obtrusive than regular tv. The movies aren't cut or bleeped either.

Again, dissapointed that Netfix raised my rates twice (twice?!) this year while most of the shows I've been watching have been saying new episodes/season coming soon over this time period. I read they've been disappointing share holders. IMO, it seems they're trying increase profits with rate hikes rather than pulling in new users with better content.

 

[j_garcia]

Netflix has actually put out a lot of good content in the last few years, that's where the rate hike comes in. Buying and/or funding this sort of content costs money. At the same time, there are so many streaming options now that they are going to find it increasingly difficult to add a lot of users regularly like they used to.

 

[Irvrobinson]

Some of the free streaming apps on my Roku are pretty good. A few are like cable/sat with a lot of live channels (history, nat get, movies, hundreds of them) along with some on demand streaming. Others are mostly movies. Sure, not new releases. Of course, you can setup an account for free and stream movies rather inexpensively. Unless they're new.

These free stations all have commercials, but IMO, they're MUCH less obtrusive than regular tv. The movies aren't cut or bleeped either.

I occasionally watch the ROKU streaming channel. I agree that it's nice that movies aren't cut. There seems to be a lot more commercials lately, I suppose as the ROKU user base becomes larger advertising on their channel becomes more lucrative, but the way they cut to commercials is very annoying. It can happen mid-sentence in dialog. Unless the movie is compelling it usually annoys me too much to get through an entire movie.

Again, dissapointed that Netfix raised my rates twice (twice?!) this year while most of the shows I've been watching have been saying new episodes/season coming soon over this time period. I read they've been disappointing share holders. IMO, it seems they're trying increase profits with rate hikes rather than pulling in new users with better content.

Looking at their financials on Yahoo Finance, Netflix is not exorbitantly profitable. Their revenue is growing much faster than profitability, which tells us that their cost of content and distribution is rising faster than revenue. Also, their gross profitability of 39% is not especially impressive compared to cloud services companies. By comparison, Google's (Alphabet's) gross profitability is about 54%. Microsoft's gross profitability is about 68%. Clearly what's happening with Netflix is that their cost of content is increasing as they produce more content of their own, and the prices for licensing externally-produced content is going up as the number of streaming competitors increases. My forecast is that Netflix keeps increasing their subscription prices for the foreseeable future.

 

[Hobbit]

I occasionally watch the ROKU streaming channel. I agree that it's nice that movies aren't cut. There seems to be a lot more commercials lately, I suppose as the ROKU user base becomes larger advertising on their channel becomes more lucrative, but the way they cut to commercials is very annoying. It can happen mis-sentence in dialog. Unless the movie is compelling it usually annoys me too much to get through an entire movie.



Looking at their financials on Yahoo Finance, Netflix is not exorbitantly profitable. Their revenue is growing much faster than profitability, which tells us that their cost of content and distribution is rising faster than revenue. Also, their gross profitability of 39% is not especially impressive compared to cloud services companies. By comparison, Google's (Alphabet's) gross profitability is about 54%. Microsoft's gross profitability is about 68%. Clearly what's happening with Netflix is that their cost of content is increasing as they produce more content of their own, and the prices for licensing externally-produced content is going up as the number of streaming competitors increases. My forecast is that Netflix keeps increasing their subscription prices for the foreseeable future.

I live in ABQ, Netflix recently purchased and built some big studio space here. Under our restrictions, though easing fast, I'm not sure they're getting any dividends from them yet. The last year has been unusual because I'm not seeing a lot of filming going on. BTW, it's always interesting how they name a location, have some drone footage of it, then film at location here in town. Love it!

I understand about how they break into commercials. The Roku app I rarely watch. Some of the other apps are getting better. They seem to be putting a little thought into it. Some are bad. More annoying to me is how loud some of these commercials are. So loud I have to mute. Luckily you can rewind a few frames.

 

[Teetertotter?]

I have tried to log onto Amazon Prime Video using my daughters account, and NO GO. I do wonder if their content is better. I'll ask my daughter, when and if I am blocked from Netflix, to see which is better. My wife uses Netflix more than me. Also, we don't subscribe to any cable movie channels. lol

 

[j_garcia]

I cut the chord a long time ago. I went back to that chord though. The cable company knows they're losing customers, so they offer crazy deals to get you back on their books as being a subscriber. Incentivizing deals are so good, it made more sense for me to add cable back whether or not I use it.

Amazon allows you to have multiple users on an account. You would not need to use someone else's account, they simply add you. You don't get 100% of the benefits as the primary account holder, but you can stream now; before sub-accounts could not. Netflix should look at this option rather than trying to force people to separate accounts.