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Enemy Number One is Netflix: The Monster That's Eating Hollywood (business-standard.com)
From a WSJ report: Tara Flynn, a rising star at a TV production unit of 21st Century Fox, walked into her boss's office last August and told him she was quitting and joining streaming-video giant Netflix Inc. The news was not well-received. "Netflix is public enemy No. 1," said Bert Salke, the head of Fox 21 Television Studios, where Ms. Flynn was a vice president, according to a Netflix legal filing. When Netflix finalized Ms. Flynn's hire a few weeks later, Fox sued, accusing it of a "brazen campaign" to poach Fox executives. In response, Netflix argued Fox's contracts are "unlawful and unenforceable." The ongoing legal battle is just one sign of the escalating tensions between Netflix and Hollywood as the streaming-video company moves from being an upstart dabbling in original programming to a big-spending entertainment powerhouse that will produce more than 70 shows this year. It is expanding into new genres such as children's fare, reality TV and stand-up comedy specials -- including a $40 million deal for two shows by Chris Rock. The shift has unnerved some TV networks that had become used to Netflix's original content being focused on scripted dramas and sitcoms. Netflix's spending on original and acquired programming this year is expected to be more than $6 billion, up from $5 billion last year, more than double what Time Warner Inc.'s HBO spends and five times as much as 21st Century Fox's FX or CBS Corp.'s Showtime.
At least the majority of what Netflix is doing is actual original programming. Hollywood needs someone to kick them swiftly in the ass and stop doing remakes of old shows and movies (some of which aren't actually old, Matrix reboot?)
Their Marvel based offerings are quite good, and Stranger Things is phenomenal.
Amazon is creating some genuinely entertaining original content as well. I think it's time for a changing of the guard.
The film and TV industry have been in a stasis for decades. TV, in particular, hasn't really changed significantly since the early 1960s, and Hollywood has basically functioned the same way since the collapse of the Studio System. It's time for a big shake up and if companies like Netflix and Amazon can deliver that shakeup, then so be it.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Imagine that, spend more on developing quality original content and consumers and producers will flock to you. Who would've thought... The legacy production houses had a huge leg up but never bothered, remaining content in their old, "good-enough-to-get-enough-eyeballs-for-advertisers" model. Looks like Blockbuster won't be the only giant getting taken down by Netflix.
Netflix organized themselves around innovation. The studios did not -- they organized themselves around "wall building" techniques: Net Neutrality, DRM, Anti Piracy campaigns, political lobbying and more. Now Netflix is winning and what do the studios do? Whine.
Just add {In Space!} to anything.
Every old business model fights to save itself, and accuses the new business model of some nefarious intent. Sears->Walmart Taxis->Uber/Lyft Barnes&Noble->Amazon Yahoo->Google Newspapers->Slashdot/Reddit/Blogs etc. etc. Business is best when new, healthy models overtake old, unhealthy businesses. It is called "creative destruction" and it has been going on for a long, long time.
They should do a Firefly spinoff or actually do Firefly and then make it one of the most successful blockbuster shows in the 'verse.
A company whose employee retention plan is to call the lawyers likely isn't a great place to work anyways.
They make more shows than HBO does so you don't cancel your sub in between Westworld and Game of Thrones.
Go look at Hollywood movies and try to find one that is not:
1) a Remake
2) a Sequel
3) Based on a book/videogame or similar items.
And traditional TV isn't much better - Riverdale, Lethal Weapon, Supergirl, etc. etc.
Now check out Netflix's stuff.
Yes, Netflix is pumping money into it - because they are making more money than Hollywood because they are MAKING GOOD, ORIGINAL SHOWS.
Don't blame the winner for earning more money and reinvesting it. Blame the loser for losing their market share.
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The only reason Netflix makes their own content is they were being squeezed by Hollywood for higher and higher licensing fees. Back in 2011, when Netflix had to raise fees for streaming and mail-in service to cope with raising licensing fees, their customers revolted. So Netflix did two things: 1) split their business into two with DVD mailing separate from streaming and 2) offer fewer and more outdated movies. However content stagnated. I suppose that Netflix could have shown TV shows in syndication but that would not distinguish themselves enough from other players or even cable. Creating their own content was the only to keep themselves relevant in the streaming business. Netflix started with TV shows like abandoned properties (Arrested Development) and original new TV shows (Orange is the New Black) which has brought in many new and returning customers. Now they are branching into films.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Once you are used to not having *everything* and realize you have *enough*, Netflix becomes the unquestionable leader.
You just have to get over the idea that it is worth paying 15x as much to get "everything". After you have had Netflix you realize you can't watch everything so why pay for it.
Finally a company ready to actually spend money and do the right thing by their customers.
Netflix is sending a message to all the old guard cable stations. They can and will cut out the middle man. They will not be extorted for content.
You keep trying to milk us more and more... fine, we'll make the shows ourselves.
It also wouldn't surprise me if netflix started up a sister company to cover and stream sports. More likely to partner with a company already in the biz though.
We all know PIRACY is the one number enemy of Hollywood! No one else has done trillions of dollars in damages!
Then why are most Netflix shows such drivel, especially when compared to HBO's original offerings?
You have cited the two shows which are quality on HBO with Westworld being the best show I have ever watched but try to name another HBO show. After I watched Westworld I searched HBO for something else on that level and came up short for even anything else to watch.
IMO, Netflix has a much deeper catalog with more consistent/diverse offerings and it's only growing for here.
What Netflix original programming have you watched? I recommend the first seasons of Sense 8, Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Black MIrror and Bloodline.
Exactly so. The Law of Unintended Consequences in a nutshell. The networks and studios decided to shut down Netflix and monetize their old movies and TV shows on their own. And for a while, it worked. Netflix lost subscribers, and their movie selection was absolutely abysmal. But unlike the networks and studios, Netflix was able to adapt, and it became exactly the type of company that the networks and studios could no longer hurt.
It's such a pleasure to watch Hollywood being devoured by the monster it created.
I would have loved for Netflix just to have become a place where I could watch recent and older hollywood movies, completely replacing video rentals. But I get to be frustrated that new movies aren't there to watch and old movies aren't there to be found.
But hey, whats this, its a Netflix original show? Hey it isn't half bad. Well I could watch more of this.
Hollywood, you had the chance to box Netflix in and have them just BE the rental market. You could have just banked fewer dollars from rentals but still retained a lot of control.
But nooooo, you had to block the access to your catalogs of movies to try and cripple them. Now they're creating content that is very often better than what you are coming up with.
Cry me a river, hollywood. You deserve to go down, hard. You've never really played fair with your customers and now we're buying entertainment elsewhere....
I know everyone wants to back the little guy, but Netflix is actually recreating the very monopolies we are trying to break-up:
The common complaint about cable was that they bundled everything together. You had to pay a monthly fee, you couldn't pick your channels a la carte, and if you wanted to watch "Game Of Thrones" you had to subscribe to HBO and pay monthly, even for just one show. In addition, nobody liked having to pay for cable TV & internet both, since it felt like the same service from the same company. Then to make matters worse, you had to buy HBO on cable just to stream the show on HBO's web site, which made no sense. (HBO might have fixed this, but the same goes for other channels, and sporting events.) This drove piracy mainstream.
But the bigger issue is that telecommunications companies are buying out content providers. This merging is dangerous, because a telecom company controlling say, a media news outlet, can't be unbiased. And there is nothing to stop them from offering certain content on their networks only.
Netflix threatened to break that all up. I could buy my internet from anyone, subscribe to Netflix, and have so much content we didn't need cable TV. We no longer paid for TV "channels" we didn't need. But then Amazon Prime came along, and then we needed to buy Netflix + Amazon. Oh, and buy Hulu for your TV watching. So now, we need to again buy all these services in order to have access to a full catalog of content. We are back to premium TV channels again. But at least we gained our a la carte stations!
But if Amazon and Netflix start to offer exclusive content, we get back to the media companies (Amazon, Netflix) being content providers too. I want to watch just one show, and I have to subscribe to Netflix. I's the HBO Game-of-thrones scenario all over again.
The solution is, and has been for 40+ years, to break apart the monopolies. We must separate content delivery companies from content creating companies. That no longer just means the telecom monopolies shouldn't be content providers, but it also means the streaming companies can't be content creators, and transitively, the telecom can't be either one. This gets us back to the ideal world where we choose our telecom company, choose our streaming service, and choose our content - all separately. Every streaming service should be able to provide all content, or nearly all of it. Competition comes back, we no longer have the zero-rating problem..
So cheer Netflix's success, but be careful what you wish for. At the present rate, we will all be paying $50/month for all these streaming services just to get the content we need.
P.S. We also need to stop each streaming service provider from using their own protocol. You bought a Roku box last year huh? Well, you can't access the newest coolest streaming service because they didn't make a firmware update for that service. If 20 years ago, you told people that their TV or cable-box needed a firmware update every time a new channel came-out, they would be attacking the telecom companies with pitchforks. Yet that is happening today and people accept it.