At $8-10/month it was an always have whether I watched it or not, particularly before all the "me too" balkanized streaming platforms limped into existence.
I understand that in this changing world, Netflix needed to produce original content. IMHO how they went about it was completely wrong: they just threw money at the problem and that's just not a way to effectively create good content.
A really hard problem to avoid is to have all your content feel a bit "same-y". Netflix has this problem. They have a proclivity for one-word names (some executive think sthey'l be easier to remember), for example. Your favourite restaurant can get this way too.
Here's what they should've done: create studios to make independent localized content for particular languages. Have a studio in Spain (and probably Mexico) producing Spanish-language TV aimed specifically at Spanish speakers. The indepedent part cannot be ovverstressed.
But here's where scale comes in: for content with wider appeal, you dub it and push it to a wider audience. Some of Netflix's most interesting content has been foreign language (eg The 3%). So Netflix is doing this to some degree but it's not their core strategy. Instead they're seemingly spending most of their money on big-budget productions. Movies in particular are a loser (IMHO). Theaters is what makes movies profitable.
For some reason the voice actors that end up getting used for dubbing are (IME) universally terrible and it seems to be like the same 8 people. They're awful. This could be done so much better.
The point here is that lower-budget locale-specific content is likely to be more appealing and what becoems popular is a good indicator of what might have wider appeal.
But anyway, Netflix is now $15.50/month for HD (who is going to pay $9.99 for 480p?!?!? Or $20/month for 4K?!?!). That's more than HBO and HBO is still way better at producing original content and has a much deeper library of such content.
Personally I'll now just sign up to Netflix for 1-3 months a year to catch up on things I care about instead of having it all the time.
> Here's what they should've done: create studios to make independent localized content for particular languages. Have a studio in Spain (and probably Mexico) producing Spanish-language TV aimed specifically at Spanish speakers. The indepedent part cannot be ovverstressed.
That's what they did. Although I don't know how independent the Spanish studio is.
> News of expansion at Netflix’s Madrid studio complex, launched in April 2019 as its first European Production Hub, comes just a week after Netflix held an online roadshow to unveil seven new projects – movies, series and reality shows – including “If Only,” a Spanish adaptation of the canceled Netflix Turkish original.
Covering the next few months, the new project announcement suggested that Netflix has now achieved an unprecedented level of production in Spain that makes it one of the biggest investors in Spanish series and films in the country.
Netflix has released more than 50 titles made in Spain since 2016 and participated in more than 70 films from the time of its first original movie, “7 Years,” released in 2016. It has worked with over 35 independent production houses and has created 7,500 jobs for casts and crews.
This year’s current productions are expected to hire over 1,500 professionals and create over 21,000 days of work for extras, Netflix estimated.
If Netflix spun off their Korean dramas and charged $5/mo, I'd pay that. That was their one bright spot in an otherwise mediocre catalog.
> HBO is still way better at producing original content
Netflix can't even compete with AMC. AMC has Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Halt and Catch Fire, The Walking Dead, Better Call Saul. Even USA Networks has Mr Robot. I can't name a single Netflix show that remotely comes close to a premium tier show like Mad Men. Not Stranger Things. Maybe the first season or two of House of Cards. If you forget the later seasons exist.
The cost difference for different quality was a huge mistake I feel - as I suspect most people with streaming have more than one, and if they opted for the $10 plan it will look like absolute shite compared to the other plans they have, or even YouTube.
That’s a big turn off and another reason to axe it.
At $8-10/month it was an always have whether I watched it or not, particularly before all the "me too" balkanized streaming platforms limped into existence.
I understand that in this changing world, Netflix needed to produce original content. IMHO how they went about it was completely wrong: they just threw money at the problem and that's just not a way to effectively create good content.
A really hard problem to avoid is to have all your content feel a bit "same-y". Netflix has this problem. They have a proclivity for one-word names (some executive think sthey'l be easier to remember), for example. Your favourite restaurant can get this way too.
Here's what they should've done: create studios to make independent localized content for particular languages. Have a studio in Spain (and probably Mexico) producing Spanish-language TV aimed specifically at Spanish speakers. The indepedent part cannot be ovverstressed.
But here's where scale comes in: for content with wider appeal, you dub it and push it to a wider audience. Some of Netflix's most interesting content has been foreign language (eg The 3%). So Netflix is doing this to some degree but it's not their core strategy. Instead they're seemingly spending most of their money on big-budget productions. Movies in particular are a loser (IMHO). Theaters is what makes movies profitable.
For some reason the voice actors that end up getting used for dubbing are (IME) universally terrible and it seems to be like the same 8 people. They're awful. This could be done so much better.
The point here is that lower-budget locale-specific content is likely to be more appealing and what becoems popular is a good indicator of what might have wider appeal.
But anyway, Netflix is now $15.50/month for HD (who is going to pay $9.99 for 480p?!?!? Or $20/month for 4K?!?!). That's more than HBO and HBO is still way better at producing original content and has a much deeper library of such content.
Personally I'll now just sign up to Netflix for 1-3 months a year to catch up on things I care about instead of having it all the time.