The Netflix Thread

[Temis the Vorta]

I think there may be enough Netflix news to just have our own thread? Let's see how it goes.

Netflix Broadband Speeds

This is sure to irk some broadband providers: The streaming video company unveiled today the “Netflix ISP Speed Index,” a Web site designed to help people see “which Internet Service Providers (ISPs) provide the best Netflix streaming experience.”

Here's the site.

No Canada on the list? After all the complaints I've seen about their speeds, it is really so bad?

How much Netflix original episodes cost.

...the cheapest show is $3.8 million an episode and House of Cards started at $4.5 million with executive producer David Fincher taking it ”way above that”. According to Micelli, the next series Hemlock Grove is costing $4 million an episode, while Orange Is The New Black is just under $4 million as well.

You could do a decent looking sci fi series for 4M an episode. Just sayin'...

Sharp growth in households without TV's.

Turns out there are more than 5M so-called “zero TV” homes now, up from from more than 2M in 2007. Nielsen’s term for the group is a little deceptive: 75% have at least one TV set. But 37% watch video content on computers, 8% on smartphones, and 6% on tablets. A little less than half (48%) watch TV content through subscription services, which Nielsen doesn’t identify but I’d assume includes a lot of Netflix customers. As you might imagine, people in these “zero TV” homes tend to be a lot younger than others in traditional TV households, and 41.2% live alone (vs. 26.2% of people in TV households). Some 36% of “zero TV” people say that cost is the main reason why they opt out of the traditional system, while 31% say that they simply lack interest. But 18% say that they’d consider subscribing to pay TV.

They'd consider subscribing until they see the vast difference in cost. $100/month is a bit much when you've gotten used to $8.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Mine is what you'd call a "zero TV" home. I have two TVs, but they are used only for video games, DVDs, and Netflix. No cable/satellite subscription, no OTA hookup.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Ditto - no cable, no OTA. Use my TV for Netflix and Pandora. Also have an iPad and laptop, but never got in the habit of using either for streaming. YouTube videos, games and ebooks, yeah.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Another reason to cut the cord: TV advertising is losing revenue to online advertising, which will push up cable rates.

Yes, advertisers love their ELECTRICAL SUPERSTORMS!!! How can TV advertising compete long-term with the perfect accountability of online ads?

Online ads are more efficient, which means less money to content producers, which puts more pressure on any ad-based business vs subscription, which is immune from all this. In fact, it works out to Netflix and Amazon's advantage, since they are online ad buyers, not sellers.

The analysis today from Nomura Equity Research’s Michael Nathanson could dampen the mood at TV networks as we head into the big upfront ad sales season. The most startling discovery: total ad revenues didn’t grow at all in 2012 at the Big Media companies he tracks.

...

Meanwhile Internet-based media are taking market share, and driving ad rates down. “In effect, online advertising — specifically online display advertising — is enabling advertisers to reach their ‘eye-ball targets’ with less (and sometimes even no) ad dollar budget growth.” For example, last year media and entertainment companies cut their ad spending 4.2% — even as box office sales hit a record high.

...

With ad growth slowing, Big Media likely will feel more pressure to raise the prices they charge pay TV distributors — putting pressure on them to raise subscribers’ monthly bills.

As if greedy sports franchises driving up cable costs weren't bad enough.

 

[PsychoPere]

Hemlock Grove trailer and poster.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlZUsPcChgI[/yt]

 

[bigdaddy]

How can House of Cards cost much more than 4.5 million dollars?!

 

[Gepard]

Mine is what you'd call a "zero TV" home. I have two TVs, but they are used only for video games, DVDs, and Netflix. No cable/satellite subscription, no OTA hookup.

Same here. One computer, high-speed Internet and all the online streaming I could ask for. I neither need nor want a TV and cable/satellite.

 

[Yoda]

If it weren't for live sports, my cable package would be a goner. I'm a god damned Trekkie, why the hell do I even like sports anyway

 

[Amaris]

They've got AT&T DSL way down on the list at 15, but I easily get enough speed to watch HD quality movies on my Roku box.

 

[bigdaddy]

The less people with cable TV the more the same cable TV provides will charge fr high speed internet. It's a lovely monopoly they have.

 

[Yoda]

Government takeover 10Gb fiber to all Americans plz. *dons Che Guevara t-shirt*

 

[bigdaddy]

Government takeover 10Gb fiber to all Americans plz. *dons Che Guevara t-shirt*

Yeah that will happen right after free health care for all and a NASA built moon base.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Government takeover 10Gb fiber to all Americans plz. *dons Che Guevara t-shirt*

OBAMANET!

Hemlock Grove doesn't look nearly as gory as I expected from Eli Roth, but it definitely looks more binge-worthy than House of Cards - scary and crazy (hopefully).

PS, does anyone have Arrested Development (old episodes) on their streaming queue? Netflix did something cute with the stars...

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The less people with cable TV the more the same cable TV provides will charge fr high speed internet. It's a lovely monopoly they have.

That's why I made sure to get Sonic as my internet/landline provider here in the SF area. I want nothing further to do with Comcast or AT&T ever again as long as I shall live.

 

[jayceee]

Wonder how soon dvds (and blurays) will also disappear from the market, whether retail or rental.

 

[Harvey]

How can House of Cards cost much more than 4.5 million dollars?!

It has an exceptional cast which includes several feature film actors, which doesn't cover the rest of the program's above-the-line talent. David Fincher can't come cheap, and he is only the most recognizable figure behind the camera.

Add to that extensive location shooting and it isn't hard to see how the costs got away from them.

 

[bigdaddy]

But the article said that it started with a cost of $4.5 million and went much higher from there. The cast would have already been paid down by then.

 

[Harvey]

David Fincher is a director notorious for shooting dozens of takes, if not more. He only directed the first two episodes, but that kind of shooting ratio is not typical of television and expensive. Recall that The Social Network had a production budget between $40 and $50 million.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Wonder how soon dvds (and blurays) will also disappear from the market, whether retail or rental.

I still have a godawful number of titles in my DVD queue, not available on streaming. I suspect there just isn't interest or bandwidth for Netflix/Amazon to do the deals for all of them.

But the "long tail" library is still a significant draw for subscribers. Everyone has their niche interest, so it's worthwhile for Netflix to serve those interests as long as it takes them no extra trouble or expense. Amazon and Netflix are both investing a lot more effort into high profile stuff, either new or doing deals for top movies and TV series.

Amazingly Netflix's profit margins are much higher for DVDs vs streaming, counterintuitively since DVDs should be more expensive - pressing, mail and personnel - which just goes to show how expensive streaming rights are.

...each streaming subscriber is worth only $2.40 in profit each quarter to Netflix, compared to $17.32 for each DVD subscriber. The old business was very lucrative. The new business kind of sucks. The economics are very different. The DVD business had fixed costs, while Netflix is forced to negotiate streaming licenses on a case by case basis with each media company.

DVDs will dwindle, but extinction is not yet on the radar.

 

[cylkoth]

Studios are not making streaming rights available to everything they release on disc, no matter how old it may be. The push for exclusive deals-mirroring the war that was originated by HBO and Showtime years ago, as both started locking the entire outputs of studios under multi year contracts ( instead of on a movie by movie basis) will also fuel the disc sector for those who won't be subscribing to every pay TV service to get the titles they desire. HBO has Fox, Universal, and corporate sibling Warners Bros, under exclusive contract for at least a decade. Starz just re-upped with Sony, Netflix will have Disney theatricals when the Mouse's current contract will Starz ends next year, Epix is owned by Paramount/MGM/Lionsgate, and gets the movies from those-but due to low distribution on cable, sells streaming rights to Netflix, Amazon, and now Redbox to add to their bottom line. That leaves Showtime with a smattering of independents-btw, while SHO is part of CBS' division, Paramount is under Viacom (keeping track of the split up holdings of the formerly single Viacom/CBS gives me a headache), and the Paramount brass missed being in the pay cable arena and launched Epic, screwing SHO out of access to current Par movies....
For that reason, DVD/blu-ray will continue to be relevant for years to come.