Netflix: Should I or Shouldn't I?

Started by pookiethecat, October 08, 2003, 02:40:05 PM

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Sleepless

Richard Branson or someone needs to come along and introduce a completely new solution for people who want high-speed internet without having to go through the cable companies. The sooner the better.

It seems Netflix (and HBO, AMC) is continuing to change how the larger TV industry goes about doing things:

From The Guardian

QuoteWhat is the best way to pick a winning TV show? For decades in the US broadcast industry the answer has been a creative "running of the bulls" known as pilot season. It starts now with a script frenzy and ends in the autumn when the new shows air and are either lauded and recommissioned into television eternity, killed instantly, or limp along for two or three seasons before dying a silent and unremarkable death.

This cycle, which seems absurd when set against how people actually consume television, not to mention its attendant costs – estimated at $300m-$400m a year – is now coming to an end. Last week Fox announced it was giving up on pilot season in favour of the radical practice of "commissioning television all year round". On the face of it this is a minor and very dull adjustment in how broadcast business is done. On a deeper level, however, it marks part of a fundamental shift in how all commercial creative processes and production cycles are shifting to be more synchronised with the habits of the audience.

Until now pilot season has been seen as an efficient way to identify the best programmes. However, two things have disrupted this cycle: the success cable networks like HBO, AMC and Showtime have achieved without investing in pilots, and the data-driven commissioning approach of Netflix and Amazon, which takes the tens of millions of "interactions" between viewers and programmes and turns them into a basis for sorting out promising ideas. Breaking Bad came from an established creative team, its creator Vince Gilligan had access to commissioners others might not, but he credits Netflix with fostering an ardent but small fanbase which talked about and shared the show at a time when its ratings alone would have killed it. While broadcast networks were schmoozing advertisers, Netflix has been refining how it helps television and film viewers find what they want. In a brilliant piece of exploratory technology journalism, the Atlantic writer Alexis Madrigal and Georgia Tech professor Ian Bogost recently took apart the Netflix algorithmic box of tricks which delivers more than 76,000 different types of viewing experience to its subscribers. The company has been open about how, by placing its personalised "genre categories" such as "drama with a strong female lead" in front of viewers, it generates loyalty and more viewing. As Madrigal notes in his piece, the amazing wealth of data "can't tell them how to make a TV show, but it can tell them what they should be making". A sterile creative process which reinforces formulaic repetition? Or a system which can produce series such as House of Cards or Orange Is the New Black that have freshened up the possibilities for US television and invaded awards season?

These shows might not be delivering the numbers of mainstream broadcast hits, but to apply the same measurement to such a radically different experience and business model would be unfair. Recent audience studies in the US have suggested that streaming of television is now second only to live TV, and while the majority of TV viewers envisage themselves buying an internet-enabled television at some point, fewer than a quarter now would watch shows on DVD.

Television executives, like newspaper executives before them, are an endangered species. The combination of "taste" on a human level with the incredible datasets gathered by platforms like Netflix embodies the new blend of talent and numbers that will set viewing patterns everywhere in the future. It is not at all surprising that crude rituals like pilot season are dying – it is more of a surprise that the riches of broadcast television have allowed them to last until now.
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

Sleepless

From Variety:

Amazon.com — which has disrupted book publishing and retailing, among other industries — now may be looking to rattle the cages of the pay-TV biz.

The e-commerce colossus has approached entertainment companies about licensing TV channels for a broadband-delivered service, the Wall Street Journal reported. Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.

Amazon has the potential to "massively disrupt the TV ecosystem" with a service that could be run at essentially zero margin, Janney Capital Markets analysts Tony Wible and Murali Sankar wrote in a research note last week.

SEE ALSO: Verizon Buys Intel's Internet TV Unit, and Telco Plans to Launch Virtual TV Services

"Today's MVPDs (multichannel video programming distributors) are designed to generate a profit but there is ample room for new companies to run at a lower margin or in the case of AMZN price at cost to generate revenue from the sale of merchandise sold through the TV," the analysts speculated.

Amazon is uniquely positioned to enter the pay-TV business, the analysts said, because it already operates a large technology infrastructure — Amazon Web Services, which Netflix uses to deliver Internet video — and has a massive global consumer base of 224 million consumers.

Last year, Amazon was reported to be developing a set-top box – which would presumably serve as a delivery mechanism for a linear TV service designed to compete with cable, satellite and telco TV services.

Word that Amazon is seeking TV deals for a virtual pay-TV service comes as Intel announced a deal to sell its own broadband-based television unit to Verizon Communications in a deal worth around $200 million, according to sources. Verizon says the Intel Media acquisition will let it accelerate development of over-the-top services. Sony, meanwhile, said this month it intends to launch a test of an Internet TV service in 2014. Others reported to be interested in the concept include Google and Apple.

If Amazon launched an over-the-top TV services, networks — especially premium networks like HBO, Showtime, and Starz — would benefit from an Amazon over-the-top service while traditional cable and satellite operators would risk losing video subs, the Janney analysts said.

Amazon may also use a virtual pay-TV service to rally political support against usage-based billing by broadband providers, which also sell TV service. For Amazon, a virtual cable TV product "may be needed to protect AWS (Amazon Web Services) from a looming battle over Usage Based Billing (UBB) of Internet data," Wible and Sankar wrote.
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

Sleepless

Surprised no-one has mentioned Popcorn Time here yet given all the media attention it's gotten over the past couple of weeks. Anyone tried it? Any other thoughts or comments?
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

jenkins

hadn't heard about this. it took me a week to find out about Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, that's how news savvy i am

let me short/sweet this:
i don't pirate movies
other people i know pirate movies, then we watch them together
so i'm into it
i downloaded this, i didn't do something right, it's not working
dangit

Mel

Quote from: Sleepless on March 21, 2014, 12:35:15 PM
Surprised no-one has mentioned Popcorn Time here yet given all the media attention it's gotten over the past couple of weeks. Anyone tried it? Any other thoughts or comments?

Because it is torrent all the way down? So you either not interested in that at all or you're at least familiar with it already. Commentary about how Hollywood and model of distribution used by it is backward is interesting, but it is hardly a novelty. Hollywood is own biggest enemy in this battle.
Simple mind - simple pleasures...

Neil

Thanks mel for clearing it all up.
it's not the wrench, it's the plumber.

jenkins

wilder,
maybe other people,
maybe someone,

there are a bunch of 50s american-culture b-movies that have appeared on netflix streaming and i want to watch all of them:

wilder


jenkins

watched high school hellcats and found it astonishing. its 50s crime-movie qualities are social complexities and repercussions, with a female teenager twist. this is 1 of 5 from the director that year, 1958, and the teens are being bad and fascinating in ways that feel aligned toward future john waters.

hope the netflix programmer who brought these in gets a promotion. great remembrances of social/cultural/cinematic history

watching more

wilder

Sounds like a fun ride - maybe next week

03

vice raid and so young so bad are really really great. the others i didnt care for, but just my opinion they sucked ass.

polkablues

I can't decide if the girl on the cover of So Young, So Bad looks more like Carey Mulligan or Taylor Swift.
My house, my rules, my coffee

Sleepless

The strangest thing is happening...

My four year old keeps watching these Leapfrog movies on Netflix on our Apple TV. Each time he watches one, another becomes available to watch. I thought he was making it up at first, but sure enough it's true. First thing this morning there were 7 movies. He watched one, it went back to the Leapfrog page and there were 8. He watched another. Now there are 9. It's so bizarre.

Has anyone else experienced something like this with Netflix before? I'm just scratching my head here. I think it might be to do with him choosing shows by navigating through the characters in the kids section. Not a big deal, just find it weird.
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

polkablues

My guess is it's something to do with their browsing algorithm, where they don't show you everything that's available, just a cross-section of what the computers think you might want to watch based on past viewing. Presumably, as your kid watches more of these things, it's gradually adjusting the formula to let the system know, "Hey, maybe he would want to watch even more of these." Weird way for it to do it, though.
My house, my rules, my coffee

Sleepless

Quite possible. The Netflix algorithm is a fucking head-scratcher.
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.