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Netflix Is Doing Great, So It's Killing Off Its Cheapest Ad-Free Plan for Good (gizmodo.com)

submitted 10 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

38 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Netflix Is Doing Great, So It's Killing Off Its Cheapest Ad-Free Plan for Good::The company made gains in ad-based subscribers, but the $12 Basic subscription is being put out to pasture later in 2024 starting in Canada and the U.K.

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[–] FinishingDutch@lemmy.world 113 points 10 months ago (3 children)

You either die a hero, or live long enough to become another shitty cable company.

I ditched Netflix years ago when the content got worse by the week. Good shows were taken off by rights holders so they could put it on other platforms and what remained sucked. Not to mention Netflix’s proclivity for killing its own shows.

It got to a point where all the new stuff were shitty movies and Scandinavian crime dramas. Hard pass.

With the way other streaming services are going, it wouldn’t surprise me if people jumped back to piracy. I honestly don’t mind paying something reasonable, but all these subscriptions and price hikes do add up.

[–] filister@lemmy.world 23 points 10 months ago

You know all this is fuelled by the desire for eternal growth, which at the end is unsustainable but human greed has no boundaries I guess. And all the SaaS and in general the subscription model so many companies are trying to promote has exactly the same goal.

I do remember the early days of mobile phones and apps when you were actually able to buy a lifetime license for different apps and get meaningful updates. Now everything turned into a giant SaaS garbage and data collection pile of shit.

[–] DahGangalang@infosec.pub 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

This is more feel than empirical data, but Netflix feels like they've gotten markedly better over the last 2-3 months.

I get the subscription as part of a membership on some other things, but would not have paid for the service the way it's gone over the last ~2 years. That said after seeing the recent improvements, if my access to Netflix was cut off tomorrow, I'd probably shell out for the lowest non-ad tier of service.

However, mad respect for the people out there keeping the P2P/torrenting communities alive.

Edit: spelling errors

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

What's worth watching on Netflix? I scan it every now and then and find nothing. I have no idea why I still pay for it. No one in my house watches it either. I should cancel until Stranger Things comes back.

[–] DahGangalang@infosec.pub 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

While not the newest content, it recently caused me to find and finally watch the classics Boyz in the Hood and Training Day, and this weekend I intend to watch Vice. It was also because of Netflix that I first found the new Puss in Boots movie, Blue-Eye Samurai, and Delicious in Dungeon (I generally loathe anime so those last two are fairly significant).

I think Inside Job and Narcos are Netflix only content? I thoroghly enjoyed both of those (and totally understand why people hate them for canceling Inside Job). My wife enjoyed/enjoys (she's doing a full rewatch ATM) of Orange is the New Black. The two of us also just finished binging Kim's Convenience.

They also just added some other big name content that were (I think?) Exclusive content on other platforms - specifically thinking Dune, Whiplash, and Joker.

Between discovery and availability, Netflix adds value to my life in my opinion.

100% respect for people who disagree and have contrary opinions and/or are outraged at their handling of exclusive content (ngl, I'm not happy with them canceling Inside Job). But it's good enough for me to keep around - that, and my wife is super NOT technically inclined, and I've yet to find a solution outside of a standard streaming deal (read as: anything involving sailing the high seas) that meshes with her willingness to work with it.

Edit: Spelling is hard.

[–] mossy_@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

"Pussy in Boots"

Typo or sexy spin-off?

Also Blue-Eye Samurai was super cool and Dreamworks has been killing itwith their movies

[–] DahGangalang@infosec.pub 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Wow, yeah def a typo there. Thanks for catching that for me.

[–] mossy_@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

I wasn't correcting you because you were wrong, I was pointing it out cause it was funny :)

[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

One man's typo is another man's opportunity

[–] DahGangalang@infosec.pub 2 points 10 months ago

I know Lemmy is supposed to be a "post-karma" ecosystem, but I'm happy to provide the additional upvotes and apparent activity.

[–] Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 10 months ago

It only got 'worse' if you're American. They've been consistently adding cool foreign media. Sure not everything can be a hit but that's literally true for regular cable too. Plenty of shitty channels and shows. I canceled my sub anyways because of the price a while back, arrrg.

[–] ech@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Are we gonna pretend Netflix was ever a "hero"? They were revolutionary for sure, but they were always profit driven. I don't think it's particularly wise to see any company as "the good one". Not to say companies can't be beneficial/useful, but it's always good to remember their singular goal.

[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I don't think heroes have to be non-profit.

I'd say back when Netflix was fighting Blockbuster, They may have been wearing capes. Going to Blockbuster picking out two or three titles and getting out of there with a bag of popcorn was an expensive proposition. Mailing you DVDs as fast as you could mail them back to them was a pretty damn impressive feat.

When they started streaming, The catalog was worse than useless, but they sorted out the technology and the partnerships and the delivery. They got funded and they ate the R&D costs. What did we have back then DLNA and tversity?

I won't say Plex and jellyfin wouldn't exist if it weren't for them but I think they inspired a hell of a lot of software we have now. They wet our appetite for unlimited on demand media consumption, which ended up paving the way for the thetvdb and co.

Once they started becoming a production company... honestly once they all started becoming production companies things went to hell in a handbasket. They're not even competing anymore they're just trying to see how much they can raise prices and drop catalogs.

[–] doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 35 points 10 months ago

I have also killed off my Netflix subscription for good

[–] turkalino@lemmy.yachts 33 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Netflix is doing great

uses picture from the worst major studio movie of 2023

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I mean, that's actually an excellent way to prove their point.

No matter how terrible stuff like Rebel Moon may be, Netflix is succeeding by the only metric that matters; subscribers.

People talk about viewer counts a lot in the context of streaming while completely forgetting that, for the most part, they don't actually matter.

For Netflix, the absolute perfect scenario is a world where everyone is subscribed, and no one actually watches anything.

If their subscriber count is going up then Netflix is succeeding, and they couldn't give two shits if Rebel Moon is the worst movie ever made.

[–] turkalino@lemmy.yachts 1 points 10 months ago

You're definitely right, it's just hilariously short-sighted. Continue to make unwatchable crap and the subscribers will bleed away, guaranteed

[–] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Still can't believe Zach Snyder went from accomplishing the impossible in Watchmen to the absolute garbage that followed.

Netflix does not care about box office, they care about subscribers.

[–] FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world 31 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Oh no! Whatever will I do?

Continue not subscribing I guess, Netflix can take their price hikes and blow them out of their collective ass.

[–] GladiusB@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

Yar!!

[–] JDubbleu@programming.dev 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They hit my mom's account with the wrong household bullshit when my little cousin who lives down the street tried watching a show. Thankfully I get it free with my phone plan and never use it, so I just gave her my account.

I'm stupidly close to buying an 18 TB HDD from Amazon, setting up Overseerr on my home server on top of the *arr/Plex stack I run, and giving everyone a login. I have gigabit so it's not like I can't support even Blu-ray playback. I figure if I set the torrent to delete after 2 weeks of not watching we'll never run out of space.

[–] Emptiness@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yes, TRaSH is the way! Come my brother, the seas are ours!

[–] JDubbleu@programming.dev 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Never heard that acronym. Is it torrent client, Radarr, Sonarr, and Homarr? I've been running that for a bit now, and it keeps pulling me ever closer to buying a small server rack.

[–] CalicoJack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 10 months ago

They're referencing the TRaSH Guides, a great resource for setup and basic tuning of an *arr stack. It's where a lot of people get started.

[–] zecg@lemmy.world 31 points 10 months ago (3 children)

The third season of Witcher is a marvel, it's completely incoherent shit cobbled together from scenes they had laying around and every scene with not much happening is drawn out for maximum time.

[–] papertowels@lemmy.one 7 points 10 months ago

I got real excited for a second

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

With the entire two last episodes dedicated to setup for the non existent fourth season

[–] BadActorLol@talk.macstack.net 1 points 10 months ago

I couldn't even finish it

[–] Poutinetown@lemmy.ca 19 points 10 months ago

Rebel moon is 23% on rotten tomato...

[–] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Did anyone ever finish watching Rebel Moon?

[–] LOLjoeWTF@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

It looked cool. I don't think I made it past 15 minutes. They wanted to tell me a story with words, not show me a story through actions and emotion. I know, it's early and they needed to establish a background, but I couldn't take it.

[–] maniel@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago

I finished it, so cheesy I had a heartburn after

[–] mintiefresh@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

We just can't have nice things.

[–] WaxedWookie@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

Oh no!

...Anyway.

Hoists Jolly Roger

[–] frazorth@feddit.uk 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

What is "Basic"?

I'm in the UK and I'm on the £10.99 "Standard" plan. Is this what they mean, because there isn't a £15 plan.

[–] ThePrivacyPolicy@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I wonder if it's region specific, I'm on Basic in Canada and it's $9.99 and I believe limited to 720p. This was my compromise to switch to with my wife to not cancel during the the last price hike, but she's just agreed we're done when this plan goes away. We've invested in a boat and will sail the high seas even more.

[–] frazorth@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago

It could be, moving to that one during the last hike was my last compromise.

I don't watch Netflix, so if they try any more then I'll tell the kids to just watch something else.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 1 points 10 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The company also didn’t rule out future price hikes, mentioning “we’ll occasionally ask our members to pay a little extra” for improvements to the streaming service.

Netflix has routinely rolled out price increases over the last few years, but that doesn’t mean it’s experiencing subscription losses.

That includes such titles as the remaster Grand Theft Auto trilogy, which are admittedly the best way you can get the games in a modern format after the whole Definitive Edition fiasco.

Netflix wants to offer even more value with games and live sports, and part of that includes a newly-inked deal with WWE.

And yet, this latest stealth price increase isn’t so much a hard pill to swallow, as much of a chunk of rock that’s getting lodged in my craw.

I will probably keep my Basic subscription going for as long as I can because I still keep finding shows on the service worth watching like the excellent Blue Eye Samurai.

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