Netflix Going To Shit

[Bouncer]

First they removed user reviews. Then stock price dropped. Then long time CEO quits. Now they are going to start showing ads in between episodes... fuck sake.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/...ason-episodes/

Netflix has confirmed a major change to its video-streaming service, effective as of this week for at least some users: video ads for other Netflix series between episodes.

The news emerged via user reports, particularly on the primary Netflix Reddit community, in which users claimed that ads for entirely different series would play between episodes of a given show's binging. One initial claim said that "unskippable" ads for the AMC series Better Call Saul appeared between episodes of Rick & Morty and that this ad appeared while using Netflix's smart TV app on an LG set in the UK. Replies to that thread included an allegation that a video ad for I Am A Killer (a Netflix-produced true-crime series) appeared between episodes of the animated comedy Bob's Burgers.

In a statement given to Ars Technica, Netflix described the change as follows: "We are testing whether surfacing recommendations between episodes helps members discover stories they will enjoy faster." The reasoning, Netflix's statement says, comes from its last controversial decision: to add auto-playing videos, complete with unmuteable audio, while browsing through Netflix content.

[rado]

Eh...many places that stream videos now, pause usually at some point to bring you a commercial, happened today as I'm just watching YouTube and Facebook vids...they stopped and ran a 20 sec commercial.

But I give Netflix a 7 out of 10.

Amazon prime I give a 6.

I want something better than there is now

[chuckz28]

I've got no qualms about dropping Netflix. I'm still triggered from when they removed the star rating system every time I look for something to watch.

[mofo]

They'll probably do a tiered subscription service like Hulu has: basic subscription has ads running before each episode but the next tier has no ads but is almost the double the price. It will still end up being somewhat cheaper than paying for a regular TV service for now.

I have tried other options like the 3rd party stuff on the Amazon Firestick but the amount of time it takes to find a decent stream, I'd rather just pay Hulu, Netflix, HBO, etc. their money and spend actual time watching.

[Bouncer]

They'll probably do a tiered subscription service like Hulu has: basic subscription has ads running before each episode but the next tier has no ads but is almost the double the price. It will still end up being somewhat cheaper than paying for a regular TV service for now.

I have tried other options like the 3rd party stuff on the Amazon Firestick but the amount of time it takes to find a decent stream, I'd rather just pay Hulu, Netflix, HBO, etc. their money and spend actual time watching.

they already have a tiered service. they aren't talking about that at all. they are talking about ads of other netflix shows between episodes that are unskippable. they are making all the wrong moves. Stock is down again today despite all the other tech companies way up..

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https://www.sfgate.com/business/arti...n-13167293.php

Netflix forever changed the way we watch television, but recent announcements suggest the company might slowly be normalizing.

One of the service's primary appeals is that users can watch TV shows uninterrupted by meddlesome commercials. Netflix, in essence, invented binge-watching by allowing us all to watch a dozen episodes of "Stranger Things" without a reminder that anything in the outside world exists.

That's no longer the case, at least not for everyone.

This week, the service rolled out unskippable advertisements that appear between episodes of various shows for some users. The ads, though, won't be for Cookie Crisp or Tide, but for other shows streaming on Netflix.

"We are testing whether surfacing recommendations between episodes helps members discover stories they will enjoy faster," the company told Ars Technica in a statement. "A couple of years ago, we introduced video previews to the TV experience, because we saw that it significantly cut the time members spend browsing and helped them find something they would enjoy watching even faster."

It is unclear how long the "testing" will last. Netflix did confirm that the test will only be for a segment of its user base.

Meanwhile, another familiar feature has vanished. On the web version of the service, users could leave written reviews of various shows and movies - and for years, they did just that. But on Friday, Netflix removed this ability, along with every user review ever left there.

"Netflix customers were able to leave reviews on Netflix.com until mid-2018, when reviews were removed due to declining use," the company said on its website.

Netflix has slowly been changing how users rate content as well. Last year, it shifted from allowing users to assign shows and movies a score of one to five stars to the binary thumbs up or down.

Perhaps these moves aren't surprising, though. Netflix has an ever-expanding library of in-house content. And the company has always played things close to the vest. It famously doesn't release ratings for its shows.

Ever since its first few series, such as "House of Cards" and "Orange Is the New Black," the company has become far more than a streaming service - it's a powerful production company.

Case in point: Hollywood hasn't released many throwback romantic comedies, or rom-coms, in several years. Netflix has scrambled to fill this void, pumping out rom-com after rom-com, from the instantly beloved "Set It Up" to its recent sensation "To All the Boys I've Loved Before." The move hasn't gone unnoticed, prompting headlines like "Netflix isn't trying to make you love romcoms again - because it knows you never stopped," "Where has the romantic comedy gone? To Netflix," "Netflix rides to rescue of rom-coms" and The Washington Post's own "Netflix knows we need an escape. So it built a rom-com factory."

While these films have been generally warmly received, it isn't inconceivable that Netflix would rather users not have the ability to malign them on its own website.

Especially because the company might be promoting them between episodes of "Jessica Jones."