www.macrumors.com/2024/07/03/netflix-phasing-out-basic-ads-free-plan/
Netflix Starts Booting Subscribers Off Cheapest Basic Ads-Free Plan
BusinessNetflix became what they swore to destroy lmao
Netflix is beholden to shareholders just like the cable companies they swore to destroy.
Probably even the same shareholders
Welcome to the inevitable cycle of capitalism.
People should remember this anytime they start acting braindead and defending it.
It still amazes me they haven’t made 4K standard when available like so many other services.
like so many other services.
Sky/Now TV would like a word with its £5 extra a month for HD lol
AND to upgrade from stereo sound. It’s a joke!
trying to watch now tv on a pc is like traveling back into 2001 it might be 720p but with bitrate designed for 240p youtube
their basic plan is 480p/576p not 720p.
So 480p is basically traveling back to 1990s and the old CRT displays. The only difference is interlaced vs progressive.
Pop in an old divx / avi and watch the quality go up.
Most over the air tv that is free. Is 720p or 1080i.
Of course the subchannels are sometimes worse SD than back in the analog days.
HD channels mostly look better than some 4k content on YouTube even though it's 720p.
Old mpeg 2 is how standard tv is broadcast.
Byte for byte because avi has less overhead and features they look better at the same file size. Bit rate is the most important. Pushing those pixels and throwing out less pixels that is part of the visuals and not noise.
Play YouTube videos with video games on a tv. The video on YouTube looks 20x worse than the same game playing on your tv because encoders try to throw put frames and pixels yet there is no noise in a digital game to throw out.
YouTube game trailers including gameplay videos with people playing always look worse than on the game actually playing on your console on your TV.
YouTube isn't a good comparison of quality of games on multiple machines.
Mainly because the codecs that YouTube uses may favor one over the other. The way YouTube encodes. Or your own encoder.
240p was the 90s broadcast standard, and those tvs could support up to 480i, 480p didn't happen till edtv was a thing.
Sky glass and sky q customers can press the red button to follow the racing action from inside the cockpit!
Crofty, is that you?
The last time I streamed something in "4K" it was so compressed that it looked worse than uncompressed 1080p. I feel like 4k is a useless term unless you know the encoding format and bitrate.
it’s the streaming version of the ISP saying “400mbps down” and you needing to google to find out it’s 10 up
Every episode of the last season of Game of Thrones. I have a 4K TV. I have an Internet package that can handle 4K. I watched at night. All I saw was banding.
Very true, I’ve noticed some variance in quality for sure.
Why make it standard when you can up charge?
Just saw a video about how this is just the basic development of a silicone valley type company. Start by focussing on customers until you have enough market share to start enshittification. Even more brazen when you consider that netflix lost a ton of its most expensive and popular shows when all the others made their own subscription services but somehow it's still becoming more expensive while also becoming worse.
Yes every upstart company does this to some degree. They make a fundamentally unprofitable service by nature in order to make it so attractive that people flock to it. Of course you're going to jump on essentially free stuff, aren't you?
They then show investors their customer growth rate, and promise that once they grow big enough, by sheer scale they will start being profitable. Investors jump on it because it looks good and nobody wants to miss out on investing into the next Google.
But the service is fundamentally at a loss, it cannot be big enough to be profitable. Once big enough it needs to become shittier to become profitable, and the only hope is that so many customers have become accustomed to the company they become loyal paying customers in the future. But by nature of things, most such companies fail at this point and all the investment money goes down the drain.
I view this as a widespread form of capital investment scam though, because the company is selling investors on an idea that doesn't exist and that they know very well doesn't exist. Sure the investors could be more wise and stop investing into these things, but they are still being scammed nonetheless.
It's our job as consumers to not cave to these shitty practices. You really do need to constantly reevaluate what services are "worth it" to you at these constantly resetting price-points. I'm not mad at Netflix over this per se; it's my job to decide whether or not they still deserve my dollars. Only thing that matters is voting with your wallet.
It’s not really a scam though. They are selling access to growing revenue streams. In the case of Netflix, it was home mailer movies. Then it became kiosks (short while) then streaming. Now it’s tiered streaming, ads, PPV, server and cloud hosting, real estate, solar farms, user data mining, studio rentals, producer services, and even merchandise sales. They went from only 1 way to make money to 10.
Of those 10, none existed 15 years ago and was built over time.
Reality check: Netflix has been profitable in every single quarter since at least 2009.
Also, Doctorow's concept of "enshittification" is not "they raised the price." The four steps of enshittification are specifically:
- They're good to their users.
- They abuse their users to make things better for their business customers.
- They abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves.
- Then, they die.
"They charge extra for 4K" isn't anywhere on that progression.
The lifecycle of an internet buzzword:
1) Someone smart coins a phrase that captures the current zeitgeist
2) The phrase catches on in small circles and is used true to the original intent
3) The phrase hits TikTok and Reddit.
4) The phrase gets abused, misapplied, overused, and generally beaten within an inch of its life. It becomes useless.
"They charge extra for 4K" isn't anywhere on that progression.
You just covered it under #2.
Nickel and diming customers is textbook consumer abuse. So is hiding standard industry options under 'premium' plans to extract more from customers.
Becoming more expensive while becoming worse is not surprising. If you were an early user, you were not paying a sustainable price you were paying a venture capital subsidised price. As part of the strategy to establish market dominance.
That's over now.
Honestly that kind of business strategy should be classified as an anticompetitive business practice and shut down by the ftc or whoever. It's absurd that Walmart or whoever selling products at a loss until all their competitors in a location fold is illegal, but doing the same thing with services instead is apparently totally fine
Those are different models…
Walmart has been sued for undercutting competition. They are purposefully taking the loss themselves to force someone out.
Netflix isn’t undercutting its called market growth. They aren’t trying to force someone out, instead they are acquiring customers at a loss of their VC.
A better example would be getting a free cellphone at AT&T or discounted monthly membership at a gym for signing up in January.
Even more brazen when you consider that netflix lost a ton of its most expensive and popular shows when all the others made their own subscription services but somehow it's still becoming more expensive while also becoming worse.
Everyone else is in their Qwikster phase, where losing money is encouraged. Old shows, like the office, used to be add-ons to a DVD mail business. They are now the hottest shows to purchase streaming rights to. Netflix is a victim of its own success by proving that the streaming model works as a primary business model.
If some of these shitty "+" subscriptions start to fold, those libraries will probably be given to one of the FAANG. What many executives fail to realize when they say "Let's make our own streaming service", they are competing against companies that spend a king's ransom for the absolute top tier talent for developing mobile video solutions.
Yup uber followed the same method.
Yea the video was specifically about Uber and doordash. Think it was mrwhosetheboss.
You should watch Corey Doctorow's talk from Defcon Last year about this. I believe the whole concept comes our of his book about choke-point capitalism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rimtaSgGz_4
This guy MBAs.
Seems like it’s going the other way. Max now charges for 4k and Amazon charges for HDR.
Amazon even stopped giving surround sound as part of the regular subscription lol
I thought it was just Atmos, but maybe they changed it again. I watched Fallout without the upgraded subscription, and I had HDR10 and Dolby Digital+ 5.1, just no Dolby Vision or Atmos. And there was one ad before each episode.
subscribers are getting a worse product than non-subscribers.
I pirated it and it was 4k with Dolby Digital/Atmos and 4k and no ads. I feel so sorry for everyone here. Thanks for funding the show I guess.
Max changed their plan for an upcharge in 4k. I believe paramount might do the same. It's becoming not standard quickly
I pay about $3 a month for real debrid and get literally everything in 4K HDR with Atmos with all the features of a streaming service via stremio.
All the bs from streaming services made me flee to the high seas.
I had an annual subscription to Max that was 4k+dolby atmos for $129 per year and then they removed 4k and atmos and now that tier is $169. Fucking ridiculous. My plan is still ad free (for now) but now I no longer have 4k or atmos. I can’t believe they paywall that shit.
I was on 4.99, now they want me to stay on 4.99 for ads or 6.99 for 1080p... Or 9.99?-ish for 4K
Just said fuck it and canceled Max.
I'll just pirate your shit instead.
Disney, Amazon, Sky all charge extra for 4K?
Checking Disney’s plans and the only difference I’m seeing between with ads or “premium” ad free appears to be ads and whether you can download shows? Not everything is available in 4K but I can watch a lot of movies in 4K and or Dolby Atmos or whatever when available.
Though that may vary by region causing the confusion.
Better get the Popcorn for the shitstorm they will face in EU countries. EU law forbids a provider of booting customers from a service unless that specific plan ends. Source: I'm on a plan that was until your age was 25. They can't take me out unless that plan doesn't exist anymore.
But it does end.
The examples cite the US, Canada, and the UK. Are they trying this in EU Europe or just duplo Europe and North America?
Why is everything becoming so shitty and hostile these days?
It's kind of the natural result of needing to always chase record/increasing profit. Eventually you run out of juice to squeeze but the machine must keep squeezing. If we had normalized sustainable revenue with maybe some modest profit as success then we'd be fine. But infinite growth is not possible nor sustainable, and sways companies to implement shittier practices in the chase for bigger numbers quarter after quarter, year over year.
This result is something even schoolkids have been asking about for decades but have always been condescendingly chuckled off.
Until pop and its bye bye netflix and hello the next thing to rinse and repeat
That's a whole lot of words to say capitalism.
Yeah it feels like I see advertisements everywhere I look now. Like more so than just on billboards and tv shows. The little screen on gas station pumps blasts ads at you now. Every article online has like 5 ads you need to scroll past. Every third post on Instagram is an ad. It’s gotten insane
The free version of YouTube has become completely unwatchable recently (and there's no way in hell I'm paying them $13/mo. just to remove ads).
EDIT: Thanks for the suggestions to dodge ads, but I mostly watch YouTube on my TV (Samsung).
The only thing that's kinda worked for me is, if I get a long ad, I just close the app. Seems to be training the algorithm to give me fewer/shorter ads.
It's called enshittification apparently:
Rich investors are starting to lose money and they don't like that.
They aren't losing money. They're only getting less money than before.
User deleted comment
3d
As opposed to poor investors who fucking love losing money.
These companies are getting so arrogant. As if Netflix had amazing content lol
Getting arrogant?
Bro I cancelled netflix when their CEO said Americans are idiots
When questioned whether American subscribers would ask for a similar discount, Hastings responded, “How much has it been your experience that Americans follow what happens in the world? It's something we'll monitor, but Americans are somewhat self-absorbed.”
--Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Apr. 24, 2017
Lol. I actually appreciate the brazenness of this comment. It’s a pretty honest analysis.
"He's out of line but he's right".
"You're not wrong, you're just an asshole."
I mean he’s not wrong, but it’s simply just the rationale behind his actions that makes it bad. If he just came out on Twitter like “Americans are self absorbed” with no context, yeah it’d be pretty fair. But like… “We’re hiking up our prices because Americans are self absorbed, fuck you”
Is his defense. This sounds like America.
Also. Did you quote the dude and add the year 2017. While also stating he said this in 2010?
Edit. He changed it.
He ain't wrong.
An American saying that honestly isn’t even that bad
He was right
I mean people keep paying it…. Everyone threatens to quit and then doesn’t lol
No thanks I’ll just pirate
They seem to have missed the fact that piracy declined significantly while streaming services were few, well stocked, and cost effective. Now, we’re seeing a proliferation of new services with specific content (such as all Star Trek moving to Paramount+) that means in order to watch a variety of content we’re not paying for 1-3 services but more like 5-10, and the cost is rapidly exceeding what we once paid for cable tv.
I pay for cable (DirecTV) and sat down to watch IMSA race on USA network (NBC owned) last week. Halfway through and suddenly a NASCAR race starts broadcasting, I go see where the fuck the race went and you gotta be a peacock subscriber to see the second half!
Since when did we start showing half a live sports event split between two platforms?
Wow, that's a new absurdity I hadn't heard of, yet. JFC.
Ok now I'm truly terrified fuck that
The Stanley Cup playoffs switched shit around a couple times. Regular season, we could watch on Hulu. Then they moved to Balley for the playoffs. Then I needed Fubo for any playoff games. after the first round.
Now that’s shitty…..
It's amazing how shitty the sports streaming experience still is.
Yet sportsurge/ streameast have worked great for years. Don’t see myself switching anytime soon 🏴☠️
Haha fellow StreamEaster in the wild. LOVE IT.
Part of the fun is finding out which of the big 6 has the most bandwidth that day.
Crackstreams' stability looks worse than a Klipsch impedance curve.
The average joe could develop a sports streaming concept that doesn't suck. But somehow the big companies cant do it.
It's because Sportsnet(?) bought the rights to exclusively stream the playoffs, but a bunch of services and stations didn't get the memo and "accidentally" streamed the first round. CBC in Canada was one on of them.
Sports is the only reason I still have cable and even then it’s a crap shoot if they broadcast what you want.
Can’t really find a decent site that I trust to replace it though.
the desire to watch SPORTs could SURGE users on the .NET
Or if you ever want to STREAM it in the EAST and want to watch .LIVE
Its taxing as a fan…..can’t afford to go to a game cause tickets so expensive but now you gotta gouge your eyes and hope God is on your side as you fuck with a login and password for the 10th time.
And the prices keep going up because infinite growth is everything, and after reaching near 100% market saturation the only thing left is to fuck your customers
Infinite growth is also called cancer.
Capitalism is cancer, confirmed.
As an econ major, I'd argue against that.
Publically traded companies are the problem.
Private companies do not require infinite growth. Without any general shareholders, basically everyone who has stock in the company (owners/etc) is drawing an annual paycheck from the company as well. Meaning that as long as the company breaks even, they make the amount of money they want to make.
Public stockholders are the ones who think of their stocks as their route to more passive income, even when the infinite growth required to be thusly making money every single year requires the money comes from *somewhere*.
If we just deleted stock markets, capitalism would still exist, but the largest issues with it would shrink/vanish.
after reaching near 100% market saturation the only thing left is to fuck your customers
I hate how true this is. Normally, companies will just start shedding their "poor" customers, so they can charge the rest more. It's less profitable to keep prices low for many, when you can charge more $ with fewer people.
We need more antitrust enforcements and competition in the economy.
This is why competition laws existed in Roman Empire.
I think the mobile game whales really showed every industry "Hey wait, if you just aim to extract 90% of the revenue out of a select few it's just as good. And they're addicted so we don't even have to bother making a decent product anymore".
Addicted and with a massive sunk cost problem.
"Would I have spent 15k on diablo immortal if it wasn't good? No. So therefore diablo immortal is good."
That’s what private equity firms do in my industry. It’s all about grabbing subscribers and jacking up subscription fees, calculating elasticity versus attrition.
I'd say it applies to just about every industry. Just look at how many empty homes we have.
Then piracy will grow in popularity. The circle of life.
Well they can fuck their employees too!
You right, silly of me to forget! Just lay a buncha people off, up-end their lives to make the bottom line look better for investors, then force their responsibilities on those left
VPN sub vs buying media hmmm.
$50/year or $50/month
Buying media? You mean buying 4 or so 12TB drives, maybe more for backups?
Honestly, I've got no issue buying the actual media. I've been buying DVDs of shows and movies and ripping them to put in my Jellyfin instance for the last few years now. Easy access to all of my media and zero moral or legal qualms about it.
You can get movies for like $5 each and shows for like $20-100 depending on the show, so it's not that bad to just slowly build up a collection of irrevocable media to watch.
And you seem to have missed the fact that every time Netflix makes a move like this their subscriber numbers go up. Rest assured they know all about piracy - they also want to test the waters on how much price hiking people can take before they actually do start cancelling their subs. Most people will just pay a few dollars more for the convenience. See: them cracking down on account sharing right before hitting all time high subscribers.
lol its funny I have worked at a couple of big public companies including netflix and these companies have teams of people with advanced math degrees who's job it is too figure out if this stuff will work. Netflix obviously rolls out these moves in lower subscriber count countries first. These people get paid mid 6 figure too see if this shit will work before committing but random ass redditors think they know better.
And redditors seems to have not most streaming services have a variety of content and since only a few can be watched at a time swapping services based on availability is the most cost effective way still. Most people don't tend to watch everything at once simultaneously or even have the free time to follow 5-10 shows at once. So if someone wants to watch Star Trek they're gonna finish it on Paramount+ and then move on elsewhere.
I feel like this will be the new consumer model. Instead of paying $10-15 per month for 5 services and watch a few shows on each, consumers will move to paying for only one service each month, binge watch what they want, then move on to the next service for next month. Rinse & repeat. Of course, then the services will stop allowing monthly subscriptions, or disallow re-subscribing within, say, a year.
I’ve been doing this for years as I couldn’t justify paying for a streaming service that I wasn’t watching once I had finished viewing the content that interested me. That was Netflix. I bounced between Netflix and Hulu until one day I just didn’t care to start up Netflix again. Now it’s Hulu and Apple TV. Since I’ve gained an interest in football I’m considering dropping the Disney and ESPN adds to my Hulu package and subbing to Peacock for a while.
Sadly I think we’re heading to a point where I’m not going to think any service is worth it and as such for the past year I’ve been buying physical media and rebuilding my home library. Sick of bouncing around to watch my favorite stuff.
Yep. Hulu & Max for me. I might re-up Netflix for a month next year to binge watch the last season of Stranger Things, but that’s it.
When paying services actively antagonize their client base you have to really dig deep into your heart to find a sliver of reason to not hoist the sail.
My cousin pays for Disney plus and I have the login, everytime I wanna watch xmen I get ads every 5 minutes for 2 to 3 minutes it's unbearable I literally turn off my TV and proceed to just stream it ad free on a piracy site lmaoooo
I don't really watch much tele, I got prime to order some shit, so decided to watch The Boys while I had it.
After 2 episodes and getting pissed off with 3 sets of ads an episode, I just pirated it. Bollox to that.
Good show tho. 10/10 would pirate again.
Feel free, businesses know a certain number of people pirate but the vast majority of people are too technically inept to manage it.
Paying subscribers essentially fund free media for pirates.
I honestly think everyone should drop netflix and other streaming services that keep raising prices and inserting ads into a product we pay for.
If everyone sucked it up and went without streaming for like a year they would suffer such losses they’d have to change their models.
But since no one does, they won’t..
It's virtually impossible to organize a successful boycott. People are too lazy/selfish, or they have the disposable income and they just don't care.
Fuck netflix
There's no reason to keep a subscription. I sub for one month and immediately unsub. I catch up with any shows/movies I want to see and move on.
It's too bad there isn't a 15 day subscription, they have so little content a month is more than enough to catch up with.
It's already been proven that people are NOT consistently unsubbing and resubbing.
If we all started doing that they’d have term length contracts within the year.
I legitimately cannot believe they haven't introduced and mandated yearly contracts yet. I would've guessed we'd have gotten that before every platform decided to just fuck us with ads instead.
As a working parent, I don't have that kind of time to binge watch everything in a month myself.
I know it's tough but you got to take a stand eventually. Keep paying them every month and after every price increase and they'll keep fleecing you.
Just pirate it. It’s pretty convenient these days
Since this thread is fairly new I'll just drop this quick tutorial (you need a laptop and hdmi hookup to your tv)
Download stremio
Download the torrentio plugin for it, edit: and torrent catalogs plugin
Boom. You now have access to nearly everything any streaming service has to offer for free
Just pay for a vpn instead of your streaming services, it's well worth it
Oh I'm already there, bud. I got rid of Netflix early last year and jumped on the Plex bandwagon. It just makes me a little sad that people still put up with the price increases and shenanigans like this.
Bro what the fuck is this "Pay more + have ads" horseshit they're getting away with now? If there's ads, it's free. If there's no ads, I'll pay. Simple as that.
Fuck double dipping and fuck people who let them do it.
As an old person, this was inevitable. Many of you probably don’t remember, but originally the whole appeal of cable tv was that you paid for the service, so there was no ads. I think you all know how that ended up. No business is allowed to just make money, it has to always be increasing revenue, so after there stops being enough new customers, they start charging more, and delivering less. It’s the trajectory of literally every business/service when you have unbridled capitalism.
Why can they never be happy with consistent long term profit? Short term line go up is always valued over stability and customer retention.
You start with a profitable company. Stock price goes up. Some shareholders sell for a profit, others buy. But these new shareholders now have a smaller profit margin than the initial ones (because they paid more for the stock). So they pressure the company to make more profit. Rinse and repeat.
A privately owned company could be owned by someone who is satisfied with the profits it makes because they understand that they can't really squeeze more out of the market.
A publicly-traded one cannot because as line goes up, ROI goes down. So it turns to shit
Yep. Basically, the stock market ensures that the largest stakeholders in a business have the least incentive for that business to have long-term stability. It's a farm being managed by the locusts.
Because shareholders are the worst and will bail the moment the lines slope decreases slightly.
Thank you for sharing this because I had no idea. I’m Gen Z and grew up seeing ads on cable tv. I thought ads were always a part of cable TV. I’d bet 98% of my peers do too.
Also gen z, grew up with ads on cable TV. I already knew this, but the only reason I knew this was also because of hearing about it from older generations.
History repeats itself, someday in the not-so-distant future you and I will be the ones telling the young'uns about when streaming services were actually ad free and good.
"Pay more + have ads" horseshit
The original Netflix plan was $8/month (in 2007), and the ad tier is currently $7/month. So we're actually paying less if we have ads. Even more so if you account for inflation.
One thing they don’t mention as well is that the lowest ad-supported tier also does not allow chromecast or screen mirroring. I used to occasionally watch a movie in bed late at night using my iPad to cast to the TV, but not any more. Thanks Netflix.
I think it’s missing some content too, some content licensing doesn’t allow it to be streamed with ads.
Yep, you can’t watch like a third of the movies on Netflix with it. I remember researching it and it’s because they need separate streaming rights to play them with ads. Like why even include the ads at all then lmao
Yeah, like Star Trek: Prodigy isn’t available on Netflix Canada.
It’s ok, the highest HD multi-screen tier no longer allows chromecast or screen mirroring when traveling! It’s infuriating, particularly in a household where one of us is a weekender.
I’m one of these people. They took my sub payment for July and say I have till the end of the month to keep watching. But, when I log in there’s a forced screen that demands I choose a new plan. There’s no way to close this and it locks me out of accessing the content. I cancelled my sub outright to get around this and it didn’t change anything. Super anti consumer.
I canceled my plan a while back. Haven't looked back - there wasn't enough valuable content on Netflix anyway.
Too many platforms, too many subscriptions...
Ironically the only reason I didn't cancel my plan was because I was on the Grandfathered Basic plan.
So I guess I can say I technically never quit Netflix, Netflix quit me!
Same, I actually went over to the 'standard' plan briefly, before seeing that my favourite show isn't available due to some issue with ads and licensing or whatever, so I just cancelled. My mate runs a plex server that is better than Netflix, and he is just one dude.
I would say it's better to watch the content you want and then unsubscribe. Then you move on to another service for a couple of months. Just subscribe to a couple of services a month and cycle through them.
This is the way. Sadly humans are overwhelmed with to many things to pay attention to and companies have conditioned us to realize canceling is a chore.
I wish legislation would be passed to require canceling a service as easy as it is to sign up. If I can one click buy I can one click cancel.
there wasn't enough valuable content on Netflix anyway
I think this is the craziest part of Netflix's increases to me. I split streaming services with some old roommates, and when Netflix cracked down on password sharing, I decided to take a break from Netflix rather than have them pay more for me to stay on. That was a year ago. In the time since, I have yet to see something I want to watch, and on searching find out it's only on Netflix. They're not getting any movies or shows exclusively anymore, and the stuff they're putting out seems to have no cultural impact to the point that people like me hear about it. It's baffling to me how many people are still with them when there's half a dozen other streaming companies that have better content.
It is infuriating to me the number of people who just accept these price hikes and ads. If people actually canceled their accounts we could fight this crap but of course most people won't. Yo ho ho I guess.
The competition is also getting worse. Other streaming plans cutting content or raising prices, and then Chicken Soup just announced bankruptcy citing it's Redbox unit struggling.
And other services bringing back ads, like Prime.
The competition is also getting worse.
Which just makes this dumber.
If Netflix were to wait out the storm and let all their unprofitable competitors start collapsing, they could snatch up all those streaming rights and by the time they hiked the price, no one would care. Netflix is one of the few who are self-sustaining and yet they seem determined to start the death spiral.
Yup. Netflix was great when it had IP rights on tons of big publisher's media. Stuff that's now locked behind services like Disney+, HBO, and such.
They've joined the publisher crowd, and there's some pretty good Netflix originals out there.
Except for a few things. They're INCREDIBLY risk-averse with their business model. Cable TV series aired Every Year for the most part. Star Trek had new episodes 26 times/year 7 years in a row (s2 was only 22, but whatever).
Netflix launches a new series, and waits until they know how the series is going to do before they decide whether to even START funding a 2nd season.
And even when a franchise is wildly successful, they don't put a priority on getting it done.
Stranger Things aired July 15, 2016.
Season FIVE is coming out next year. That means 2016 through 2024 was 4 seasons. Every other year, we got 8-9 episodes. For basically the most successful IP they have. Milly Bobby (Eleven) was 12 when the series aired. Now she's 21, playing a 15-16 year old. If they'd actually done the series shooting year-after-year, she would be 17 playing a 15-16 year old.
Given that only ~8 hours of content is coming out, that's just disappointing. Yes, the CGI takes a LONG time to do. But you can do all the shooting for one season, and then start shooting the next season within the year.
For a show like that, they should be pushing it. They should be monopolizing on their powerful IPs, but they let them lapse year after year. Why maintain a sub, if you can just sub for 1-2 months every 2 years, and catch up easily on all the new content?
Now Netflix is More Expensive, has fewer powerful IPs, fails to invest proactively in it's own great shows, and is cracking down on customers trying to milk value from the dead bones of the subscription model.
At least if it picked some of those other company IPs back up, people wouldn't feel AS bad about the 200+% price hike over the past decade.
This sub, man. Netflix is nowhere near a death spiral. Reddit acting like they know better than the dozens of highly paid professionals over at Netflix whose sole job is to study cost vs retention.
Or get what they can while they can then strip it for parts. At least when you take to the high seas then you have the thing.
There are a lot of people who aren’t losing sleep over $10 a month.
So...why do people bother sticking around to Pay for Ads? Can we please have more entertainment of our interests to go with these payments, and cut back on the diet of ads?
No
-Netflix
i'll just take it then
I legitimately think that you save money in the long run by paying for the no ads version because watching all those ads slowly brainwashes you into buying things you don't need. I know it sounds like a tinfoil hat but if ads didn't work, companies wouldn't be spending billions doing them
I think a lot of the advertising is less about getting you to spend more overall, but to spend with one brand versus another. The ads do work in favor of the companies, but I'm not sure how much it really increases your total spend. I'm totally over it either way. I have a decent amount of physical media and don't mind adding to it if my only alternative is ad-interrupted movies or shows. I especially don't ever plan to watch an ad-interrupted movie ever again, I'd rather just read a book.
this world is starting to annoy me
Changed my debit card which caused my subscription to lapse. I think I’ve had an active Netflix subscription for 13 years now. Won’t be renewing.
Isn't that tier barely more than a year old?
I think it started around August?? So yeah not even a year if so, crazy
No thanks, they were dead to me the day they killed password sharing. Don't regret it one bit.
Between Kanopy (free with a public library card), Tubi, Pluto, Vudu, and a digital antenna, "premium" streaming services and cable aren't looking too appealing anymore.
Free with a couple commercials is starting to win out for me. There's so much out there as it is.
Why watch for free with commercials when you could be paying them for commercials?
... Wait...
It's so fucking absurd. I feel so insulted when I get the option to pay for something that will have ads.
Amazon Prime, I actually understand. I'm paying for faster shipping, not video.
Yep. Dropped them after that attempt at extortion.
I will not watch adds, and I will aggressive unsubscribe any service that tries to force them on me.
As for prices increasing, that only results in me starting to service hop instead of simply staying subscribed to a few constant ones.
My guess is that Netflix will lose subscribers (but maybe not money) over this. Personally I have no problem subscribing to a service for 1 month, binge watch everything I want, and then replace that service with something else next month.
The only service that is a bitch to unsubscribe from is Amazon Prime, and if Netflix and friends tries to make cancellation harder, I’ll lean back and watch the EU have a go at them.
Stremio is the way
I will not watch adds, and I will aggressive unsubscribe any service that tries to force them on me.
stands and salutes
I used to be subscribed to 5 services, now I’m doing 1 a month then switching to the next. I’m sure soon the price of a month to month plan will skyrocket trying to get you stick around longer for big discounts for 6 and 12 month plans
I want to thank Netflix for reminding me how much fun piracy is!
Folks, it's time for The Great Tune Out. Go outside and read some books. Eat your vegetables, sleep well and stay hydrated.
I’m so pissed with these subscription services taking advantage of their users. Recently Peacock started showing ads too. Until a couple months ago I could watch shows at my access level without ads. Prime had ads too now, because you know Amazon is not big enough. This concept of increasing shareholder profits is wrecking everything. Including safe travels on Boeings. It’s annoying that the middle class is getting squeezed.
Fuck Netflix, got their cheap ad plan and on top of the ads some content was locked. When selected it said that my plan did not cover said content. FUCK NETFLIX. Canceled instantly.
My wife and I were discussing which streaming platform(s) to unsubscribe. Somehow we ended up with Netflix/Prime/Crave/Disney, plus the add-ons for Starz and HBO, and there are others I can’t even remember, it’s like when you used to pay for 300 channels and there was only crap on TV, but you have to have this package and these add-ons to watch any three shows you like and maybe a hockey game…but I digress - Netflix sent me a couple emails to pick a new subscription, I didn’t reply, they booted me. Thank you Netflix for making my decision for me.
Elaine reaches the concessions stand and has to deal with the perky clerk.
Elaine: Uh, could I have a medium Diet Coke?
Clerk: Do you want the Medium size or the middle size?
Elaine: What's the difference?
Clerk: Well, we have three sizes. Medium, Large, and Jumbo.
Elaine: [momentarily perplexed] What happened to the small?
Clerk: There is no small. Small is Medium.
Elaine: What's... medium?
Clerk: Medium is Large, and large is Jumbo.
Elaine: Oh-kay. Gimme the large.
Clerk: That's medium.
Elaine: Right. Yeah. [fearing the answer] Could I have a small popcorn?
Clerk: There is no small. [flash of perky inspiration] Child-size is small.
Elaine: What's `medium'?
Clerk: Adult.
Elaine: Do adults ever order the child-size?
Clerk: [chuckling] Not usually.
Elaine: [laughs appreciably] Okay, gimme the `adult'.
Clerk: Do you want butter?
Elaine: Is it *real* butter?
Clerk: [perkily] It's butter-*flavored*!
Elaine: [exasperated] What is it made of?
Clerk: [perkily] It's yellow!
I can't wait for the r/technology business experts to tell us how this move will be the downfall of netflix...
And then three months later read about increasing subscription numbers and profits.
Your not wrong 🤣 All these subs people spit that line "Cutting my service". In reality most accept this bs. Going to keep pirating, screw these companies!
The proliferation of the term “ads-free” makes me want to pull out what little hair I have left. The abbreviation of “advertisement free” doesn’t need to be pluralized.
Imagine being punished for paying.
Streaming is becoming cable: pay money and still have ads or pay a lot of money for no ads.
So basically Netflix is just cable tv again lol. Its becoming what it was meant to replace.
And for that reason, I'm out
Man, puts on Netflix?
Haven't had Netflix since 2022. I remember the golden age of Netflix where you would have multiple unique, interesting, and willing to take risks TV series that I would truly enjoy and was happy to pay for the highest tier. Even when the shows weren't great or even good, you would appreciate what they were trying to do.
But now those are so few and far between, and now it's often the same awful strategies and low-risk content that drove me away from network TV. Add to that the constant cost increases, the "sharing" ban, and no sign they will ever improve even after a couple of years.. It's just sad.
Ultimately they chose the direction to maximize profits and appease shareholders that was likely inevitable rather than the previous "quality over quantity" perspective they took to original content.
It’s pretty amazing how fast Netflix went from the one subscription I thought I’d never cancel to one I’ll probably never have again.
Time to start booting Netflix from your bank account
From the article: The streaming giant has reportedly begun notifying users via on-screen messages about the last day they can access the service unless they upgrade. One Reddit user shared a notification they had received from the Netflix app, saying: "Your last day to watch Netflix is July 13th. Choose a new plan to keep watching." Customers are being prompted to instead choose the cheaper Standard with ads, or the more expensive Standard or Premium 4K plans.
In the UK, users are being informed that their £7.99 per month Basic plan has been discontinued and that they can sign up to the Standard with adverts plan for £4.99 or pay £10.99 for the Standard plan. The £10.99 plan includes access to 1080p streams, viewing on two devices simultaneously, and downloads on up to two devices. Meanwhile, the Standard with adverts tier still offers 1080p video quality but of course injects ads into streams.
Canadian subscribers are also receiving notifications about the last viewing day for their Basic plan. In Canada, the price increase is more significant, rising from $9.99 for the Basic plan to $16.49 for the Standard plan. Alternatively, users can save $4 by going with the Standard with Ads plan ($5.99).
The Basic plan, which costs $11.99 per month in the United States, has not been available to new subscribers since last year. In its early 2024 earnings call, Netflix announced its intention to retire its Basic plan in some countries where the ads plan has been introduced, starting with Canada and the UK in the second quarter, and then "taking it from there." Netflix said in May that its ad-supported streaming tier has 40 million global monthly active users, up 35 million from a year ago.