[TallGuyShort]

It's because the corporations aren't really interested in providing a better service to the viewer, they're interested in providing a better service to their advertisers. That said, the idea of embedding the advertising freely is an interesting one, and I wonder if it's been seriously considered by the networks. Probably harder to convince the cheque-writers of the value they're getting, though.

[sombremesa]

> It's because the corporations aren't really interested in providing a better service to the viewer

I sold all of my Netflix stock (which wasn't a huge number anyway) the moment I saw that you could no longer see reviews of content on Netflix. It was a clear cut sign that they no longer "get it".

[mancerayder]

I hate to say it, but I miss the reviews+DVD days, where I discovered a huge wealth of foreign directors and their films. And there was even something exciting about DVD envelopes arriving in the mail aftet a short wait, building out the queue that would last a few months, and mailing it back wasn't a nightmare.

The loss of ratings was a telltale sign it'd gone mainstream and impersonal, but another one was the autoplay, which cannot be turned off. That's incredibly obnoxious, and loud, as previews somehow always seem to be.

Is this all an inevitable consequence of growth and the evolution of mass content or a set of bad decisions?

[praxulus]

Netflix and HBO don't have advertisers (well, except as providers, but not as customers).

[cyborgx7]

That is just wrong. The amount of product placement in Netflix original content is staggering.

[TallGuyShort]

I'd be surprised if it rivaled subscription revenue, though. My point is indeed questionable in the context of original content. HBO's kinda proves my point - their original content is much higher quality IMO. There's some old quote about how Netflix needed to become HBO faster than HBO could become Netflix, and I think they're close to losing that one.

[siidooloo]

sure, but how much of what you think is product placement actually is, and how much of it is just things being used in their natural context because it would be weird put something fake there.