Recap: JetSmarter Guts Terms, Netflix Price Increase & More

 

  • Netflix raises prices to pay for original content by Washington Post. Look I don’t really care about the $2 price hike, but finding content on Netflix is absolutely trash. This post on MarketWatch goes into that issue. I think finding content on the site, it’s not simple to find newly added content and the library always appears smaller than it actually is. Also given they have 58 million domestic subscribers, an extra $2 per subscriber only just barely covers the cost of paying for the Friends (TV sitcom) library to be readded.
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John
John (@guest_709361)
January 21, 2019 12:09

Bitorrent is your friend. I’ve saved thousands on books, movies, audiobooks, tv shows over the last decade. It’s shambolic how many subscriptions everyone needs to get access to a few decent shows in a sea of mediocre content. By contrast, original content from Amazon is really top-notch – best deal going as it comes with Prime.

Yoni
Yoni (@guest_707339)
January 16, 2019 18:17

Kinda of Funny they are losing lots of Content and raising prices ( i.e Disney, maybe Fox shows). We get it free with our T-mo Plan and pay an extra $3 for 4K and four simultaneous users.

It is hard to find decent programming on Netflix, in the house it is mainly streamed on Roku’s and the idiotic Netflix app has a keep awake (like old TSR progs) so that it never times out to main menu or power save, but I won’t watch in bed because of having the strobing carousel of Netflixs screen saver (no time out to main menu) has woken me up more times than I like. I use the red digits digital time screensaver with time, temp and baro pressure, which is great for knowing if car windows are going to have frost in the morning.

LWink
LWink (@guest_707116)
January 16, 2019 12:34

Agree it is hard to find the good stuff. I try googling articles like “best films on netflix”.
But still worth it. Without Netflix, I never wd have seen great content like Top of the Lake, Bodyguard, River, Rake, Offspring, Happy Valley, Peep Show, The Little Hours, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and the excellent Swedish family dramedy “Bonus Family”. All wonderful.

John
John (@guest_709368)
January 21, 2019 12:18

Actually, most of those are available on Bitorrent for $0.00

Mark Ostermann
Mark Ostermann (@guest_707034)
January 16, 2019 10:47

It is actually easier to search Netflix (and Prime) on the computer and add it to your list. Which is a PIA for sure and annoying that it can’t be done easily with your remote. It is amazing how much more stuff comes up on the computer you never see on the tv.

Sevillada
Sevillada (@guest_707023)
January 16, 2019 10:24

It does seem like a waste of money to pay so much for Friends

Mark Ostermann
Mark Ostermann (@guest_707038)
January 16, 2019 10:49

Agreed – I would rather them add a ton of different lessor known show then add Friends back at that cost.

Brandon
Brandon (@guest_707113)
January 16, 2019 12:29

I agree. Bring back all of MASH.

John
John (@guest_709367)
January 21, 2019 12:17

Well, they could skip the last 3-5 years, which were total garbage. MASH only lasted as long as it did because the quality of shows in those days was abysmal and they kept viewers by default.

Frank
Frank (@guest_707021)
January 16, 2019 10:23

I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a big consumer protection change in the future — no more of these “open ended” membership agreements where the company can change anything they want and have it apply retroactively to customers who have already paid.

We laugh in cases like moviepass and jetsmarter because it was clear there was a logical disconnect in the profit strategy but imagine if that happened with bank bonuses “oh we decided it should have been 10 debit card purchases every month for a year rather than just 2 months”… everyone here would be calling the CFPB

Joe W
Joe W (@guest_707070)
January 16, 2019 11:25

I thought the current mission of CFPB is to do nothing? lol

It is not going to be better for us consumer for the time being.

Amy
Amy (@guest_707187)
January 16, 2019 14:45

I still want it to be a free membership with service pay: if you don’t use it in a given month you don’t have to pay that month, but as soon as you watch one thing then you get charged the full price. That would make it much more attractive to me (and a bigger money loser for them, I know).

Elmer
Elmer (@guest_707344)
January 16, 2019 18:22

Your monthly rate for that service would be $24.99

Jeff H
Jeff H (@guest_706988)
January 16, 2019 09:21

I get the dirty end of the stick as usual since I bought a bunch of NetFlix GCs at a discount during Amazon and Staples promos. The result is I have used them to prepay months in advance for my Netflix. I keep telling Netflix not to waste money on in house productions which are usually GIGO. They are very close to loosing me.

Elmer
Elmer (@guest_707343)
January 16, 2019 18:21

That’s another way of saying “I made another stupid move again.” Sounds like history repeating itself for you? There’s a saying about that.

Debit
Debit (@guest_706987)
January 16, 2019 09:11

NFLx has nothing else. Their only gig is programming. They have to run fast just to stay in place. Pretty shitty model actually. The fact that they were able to do what they did should show they have no competitive advantage. Someone else could show up. But they are an innovative company. A mail order business getting into content creation and streaming is one huge leap. So people are betting they will continue to be smart and grow.

irshad
irshad (@guest_706990)
January 16, 2019 09:23

What?? “their only gig is programming”. I am not sure what that means.. its like saying walmart’s only gig is selling.
Their model is pretty good actually. Recurring subscription is the model every company is trying to emulate (Amazon with prime, apple with apps.. )

Debit
Debit (@guest_707005)
January 16, 2019 09:54

Amazon has other things to subsidize their programming. So do other studios. Netflix lives and dies by programming. Sometimes It’s a good thing. When it’s life or death it keeps you focused on staying alive.

But any discussion beyond that comes down to other metrics that are best not discussed here.

Electroman
Electroman (@guest_707104)
January 16, 2019 12:14

Amazon’s cash cow is AWS, a different kind of programming. 😉

irshad
irshad (@guest_706979)
January 16, 2019 08:55

I agree with your assessment that it is very difficult to find content on Netflix and that the library is actually a lot bigger than it appears.

But we need to consider 58 million x 2 dollars x 12 months which makes it 1.4 billion dollars. Which is equal to 14 “Friends” PER YEAR. Compare that to HBO (spending 2.5Billion per year on their content).

Mike Advantage
Mike Advantage (@guest_707083)
January 16, 2019 11:56

HBO is better than Netflix. They’re got Real Time with Bill Maher, etc.

Ann
Ann (@guest_706974)
January 16, 2019 08:41

“Also given they have 58 million domestic subscribers, an extra $2 per subscriber only just barely covers the cost of paying for the friends library to be readded.”

I think a capital ‘F’ would be a good idea there. 😉 At first I was like, “WTF is a ‘friends library’? I’ve never heard of that feature…Oh, he means the TV show ‘Friends’.”

Justin
Justin (@guest_707063)
January 16, 2019 11:20

Ha ha, I was thinking the same thing. Like did I miss the Netflix feature to add content and share with friends? Or you buy movie and add it, then you can loan it to your friends? 🙂

Mike Advantage
Mike Advantage (@guest_707081)
January 16, 2019 11:55

Netflix now lets you browse a library of all your friends.. naked.

Electroman
Electroman (@guest_707103)
January 16, 2019 12:12

And what is seen cannot be unseen. That’s it – I’m not turning the TV on!