Slashdot Mirror
Netflix Expects To Be Unprofitable In 2012
PolygamousRanchKid writes with an article in CNN Money about Netflix's prospects in 2012. From the article: "Netflix warned in its last earnings report that it expects to be unprofitable 'for a few quarters' starting at the beginning of 2012. The primary culprit is Netflix's pricey plan to expand its streaming video service into the United Kingdom and Ireland, but a wave of subscribers jumping ship hasn't helped. The filing also revealed that Netflix is in the process of raising $400 million from investors to help bulk up its cash stash. While that will give Netflix more money to invest in content, secondary offerings are sometimes considered ominous signs."
They need more content...I watched nearly all the good movies over one winter off work.
Qwikster will be profitable. Oh, wait...
Anytime I ran any kind of "rational valuation" calculation on NFLX based on subscribers, income, potential for growth, etc. the market seemed to be out-pricing my ideas by a factor of 3 to 7... NFLX has been a very expensive stock for a very long time, I'm surprised it took this long for the bubble to deflate.
Still a good business model, when they aren't spouting off idiotic ideas about breaking it.
Who got upset over their subscriptions going up a tiny amount. If those people wanted to protest something really gouging, it'd be the gas prices. Or the costs of medicine. Or fuck, go out and yell at the government or the banks.
They lost a lot of subscribers due to their split-service gap, and they look to be having content issues...
However, they still seem in a good position to me. The service is fundamentally good, they still have a lot of ratings from users to help determine what content makes sense for them to buy, and (most importantly) they have a LOT of paths into the home - just about any device you can name supports Netflix.
They are in a rocky spot now but I just can't see who can replace them easily, or even reach the position they currently hold within a year or two.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
They had it coming. Oatmeal Netflix parody:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/netflix
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
I understood when they had to raise prices. The studios have gotten crazy greedy on the whole streaming thing and their costs have gone through the roof. Netflix streaming is still BY FAR the best deal around. You can watch the entire runs of shows like Battlestar Galactica (original AND new, even 1980), The X-Files, Twin Peaks, Firefly, Family Guy, etc (many of them in HD, no less). Nothing else even comes close to the selection or quality of Netflix's streaming library.
But I'm a lot LESS sympathetic with some of their bonehead moves--like trying to separate their by-mail/streaming divisions with annoying separate websites and queues (a move destined to serve little purpose other than pissing off loyal customers like me) and paying $40 million for a bunch of shitty Dreamworks streaming rights (a move that's only going to encourage the greed of the other studios in the future).
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
They face very stiff competition from other companies with much deeper pockets, so they are going to have it tough for a while. I like Netflix (their latest snafu with splitting the DVD rental / streaming plans didn't affect me - I'm streaming only), and as a technophile, I'm pleased that they have gone to great lengths to support such a diverse range of hardware. A lot of companies wouldn't have bothered with Wii, XBox, Android, etc. Netflix's decision to split off their DVD rental was simply waaaaay too early. That is an inevitability of course - anyone with the least bit of foresight can see that demand for physical media is going to drop off a great deal in the near future. However, Netflix must provide a mechanism to bolster the streaming support since the movies offered online are so hit and miss, and the only choice is DVD for now.
Take Lord of the Rings for example. Did you know that you can watch The Two Towers online, but not the first or third movies? Now what in the world is that about??? As long as that sort of garbage is going on, customers need a single unified interface and billing to get movies in whichever format is available.
Better known as 318230.
Here we go again. Netflix (streaming) is going to follow the same path as Tivo. Innovate at the beginning, then get to a point where you have trouble growing your audience. Then bigger companies, such as the cable companies, come in with a comparable product, and eat your lunch, because they already have a relationship with the customer, and deeper pockets than you which will help them bid up content license prices. This makes the streaming side of NFLX negative growth in the middle term, as they have the same problem in other countries, despite their efforts to expand.
The disk mailing side of the company is already saturated from a customer base side. Increasing postal rates and the eventual end to saturday delivery will make the service less viable. Eventually the postal service will go to every-other-day delivery of first-class mail, in order to reduce the number of carriers and mail trucks by 30 to 40 percent. The disk mailing side of NFLX is therefore a revenue stock now (with that revenue being eatten by the streaming side), and negative growth in the future. Sell...
Hi grub, nice to see you haven't given up the shtick.
I want to ride the wave of Netflix serving content at a loss for my own profit. Is there an example (preferably Eclipse) Google TV project demonstrating an app that accesses the Netflix catalog and streaming content?
--
make install -not war
While I agree people in the US should in general exercise more, I do not think you can regulate people's lives with a tax increase. People getting to exercise requires a change of attitude, values, and likely education, not more taxes. Ask yourself how many smokers stopped smoking because of the tobacco tax, or how many heavy drinkers stopped drinking because of alcohol tax - it just does not work like that. Netflix is positive in which it gives you the choice of what to watch, and you do not have to endure commercials, which arguably have a worse effect on people than the movies themselves.
I know that Bob is a regular troll here, but I'm a sucker and will respond anyway.
As an active individual I have no desire to adjust my life around a television schedule, nor pay $50+ a month for a cable service that I rarely use. Cutting that expense to $8 a month makes much more sense for a casual TV/movie consumer. It allows me to not worry about getting "behind" in a series as I can watch it at my own pace, and leave the house at any time without concern about what I am missing. It allows me to have down time when I need it (and as you should very well know, having relaxing time is very important for physical and mental health).
That turned to crap by pursuing both at once.
Netflix had ALWAYS planned to ditch their DVD service in favor of streaming; the original idea was to be done by 2007.
But the general infrastructure did not progress as fast as had been forecasted.
So divesting themselves of their DVD side was the logical progression. Except that their entire plan was ill-formulated and just altogether sloppy. Poorly timed, too, considering their loss of Starz and such.
Raising fees to accomodate the general paradigm shift - where the majority of their consumers and money were now mostly only streaming - was also smart. It was, on the whole, much more profitable and growth-sustaining even with a very, very modest assumption of potential customer losses.
But doing both of these very large "PR-disasters in the making" within such close proximity of each other?
Jesus, that's a special level of incompetence right there.
I think they have a couple problems. First their library isn't great. It's $8 a month for all the b movies you can watch. They'd be better off raising the prices and consistently having new movies in stock. Indeed, I hope they are going unprofitable to get more content.
I think their second problem is that if you have cable, your On Demand is probably as good as Netflix and if you get a premium channel, it comes with an On Demand that blows Netflix out of the water.
I wish Netflix was going to give the cable companies a run for their money. I think it would be great if the service provider wasn't so tied to the content providers, but I guess Netflix isn't in a position to take them on at this time.
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
Buddy, I watch netflix for the 2 hours I have to watch a movie between errands, work, and sleep.
It's not a lot to ask, and I'll be damned if I'll have someone with your attitude treating it like I'm doing something wrong.
Fuck you.
-- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
Folks, it's a measly $8/month for unlimited TV and movies.
How enticing is that? You know what's even cheaper? GETTING OFF YOUR BUTTS
AND MOVING! Instead of asking the family "What do you want to watch
tonight?" ask "Where should we walk to tonight?"
You know, when I get home from work in the winter, it's dark, and usually cold. I do like to get the kids out when I can, but pushing it against the dark and cold leads to sick kids as often as not. And, so, then, we can hop in the auto and pop round to, well, where? The shopping mall? A restaurant? Just the petrol cost will dwarf $8/month.
Golden Girls quote: "What did we do before we sat around like dolts staring at the Television?" "Oh, I remember when I was a kid, we sat around like dolts staring at the Radio."
Get a hobby, build a workshop, wash your dishes by hand and mop the floor - yeah, these are all good alternatives, but for the hours between 6 and 10pm, there's not a lot of decent outdoor activity available in the winter.
Netflix clearly wants to get out of the DVD business and into the more profitable streaming-only business. Netflix could have just raised its streaming+DVD prices a little for a little while, say +$2 for 6 months. Then started charging a little more for DVD deliveries, while offering a rebate to streaming-only customers. After a few months of that structure, they'd have a distinct streaming-only customer group. Then they could have raised prices on streaming or DVD independently. Voila! Two distinct, differently priced products, each profitable, with DVD delivery able to be wound down while making the streaming-only product look better.
Instead they did it in a way that told their customers that they had to take whatever Netflix shoved at them. "Where ya gonna go?" Well, many went, and the brand is damaged even for those who stayed.
It's not too late for Netflix to do the underlying biz transformation right. But the marketing and corporate execs who backed the debacle should take a big hit. The marketing people should probably go, unless the corp execs want to give them a second chance on something like what I described. But probably they should go. There's never any reason to keep a marketer unless they're really a star (which is extremely rare) - there are plenty of non-stars who can take a crack at the next marketing bungle.
--
make install -not war
If I could sort Netflix streamers by ratings (or by anything other than Netflix's lame categories), it wouldn't bother me that 99% of the streamers are crap. And if I could weight other people's ratings by raters who rate similarly to how I rate, then I might better find crap that I'd like anyway.
--
make install -not war
No, Netflix is a place you can watch it TODAY without waiting for the queue.
For the price of a double whopper combo at burger king, essentially.
-- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
A large part of their problems, ironically, can be blamed on iTunes. Or rather, what iTunes did.
Apple came into the market and swept a massive position of power and influence right out from under the music (or rather, content) industry's feet. Apple gained a novel and unrivaled position to dictate the terms of negotiation.
They're still stinging from that.
As a byproduct, they were far more 'prepared' for Netflix. Well, not prepared, as the industry is ancient, slow, bloated and generally can't see "the next big thing" until it's already slapped them across the face and taken their daughter out to dinner.
They were more Apprehensive, really.
They may not have known if Netflix would be a success (by-mail services could never be a threat, and when the streaming came about, similar "on demand" services were rather mediocre) but they knew well enough to keep the reigns on a potentially unwieldy beast.
So Netflix' (possibly unexpected to the Industry) fast growth and explosion in the public mindshare did not end up giving them anywhere near the same control and leverage for negotiations with content owners and producers. Netflix did not secure a completely dominant position, and were unable to supplant the general DVD purchase/rental and theater-going parts of the industry, or at least nowhere near as successfully as iTunes snowballed over CDs.
As such, they're entirely at the whim of industry conglomerates that view them now as something of an enemy, or an annoyance that is profitable enough not to deserve a swat yet.
If the industry wasn't so generally inept, there would have been an MPA-aligned style service already out and Netflix would be deprived of most of its content almost immediately.
Then bigger companies, such as the cable companies, come in with a comparable product, and eat your lunch, because they already have a relationship with the customer
But what kind of relationship is that? It's not a good one.
TiVo was wiped out because all they could fundamentally do is offer a slight improvement to the cable box, once the cable companies started also including a DVR that was it. They couldn't offer additional content, just extra convenience.
Netflix is more than that, they offer a vast array of content that each cable company in turn would have to seek rights for to use the same way. The cable companies can't get a leg up on Netflix in terms of pricing or content because content providers have no motivation to treat them differently or charge them less.
Also Netflix offers a service that I can easily watch on an iPad/iPhone or Roku box or AppleTV or computer, and cable companies are only just starting to think about that stuff. But they will be hampered by the desire to have people watch content on THIER network, not just an arbitrary one. Netflix is the only cable-like company not bound to old-school physical network thinking.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
GETTING OFF YOUR BUTTS AND MOVING!
Says the chiropractic troll while sitting in front of his PC writing furiously to get the first post at Slashdot!
Note to Dr. Bob -- your posts lose most of their enduring qualities when they contain material that may indeed be factual or relevant. Please skip all of that and get straight to subluxions.
This post comes with a double-your-money-back guarantee!
Any offense taken to this post is at your sole discretion.
you can watch it TODAY
if today is 28 days after the DVD comes out
Im going to be charitable and assume you are not a troll.
Netflix should be taxed like tobacco and liquor: it's a destructive, disease causing force causing people to fall to pieces.
Part of freedom means the freedom to make your own mistakes and run your own life. I could probably look at your life, were it all visible to me, and see several areas where you could do much much better, but that is in no way a good reason for me to have executive control of your life-- that would in fact be one of the worse crimes, slavery.
So go ahead and encourage people to live better, to exercise more. Tell them the dangers of a sedentary life. But encouraging the government to step in and start regulating how people live is always dangerous business, and makes me deeply uneasy. Its really not their place to determine what lifestyles are "better" and "worse", but to determine what laws need to be in place in order to hold society together. And as long as people need to hold a job to support their lifestyle, I do not see "being sedentary" as a big risk to society.
The Netflix streaming library is poor. There is not much there worth watching, unless you are in the mood for an old movie, and then it is still a coin toss if you can find what you want. Expansion to the UK and Ireland will not bring profitability. Expanding content will.
I pay for the Nexflix streaming, but only because I have a 4 year old and the selection of content for that age range is decent and worth the price.
If you want profitability, look at tiered streaming pricing. Add a couple of bucks a month for a plan that has access to new content. Drop a couple of bucks a month for a tier that is only kid's programming. Create a low price tier with access only to the old stuff. Keeping your "one size fits none" model will continue your death spiral. It is pretty obvious that the "take it or leave it" approach you took has far too many choosing the "leave it" option.
This post comes with a double-your-money-back guarantee!
Any offense taken to this post is at your sole discretion.
I don't think there's any reason to believe that being out in miserable weather will make you sick -- not if you're maintaining proper body temperature, at least. That's some wives' tale that has lived way past its expiry date. I know not everyone can live in a place where there's a walkable neighborhood, but perhaps you have a public park somewhere?
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
Actual it has been shown pretty well that you can change peoples lives with a tax increase.
I'm not sure where the idea that you can't got started, or why people ignore all the times it has worked.
"Ask yourself how many smokers stopped smoking because of the tobacco tax"
It was something like 12%, over a decade. But that's icing. The real number are the amount of people who did't take it up.
Drinking as well.
Of course, that's just one aspect. The tax for tobacco goes to pay for education and medical treatment.
I'm not advocating the tax the OP talks about. Just pointing out the raising taxes reduced smokers and liqueur drinkers. Increase in fuel prices, tax or otherwise, decrease peoples driving.
I would argue for a tax on prepared food to help pay for medical treatment, dietary education, and general education. 10% or so.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Netflix streaming is $7.99 for an entire *month* compared to the cable companies who charge $5.99 *per* movie or $12.99 and up for movie channels such as Showtime or Cinemax. So explain again how cable companies are competition to Netflix??
Netflix has had a perfect storm of problems including a buyback of shares when the price was in the $200's. Just like Amazon if you put money into the long-term profitability of the business it's going to hurt the bottom line *short term*. Wall St only cares about the short term hence Netflix trading in the low $70's while Amazon with a recent high of $246.71 is trading in the high $180's.
Every BluRay player, PS/3, Xbox, Wii, Roku, Netflix-enabled HDTV, iPad, Kindle Fire, Nook Color/tablet sold is a potential customer. The recent trend has been to ditch cable and go with Netflix and Hulu-plus to save money.
Tobacco consumption in Ontario went down when increased taxes lead to high per-pack costs. The Feds cut their portion, resulting in cheaper smokes, and increased consumption. Stricter laws about not smoking indoors also brought about decreased consumption. Most smokers cut down, but they didn't quit.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
"against the dark and cold leads to sick kids as often as not"
no. In fact, they are less likely to get sick.
Yeah it's a pain, I get it. I have 2 kids and live in Oregon, so it's dark at 5, rainy and often cold. However, the cold doesn't make people sick.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
> Folks, it's a measly $8/month for unlimited TV and movies. How enticing is that?
It depends on what the movies are.
If I am only interested in the cheapest available option and am willing to tolerate other people's limited choices, then I can just put up a big antenna.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
You can watch the entire runs of shows like Battlestar Galactica (original AND new, even 1980)
If Netflix are relying on Battlestar Galactica 1980 as a way to draw in customers, that explains why they're doing so badly :).
Don't talk about greedy this or greedy that. Netflix is not a not-for-profit, they are greedy too. A lot of social scientists agree that men are mostly egotistical and driven by greed.
I rarely respond to comments. Also, don't ask for clarifications: a brain and Google are faster, believe me!
Actually, its healthy for your kids to be exposed to cold, germs, etc...
Get them outside, go skating at the rink, go tobogganing, cross country skiing, downhill skiing, snowshoeing, sign up for a winter survival course just for fun, build a snowman....
Lots of stuff to do!
No sig here...
Netflix has yet to offer video games or adult movies. Both those avenues will bring in tons of cash.
My guess is that they signed some deal with the content providers that they'd pay them for streaming their movies based on the number of Netflix customers ...
So, you unload the DVD customers to a separate company, and suddenly, they don't have to pay for the people who never would've been able to stream in the first place.
Of course, if this were the case, they should've said something ... telling the customers that it was a move to screw over the distributors might've given them some goodwill rather than just piss people off.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
This was done, because the studios were trying to devour the DVD business income in their negotiations for streaming content.
Hey you made $400 million, We want $200 million. But streaming only accounted for $40 million. So how do you keep the studios from digging into the pockets of the DVD side to gouge for streaming.
You split the company. Then the profits are held separately.
They just botched the explanation of why.
Being out in the cold does have some affect on your immune system. Not generally enough to affect a normally healthy person, but I'd guess the combination of the new school years introducing lots of new virus carrying people to everyone, coupled with the fact that people tend to visit relatives etc over the holiday period means that you're exposed to more risk at the point when you're most likely to catch something. There's also the fact that the colder weather and shorter days psychologically make you feel more ill if you do catch something. A cold you write off as nothing during the summer my have you feeling very sorry for yourself during the winter, and over time it's the winter illnesses that stick in the mind. You're right that there's absolutely no reason to believe just going for a brisk walk in a cold park will give you a cold or flue, though.
I wish I could say I am going to lose money the next several years, please give me 400 million to tie me over!
You're not thinking outside the box. During the winter you simply have to get a different job, one were you have time to spend with your kids during daylight hours.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Tobacco consumption in Ontario went down when increased taxes lead to high per-pack costs.
Isn't that just because they started buying cigarettes from America instead? I know cigarette smuggling from cheaper countries in mainland Europe was big in the UK a few years back, even to the extent of competing gang members murdering each other.
Wait, wait. I watch Netflix a lot and I think it's a great deal. I also run 20+ miles a week, have a resting heart rate in the 50s, and am in the best shape of my life. Would I have to pay your ridiculous tax, too?
In NYC, the government has actually created a black market for tobacco, complete with all the crime that comes with it. How did they do it? By making it too expensive to legally acquire tobacco -- same as any other instance of prohibition -- except that this isn't full prohibition, but some kind of quasi-prohibition where it's both legal and illegal.
This is what prohibition does (create a black market), whether you're talking about "sin taxing" or outright criminalization. If you look a little closer, you'll realize that creating a black market -- and all the violence and injustice that comes with it -- is actually more profitable than taxing and regulating. It simply depends on the drug and whether or not they can "pull it off". They tried it with alcohol and actually succeeded for 10 years until the people started waking up to the violence and the root cause of it all.
What they are doing in NYC is testing the waters, not reducing the number of smokers. They are looking for the sweet spot between legalized/regulated (tax revenue) and criminalized/prohibited (law enforcement revenue) that will simply rake the most money through the business of government.
Not quite as romantic as you pictured, is it? Don't think for a second that prohibitionists and "drug warriors" are after anything but cold hard cash, because you're fooling yourself.
Maybe Netflix should worry about offering content people actually want to watch instead of expanding in to new markets. I know Netflix Canada sucks... Dated movies, B-Grade movies and kids movies do not appeal to people who have video on demand subscriptions with their cable company. For $12 a month I get unlimited access to my cable companies video on demand library, which includes newly released videos.
Being in the cold can make noses run, leading to an increased rate of people's hands coming in to contact with germs. Good hand washing pretty drastically reduces this risk.
-- Using the preview button since 2005
There's competing streaming video from Amazon, which can stream both rentals and streaming versions of DVDs you buy from them, and audio. It's also not hard to imagine a significant expansion of video for iTunes.
Both of them are pay-per-view, at prices (set by the content providers) that are WAY too high.
Note that Apple just dropped rentals... the prices the studios want are not reasonable.
There's also Hulu+, and it's pretty clear that Google is trying to integrate YouTube movie streaming into G+.
Hulu+ is focused on TV, and a very limited set of TV. People complain about Netflix not having enough content? Try Hulu! Also Hulu is prone to removing older stuff, where Netflix tries to keep as much older TV content around as possible.
G+ is a total wild card but they face a massive uphill battle in device distribution. Google TV unit sales have been abysmal and companies are scaling back integration. And they face EXACTLY the same content price issues that Netflix faces, only again without any kind of wide TV subscriber base or device support.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The whole reason why so many people never caught on to Netflix was the lack of up to date movies, all these b budget old movies are not cutting it...sounds like they should have gotten the content first, before making a name for themselves as being useless movie provider....once your reputation is made as xxx...changing it costs even more!
Sorry. As a former NetFlix customer who left because of their policies, I had to gloat.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
Now they have gone the way of all growth-oriented companies: they are chasing profits uber allen. Because of this, they see innovation as a way to profit, as opposed to a good thing in itself.
Currently hooked on AMP
I'm not your buddy, guy.
"Sorry boss, it's winter and I need to work earlier daylight hours. Can you open at 6am?"
"No problem (ex)employee, here's your last check. Feel free to bypass us when you are job hunting this coming spring."
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
... build a workshop...
That sounds like a lot more money than $8/month. Just sayin...
Oh come on, don't tell me you didn't like that episode where the Galactica superkids formed a Bad News Bears-esque little league team. The fact that that episode didn't win the series an immediate Emmy is just a travesty.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
There's greedy and then there's crazy greedy.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I do. Just making the obvious point that Netflix doesn't make one sedentary or fat. Not exercising makes one sedentary (by definition) and persistently eating more calories than you burn makes you fat.
Nothing else legal even comes close to the selection or quality of Netflix's streaming library.
FTFY
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Put a bike trainer or treadmill in your garage, and watch Netflix while you exercise. Problems (real and perceived) solved ;-)
www.clarke.ca
Why not? I do. I make sure they're bundled up properly with the right gear, and I check on them regularly to ensure their comfort and safety. I make sure they're having fun so that it's a good experience for my two little girls. Cross-country skiing, hiking, tobogganing, skating and snowshoeing are all activities that are possible at night in the snow, with the right gear and a careful attitude toward safety.
Of course you need to live somewhere where the activities are practically available, but that's a different problem.
www.clarke.ca
I can't recommend New York City parks for children after dark. Is there really any public park in the world you can 100% safely bring children after sun down? I'm definitely not into over-protecting children but as a grown adult I generally avoid parks and poorly lit areas after dusk. Just plain old self preservation.
http://www.acetonestudio.com
I quit smoking because it was far too expensive now we know the cost of a carton of smokes is far more then half taxes so yes taxes had a huge part in my quiting.
Jack of all trades,master of none
My apologies. The spelling errors are caused by my subluxations. I soooo need a chiropractor right now.
This post comes with a double-your-money-back guarantee!
Any offense taken to this post is at your sole discretion.
We dropped them not when they doubled our fees, but when they piled onto that the fact that we'd have to use two different user interfaces to interact with our services.
Rather than put up with that added level of unnecessary complexity that had no benefit to us as users (and only to bean counters who wanted to keep the buckets separate solely to have two shells under which to hide money), we just turned them off.
It doesn't matter that they've reversed on the latter. We're not going to go through the trouble of signing back up only to have the sword of damocles hanging over our heads - what would be the next huge inconvenience we'd be threatened with?
No one would pay for it directly, but if they add it to the service, it would probably gain them millions of subscribers because that extra incentive. I would also suspect the Adult Film industry would probably be a lot easier to work with over licensing considering as you said, everything is already virtually free. They will always take something over nothing.
I submit to you that it is possible for a person to live a healthy lifestyle and still have a Netflix subscription. People can not and will not be physically active for 100% of their spare time; in fact, an important aspect of both physical and mental health is REST. To relax and have some time of relative inactivity each week is important for a person's well being.
Whether this time is better spent watching a TV or doing something equally relaxing is subjective, however this doesn't appear to be the point you're driving toward.
There is no doubt that Netflix fuels the temptation to be a lazy slob, but so do a lot of things. Why don't you target people who overuse Internet, cable TV, and video games? Hell, even bookworms?
I know I'm feeding a troll here, but while your opinion of sedentary habits is (mostly) in the right place, your decision to target Netflix is fairly misguided.
/* No Comment */
He always talks about subluxations.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
Well, with video chains falling like flies, perhaps they media corps will have to reconsider a bit.
Many small chains have disappeared over the past few years. Blockbuster is gone. I've heard rumours that some of the other bigger chains are set to follow.
Sure they can screw with Netflix now, they still control the content. But when Netflix becomes the major source of distribution, they'll have a lot of push back against the media corps, similar to what has happened with iTunes and CD's, etc.
Perhaps if they disable the "history" feature.
My GF has a much different taste in movies than I do, and sometimes watches shows with my niece as well, so my history and suggestions are often skewed towards musicals and cartoons.
It took me awhile to figure out how "my big gay wedding" ended up in the list. I'm pretty sure many husbands wouldn't want to share with their wives that they watched the latest "girls gone wild" last Friday, or have the relatives come over and then pop on Netflix, only to have the history display with bold titles and a nice graphic that the last watched show was "Barely legal co-eds 3" or something of the sort.
I don't think any of those activities sound appropriate for a toddler... Nor do they address the fundamental problem of it being night time, hence the sun has set and it is now dark because we don't have street lights. While I'm sure hurling oneself down a mountain is grand fun, it probably helps a great deal to be able to see the trees before you run into them.
I don't think there's any reason to believe that being out in miserable weather will make you sick -- not if you're maintaining proper body temperature, at least. That's some wives' tale that has lived way past its expiry date.
When was that expiry date, again?
Turns out Influenza, at least, depends a lot on air temp and humidity. Regardless of your body temperature...
You can watch the entire runs of shows like Battlestar Galactica (original AND new, even 1980),
I was trying to finish the last bits of Galactica last year, and was unbelievably frustrated that they didn't stream any of the x.5 seasons. I have disk service too, but it was annoying to get partway through season 4 and then have to wait for disks all of a sudden. I hope they've fixed that since then.
Adult movies? Really? Who pays for porn?
Someone has to, you worthless parasite.
The recording/music industry boasted standard profits before taking iTunes into account.
After taking it into account, they have sold more music and made more money than any other decade in history.
When they say they are being harmed by digital sales, they are 100% lying.
As I said before, if this conglomerate of rights-holders and content producers wanted, they could withhold everything they needed to stop newer ideals in their tracks; if that failed, they could simply legislate their way to total control.
Not sure that you're not trolling, but your argument's just silly. We don't tend to operate at peak efficiency such that if you expend more energy in one way it needs to reduce the ability of the rest of your body to function. More energy to warm yourself will cause your metabolism to rise especially since we're talking about getting exercise. This will in fact help the body in various ways including improving immune response.
Ahh, but you see, I gave a disclaimer: "not if you're maintaining proper body temperature, at least". Darkness is mostly irrelevant unless you want to use solar light for keeping you warm. With sun below the horizon, life gets somewhat easier as clouds will not change the heat flux that gets to your body. As long as you can keep your 18 month old properly insulated, you'll be OK. We've been talking hour long walks with our 1 week old in sub-zero temperatures and he has done fine. It's all a matter of proper clothing.
As for losing the kid: in a way you must be lucky that you live in a setting with so little light pollution that you can actually lose the kid in a metro park ;)
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
Sure, if the area is so dangerous that you can't see the kid and everywhere is close to falling off a cliff, then I agree. If you wait a bit with the kid in your arms, in most any large urban setting you will soon see the surroundings well enough to know what the kid is doing.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
I think you've got it backwards, unless you're talking about noses of others running, and their germs transferring onto you by hand contact. If so, then of course there's truth to that, but still it doesn't make the cold itself a cause of getting sick.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
At least around here, you can't go to many parks too long after dark because they are closed by then and you'll get arrested for criminal trespassing if you get caught. The "closing" is on paper, as there's no fence and no gates, only a proclamation on a sign somewhere where you may well miss it :) I'm not arguing about general safety of parks, that can't be generalized. Substitute a humongous backyard for a park :)
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
Backyard? Yeah, right!
http://www.acetonestudio.com
When you're improperly dressed in the cold, yes. I think that generally if you're out there in bad weather and feel miserable due to thermal discomfort, you're not appropriately dressed.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
Looking at anecdotes in my immediate family, we were catching flu approximately once every 15 years per person, and that was before the flu vaccine was available. Ever since we have been vaccinated, we have never had anything that resembled a flu (where you're miserable for more than a week). While your reference about flu is interesting, I don't think that there's enough flu out there for weather to make a big difference. Surely if the situation is close to an epidemic than a weather change will exploit the sensitivity in the system, but otherwise I'd think that you've cited something that's fairly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
So let me rephrase my assertion to be more specific: our body is not inherently likelier to get sick merely due to cold weather.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
Maybe that's true, but you didn't pick a verry good example, since Hulu has BG too.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
He could also work at Microsoft. Do your time then your 100 day break.
Nowhere did I suggest anything even remotely approaching "hurling oneself down a mountain". You'll see that I specifically excluded downhill skiing. Tobogganing can be as tame as going down a 1 metre tall hill with your toddler. I have child backpacks for hiking and plan to get a pulk for pulling kids behind me while (cross-country) skiing this winter. Most cities and towns where it's cold enough have well-lit indoor and/or outdoor skating rinks.
Far be it from me to tell you how to raise your children (really, I hate that), but my kids love all these activities. The trick is to do them in a way that's age-appropriate, fun, and safe. If you fundamentally don't WANT to go outside when it's dark and cold, fair enough. But then it's "I don't want to go out", rather than any of the other reasons you've given. The flip side of that is that if you really DO want to go out (I do), there's usually a safe and fun way to do it.
www.clarke.ca
Oh, yes, video-game streaming :)
Actually, I am surprised that they do not offer VGs. Blockbuster has been doing it for a while and that must be far more profitable as games tend to linger for a longer time than a movie.
As far as adult movies - that could backfire. As another poster below pointed out -- they have history/suggestions mechanisms and many accounts may be used by more than one person. Even with non-adult offerings, I find that inconvenient.
I'm not weighing in one side or the other on whether being out in the cold will make you sick, but there is a flaw in your supposition #1. The body has finite energy.
The body has a limit on the rate of energy consumption that it can sustain from buring fats, carbs, etc. A person is not near that rate when they are sitting still or even just walking around outside. The cold air will cause your metabolic rate to increase to stay warm, but it is still far from tapping the limits of your body. If you are running sprints and carrying around weights outside you might be getting closer to your physical limits.
Yeah, that's what I meant. I suppose it's more a contributing factor then an actual cause. The same could be said during times of high pollen counts.
-- Using the preview button since 2005
Or how many consumers stopped consuming because of the sales tax :)
I live in flat country. The terrain here is essentially non-existent.
We can sled down the side of an overpass next to a park, but the park closes at dusk (which makes it basically closed all winter for those who work during the day). Snowmen are fun to build, but they lose their edge after one has put together a couple of 10-foot-tall epic snowmen: The little ones just aren't very fun after that.
So, as far as money is concerned: Netflix is cheap, and most of the things you mention are expensive because they're non-local, or impractical. (Where am I supposed to go cross-country skiing, exactly: Dodging cars down a rural road consisting of patchy ice, asphalt, and packed snow...or across a seemingly-endless field of corn stubble? Seriously, a Nordic Trac sounds like more fun, and I'm in no hurry to procure one of those.)
Kid-proof tablet..
I'm not your friend, pal
"Liechtenstein is the world's largest producer of sausage casings, potassium storage units, and false teeth."
Netflix streaming is still BY FAR the best deal around.
Selection-wise, perhaps. But it really isn't if you have bandwidth caps. You can't watch that many movies/shows in HD if your limit is 20-30gb a month and you use your internet for other things than media streaming.
~Syberz
Yeah, going cross country skiing is a great idea when you have work at 8AM and want to relax before bed.
Netflix is the best deal since a long time ago. Sure, one can live a happy life without it, but it's a wonderful luxury.
I love slashdot for the technical articles, but love it even more for the crazy far fetched ideas.
Sig: I stole this sig.
My wife and I watched the entire series this past summer and it was all via netflix streaming.
this is amazing to think that a company can blow up to $300 a share, drop to $60 a share and then announce it will become unprofitable (all within 2 years)... it seems we are at a time now where these companies such as netflix, social networking sites, etc. are quickly blowing up a massive bubble that can't be too far from a pop. I mean people are paying a market cap of $6+ billion for Linked in, i mean its a good site but come on they will never generate the profits to warrant that kind of pricing.
I'm not your guy, pal
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)