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Netflix To Start Creating Original Content
olsmeister writes "Netflix may be known for offering some of our favorite TV and movie streams, but the company is about to step up its game and begin offering original content. Netflix has allegedly outbid a number of major cable networks for a new drama series produced by and starring Kevin Spacey called House of Cards, and may be about to close a deal at more than $100 million, according to a report on Deadline.com."
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix: "Through a division called Red Envelope Entertainment, Netflix licensed and distributed independent films such as Born into Brothels and Sherrybaby. As of late 2006, Red Envelope Entertainment also expanded into producing original content with filmmakers such as John Waters. Netflix announced plans to close Red Envelope Entertainment in 2008, in part to avoid competition with its studio partners."
This move puts Netflix in even more direct competition with traditional broadcasting/media companies than ever before--as if NBC-Comcast wasn't already looking to throttle YouTube and Netflix traffic to hell and back. Real net neutrality seems like it aligns with Netflix's business model--they may become a true defender of how many people here think the internet "should" work on top of their apparent desire to be a true independent alternative to old media.
Is there a negative here that I'm not seeing? Does one of the big media companies secretly own Netflix?
Sorry, but you're way off and too hopeful. Netflix will join the cable club and screw us. You much be young. Both cable and satellite TV was cheapish to start with, but more than free OTA TV. We paid more for it to avoid averts. How much is a standard TV cable bill now? $100/month for basic HD, some shitty DVR and a wad in fees and taxes?
Just you watch. Netflix will start increasing prices to cover buying crap TV shows instead of streaming the walmart bargain DVD bin. After a while they'll be losing customers over it, so they'll start creating tiers of service. See where this is going?
You're probably correct about the ads, when they start, that'll be one service canceled.
That's easy! They don't make their own original content! Oh...wait.
The biggest problem for some of the shows you mentioned is that the brain dead morons at the networks moved them unpredictably around to different time slots during a season and sometimes showed them out of order. It seems to be a repeated strategy to strangle ratings and kill a show.
With Netflix, all of that BS goes away: you can watch when you want and in the order you want.
(SGU does not count as part of that series)
You may jest, but if I recall, the producers of SGU haven't entirely given up, and are looking for someone other than SyFy to possibly pick up the series. I think they even mentioned "alternative venues" or something like that. Really, even though it's not your fav, the way they've picked up in this last season, SGU may be a great fit for Netflix.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Babylon 5 is a completed story. Ditto Farscape. As much as I would love to see more of both, they're done. They told the story they were meant to.
Now, if you want to do something else in the same universe... Crusade, for example...
Poor means hoping the toothache goes away.
That's called Youtube.
The implication is the poster would also consider not paying for any of it. Not the most persuasive of arguments.
Well that's not true. I've already paid for most of it already. I own the boxed sets of DVD's of many of the shows I listed. My problem is that no companies are funding the development of new content that I like. So I don't pay current companies money because they don't provide anything of value to me. In other words, I am not one of their customers. The point of my post was to illustrate that there is probably some market out there for folks like me that are willing to fork over cash for the development of certain types of content (cult classics). The fact that no company is currently creating that product is the only reason I am not spending money on it.
The content that Netflix currently provides is not worth the value of a subscription to me. If Netflix starts providing content that is more valuable to me, then I would start purchasing their content. I don't think my position is as unreasonable as you seem to make it out to be. Don't let that stop you from making shit up so that you have a soap box to rant from:
The implication is the poster would also consider not paying for any of it.
The implication of your post is that you are a pissed off, bitter, lonely person. See! I can make shit up too! Yay!
Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
How about you add streaming to all the stuff you currently have first.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Will Netflix go with risky indy thinking or will it hedge with Tried and True Copy-Cat entertainment?
Someone else let me know, 'K? I'll be outside watching for rattlesnakes along the trail.
Netflix subscribers pay their subscription no matter how much or how little they watch. This gives NF the freedom to experiment and put a ton of content up there that their subscribers are free to watch. Whether or not an individual production is a hit or a miss is irrelevant, it simply adds to the huge array of content available on Netflix, and the bigger the amount of available content the more it encourages more people to sign up.
I can see it now - trailers on TV advertising kick-ass looking movies followed by the caveat "Only available on Netflix instant download." If people start seeing enough of that then they're going to start thinking "there's something big happening on Netflix, and I'd sure like to see what it is."
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Are you a Hulu watcher? They've got ads. You'd love it.
Buy the rights to firefly and pump that shit out!
There's a reason I don't watch TV anymore, the creativity of the medium is approaching zero.
Seriously? When were you born? Do you have any idea what TV was like before shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, The Walking Dead, Arrested Development, etc.? Just look at the difference between Battlestar Galactica (1978) and Battlestar Galactica (2004). Hell, even House is more intelligent and creative than pretty much any doctor show of the past (at least the first couple seasons were). At one time, for a "movie actor" to appear on a TV show was the career kiss of death, and TV actors would leave hit shows for the chance to be in the movies. Nowadays, established stars are practically flocking to the small screen, and as far as I can tell it's for good reason.
Breakfast served all day!
They could buy up the rights to do something new, and then produce complete trash. Owning the rights to any of those shows doesn't guarantee the resulting new production will be worth a damn - sets, actors, crews, locations, budgets, effects - all could very easily change, and those changes aren't guaranteed to be improvements on the originals that you so fondly remember.
I'd rather they go find new, interesting stories and focus on telling them well, rather than suffer through two years of "A FIREFLY CLASS VESSEL DOES NOT LOOK LIKE THAT INSIDE, AND THAT'S NOT THE ORIGINAL KAYLEE FRYE! THEY RUINED THE SHOW! DIE NETFLIX DIE!"
The main difference between the American "Office" and the original version is that the American version is funny.
You got it backwards, mate. The UK version is funny, the US version is not.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
I'll try not to shock you too badly, but the fact is that Netflix gets ALL of its revenue this way. One subscriber at a time. Netflix invests vast sums of capital to pursue new revenue. I've watched a few things on Netflix on my brother's Mac and did not find it quite compelling enough to subscribe. If new Firefly episodes were available I would be all over it. So would many, many more who discovered it on DVD after the fact. Enough to make it worthwhile to Netflix (or Amazon, Hulu, or Apple)? Hell yes!
you can add me to the list of people who found it on DVD after it was cancelled
and to the list of people who would buy new episodes (even at a premium over my current $18/mo netflix sub).
-nB
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