Netflix Canada Discussion

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

Netflix is terrible for movies now. Seems like they went all in on Korean dramas and movies, but other than that and some rare good original content like Stranger Things, there's not a lot to entice me to want to actually pay for Netflix once they lockdown on the sharing.

I mean, if they made it $8, and it's unlimited sharing, I might bregrudgingly get behind that, so that's no so much between say me, and my parents leeching off my brother's account. But $8 per account is not worth it IMO.

You mentioned Stranger Things. That show alone it isn't worth $8 to you? Seems Stranger Things entertainment value is worth at least $8, which is what? One head of Cauliflower?

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

could you justify $5.99 and telling that one person to get their own?

This isn't as simple as you're proposing, the basic tiers lose a fair bit of capability.

Basic with ads
Ads: Yes
Content: Limited availability
Price: $5.99
Video quality: 720p
Spatial audio: No
Concurrent devices: 1
Add extra members: No
Download for offline viewing: No

Basic tier
Ads: No
Content: Full library
Price: $9.99
Video quality: 720p
Spatial audio: No
Concurrent devices: 1
Add extra members: No
Download for offline viewing: Yes

Standard tier
Ads: No
Content: Full library
Price: $16.49
Video quality: 1080p
Spatial audio: No
Concurrent devices: 2
Add extra members: 1
Download for offline viewing: Yes

Premium tier
Ads: No
Content: Full library
Price: $20.99
Video quality: 4K+HDR
Spatial audio: Yes
Concurrent devices: 4
Add extra members: 2
Download for offline viewing: Yes

Unless you want to watch your shows like it's 2006 again, you need at least the Standard tier.

If they had the Standard tier price with 4K+HDR and Spatial audio, but the concurrency and additional member limitations of Standard, I'd have stuck with it.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

You mentioned Stranger Things. That show alone it isn't worth $8 to you? Seems Stranger Things entertainment value is worth at least $8, which is what? One head of Cauliflower?

No, not really. It's a nice to have, but not worth the hassles of signing up for 1 month and then cancelling it again.

I only have a finite amount I want to spend on streaming, so I'm keeping Disney+, and not Netflix.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

This isn't as simple as you're proposing, the basic tiers lose a fair bit of capability.

Basic with ads
Ads: Yes
Content: Limited availability
Price: $5.99
Video quality: 720p
Spatial audio: No
Concurrent devices: 1
Add extra members: No
Download for offline viewing: No

Basic tier
Ads: No
Content: Full library
Price: $9.99
Video quality: 720p
Spatial audio: No
Concurrent devices: 1
Add extra members: No
Download for offline viewing: Yes

Standard tier
Ads: No
Content: Full library
Price: $16.49
Video quality: 1080p
Spatial audio: No
Concurrent devices: 2
Add extra members: 1
Download for offline viewing: Yes

Premium tier
Ads: No
Content: Full library
Price: $20.99
Video quality: 4K+HDR
Spatial audio: Yes
Concurrent devices: 4
Add extra members: 2
Download for offline viewing: Yes

Unless you want to watch your shows like it's 2006 again, you need at least the Standard tier.

If they had the Standard tier price with 4K+HDR and Spatial audio, but the concurrency and additional member limitations of Standard, I'd have stuck with it.

fair point.

I don't love it, but I went with the price tier that I felt the content was worth, and what I could afford. but you are right. I know people who would rather have nothing, than not have HD viewing.

basic with ads, for me. If I had a friend with the expensive Netflix, I'd be happy to pay the $8 or whatever to tag along.

At the basic level, I understand I'm missing only about 4% of the library.
The only show I wish I had and don't is Schitt's Creek.

At least there are options so it's not paying the full price or nothing, like most channels are.
I just think it's manufactured outrage as I don't see the big deal not being able to borrow someone else's account any longer.
With so many streaming channels, Netflix has to now provide original content and that costs money. Time for the freeloaders to pay up.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

No, not really. It's a nice to have, but not worth the hassles of signing up for 1 month and then cancelling it again.

I only have a finite amount I want to spend on streaming, so I'm keeping Disney+, and not Netflix.

If I could only choose one, it would be Disney+ for me, too.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

I cancelled Netflix midway through December and haven't looked back. It just became the service that cost the most per month, yet provided the least value for what it cost.

If I want 4K, HDR, and spatial audio with Netflix, I had to pay for the highest tier at $22 a month. That same tier also is meant to support up to four consecutive screens. Well, there's two people in this house, the cat doesn't watch Netflix (he's a YouTube kind of cat), so at most it's only one screen at a time ever using the bloody thing. As far as I'm concerned, the ability to share the account and split the cost basically was making use of the remaining three screens I was paying for and entitled to (which in effect would mean TWO consecutive screens might be used at a time).

I'm still evaluating my other streaming services at this point since my Plex setup is doing everything I need it to at this point. But none of them were quite as bad a value proposition as Netflix made itself, so it was an easy cut.

Add a second house for $7.99 a month? When I was paying $22 a month and couldn't use all the screens I was entitled to? Netflix can f--k off.

This is what is so annoying...you are already paying for X amount of screens at a time. Why isn't that enough?

[Russic]

God netflix is doing this at a dangerous time. For somebody like me who already pays for Apple stuff and a Prime membership, I get access to two very capable streaming services, each with more content than I can reasonably get to. It'll be very interesting to see if the number of people who pay the $7 sharing fee will be offset by the amount who take off.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

If I could only choose one, it would be Disney+ for me, too.

It's just getting way too costly to keep all the services. Between already paying for Amazon Prime, Disney+, and Shaw internet + cable (for Flames games), Netflix will be the one on my chopping block if I can't leech off my brother. So I guess to Netflix, they're not really losing me as a customer, as I think my brother will still keep his subscription, but they aren't gaining me as a new customer either.

I wonder how this will affect Netflix's viewership tracking. Do they care if they lose numbers on how many times a show is watched / streamed? That's surely going to go down now that they're losing 100 million leecher accounts.

[MoneyGuy]

As a long-time Netflix user I don’t have a problem with this. It’s meant to be used by one household and should not be shared. I get it. Disclosure: ours is my wife’s account. She’s chosen to share it with our daughter. I think they’d understand if the sharing was shut down or we have to pay extra. We won’t cancel for that reason.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

You mentioned Stranger Things. That show alone it isn't worth $8 to you? Seems Stranger Things entertainment value is worth at least $8, which is what? One head of Cauliflower?

Personally I’d wait until there is enough worthwhile content and then pay for a month or two and cancel again.

[calumniate]

Exactly. I'm paying $8 this month to watch 'three body' on the Chinese app viki rakuten. After that I'll cancel. I cancel Netflix all the time

[MoneyGuy]

Update on my post above: someone has logged into and has been using out Netflix account. The perp has been booted and the password changed. I don’t know they cracked it.

[csnarpy]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

Update on my post above: someone has logged into and has been using out Netflix account. The perp has been booted and the password changed. I don’t know they cracked it.

it's happened to me twice. even came into our account and all the user names were changed. ever since we went to 2 step authentication we havn't had a problem

[speede5]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

Update on my post above: someone has logged into and has been using out Netflix account. The perp has been booted and the password changed. I don’t know they cracked it.

My kids have logged on to my account at so many friends houses I’ve had to manually boot people off just so I could log on and watch something. I still get emails randomly that someone has logged in. I don’t bother changing the password cause until this new rule came in I didn’t care. I won’t be bothered by this new policy though.

It also means the ex has to stop getting my password from my kids haha.

[flambers]

Personally we have had Netflix a long time, probably will cancel.

Not allot of new programming, its just getting more and more expensive

My guess after the password crackdown, they are going to lose allot of subscribers.

The other streaming services are better....

[chedder]

So, essentially, if you have a cabin or other second residence you have to pay $7. Or, I suppose, you could bring your firestick etc home with you and just take it out when you go.

And if you have a kid away at school you have to pay too.

[jayswin]

Right idea by Netflix, but they're way too late, and I can see exactly what happened. The screwed up the order

The right, proactive way: 1. We're the premier streaming service. 2. Not capturing all revenue because we are lax on password sharing 3. Introduce measures

Result: People are annoyed but everyone keeps their accounts and a certain percentage of freeloaders subscribe

The wrong, reactive way: 1. We've significantly dropped in the streaming world and are bleeding customers to new, better streaming that are cheaper 2. What can we do to increase revenue. 2. We're not capturing all revenue because we are lax on password sharing. 3. Introduce measures

Result: Paying customers that have been hanging on just because it's routine to pay it, but aren't getting the value and have friends on their account just up and quit, thanking Netflix for the final kick to get that $22 off their monthly bills for next to no good content.

Freeloaders don't signup because they see the same lack of content that everyone else does.

[jayswin]

If they were smart, this would have been a two year process. Put way more capital into movies/TV shows/purchasing content. Load up on quality content that starts to bare fruit in year two, wait until the summer with a couple great new shows and maybe a couple of original big budget movies that people are hyped for and then throw down the password sharing gauntlet.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by jayswin

If they were smart, this would have been a two year process. Put way more capital into movies/TV shows/purchasing content. Load up on quality content that starts to bare fruit in year two, wait until the summer with a couple great new shows and maybe a couple of original big budget movies that people are hyped for and then throw down the password sharing gauntlet.

nobody is putting capital into content at the moment. Almost all streaming services are losing money hand over fist. Even Netflix aren't nearly as profitable as they want to be. They wouldn't be doing this if it weren't for their investors calling for growth.

Prices are going to go up rapidly and the only content we're going to see is lower budget TV. It's why disney just announced major cost cutting and a whole bunch of crappy sounding sequels to guaranteed money making franchises. But those will all be theatre tentpoles.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

nobody is putting capital into content at the moment. Almost all streaming services are losing money hand over fist. Even Netflix aren't nearly as profitable as they want to be. They wouldn't be doing this if it weren't for their investors calling for growth.

Prices are going to go up rapidly and the only content we're going to see is lower budget TV. It's why disney just announced major cost cutting and a whole bunch of crappy sounding sequels to guaranteed money making franchises. But those will all be theatre tentpoles.

So basically the full circle of streaming going from the savour that had people cheering the death of cable due to high prices and crappy programming to becoming expensive with crappy programming itself, is almost complete?