Netflix Loses Toy Story 3, Tron and 1,000 More Movies

http://mashable.com/2012/03/01/netflix-starz-goodbye/

by ssclafani • 14 years ago

61 76 14 years ago

mrb• 14 years ago

> “This decision is a result of our strategy to protect the premium nature of our brand by preserving the appropriate pricing and packaging of our exclusive and highly valuable content,” Starz said last September.

And the movie industry wonders how to fight piracy... well for one, don't kill a legitimate and convenient way for paying customers to access your movies! "Protecting your brand" you say? You are putting yourself out of business...

forrestthewoods• 14 years ago

It's perfectly reasonable if that legitimate and convenient method isn't a sustainable business model. Tragically $10 a month for every movie and TV show ever isn't viable. It is in Starz' interest to focus on acquiring expensive premium cable subscriptions rather than collecting a small portion of the Netflix $10 monthly subscription.

nknight• 14 years ago

People still have cable?

Quarrelsome• 14 years ago

Why has it always got to be this direction though? Next time you watch a film try tracking the wastage, the unnecessary cuts, the plethora of extras, the ridiculous quantity of explosions and/or CGI.

IMO the future is about more films with lower budgets. At present the amount of money that film studios piss away with their bloated budgets is utterly unsustainable.

derleth• 14 years ago

> Tragically $10 a month for every movie and TV show ever isn't viable.

Why not?

Further, can you explain that in terms an avid Netflix customer can understand?

moe• 14 years ago

Tragically $10 a month for every movie and TV show ever isn't viable.

Then they'd better make it viable really quick because that seems to be about the price point that the market has decided on.

I also don't see why it wouldn't be viable as long as you distribute it to the content that's actually being watched.

toomuchtodo• 14 years ago

They better get used to $10/month vs $0 when consumers go to The Pirate Bay instead.

lukifer• 14 years ago

A smarter move would be to offer their own streaming service, or even a download store.

brown9-2• 14 years ago

It's worth noting here the Starz isn't making these movies - they're paying for to access the content from the creators just like Netflix is.

(Starz produces a few tv shows but obviously none of the titles in the title here)

wam• 14 years ago

Stories like this make the Netflix Prize seem ancient. You can build a better mousetrap and then spend a lot of time adjusting the springs, but keep an eye on your cheese supply.

JunkDNA• 14 years ago

Ever since my daughter was born two years ago I basically stopped watching movies and only watch a small amount of TV. This has made me realize that the products being put out by Hollywood are inconvenient and not a good value for the money. The few times I've sat down to rent something I did want to see, I found it wasn't available on onDemand, iTunes, etc... Instead of watching a movie, my wife and I end up goofing around on Facebook or something. I have plenty of entertainment options. Making it hard to see a movie just means I will do something else. I suspect I'm not alone in this regard.

malkia• 14 years ago

Heh, 4 years since my son was born, and while at the begining HBO was ON, later as he grew up and was bothered by the TV noise, we switched to Netflix, but watch only movies with captions - and these are... well non-english ones :) So here ya go!

Oh, And I have to watch with him Yo-gabba-gabba, Franklin and the Upside down show (which is great btw)

novakinblood• 14 years ago

I'm more excited than my kids are for the upside down show.

kellishaver3• 14 years ago

Boardgames have replaced movies and TV in our house. There are some great games out there. Good ones can run anywhere from $20-80 (though usually around $40-50) but the value for your money is far greater. We get some quality time together as a family and the kid gets some strategic and problem-solving skills.

Of course... they take up a lot more space. :)

officemonkey2• 14 years ago

Try Bananagrams. Takes up as much space as a pair of socks.

Natsu• 14 years ago

It's weird, something like that happened to me. I didn't plan this. There was just nothing on TV that I wanted to watch, so I stopped and never really started again.

I do sometimes watch a little TV, but it's pretty rare at this point.

fabricode• 14 years ago

For those that purport to track piracy, this will be an interesting case study. Perhaps if they can see (again) the inverse relationship of easy, non-free availability to downloads of free copies, maybe they'll finally begin to adjust their business model. I doubt it, but one can hope.

crikli2• 14 years ago

I'm a very heavy Netflix user. Some people listen to music while they code, I watch movies/series. I don't care that Starz has removed their content and I'm not going to chase it down. They've overplayed their hand and it's going to bite them.

gcv• 14 years ago

Curious. How do you manage to pay attention both to a video and to your code at the same time?

crikli2• 14 years ago

Well...this will sound mildly insane but if i don't have something going it's like there's a bored 5 year old in my head that wants to distract me from coding. Of course there are segments of the video I miss but I follow the dialogue. It's how I watched most of Lost, for example.

vijayr• 14 years ago

one of my ex-colleagues used to do this. He had two monitors, one for running some video (youtube, netflix etc) and other was for his work stuff. I could never understand how he could do both at the same time. I assumed, either his work was too boring, or his videos were :D Interesting to know he is not the only one doing this.

b3b0p2• 14 years ago

I do this too.

It's quite lonely living alone in a single bedroom apartment. The little extra background keeps me from going nuts at times.

I find it easy to code while having the TV on or if I'm just toying around a small window on my display in the bottom corner. The secret I have found is to put on one of two types of shows: 1. Something you have already seen, I really enjoy 24 for example, having it the background when I'm familiar with it, but still enjoy it, helps. 2. Documentaries or something similar such as Top Gear or PBS shows are good choices.

New shows that require my attention or movies I have never seen, but want to just don't work for me.

ChrisNorstrom• 14 years ago

That can really mess you up if you're like me and don't get out much. I strongly suggest moving in with a room-mate. Keep trying different people out until you find someone you're compatible with. I mean living alone is great if you're surrounded by people at work and throughout the day but working alone + living alone can seriously make you feel like you're going insane.

darrenkopp2• 14 years ago

It's ok, they weren't in HD, so I would never watch them. No point in having movies that clearly have HD versions in standard definition.

rhizome2• 14 years ago

"Streaming HD" is usually a marketing pipedream.

learc83• 14 years ago

It's also usually better than "Streaming SD."

darrenkopp2• 14 years ago

Netflix says they stream up to 5MB/s for their video quality, which looks great to me. Not as good as a blu-ray I'm sure, but still looks better than standard definition.

adorton• 14 years ago

Netflix's "HD" streaming content looks great. I don't know if it's "real" HD or not, but it's better quality than their non-HD stuff.

bengl3rt• 14 years ago

Have you tried VUDU? Their HDX stuff looks awesome.

lukasb• 14 years ago

Good luck getting people to pay for plastic discs in boxes.

dangrossman• 14 years ago

Plastic disc in box sales this week: $74M

http://www.the-numbers.com/dvd/charts/weekly/thisweek.php

http://www.the-numbers.com/weekly-bluray-sales-chart

sehugg• 14 years ago

The main impression I have surrounding the "premium nature of their brand" is when I go to a Residence Inn and enjoy free movies.

jQueryIsAwesome• 14 years ago

Hollywood is never going to learn; i think Netflix should get themselves in the content creation business by making alliances with indie movie makers.

Tichy• 14 years ago

article says they are about to launch a tv show

wavephorm• 14 years ago

This sounds like a delusional way of saying "We'll wait until we can replicate the premium cable channel model over the Internet". They clearly don't understand that the concept of a "channel" is what's being disrupted.

MtotheThird• 14 years ago

Yeah, I can't really remember the last time I watched a Starz movie on Netflix. It's been nothing but TV series for me for at least a year now. Occasionally I'll watch a movie that shows up in new releases, but they've been signing a ton of premium shows lately, far more than I can watch.

I think it's a perfectly viable strategy for them to focus on series - more content per deal and a perfect match for a long-tail streaming strategy.

InclinedPlane• 14 years ago

This is the biggest problem with Netflix, the value of Netflix is the value of its library. If it's not constant then it's a lot harder to justify a consistent monthly payment.

staunch3• 14 years ago

Netflix just needs to raise their damn prices -- or offer a higher tier. Many of us were used to paying $30-$80 for our cable TV packages and another $20-$30/mo for Blockbuster. It's been about 7 years since I paid those, but now I'm only paying $8/mo for TV/movie entertainment in total.

I'd be more than happy to pay $18/mo if it meant I had 2-3x more content.

Netflix: $8/mo, Netflix Plus: $18/mo, and even Netflix Premium: $28/mo.

That they haven't done this is kind of dumbfounding.

ilikepi• 14 years ago

> Netflix: $8/mo, Netflix Plus: $18/mo, and even Netflix Premium: $28/mo.

Hmm...that sounds a lot like how traditional cable TV packages are structured.

staunch3• 14 years ago

So? It wasn't price that made cable TV suck. It was the lack of on-demand viewing, alternate device viewing, region restrictions, commercials, etc.

muhfuhkuh• 14 years ago

That's all you can eat, though. I don't have to worry about emptying out DVRs, or programming it in, or (if I'm not a DVR subscriber) waiting for it to air and sitting through an absolute assault of commercials.

Additionally, I simply refuse to watch a PPV movie for $5.00 per on top of paying $50/mo for cable. Most of the channels are absolute garbage (yes, I'm looking at you, "reality" TV) or air the programs I actually want to watch so rarely that I end up not watching them at all.

Netflix is simple: Find/browse movie, check user ratings and synopsis, click play. That's Apple-level magic, and it's worth paying a premium, even if it means paying near what I did with cable.

res0nat0r6• 14 years ago

Not sure why you are being downvoted. $10/month is way to low to be sustainable. Netflix has to raise their prices since the content creators are squeezing them because they know they hold all the cards.

serge2k• 14 years ago

I would cancel my subscription just on principle if they started doing that crap.

I would be willing to just pay more. But tiered content is trash.

staunch3• 14 years ago

Why does it matter if there are higher tiers that have more content?

Your concern is that you would get less than you currently do for $8/mo or something?

fshaun• 14 years ago

Is it as objectionable when considered a higher base price, but letting people opt out of content they don't want and be refunded? I don't understand why tiering is bad. You'd have to avoid an awfully lot of businesses to get away from tiered services.

krschultz• 14 years ago

That's absurd. Back when Netflix was primarily competing with Blockbuster, you would say something like 'Well, if I rent 2 or 3 movies at Blockbuster a month, I'll come out ahead using Netflix'. That's the world that Netflix prices came from.

Now Netflix has grown into something so great that it can replace not only your DVD rentals at Blockbuster, but also your Cable subscription, and for a lot of us, the thought of even buying movies. Suddenly they have gobbled up what used to be $100 worth of money going from my pocket to the industry.

And people cry foul when Netflix raised their prices $5. Get over it.

leeoniya• 14 years ago

this will lead to 10x more piracy than Starz premium subscribers.

the flexibility of internet distribution has shown publishers and content creators that consumers will not stand for being sold a bill of goods - not as 16-track albums, nor packaged cable channels.

nl• 14 years ago

Hollywood continues to punish consumers, and then complain about piracy.

It is time for statutory streaming licences.

ary• 14 years ago

People forget why Universal Studios was originally founded. The monopoly envisioned by Edison and company (slowly) gave way to a cartel that arose out of opposition to the incumbent surrounded by a desire to capitalize on untapped opportunity. See this Ars Technica article:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/09/thomas-ediso...

Far from being a hinderance, the actions of the MPAA and its member studios are an opportunity for smaller, more agile companies to start producing content and refusing to license it to the incumbents. There is a whole new world of distribution out there, and no forced middle-man. Get out there and make it happen.

mickt• 14 years ago

I'd never heard of Premium cable network Starz until I read that article, and I guess now I'll never see any of their content.

I do have Netflix and I don't have cable. I don't understand why people pay so much money to watch TV?

Netflix Loses Toy Story 3, Tron and 1,000 More Movies

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