Hollywood Still Trying To Kill The Golden Netflix Goose
from the incredible-mistake dept
Netflix has made its share of mistakes lately in dealing with its customers, but the company's biggest problem may be that Hollywood is so jealous of its success that it's now seeking to kill off the company's service by refusing to license movies and TV shows to Netflix. This isn't a surprise. We've seen similar stories over the past year or so, but the fact is that Hollywood is so short-sighted that it's trying to hold back the tide, and in the process, causing itself more harm. Netflix isn't "the enemy." It's found a way to offer a good service that many people want and use at a price point that makes sense.Of course, it's that part that makes Hollywood freak out. They fear the "threat" of new business models that undercut their legacy deals, and that means they want Netflix to boost prices, put even more annoying limitations on use and greatly delay and limit selection—because they stupidly think this will drive more people to the more expensive offerings from the studios themselves. The're wrong. All this does is drive more people to piracy, while killing off one of the few services that was allowed (if briefly) to effectively compete with "piracy" by offering a better overall service.
The problem for Hollywood doesn't appear to be piracy. It looks like it's Hollywood's own fear of piracy that is leading it to make really short-sighted decisions.
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Filed Under: hollywood, licensing, piracy, streaming
Companies: netflix
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ahem
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But I'd like to point out something: "All this does is drive more people to piracy..."
This isn't true for me. Unlike most, I don't need Hollywood. It needs me. I've done without and it's their fault.
If Hollywood wants my money, they sure have a screwed up way of trying to get it. It truly is a shame they expect me to buy plastic disks, and in the internet age, is something I'm not doing ever again.
I'm sick of storing this crap. Sick of buying a title only to watch it a few times and then never watch it again.
Entertainment is disposable, just as the income is to view it.
It's a shame this is a multi-billion dollar industry, because it's that greed of keeping it this way that's making it difficult for everyone, especially those "2 million" who rely on my money to make their salary.
It's just a shame it's the other way around to the point Hollywood knows people need it more, because it's true. People whine and complain but they still don't go without, never realizing if they took a different action, they'd win the war.
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Consumers need to realize the entertainment industry is optional and the conglomerates don't have us over a barrel like the gas, telcom and banking industries do.
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As loud as they are screaming about piracy and lost revenue guess what thats really all i know about the entertainment industry. If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it fall...
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Time For MAFIAA To Die
1.Every time New Tech comes round the Big Greedsters do all they can to shut it down.Player Pianos, Records, Radio, Talking Film, Reel Tape Recording, Cassettes, VHS, DAT,Online, ETC.
2.These Big Studios are Dinosaurs that need to be the ones to go.Time for New Ways of Business & TV.Make your own shows of Quality without MAFIAA and sell your Show to Netflix, ETC instead of MAFIAA TV Shows.There can be really good INDIE Shows
3.Netflix & Other Online Should produce TV INDIE Shows Minus the Cooperation of MAFIAA
4.No need to even use high priced MAFIAA Stars when some of the best talent is just itching to get the chance to do something with their lives.
5.It is quite possible at this point to live in a World where MAFIAA goes down the Drain.
6.Why support an Industry that wants to Control the Content of the Internet and actively works to sabotage our Privacy and our Rights as pertaining to the Internet.I refuse to go to a Theater or to Buy any new MAFIAA Material.I buy only Used Physical Media and MAFIAA does not get a red cent out of me.They want to Censor me so I have Censored them from my Wallet.
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Are they even living in the same world as the rest of us?
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What does it say about you that your sense of entitlement that you believe a guaranteed income stream from millions of people is worth less than $0?
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The only way Hollywood gets less than alternative methods is if you assume that Netflix completely replaces theatres and DVD sales, which is a very stupid assumption to make. You're a moron if you think that killing off Netflix will suddenly transfer into more revenue.
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Wanna bet that netflix pays more?
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A: Your head is stuck in your ass and you farted!
So let's see 8 bucks times 23 million subscribers per month ?
A:184,000,00 million dollars per month
Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix
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"Company Profile
With more than 23 million streaming members in the United States, Canada, Latin America, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Netflix, Inc. [Nasdaq: NFLX] is the world's leading internet subscription service for enjoying movies and TV series."
http://ir.netflix.com/
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"Company Profile
With more than 23 million streaming members in the United States, Canada, Latin America, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Netflix, Inc. [Nasdaq: NFLX] is the world's leading internet subscription service for enjoying movies and TV series."
http://ir.netflix.com/
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The problem seems to be on the side of the studios and networks which are collectively asking for way more than Netflix earns in revenue. Kind of like how the music labels tried to kill internet radio.
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<wild assumptions>
Probably because some studios are the owners of cable and they see that as a threat to their own services that people are starting to move away from, meaning even though cable pays less money officially, the real money probably is transferred on the background through other less than reputable means to some other people who control it.
</wild assumptions>
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Hollywood Inc creates a new company called Hollywood Licensing. Hollywood Licensing charges Hollywood Inc a "fee" for negotiating and collecting those license fees. Hollywood Inc add that "fee" to their Hollywood Accounting Pro Forma as an expense, let's call it "License Fee Recovery".
So now not only does Hollywood Inc get all the license revenue from it's wholly-owned subsidiary Hollywood Licensing, it gets additional revenue in the form of "License Fee Recovery". Win - win for Hollywood.
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That's the part that bothers them.
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Sickening...
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DVDs are for me
One thing I have started doing is renting DVDs and copying them to my laptop so I can view them when on the road where rentals aren't practical. So no need to stream when I can watch even w/o a WiFi/cellular connection. I do delete the movies after I have watched them so I am effectively time and place shifting my rentals. I also sleep like a baby.
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Re: DVDs are for me
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Re: DVDs are for me
1) Because I have kids and Netflix streaming has a whole lot of really great kids shows and movies that I am happy for them to watch.
2) There are a lot of television shows available for it that my Wife and I enjoy watching that we can't get otherwise. We don't always know which show we will feel like watching each night and would hate to be locked in to a particular show via DVD if we were not in the mood.
3) The convenience of Redbox made the need for the DVD side pointless. At 1 DVD at a timeI would have to get 8 or more DVDs a month to be cheaper than Redbox, but we only watched 1 a week at most. So the switch was a net gain for my family.
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Netflix streaming has a very spotty selection of mostly old content. You might as well just buy an antenna.
By comparison, the Netflix DVD library is much more complete than either of the stated alternatives.
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And they managed to pass it.
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Vai con dios = goodspeed. Used in this context to mean "good riddance".
Techdirt teaching you about other cultures.
Of course I don't want Netflix to fail, but if they do, this means the industry also fails a little with it and that in my book is a good thing, nobody should do business with those creeps they are not good partners, monopolies never are.
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It has long since become a common Spanish idiom literally meaning "godspeed". People say it all the time, probably because it became so common a saying from Catholic priests centuries ago.
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In the UK...
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Re: In the UK...
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Can you imagine a world where SpongeBob Square Pants was irresponsibly allowed to roam freely? Think of the pandemonium that would ensue. Actually; stop. Don't think about it. Thinking about it would be as bad as it actually happening. Maybe worse. Here, have a biscuit. And some tea. We'll make sure that never happens.
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Clearly I should be punished, as it's the likes of me who are stopping them from offering these services to whoever wants them. They can't possibly offer services until I force myself to fit neatly into whichever box is easiest for them to control. For this I am truly sorry :)
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Safety advisory of the Sarcasm Advisory Council]
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The disk service on the other hand is something that at least has some value. It may be less convenient but it at least has something to offer.
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Businesses always do the thing that makes them feel safe and profitable. Once they no longer feel safe and profitable, they take all their resources and use them to cry as loudly as possible to every politician and anyone else they can find until they get enough regulation to feel safe and profitable again.
Remember, they don't have to actually be more profitable, they just have to feel more profitable.
Anyone that makes a businesses feel less profitable is obviously a scary pirate, and therefore makes them feel less secure.
Math, technology, and evolving business models are for nerds.
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Source: Wikipedia
How is Hollywood to charge Netflix for fires in Botswana?
Maybe what Hollywood is really afraid of, is the end of creative accounting, since I doubt those other players would all be in on those type of schemes to funnel money in that way to only a few stake holders, and if Netflix start to show how the real numbers appear to others this could expose their practices to a greater scrutiny and that is a threat.
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What is sad, and clearly should be illegal, is that WB charges everyone for when a WB movie burns down in Botswana. Where in the world of business can a company charge for the same loss many different times? When I worked for a company that sold electronic equipment and something was damaged or destroyed -- we could only charge the insurance company or take it off of our taxes as a loss once. Where can I get a job where I can charge everyone for the same loss many times? I want that job.
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People claim it's not greed...
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Tim can check his math as soon as Hollywood checks theirs. Sounds like a good deal to me.
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Source: Hollywood accounting
Netflix is a threat to the business of stealing from creators and funeling the money to a few people really, if they don't control it and can't make Netflix do the absurd charges they use in their ficticious fronts than their sham is revealed and can be used by others in a court of law to show how bad they are misleading others(i.e. actors, staff, writers and everybody else not in the inner circle) who sign contracts with them.
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Bad thing for them since the majority of us are not rich and rely on Wal-Mart for cheap shit made in China. If it breaks who cares take it back you can get a refund for pretty much anything! Well except prepaid phones and dvds even if you decided it was trash you won't be refunded. Don't believe me go try it for yourself.
I won't even lie when I was younger and broke as hell I relied on Wal-Mart returns as my rental service for tools and shit.
This is America and if something sucks you get your money back! Unless it's from Mel Gibson, South Park proved he is fucking scary O_O and likes to smear shit on stuff! Anyone else I will demand my money back but I draw the line at Mel Gibson.
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However, wal-mart is a corporation. They won't risk losing the profits from DVD sales to protect the public from the entertainment industry, even if it would make them heros in the eyes of everyone who is fed up with Hollywoods bullshit.
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The thing is, Netflix has such a huge distribution system that I don't see how they wouldn't want to take advantage of that. It is on just about every device you can think of now. Why not just license your content and collect your money? And provide a popular alternative to piracy at the same time? Seems like a no brainer!
Hollywood is determined to ice skate uphill every chance they get....
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DVD protection hasn't stopped a single person from making a copy of a DVD, yet Hollywood keeps insisting on including DVD protection, even if it means that the legally-purchased DVD cannot be watched on relatively modern devices.
When one of the discs of Grey's Anatomy that I purchased for my wife would not work in a portable DVD player, I did what everyone else does: download a torrent with the copy protection removed. That's why torrent is popular: because it works.
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Any distribution model driven by, and most especially implemented by, the studios will fail. It will be more expensive, more restrictive, and will not be widely adopted. If they succeed in killing netflix, more people go download unauthorized files.
As a strong advocate of IP rights, why don't you choose a consistent alias and claim the IP you post here?
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Fair and reasonable
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Nuke BIG CONTENT
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Source: The Atlantic: How Hollywood Accounting Can Make a $450 Million Movie 'Unprofitable'
In that case Netlfix selling lemonade would expose their accounting practices and reduce their overall money making schemes that is probably why they want so bad Netflix to pay more and more, studios don't care about the profitability of Netflix they care about what they can put on the spreadsheet and Netflix spreadsheet they can't write it for them and that appears to be the real problem.
Studios want to kill the Netflix's of the world so they continue to rob others from the money they worked and were not fully paid for it, not their fair share anyways.
The brilliant part is that they got the dumb writers, actors and everybody who works for them to defend them against Netflix LoL
This may even be what happens in the music world and with so many stoned performers they get shafted and still defend that system LoL
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The only thing to fear...
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Hey, wouldn't that be the NBC TV series followup to Masters Of Horror for which I'm yet to see a legal DVD release outside of North America and and thus blocked from viewing despite owning box sets of the former series? That I could easily view legally if they weren't region blocked or if they were available on a local Netflix account or equivalent, but which I'd need to pirate to watch at all under the current regime? Which I'd happily pay money for if there weren't artificial restrictions preventing me from doing so?
"It looks like it's Hollywood's own fear of piracy that is leading it to make really short-sighted decisions."
Bears repeating.
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Worse Than Piracy
New players using things like YouTube and TwitchTV are going to start eating away at their bottom line, unless they make their content just as easy to obtain.
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Never Understood
They've got enough revenue flow to start producing or promoting original content--and then the rubber band will be on the other claw!
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"So far that plan for content has led to five show commitments in the U.S., including Lillehammer, starring Steve Van Zandt, which has already premiered; and the upcoming House of Cards, directed by David Fincher and starring Kevin Spacey; and a new season of the cult series Arrested Development. They also have coming Hemlock Grove from horror director Eli Roth, which Sarandos described as Vampire Diaries meets True Blood."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/netflix-ted-sarandos-original-content-309275
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Re: Never Understood
Because Netflix isn't Bender and only Bender can get away with such talk. :)
Isn't Netflix going to start producing their own stuff soon? I know they're bringing back Arrested Development. Or at least one season, before the movie gets going.
I think Netflix should bring back shows that were kicked to the curb. Like Arrested Development. Firefly. Etc. Heck, those two alone would be enough to win me over and get me to subscribe.
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I've got over 300 movies in my queue. I'm not going to be sad about what's not there. I'm too excited about what is there.
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Would the Government star seizing people's grey matter because of alleged infringement?
Would Hollywood demand you pay a licence fee every time you remembered a cool moment in a film?
Let the reducto ad absurdum begin.
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I'm already paying $20-30 a month for Netflix (both streaming and DVD) and I'm not going anywhere. Netflix is still the best deal in town, and with all the new stuff they've been adding, including all the TED talks (which you can get on the TED website, but I like having them all in one place, with descriptions and can play them in order,) I don't think I'll run out of things to watch any time soon.
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Reminds me of the Spotify uproar
I take the opposite tack- I want our catalog every legal outlet possible, regardless of the income stream. It'd be a betrayal of our due diligence to distribute our artists' work.
Of course, we're not 20th Century Fox.
I'm a Netflix customer but I've also kept my local brick & mortar video rental membership for just this reason. There are always really puzzling gaps in Netflix' offerings, and movies have "Watch By" dates because their licensing is expiring.
(Also, the selection really sucks once you get below the surface of various cult & specialized genres- I end up buying a fair amount of PAL & non-Region-1 DVDs from overseas because it's literally impossible to find the DVDs with extras etc, even via torrent, through domestic means)
It's astonishing how stupid really educated, experienced suits can be.
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"All this does is drive more people to piracy"
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In this case if theres no good whiskey, i think ill go without, thankyou very much
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Did you miss the day at school when they explained metaphors?
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fx news
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