Mike Flanagan Says Netflix Was "Actively Hostile" Towards the Idea of Releasing Physical Media: "It Became Clear Very Fast That Their Only Priority Was Subs"
Mike Flanagan Says Netflix Was "Actively Hostile" Towards the Idea of Releasing Physical Media: "It Became Clear Very Fast That Their Only Priority Was Subs"
Despite being a key part of Netflix's past successes, Mike Flanagan has thoughts about Netflix's lack of commitment to physical media.
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I'm not surprised at all, physical media is only good for the consumer. They want subscriptions so they can keep you paying constantly, there's no benefit for them
This is false. Firstly, because people don't subscribe to everything forever. But even in some Netflix utopia where everyone has a Netflix subscription, and they keep it forever, then what? Now you can't make any more money, you're making the maximum amount of money your business model can make. But you can keep people subscribed to your service by continuing to add new things, while also making extra money from those who would like to own physical copies.
Subscriptions detach income from titles, meaning all the service needs to do is exist and have things on it. There's no budget to actually create anything special. Physical offers a way to reconnect those, making something that is more expensive and in return making more money.
The ad-based plans everyone is introducing run on the same logic. Subscriptions aren't sustainable.
So say I buy The Matrix on DVD. I can watch it whenever I like..
If I stop paying for Netflix, then I can’t watch it anymore so I have to keep signing up again. What about when the matrix isn’t on a Netflix, I then have to go sign up for Apple TV.
Isn’t capitalism supposed to weed out the companies without a viable business? If you can’t keep improving your product or you’ve got saturation with users then that’s your ceiling. Down like it, close down.
Kinda weird take from you to be honest. Like why won’t we think about the poor struggling corporations. Perhaps they would be in a better position if they didn’t go so long with losses trying to capture the market with a view to rinse us all later down the line.
I have exactly one monthly subscription and that’s for AppleCare+ on my phone. Fuck death my a thousand paper cuts.
"There's no benefit to physical media." "Yes there is." "Why are you defending corporations?"
...what?
I literally told you a benefit. Way to ignore that part.
...which side of this argument are you on?
Ngl I’m a little confused right now as it seems your comment was edited from what it initially said, but I’d don’t have a clue.
Edit: To be clear I am on the side of massive tech companies not being encouraged to use massive amounts of investor funding to corner a market and then work to fleece their customers as much as humanely possible. This level of laissez faire capitalism is horrendous and only cares about the companies and not that users get a decent product in exchange for their money.
As a consumer I hate physical media
yeah I hate owning things that I can keep and hold on to without someone revoking it away from me.
My physical media was destroyed in a fire, but I still have my backed up digital library. We all accept some risk!
I'm sorry to hear that, but yeah I rip my media and then stream it, it's more about obtaining my copy that they can't take away. I'm glad your backups made it!
I already have that with digital media though. I don't do subscriptions.
as long as it's on your computer/server and it's not dependent on an online service, I'm all for it. Vudu is a great example of what can happen with online purchases
Yes, I always save my own copy of any content I wish to keep.
That's allowed. You have many options for digital media. I don't like spicy food. Upsets my tum tum. But if corporations were actively keeping spicy food off the market, I wouldn't say "Well that's great, because I hate spicy food." That would just be ridiculous.
Why?
If they're anything like me it's an overriding laziness!
We listened to the same audio cassette that was stuck in our car for nearly 6 months rather than spend the hour it eventually took sort it out.
I still love No Doubt though.
This place with only one cassette tape sounds like a Tragic Kingdom to me.
....And I would walk 500 miles
Quite the opposite!
But you should swim -500 kilometers?
Is it possible?
It takes up space and meeds special equipment to use.
To be fair, so does digital media/streaming
Same. I understand all of the reasons why people prefer physical media, but after buying the same movie across three generations of physical media between VHS / DVD / Blueray / 4K UHD and now Dolby, I’d just prefer to have it once and get access to the best copy modern technology allows.
It’s also supremely easier to download a purchased digital copy instead of buying physical media, rip it, find increasing storage, find a player like Plex, maintain my own Plex server and hardware, and then download it.
I’ve done Plex for years with physical media, downloading a digital copy is simply a better consumer experience.