Netflix is really starting to lose its value for me. But I’m working on setting up a VPN at my house to tunnel all Netflix traffic through and then configure some rpis to send to family members so we can all steal from Netflix again.
At this point they have pissed me off enough that im working on making it as easy as possible for anyone to setup and sharing it when im done.
For a while, there were still interesting original shows in other countries (Money Heist, Dark), but then those seemed to dry up as well.
Netflix needs to learn the Amazon retail lesson -- if I randomly click on a product, out of your entire catalog, and the odds that it's satisfying (which isn't to say necessarily good, but at least not a waste of time) fall below a certain threshold (70%? So 3/10 unacceptable?), then I will stop using your service.
Now I just torrent X and watch it.
I cancelled on a combination of sharing, as my sister used and that stopped me cancelling earlier, plus general content got more limited for my tastes.
Many people seem similar as me, and this is a world where scale matters.
I actually wonder if it would be good regulation that government seperated streaming from creating/owning catalogues. I'm not sure if correct but I suspect otherwise we will have a small number of players controlling what the world watches which tends to be a bad thing.
That's the reality. Getting AAA shows on demand for $10/mo was always a mirage. The cable companies weren't conspiring against viewers by preventing you from getting channels a la carte.
Cross-subsidization is what makes TV work. The straight-to-DVD quality "streaming originals" are getting picked up by cable TV channels around the world that need programming. Eventually Netflix will see more profits from library royalties than they do from the subscription business.
But yes, the quality of Netflix US productions has nosedived, and their backcatalogue has been drained of anything valuable. I lost access a month ago and absolutely have no intention to subscribe, I'm happy enough with Disney+ as my sole channel.
I wish I could cancel it but my partner wants to keep it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
What are some of your partner’s favorite shows on Netflix?
Is this also true if you use the "download for offline use" for travel purposes? I think I recall that I still had to be logged in to view, despite the "offline" note.[1]
The story was always "evil Disney licensing is forcing us" but I guess they lived long enough to turn into Disney.
On a technical point, you might be able to get away with just using Squid for the proxy, with pretty much default settings.
I used to use that years ago (not with Netflix though) running from a data centre, using an ssh (autossh) tunnel to reach it securely.
Worked pretty well, aside from the extra latency due to the packets having to go an extra half way around the world. ;)
Proxy-ing web traffic was not enough and, if memory serves, I also had to set up a DNS resolver on that machine and use it. May be easier to just set up WireGuard nowadays.
=> You need a L4 proxy, aka VPN
The correct, honest answer is that when you go traveling, you cannot access your favorite Netflix content other than through a VPN that tunnels back home.
https://help.netflix.com/en/node/24853
I know not all the U.S. shows are available, but it also works both ways.
Have they changed the rule recently?
Lots of ways to measure it but when I think about how much I pay and what my experience is like, I’m doing far better than in the cable days. I’m much happier.
I've no problem paying for content (I am "upper class"), but companies, especially Netflix clearly haven't figured things out.
For Netflix, I am mostly referring to the account sharing stuff. I did not share my account with anyone, but false advertising rubbed me the wrong way, so they went from whatever their current top tier pricing is to zero from me. Other huge gripes include streaming quality and number of streams.
Probably saner than my chaotic good approach of having gone back to torrenting but donating a subscription worth of money to the Against Malaria foundation to ease my conscience now that I'm not a broke student any more. I can't be bothered with the obnoxious subscriptions and autplay UIs
You see a movie or show and then want to talk about it with your friends and find that they've all either won't be back on the right streaming service for a new months or they've seen it months ago and aren't that interested in talking about it any more.
Since I limit my weekly intake, I also start shows late. A typical conversation for even a new show is as along the lines of “Oh yeah, we binged the entire thing!”
I’ve learned it’s not worth talking about the show to someone who’s seen it since they’re more often than not bursting wanting to talk about something I haven’t seen. Or 2 months later when I’m done, they’ve forgotten a bunch of it anyway, moving on to other stuff I haven’t seen.
It’s not like the old days when there were forums for shows like “Lost” just abuzz with speculation.
In seriousness, I think this is actually a neat strategy.
“ Netflix claims its Basic With Ads tier brings in more revenue per user than its standard commercial-free plan”
“More revenue” links to https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/ads-on-netflix-12....
Overall story paints a picture of the chickens coming home to roost in streaming https://www.vulture.com/2023/06/streaming-industry-netflix-m...
So I guess it’s not surprising that they would take away the least profitable plan.
People here are balking at paying like $10 a month for Netflix if they can't split it but likely take it as a given that you need to spend several hundreds each month for insurance.
Getting one customer on the latest aids medication can net a company 10s of thousands per year.
Drank the water at camp lejune? You may be worth millions of dollars to the right law firm.
But the worst parts of crave seems not the pricing but that they also can’t deliver any quality. I had it for a year via a forced Telus PikTv subscription and everything looked like 480p.
I want to watch some newer HBO stuff (house of dragons) but really don’t want to use this inferior service for it.
Since it only affects new users, and existing users on the plan remain, who cares about a "heads up"?
Maybe it's newsworthy that they dropped the cheapest plan going forwards, but it's not as though there's some expectation that plan changes for new members are supposed to be announced months in advance or something.
When I go to the grocery store and strawberries are now $4.99 instead of $2.99 last week, I don't complain the supermarket didn't give me a "heads up".
So why does the article's headline think that price changes are supposed to be pre-announced? Netflix has done plenty of things that legitimately deserve criticism, but not pre-announcing a price change is a silly thing to judge them for.
It's a clickbait headline, trying to stir up outrage where it doesn't even make sense.
I can't recall when I last watched Netflix. Streaming services are the gym membership of the 21st century the companies hope we forget or find it a pain to cancel.
If they could accept a lower stock price instead, they'd just be more stable, and retain loyalty on the other side of the recession curve.
The fact is, the median-aged person was in diapers when their parents were getting double-digit mortgages. We are now looking at home loans and car loans at 7%. This is different from the last decade or two of low, stable inflation.
We should expect almost everything we buy to have significant price increases and wage increases much more frequently than we are used to. [2]
[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CURRCIR
[2] https://www.atlantafed.org/chcs/wage-growth-tracker?panel=1
Either way, Netflix actually stands to make more money removing that tier.
However it’s also another barrier to me ever considering paying Netflix ever again. But we’re the minority of people.
I've noticed that people are quick to react negatively to such news however I feel like all of these services provide a real value and they are without any real competition.
Also these services are still better than traditional alternatives. I can cancel Netflix anytime and that alone is worth to me more than anything which cable could offer.
