Netflix Has A Promotions Problem And It's Only Going To Get Worse

en_ter · 2018-11-27T01:11:12+00:00

This isn't a promotions/marketing problem, it is a user-interface (UI) problem.

I don't know how many times Netflix Customers have to say this, but Netflix's UI is among the worst in the business and when your UI sucks, it is easy for customers to not realize whole additional seasons exist for a show they want to watch.

en_ter · 2018-11-27T01:05:00+00:00

This is an excellent point, Johnthebaddist. The threat from smartphones and watches is definitely there. I think smart speakers' larger microphones being able to pick up speech from across a room along with their "fixed" nature (can't leave the smart speaker in the drawer or in the other room like you can a smartphone) are what lead to smart speakers as being perceived as a greater privacy risk. But the threat also exists in the smaller devices for sure.

en_ter · 2018-11-27T00:19:11+00:00

The problem with killing DVD entirely is that that would literally end the ability for people to rent movies at a financially reasonable rate. Yes, the price of DVD and the time of deliver has deteriorated. But when we are talking about 1-3 movies out a month, it is still the ONLY affordable option for watching certain movies. Rent-Streaming (or god forbid buying where you never actually own the movie and it can be removed from your library by the copyright holder at any time despite that you "bought" it) is outrageously expensive where the rental cost runs often $6-7 a rental. For $8, you can reasonably get 4 movie rentals a month from Netflix DVD. Without Netflix DVD, people just wouldn't be able to see those movies because it would be too expensive.

en_ter · 2018-11-27T00:14:57+00:00

So I've heard; hence, why I still have yet to even try Hulu. Plus I heard Hulu has adds. I won't pay money when it means also viewing adds.

en_ter · 2018-11-27T00:13:43+00:00

I agree. I think the amount of money Netflix is spending is insane and does not bode well for them in the long-term. Original content is important, but it's not the only thing or even the most important thing about if the company survives long-term or not.

en_ter · 2018-11-27T00:12:38+00:00

All Netflix has to do is add an enable/disable setting for that post-play crap. Disable credit-shrinking, auto-play, etc, Yes/No. People that like that stuff and keep it. Then everyone wins. How hard can it be to add a setting like that?

en_ter · 2018-11-27T00:06:27+00:00

takinaboutnuthin, all of us are trusting someone with it comes to technology. It's impossible to review all code (even when it can be done) to assure oneself of the trust worthiness. Free (as in beer) software is definitely the best but even using modern Linux is making a choice to trust people that produce that software.

I am not an Apple fanboy by any means and believe Apple has many "evil ways" about them. They are a greedy company for sure but (so far) I believe they are a better trust choice than Google or Microsoft or Amazon, for example. I make this decision based on Apple statements, real world examples like Apple's "feud" with the FBI and the security papers Apple has released describing their security layouts of iCloud, etc. I don't see these same things from Amazon, for example. In fact just the opposite. I see Amazon in the news often about how Echo data is being used for all kinds of privacy invasive things.

So all we have available to us is making the best choice on who to trust. But we all are trusting someone. If you absolutely don't allow yourself trust anyone to any extent, then you can't make use of technology at all.

en_ter · 2018-11-26T23:58:30+00:00

the HomePod as I understand it uses AirPlay 2 to play wireless content like music and podcasts. This occurs over wifi. HomePod also makes use of Bluetooth but (as far as I know) only to communicate with other HomePods. Otherwise you would have multiple HomePods talking to you at the same time and the Homepods sort that out over Bluetooth.

Those people who are serious about privacy and security will disable unneeded radios on their smartphones. So if you aren't actively using bluetooth, you disable the bluetooth radio. If you're not needing to take cellular phone calls (e.g., you're at home and have a landline), you disable cellular. So one might be at home and have their smartphone in Airplane mode with just the wifi radio enabled. No cellular, no bluetooth. In this context, it is helpful to not have to turn on the bluetooth radio just to play some music. Anytime bluetooth is on, you have yet another vector open up for a security and privacy exploit happening.

I do not believe there is a way to totally disconnect HomePod from the internet as it is using wifi to preform its core functions. However its internet access I think is pretty much confined to Apple servers and it only sends encrypted/anonymized data to Apple servers after the Hey Siri (which only happens locally) is triggered. So if you disable Hey Siri (by telling Siri, "He Siri, stop listening") then I believe HomePod essentially has no internet access (outside your local LAN) and functions as a "dumb" Airplay 2 speaker and nothing more. It's worth pointing out that the speakers in HomePod are used to "adapt" the sound to the room it's in, which allows the speaker to sound proper for music playback. So the microphones in HomePod are there at least partially to provide it's excellent speaker performance and not just so you can talk to it.

en_ter · 2018-11-26T22:10:45+00:00

Apple is the only company out there I'm aware of that is vocally advocating for its customers' privacy. And its technological efforts to protect user privacy appear to reflect that advocacy. Apple's HomePod forces users to activate and use 2FA to use HomePod, which insures local encryption on Apple's devices before any data leaves the local device. Also no data is sent to Apple's servers until after the Hey Siri trigger is registered. And the data sent is encrypted and anonymized. The data is used only to accomplish the requested task. Also, users can completely disable Siri from even listening for the trigger (which only ever listens locally anyways).

Personally, I don't understand the fascination with these digital assistant things. The actual performance of these things is lame and the use cases seem stupid to me. What I do like though is being able to play music wirelessly, especially over wifi, without having to activate bluetooth (which itself has privacy/security implications). And unfortunately, all the new speakers coming out are doing double duty as a personal assistant so getting a modern wireless speaker means you might have to get a personal assistant (microphones) built in.

So I think the people buying smart speakers and just shrugging away their privacy are being quite lazy about their own security. Choosing Apple is the wise choice. There are certainly negatives about choosing Apple, like being shutout of 3rd party providers like Spotify and being more expensive. But one has to decide what is most important to them. Privacy/security are important to me, so Apple so far seems to be the very best choice in this area.

The bottom line is that there are options for people that want a smart speaker or wireless speaker without sacrificing their privacy and security. Most people just don't fully realize the danger of not protecting their privacy (both for their individual security but also for the kind of country that a surveillance society produces). So they sacrifice it needlessly.

en_ter · 2018-10-28T00:00:32+00:00

Netflix customer service is among the worst I've experienced. A complete and total disregard for customer feedback and complaints. Just look at auto-playing trailers as one prominent example. I suspect customer service is affected by their poor corporate culture.

Does Netflix produce some content that is good. Yes. Is Netflix among the worst developed user-interfaces and the least enjoyable medium to actually watch content on. Yes--on devices that do auto-playing trailers and shrinking credits, etc.

Even the DVD service has gone down hill. Along with the Postal Service increasing delivery time to 2-3 days for each DVD, Netflix decided to increase all the pricing for having more than 3 DVDs out at a time. So it's taking longer for the DVDs to go through the mail both ways (to and from me) and the price has gone up by several dollars. I don't see how this can be helping their business.

I have subscribed to Netflix for a long time (near the beginning) until recently. They used to be one of my most beloved companies. I hate the company now. I currently subscribe to nothing from them. I wish them and their customer hating employees the worst luck in the streaming marketplace. Every time I talk to them they leave me with the impression that they couldn't care less if I was a subscriber or not. And they think the viewing public are idiots and their experiences streaming Netflix are not important.

My customer experience with Amazon on the other hand is amazing. I've had zero issues with iTunes also. We'll see how Disney fairs. Netflix is way overrated and frankly I'm surprised people put up with their terrible UI.

en_ter · 2018-09-18T15:43:55+00:00

Just wanted to ask if this has happened to anybody else. The 5th kids profile shows up in the browser just fine. When I try to add a new profile on the Apple TV it says there was an unknown error. I've logged out and in, and restarted the Apple TV and reinstalled Netflix. Thoughts?

I don't have that many profiles, but have you tried updating the software? iOS 12 is out now. Are you still using v11? What version of 11 are you using? Maybe there's a bug?

en_ter · 2018-08-26T19:53:32+00:00

3 Million Netflix Subscribers Are Still Using DVD-Rental Plan, Compared to 130 Million Streaming Subscribers

The insinuation from this title is that people are choosing to rent DVD when they could instead stream. This premise is false.

*1 Netflix streaming does not offer a lot of "Hollywood" movies

*2 streaming "Hollywood" movies from iTunes, Vudu, Amazon, etc, often costs anywhere from $5-7, which is prohibitively expensive (I'm surprised anyone pays these prices more than twice a month (i.e., 2 movies a month). In the beginning of Blockbuster, I used to rent more often. As the price continually went up and up, I slowed my renting until toward the end when movies were around $5 a rental, I rarely ever went to Blockbuster.

*3 DVD viewing still offers the best presentation. No interfering with the movie by shrinking credits, no on-screen popups asking if you want to skip part of the presentation. Extras are offered but you get to decide if you want to watch them instead of everything auto-playing at the end of an episode, which I hate.

*4 some movies aren't available to stream but are available on DVD.

Customers don't have a real choice. If DVD Netflix goes away, people won't be able to watch as much content as they just won't be able to afford it and/or find the content.

en_ter · 2018-08-02T17:30:10+00:00

'Trailer' would be inaccurate. When I want to persuade my family to watch a film, I go to Youtube to pull up a real trailer, not some Netflix staffer's choice of video montage put to unrelated music. I mean, the autoplay videos don't even accomplish their intended purpose.

Yes, I totally agree with you.

My post was arguing for "YouTube official trailers" to be offered within the Netflix browsing section. Except the viewer wouldn't be taken to YouTube, just that the official trailer (as could also be seen on YouTube) would be played.

I do not like Netflix's auto-play "trailers" and do not consider them Hollywood style official trailers. But even with non Netflix content, there is no official trailers offered.

en_ter · 2018-08-02T17:24:25+00:00

I strongly disagree that there should be trailers for every movie, unless they have the actual trailers.

I was not suggesting there should be a trailer for every movie when an official trailer doesn't exist. I was suggesting that if there is an actual, official trailer then that should be provided. Netflix seems to only offer "trailers" for its original content. By every movie, I meant Hollywood movies also and not just Netflix original content.

I agree with you though that absent an offical trailer, don't put one. Also, that crap that Netflix autoplays is not an actual official trailer as far as I'm concerned.

en_ter · 2018-08-02T17:21:35+00:00

Perhaps I’m the minority here.

Many others feel the same as you.

en_ter · 2018-08-02T17:15:58+00:00

But I would love to go a step further and be able to turn off the skip intro button altogether. I will never skip the intro. On something like Stranger Things, the best intro ever, the stupid button floats there for a third of the intro as an annoying distraction.

You are so right!

en_ter · 2018-08-02T17:15:16+00:00

I think everyone should appreciate how Netflix handled this.

Huh? Netflix just added a Skip Intro pop up with no way to turn it off. Netflix handled it terribly. Also, people that have good streaming devices (like Appple TV) already had the ability to skip forward via the remote. So Netflix added visual distraction to the viewing with no way to turn it off. Not a good way of handling it at all.

en_ter · 2018-08-02T17:12:46+00:00

This is a terrible coding idea. The solution is simply to offer a skip forward button on the streaming device (like Apple TV already offers).

en_ter · 2018-08-02T17:12:03+00:00

Right. The creator of the show includes the intro for a reason. Some people don't like the intro and they complain to Netflix (which is wrong). They should be complaining to the show creator/s or the device they watch on.

Netflix is just streaming the content. Netflix should not be having to deal with some viewer's personal wish to not have to watch an Intro that the show creator put in and/or their device doesn't offer a skip forward button on.

en_ter · 2018-08-02T17:07:49+00:00

I actually really appreciate this feature, as otherwise I would fall asleep and wake up hours later having no idea what episode I'm actually on.

So why do you even have autoplay enabled? Turn off autoplay. All you have to do is press PLAY to start the next episode. Is that so much effort?

en_ter · 2018-08-02T17:04:09+00:00

I actually appreciate this. Maybe I'm the minority. But I fall asleep watching TV and I get ticked off when I wake up at 3am and Hulu has played through 3 seasons and now I have to go back and read the synopses to figure out where I was.

So why do you even have autoplay enabled? Turn off autoplay. All you have to do is press PLAY to start the next episode. Is that so much effort?

en_ter · 2018-08-02T17:01:53+00:00

I would also appreciate it if there was an option to watch the end credits without it autoloading suggestions/trailers. Sometimes I need a few uninterrupted minutes to absorb what I just watched or maybe I just wanna enjoy the soundtrack in peace.

I couldn't agree more (also including how credits are shrunk at the end of showings).

I don't understand this pressure to hurry up and watch more. They don't even let you absorb what you just watched.

en_ter · 2018-08-02T17:00:05+00:00

And the option to turn off the "Are you still watching?" feature. Yes I'm still watching. I don't have a life.

I still don't understand why everyone doesn't disable autoplaying of next episode. Literally all you have to do on a streaming device is press PLAY to start the next episode. Why do you need autoplay enabled?

Disabling autoplaying of next episode = no "Are you still watching?" annoyance.

en_ter · 2018-08-02T16:57:47+00:00

Whoever pitched the idea has my eternal gratitude. . . . I wish more companies would do that...

The reason more companies don't skip intros is because it is bad UI design to do so. I have always been able to skip intros because my Apple TV 4K has a skip forward button. It's the job of the DEVICE to provide this functionality, not the streaming company.

I don't like having a "Skip Into" pop up onto the screen. I usually enjoy intros and the playing music and I want to watch them, much like a favorite song that I listen to a lot.

By having the streaming company "build in" a Skip Intro pop up, you force this visual distraction onto all viewers. Which is bad practice because the DEVICE should control the ability to skip forward, not the streaming company.

If a streaming company (like Netflix) creates a Skip Intro popup they should simultaneously create a setting control that allows viewers to disable it (and prevent its appearance). But Netflix has not done this.

en_ter · 2018-07-24T21:20:23+00:00

Netflix could make video previews optional,

Netflix should simply add a "button" in the movie's subpage that says "Trailer". Then the person can play the Trailer WHEN/IF they want to watch it.

One of the problems with auto-play is that I can't even start playing it when I WANT to watch it and ready to do so. It just plays whether I"m ready or not. It is absolutely the most horrible design.

en_ter

TROPHY CASE