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Comment by rdtsc | Hacker News Reader

> We change pricing from time to time as we continue investing in great entertainment and improving the overall Netflix experience.”

Is it improving though? It used to be better, had more quality content, easier to navigate, user ratings, reviews etc.

I feel it is one of those cases where to get the real meaning behind the corporate PR message you have to invert it. Then it would be something like: "We change pricing from time to time as we continue investing in subpar entertainment and worsening the overall Netflix experience."

I had canceled it a few years back as I ended up spending more time looking for something to watch than actually watching anything. To be fair their original shows were not too bad. I enjoyed Stranger Things, House of Cards and a few others. But it just wasn't worth the price overall.

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I find myself spending way more time just watching YouTube creators at this point. The vast majority of Netflix content outside the Hollywood movies and TV shows falls into the uncanny valley of being not quite terrible in terms of production quality, but still extremely basic and derivative in terms of actual content. You’ll never learn anything new or interesting from one of their documentaries, it’s just the same rehashed top talking points for whatever subject is being covered.

I disagree that it used to have more quality content. Used to be it had a lot of old things, and not much of real value. Now it has a bunch of new things(not all great) where more, and more stuff of value is being added all the time.

I do agree with the notion that the rating system has gotten worse though.

> Used to be it had a lot of old things, and not much of real value.

Ah ok I see. Well for the old things that are done well are more valuable as movies than just random new things. And if ratings are an objective sign of quality, I'd say they had been reducing the IMBD Top 100 movies and adding a lot of B-movies. Their original content redeems that a bit, because it is quite good, but it just wasn't good enough.

> I ended up spending more time looking for something to watch than actually watching anything

That’s exactly my experience too. And I usually give up and end up opening an illegal copy of Netflix with better content.

With Netflix I thought we would finally get a “Spotify” for movies, but they don’t even have 1% of the movies I’m looking for.

When you say "had more quality content", do you mean that some content was removed ? Or that the rate over which great content is produced has decreased ?

> do you mean that some content was removed

Yes. Content would be removed. Especially top rated IMDB movies. Instead there would be more B-movies. In-house shows made it better, but there weren't enough of them.

> When you say "had more quality content", do you mean that some content was removed ?

Yes, once Netflix proved that streaming was commercially viable, they rapidly got competition bidding for exclusive streaming licenses and then content owners pulling content for their own exclusive streaming services.

So, yes, a lot of content was lost and more is being lost. OTOH, they've ramped up exclusive acquisitions and content development.

Personally, I think that if you have cosmopolitan tastes, Netflix is actually continuing to produce a lot of interesting content. In India, Sacred Games is a fresh breath, as is Devilman Crybaby to anime.

There are two films I want to watch releasing this weekend and season 2 of The Punisher, those alone pay for it for the month, they've had some corkers in the last year - The Ballad of Buster Scruggs was brilliant.

Our house has both Netflix and Prime Video and that about covers me, my partner and the little boy (Trollhunters is fantastic if you have a child in the house also created for Netflix).

..or perhaps "We change pricing whenever we feel that we can charge you more, whether because our increasingly dominant position in the market is subduing competitors, or because, though our service is getting worse as we squeeze the pips on our programming, we're at least still a little better than our competitors.

Netflix is excellent value for me. Amazing original shows: Stranger Things, Ozark, Bodyguard, Bird box, Maniac, Narcos.

I'd add The Five and Travelers to the list as well.

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