Netflix Dropping Seasons in One Day... Good or Bad?

[Guy Gardener]

Netflix does not have traditionally spliced ad/media hybrids. historically it was the superpositioning of advertising in front of favoured/useful demographics that determined when media used to have must have been aired.

Only Networks which do not have intensely profitable advertisement breaks during their media can use this approach.

 

[Kronos]

I like it, it's like a movie release, it also saves those who don't care about the show or think it's crap from having to hear about it non stop for the entire season.

 

[FPAlpha]

Netflix does not have traditionally spliced ad/media hybrids. historically it was the superpositioning of advertising in front of favoured/useful demographics that determined when media used to have must have been aired.

Only Networks which do not have intensely profitable advertisement breaks during their media can use this approach.

But what happens with the proliferation of broadband internet connections and the rising popularity of streaming sites such as Netflix, Hulu and the million of others when you can watch TV shows when you have time/feel like it, that don't feature ads (but maybe you pay a monthly subscription fee) and people get used to that kind of freedom and maybe get fed up with constant breaks during shows/movies they watch for free on TV?

I get my TV signal via internet through my ISP and have included a Pay TV package for about 13 Euro a month which gives me access to some movie and TV channels amongst others that don't air ads during the movie/TV show and i've really gotten used to it. Whenever i watch "free" TV now i really get annoyed by the constant breaks (with first time free TV big movies they sometimes have the first break after a few minutes in for christ's sake!). It goes so far that i rarely watch them anymore save for a select few shows and maybe the news (then again i don't watch TV news much but get them online).

So i'd glady pay a little bit monthly to have an ad free TV experience and the only drawback is that it's still a fixed air date which i don't always have time for but then i got a DVR so problem solved in this case.

The end product would be a see on demand, easy to use service that i can freely use on my TV and the development is definitely going there which begs the question what the traditional TV model is going to do after 10-20 years further down the line.

Will a monthly subscription fee be enough to fund shows as they are now? I really hope so.

 

[Guy Gardener]

You're going to get a goombah debt collector breaking bones at some point explaining that the platinum package was beyond your means and that you were foolish to go there...

First time I came back from the video store with a dozen or so TNG cassettes, and the episode paused for an ad break that didn't happen, I almost came.

Here's the real problem...If the subscription fees go down a little, and almost everyone can then afford cable, and no one watches network TV any more, and the Nielson families tells the advertisers that 12 people, not twelve million, not 12 thousand, but 12 people watched Law and Order last night, the system is going to collapse.

Deathrattle vs. Birthing pains.

No more Network TV.

 

[RoJoHen]

I don't really watch shows anymore that I can't marathon for hours on end, so I love that Netflix adds entire seasons at a time.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I'm not entirely sure it's unearned. It's a convention, but it's one that's existed for a long time so the writers have structured their script to take advantage of it. But it still takes a good writer to truly take advantage of it.

Interestingly, there was a study that found commercial breaks makes shows more enjoyable of the pause.

When I say "Unearned" I don't mean every cliffhanger, I mean the cases where they milk it excessively. Like in shows where they always leave off at the exact moment a character's life is in danger. Most very serialized shows don't do this too often, choosing to leave off right after the action rather than right during it. The shows that 'milk' it are often are the usually episodic shows like the detective shows. There are of course exceptions, like how 24 got kind of ridiculous about this.

Here's the real problem...If the subscription fees go down a little, and almost everyone can then afford cable, and no one watches network TV any more, and the Nielson families tells the advertisers that 12 people, not twelve million, not 12 thousand, but 12 people watched Law and Order last night, the system is going to collapse.

Deathrattle vs. Birthing pains.

No more Network TV.

Clearly broadcast TV is eventually going to go away and be replaced by completely on demand services, with the exception of course for live events which will probably have a means of distribution more integrated into on demand services.

But will free television with ads go away just because the subscription fee goes down? Of course not, for them to lower the fee enough to be more desirable than 'Free' they'd have to make it unprofitable.

You'll just get the same tiers of luxury/quality in direct services we used to get from broadcast TV. Basic package free with ads, more high quality package with extra cost, maybe pay extra for no ads, and then a bunch of individual services with their own programming like HBO which cost the most.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Here's what happened in the small country I live in... The (half dozen or so) 30 year old UHF transmitters we used for the anologue signal for the free state TV had to be replaced, and the technology is so backward that it was amazingly cheaper to build new Digital high band transmitters rather than build new UHF transmitters to continue analogue transmission.

America is soooooooooo much larger, thousands of times larger, and it's UHF transmission infrastructure is soooooooo much more robust with overlaps and redundancies, built irregularly that there will not be one singular point where all the UHF transmitters will all simultaneously be declared redundant ant stupid and replaced with new more usable technology.

If what I said above is true, and it may not be, that probably means that it is more expensive to use and build fresh old style UHF transmitters today, and the magnates in charge of these places are actively ignoring new technology to rebuild UFH transmitters that will last another 30 years which they will never replace with new technology in the next 5 years.

It took us 5 years of threats to educate all the hillbillies that they had to buy digital decoders to watch TV from now on, and that their black and white sets with Bunny ears just wouldn't cut it any more.

Those that would not adapt, went back to radio and mail order porn.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I don't see many downsides to having all episodes released on one day, for Netflix or the consumers. After all, what does Netflix care if you watched 13 episodes in one day or over the course of 3 months? Either way you watched them, and you paid the monthly fee.

I find that I actually enjoy TV much more when I get to watch it on my own schedule. This is true from the early days of shows being released on DVD, when people were starting to realize that there were real benefits to being able to watch episodes back to back. In fact that is how I first saw 24. I watched the first season on DVD, and intended to start with just one episode, but soon found myself sitting up at 3 am with my laptop clicking Play again. I was completely sucked in. If I had watched the show as it originally aired, weekly or less often throughout the season, I really don't think I would have enjoyed it as much. Even now when I go back and watch seasons of shows that I've already seen, I find them so much more fun to watch back to back. It allows you to really remember and notice the little details that you didn't before. When watching on a weekly basis, I find that I forget enough in between episodes that that intense enjoyment factor just isn't there anymore.

So of course Netflix releasing all episodes at once is awesome to me. If I had watched Orange is the New Black weekly, I would have found it a great show still but I doubt I would have gotten as much obsessive personal joy out of it. I mostly watch serialized shows, so this type of new programming schedule is great for me.

As others have mentioned, the one downside is that it is more difficult to discuss the show with others when they are at different points, but I haven't really found this to be much of a problem since there are so few people in my life who are TV junkies like me. And those that are, I am usually always ahead of them in the shows we watch, so I don't have to fear spoilers.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

On the other hand, I'm in the middle of Orange is the New Black and want to see discussion so far, but know someone would have posted more and spoiled beyond that point. I agree it's fine from Netflix's perspective, though. Their appeal is binge watching. If you finish a show, just go to the next one.

 

[Sci Fi Fan]

Thanks to Netflix streaming we now have something that was never previously available--immediate access to any episode of any of the Star Trek series at any time in any order. What a great treat for Star Trek fans!

 

[Sci Fi Fan]

When there's a great series on TV I want to watch I usually "tape" the season anyway so I can watch the episodes not in one weekend but whenever I want (usually one episode a night if I have time). The House of Cards download works for me if it works for Netflix!

 

[bigdaddy]

Thanks to Netflix streaming we now have something that was never previously available--immediate access to any episode of any of the Star Trek series at any time in any order. What a great treat for Star Trek fans!

Don't need Netflix....

http://www.startrek.com/videos

 

[BillJ]

Thanks to Netflix streaming we now have something that was never previously available--immediate access to any episode of any of the Star Trek series at any time in any order. What a great treat for Star Trek fans!

We've had that for quite a few years now on home video.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Yeah but on home video you either had to pay $20 per two episodes or you had to go through the work to tape it off the television and still end up with low picture quality, commercials and occasional emergency broadcast system tests.

 

[JWPlatt]

Home video for "quite a few years now" includes DVDs, you know. Not just VHS. But I do have a few VHS and Laserdisc editions of TOS. My NextGen DVDs are marked 2002. That's quite a few years at a good price with lots of content without commercials.

And no EBS tests. Really??? Is that a common enough problem for your recordings? I expected a wink there. Paper tiger anyone?

 

[ManOnTheWave]

There's something to be said for the old fashioned TV model where episodes came but once a week, suspense builds, viewers discuss at the proverbial water cooler, and phenomenons are made through that shared experience. But ultimately, everything ends up a lump sum in physical, downloaded, or streaming media. Netflix is just catering to the habits of contemporary market.

 

[DarthTom]

I look at season long "drops" the way I look at novels. something to savor in one gulp or a long month, all at my discretion.

I watched House of Cards in 1.5 days. Bummer is - like Christmas - have to wait a whole year for another season to open your presents.

On the flip side I've been watching single episodes 2x through to look for nuance.

Generally I think this is a great thing but as others have said I wouldn't want all TV to be in this format.

 

[Awesome Possum]

I love it and I hope to leads to increased creativity. I know that originally the 4th season of Arrested Development was written to that it could be seen in any order and possibly be a different experience since all the episodes overlap in terms of the timeline. I think they dropped it because certain events needed to be revealed at the end, but another show could make it work.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Home video for "quite a few years now" includes DVDs, you know. Not just VHS. But I do have a few VHS and Laserdisc editions of TOS. My NextGen DVDs are marked 2002. That's quite a few years at a good price with lots of content without commercials.

And no EBS tests. Really??? Is that a common enough problem for your recordings? I expected a wink there. Paper tiger anyone?

Well yeah, but the DVD sets were pushing $100 per season when they first came out. That's a bit much for me now, that's inconceivable while I was in high school or college.

Yes, I DID get a lot of EBS tests on my recordings. This was my TNG tapes, well after they originally aired, and when the only place to see them were channel 66 at 11AM and Spike TV with the black bar.

 

[Guy Gardener]

$100 per season to buy, or 5 dollars to rent for a week.

The local DVD store used to be a good solution to most of our problems.