[FreeKill]

What I also find interesting is the fact that Netflix doesn't necessarily even need the "flex" to succeed. Their push on bird box could have failed miserably, and they really wouldn't have suffered greatly, whereas Disney's push of A Wrinkle in Time probably hurt, since the movie ultimately flopped and their only chance to recoup costs was after the huge investment.

Netflix's goal is quite distinct from much of its competition. In simplistic terms, their goal is to release enough compelling content to keep existing subscribers subscribed and then hopefully entice new users to sign up more than old users quit. These "flexes" I would assume are primarily for the second category. If you make something enough of an event, with subscribers talking about it all the time, maybe non-subscribers will think they are missing out and take the plunge. If that fails, however, they only really lose out on the marketing costs, since it's very unlikely to affect the existing subscriber base at all.

[lsc]

Yeah... I mean, when this switch occurred (away from having a wide selection of classics towards being more of a cable channel with their own custom content) I canceled my subscription.

I switched to amazon video... I can't say I'm always thrilled with the video quality, but amazon video usually has what I want to watch, and they make watching it low effort (They usually charge me a few dollars to watch it, but if I'm going to take two hours to watch something, a few dollars is the least of the cost.)

I mean, one could argue that I'd be better served by the netflix disk service, but I can't reliably predict what I'm going to want to watch ahead, and I don't have a convenient device for watching disks in the gym. (I know they exist, and I used to have one. But the kindle fire is a lot more convenient.)

[nojvek]

Amazon video has some nice content but their streaming quality is dogshit. For first 10 mins I get pixelated video and then it catches up with SD. Proper HD is a hit and a miss. Also their App for vizio TVs is so bloated that it crashes the TV after a couple of episodes.

Netflix on the other hand has their tech together. Beautiful streaming and lightweight responsive app.

Please Amazon, pay your Engineers well and make an app that doesn’t crash at the least.

[mrguyorama]

>Beautiful streaming and lightweight responsive app.

You seem to be forgetting the downright user hostile UX, though maybe not as user hostile as Hulu and Amazon and everyone else

[Semaphor]

Amazon has one huge problem for me: Language. I'm in Germany. I do not want dubbed movies/shows. I need English subtitles (translated subs are useless but I need subs to understand what's being said during loud scenes). Amazon usually (less than Netflix though) has OV, but subs are almost exclusively in German.

Netflix, on the other hand, has almost everything in English with English subs (exceptions are foreign language shows and most anime)

Of course, it doesn't help Amazon that their interface is atrocious and that they have ads. (Well, I mean Netflix is working towards making their interface worse, but for now, they are still miles ahead)

If I wouldn't get Prime Video for free with my normal prime subscription for shipping, I'd never use it. I barely ever use it as is.

[lsc]

Amazon has issues with language, and I imagine some of it is licensing, but like several times I've done the "try to learn a foreign language by reading the same book in two different languages" thing, and it's really hard to do with the kindle. Like spanish and french and Japanese are mostly just not available to me on my US amazon account.

I mean, I can get an amazon.co.jp and amazon.fr and amazon.es account, and tie them to different kindles, but each time I want to switch kindles, i have to wipe the thing, and get rid of my english books.

I'm totally willing to pay a premium for kindle convenience, and deal with not being able to loan books so easily, etc, etc, the kindle walled garden actually works really well for me in English but once you move out of English, it's just not convenient anymore.

[Semaphor]

Yeah, Amazon reminds me of Google a few years ago: Language settings are a clusterfuck. My Amazon.de is in English, Alexa and generally digital accounts are connected to Amazon.de (otherwise I'd lose prime video and prime music without paying twice).

English books work fine, but for some reason, I can't add skills while Alexa is in English. I need to switch it to German, add skills, switch it back to English for it to work.