Netflix going to $19.99 a month

[DT]

Have you tried out Discovery+ yet? They have the Food Network and tons of other programming from all their networks and for less than $10 a month you get everything ad free, I would gladly pay twice that, it's an excellent service.

We have it! Yeah, it's a terrific service for the money, and I think we got it through AMEX so it was like $5/month for a year prepay or something like that.

 

[ronntaylor]

The worst part of this is it’ll likely encourage HBO to raise their rate sooner than later.

Yep! They'll not leave money on the table with every other service raising rates.

 

[Eric]

The worst part of this is it’ll likely encourage HBO to raise their rate sooner than later.

I don't mind paying a premium for a great service and HBO Max continues to deliver excellent content on a regular basis.

 

[Herdfan]

I always find good shows on Netflix. I'm more likely to cancel my Amazon Prime later this year when my subscription ends.

Prime is going up $20/yr soon also.

 

[Herdfan]

With all the content splitting between dozens of various streaming services, give it a few years and people will go back to Cable TV so they don’t have to keep track of all the separate subscriptions. So much for cord-cutting!

I would love to think you are 100% correct here, but I don't think you are. Too many content owners are trying to drive you to their streaming platform, so I am not sure there will be that much content left on traditional cable channels.

For example, Seal Team was on CBS. This year, the first 4 episodes of the season were on CBS, but if you want to watch the rest, you need a sub to Paramount+. Expect to see more of this in the future.

 

[Herdfan]

I don't mind paying a premium for a great service and HBO Max continues to deliver excellent content on a regular basis.

Yes it does. Nice thing is since I sub to HBO from DirecTV, I get Max for free, and the offspring can use it at college.

 

[Eric]

Netflix seems to be loading up with foreign shows that are overdubbed and can no longer deliver quality original content. They've really gone down hill, IMO no way they're worth the price hikes anymore. When something like The Crown comes up we'll wait for all episodes, then sign up for a month and binge watch and drop again. Ala carte TV is awesome that way.

 

[JayMysteri0]

Netflix seems to be loading up with foreign shows that are overdubbed and can no longer deliver quality original content. They've really gone down hill, IMO no way they're worth the price hikes anymore. When something like The Crown comes up we'll wait for all episodes, then sign up for a month and binge watch and drop again. Ala carte TV is awesome that way.

That's a specific choice & direction though with the loading up. Especially with a flood of Korean shows & movies, Netflix I think is embracing that they may have peaked in states. So they are broadening their international options for other markets, plus offering more for those in the states who may not be able to see those shows. Also those products give Netflix ready made product that they can pay for & show when they want, instead of waiting years for the next season of Stranger Things or such. Netflix is still killing it with their own movies that draw attention & eyeballs, so more already done product with different appeal may seem like a winner. It's also "great" marketing speech to claim you are getting more choices for your customers so you HAVE to charge them more.

With the great success HBO Max had with Peacemaker, I wouldn't be surprised if Netflix begins considering one or two series adopt the non binge model as an experiment.

 

[SuperMatt]

That's a specific choice & direction though with the loading up. Especially with a flood of Korean shows & movies, Netflix I think is embracing that they may have peaked in states. So they are broadening their international options for other markets, plus offering more for those in the states who may not be able to see those shows. Also those products give Netflix ready made product that they can pay for & show when they want, instead of waiting years for the next season of Stranger Things or such. Netflix is still killing it with their own movies that draw attention & eyeballs, so more already done product with different appeal may seem like a winner. It's also "great" marketing speech to claim you are getting more choices for your customers so you HAVE to charge them more.

With the great success HBO Max had with Peacemaker, I wouldn't be surprised if Netflix begins considering one or two series adopt the non binge model as an experiment.

I wonder why they stopped with their Marvel-related shows. Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, etc… They were good shows where they didn’t feel the need to wipe out half of all life in the universe for 5 years with a magic glove to make them interesting. Perhaps the license fee from Marvel got too high?

As for the Korean dramas, I watched a couple. They are pretty enjoyable, if a bit cheesy and predictable (kind of adds to the charm).

 

[Eric]

I wonder why they stopped with their Marvel-related shows. Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, etc… They were good shows where they didn’t feel the need to wipe out half of all life in the universe for 5 years with a magic glove to make them interesting. Perhaps the license fee from Marvel got too high?

This was their pinnacle IMO, those were great shows and always kept me interested.

As for the Korean dramas, I watched a couple. They are pretty enjoyable, if a bit cheesy and predictable (kind of adds to the charm).

It's not just that, now I'm seeing Swedish and Russian shows on top of that, all with overdubbed voicing which really takes the punch out of good acting. To me if feels like they're just going cut rate to keep it feeling fresh and have put quantity over quality.

I personally do not mind waiting for good shows if they time them right enough to keep you from dropping your subscription, both HBO Max and Disney+ seemed to have figured this out.

 

[JayMysteri0]

I wonder why they stopped with their Marvel-related shows. Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, etc… They were good shows where they didn’t feel the need to wipe out half of all life in the universe for 5 years with a magic glove to make them interesting. Perhaps the license fee from Marvel got too high?

As for the Korean dramas, I watched a couple. They are pretty enjoyable, if a bit cheesy and predictable (kind of adds to the charm).

It was a combination I believe of Marvel wanting ALL of their content back, and a mysterious cost threshold that Netflix has they don't want to pass.

When Feige was given complete control of the Marvel franchise, anything not already under his purview was destined ( check out the Hulu shows that existed & did not get started or anything Jeph Loeb related ) for doom. I believe Agents of SHIELD leaves this month off of Netflix as well. Basically Marvel is doing what DC started afterwards. If it's their content split elsewhere they want it back for their streaming service only to promote. Marvel just went the extra step of making anything NOT in the MCU NOT canon.

Until recently.

 

[Huntn]

I grew fond of Netflix over time. BUT, lately they follow the practice of HBO, i.e. episodes on weekly basis. And that is what I hate from the bottom of my heart. It reminds me of my childhood.

Agreed, not a fan of that but I can deal with it if the quality of the content is good and on Netflix it's gotten just terrible. When it comes to original content they have low quality shows and bad movies at best now making it hard to justify the cost. HBO on the other hand has fantastic programming for the most part and I look forward to the weekly episodes and I don't mind paying for it.

I can afford the UHD but as a principle I’ve dropped my subscription back to HD. Regarding stringing out episodes on a weekly basis, we just noticed that Amazon Prime has started doing the same thing with their series. I’m sure the strategy is to keep people subscribed for longer periods of time. The problem is we watch Netflix all the time so hit and run subscribing would not work there for us.

 

[DT]

@Huntn

Yeah, I should do that sooner than later - and thanks Netflix for making our nice 4K TV experience shitter ...

On the, er, I guess maybe upside[?] I was looking at the Netflix app on the iPad and it had games (may have there for some time, just never noticed it), they link over to the Apple App Store, and the cost is noted as a Netflix subscription, so I'm assuming it'll allow purchasing it for free.

 

[Huntn]

@Huntn

Yeah, I should do that sooner than later - and thanks Netflix for making our nice 4K TV experience shitter ...

On the, er, I guess maybe upside[?] I was looking at the Netflix app on the iPad and it had games (may have there for some time, just never noticed it), they link over to the Apple App Store, and the cost is noted as a Netflix subscription, so I'm assuming it'll allow purchasing it for free.

What are you saying is free? Games at the Apple App Store that are listed as Netflix subscriptions? The thing is I basically play zero games on my iPad.

 

[Joe]

I can see Netlix switching to weekly episodes instead of everyone binge watching. People have been talking about Euphoria on HBOMax for weeks, but Netflix series come and go because everyone binge watches and moves on.

 

[Ulenspiegel]

That's life. You come and go in a "binge way". Simple.

 

[DT]

What are you saying is free? Games at the Apple App Store that are listed as Netflix subscriptions? The thing is I basically play zero games on my iPad.

Yeah, there’s this new games list, you select a game for details, then if you Get Game it opens up and App Store dialog where you purchase/download, and the in-app purchase indicates Netflix Subscription, so assuming it passes your sub info and it’s free.

Not a huge selection, mentioned it more over the fact it exists at all!

 

[Herdfan]

I can afford the UHD but as a principle I’ve dropped my subscription back to HD. Regarding stringing out episodes on a weekly basis, we just noticed that Amazon Prime has started doing the same thing with their series. I’m sure the strategy is to keep people subscribed for longer periods of time. The problem is we watch Netflix all the time so hit and run subscribing would not work there for us.

Yet they dumped all 8 Reacher eps at once. Was hoping they would protect me from myself. But they didn't. We did limit ourselves to 1 a day for the first 5 days, then realized we were going out of town in 2 days and had 3 eps left. So we did 1.5 a day for the last 2 days.

I remember back when The Soprano's was on, DirecTV would let you add/remove programming via their website. So people would add HBO on Sunday and remove it on Monday. Cost them 40 cents a week to watch it.

 

[DT]

Yeah, I'm kind of torn between being able to consume a whole season over a weekend, and then being bummed because it's over vs. the service saving-me-from-myself, and doling them out a week or so at a time, and at least when it's a weekly type model, they tend to release the first 2 or so upfront which gives you a good sense of whether it's something you want to pursue.

 

[Huntn]

I can see Netlix switching to weekly episodes instead of everyone binge watching. People have been talking about Euphoria on HBOMax for weeks, but Netflix series come and go because everyone binge watches and moves on.

I’ve found I like watching 2 episodes a day of a show I’m enjoying. I specifically don’t like 1 episode per week,