Netflix Canada just got rid of its cheapest ad-free plan without even a heads up
narcity.comNetflix also no longer works when i travel. Went on a short trip to see some relatives in another country and my netflix account is blocked. Contacted support and they said i need to pay for a new account in that country.
Netflix is really starting to lose its value for me. But I’m working on setting up a VPN at my house to tunnel all Netflix traffic through and then configure some rpis to send to family members so we can all steal from Netflix again.
At this point they have pissed me off enough that im working on making it as easy as possible for anyone to setup and sharing it when im done.
Netflix lost its value for me when they just stopped having good content. I kept it around almost out of habit, but the anti-consumer policies were the straw that broke the camels back. Their self produced movies and shows are on average, abysmal. I might put up with their practices if they made good things.
This. Netflix's jumping the shark and pandering to blandest common denominator killed my interest.
For a while, there were still interesting original shows in other countries (Money Heist, Dark), but then those seemed to dry up as well.
Netflix needs to learn the Amazon retail lesson -- if I randomly click on a product, out of your entire catalog, and the odds that it's satisfying (which isn't to say necessarily good, but at least not a waste of time) fall below a certain threshold (70%? So 3/10 unacceptable?), then I will stop using your service.
This was it for me as well. I realized I spent more time browsing the catalogue trying in vain to find something good than I did time spent actually watching things. The way it went is I think "I want to watch X", then realize Netflix doesn't have X, then spend 2 hours mindlessly browsing the catalogue for anything that might scratch the X itch and eventually give up then watch half of something else before quitting.
Now I just torrent X and watch it.
I was a ~10 year account as we kept for our based and cycled through a second options every month or few.
I cancelled on a combination of sharing, as my sister used and that stopped me cancelling earlier, plus general content got more limited for my tastes.
Many people seem similar as me, and this is a world where scale matters.
I actually wonder if it would be good regulation that government seperated streaming from creating/owning catalogues. I'm not sure if correct but I suspect otherwise we will have a small number of players controlling what the world watches which tends to be a bad thing.
Agreed. I want to pay for content but it's either subscribe to all these services, paying cable like pricing or manage which services I'm subscribed to each month.
The third alternative, the high-seas is cheaper and far less time consuming to manage.
> Their self produced movies and shows are on average, abysmal. I might put up with their practices if they made good things.
That's the reality. Getting AAA shows on demand for $10/mo was always a mirage. The cable companies weren't conspiring against viewers by preventing you from getting channels a la carte.
Cross-subsidization is what makes TV work. The straight-to-DVD quality "streaming originals" are getting picked up by cable TV channels around the world that need programming. Eventually Netflix will see more profits from library royalties than they do from the subscription business.
It's a shame, because the non-US production is actually quite nice, creating an outlet for big-budget experimentation that certain markets (ITA, ESP...) sorely lacked.
But yes, the quality of Netflix US productions has nosedived, and their backcatalogue has been drained of anything valuable. I lost access a month ago and absolutely have no intention to subscribe, I'm happy enough with Disney+ as my sole channel.
The UI/UX is still intentionally bad. You just waste time looking for something to watch and even when you do it's content that's 6-9 years old and you kind of already didn't care to watch or it's a blockbuster you've already seen or own. It's just kind of a waste.
Netflix produced content has become so irrelevant for me that whenever I want to watch something I look for thumbnails that don't have the Netflix "N" in the corner. For me it's just algorithm generated junk now, it's a shame.
I wish I could cancel it but my partner wants to keep it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
> my partner wants to keep it
What are some of your partner’s favorite shows on Netflix?
Wow. That’s a complete deal breaker for me. The main draw for Netflix had been that they don’t completely gut my viewing options when out of the US (which is almost always).
They must do that for compliance and licencing reasons. Laws around regional copyrights have always been strong. They can't even show subtitles in languages weren't licenced in the country - e.g. Spanish netflix offers very few shows with English subs.
>Netflix also no longer works when i travel. Went on a short trip to see some relatives in another country and my netflix account is blocked.
Is this also true if you use the "download for offline use" for travel purposes? I think I recall that I still had to be logged in to view, despite the "offline" note.[1]
Hasn't Netflix always been region locked? Pretty sure people using VPNs just for Netflix is a thing.
Region lock is one thing. When traveling i was fine watching whatever i was restricted to in that country. Now my account is completely worthless outside the US.
No. I signed up for my account in Taiwan and have also used it in Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and the US. I canceled a few years back and went to Amazon Prime, but they recently gutted their selection if you’re outside the US, so I was considering getting Netflix again.
The streaming service that is now majority self produced content has to have region lock? To everything?
The story was always "evil Disney licensing is forcing us" but I guess they lived long enough to turn into Disney.
It's not just Disney. Many companies license their work to different companies to broadcast in different countries. And this licensing scheme continued on into the streaming era.
Content has always been region locked, but accounts could travel freely between regions. This allowed users in the USA to access media available in any country from a VPN, for instance.
> But I’m working on setting up a VPN at my house to tunnel all Netflix traffic through ...
On a technical point, you might be able to get away with just using Squid for the proxy, with pretty much default settings.
I used to use that years ago (not with Netflix though) running from a data centre, using an ssh (autossh) tunnel to reach it securely.
Worked pretty well, aside from the extra latency due to the packets having to go an extra half way around the world. ;)
Before Netflix was available outside US, I had a VM somewhere in the US, with Netflix proxy (they had no issues with accepting payments from Poland).
Proxy-ing web traffic was not enough and, if memory serves, I also had to set up a DNS resolver on that machine and use it. May be easier to just set up WireGuard nowadays.
> DNS resolver on that machine and use it.
That's a good point. I'd kind of suspect that enabling the "Proxy DNS when using SOCKS v5" setting (in Firefox) would achieve the same thing without the extra setup hassle, but I've not tried it to know if it'd work. :)
IIRC Netflix has gotten unreasonably good at detecting VPNs, VMs and other traffic originating from non-consumer IP addresses.
A l7 (http) proxy will not work for this. Even if you are able to redirect the app to your proxy by overriding DNS it would just fail on the TLS handshake since Netflix is using https. You would need to have their private server certificate to make it work. Plus they might infer from extra headers that traffic is Proxied.
=> You need a L4 proxy, aka VPN
That sounds weird to me, as your description of it sounds like https servers in general shouldn't work through a (squid) proxy.
However, they work just fine.
They work if you have control over the client and can either explicitly configure them to use a proxy server or if your client is ok to speak to a different domain for which you have the legit certificates. With the Netflix app both of this won’t be the case. When using it with a browser for which you can change connection settings it might work.
> With the Netflix app both of this won’t be the case.
Thanks, I'd forgotten about that. I've not used Netflix, so didn't really associate "it's an app with no proxy settings ability".
That being said though, if it's being used on a device (android, iSomething) shouldn't it all "just work" if the proxy is set in the OS system settings?
Netflix has always been region restricted. The real problem here is that support lied to you. Even if you got a Netflix account in that country, that country's Netflix wouldn't have the same content that you wanted to take with you. Lying to customers is deplorable.
The correct, honest answer is that when you go traveling, you cannot access your favorite Netflix content other than through a VPN that tunnels back home.
Hrm, they still allow it while traveling.
https://help.netflix.com/en/node/24853
I know not all the U.S. shows are available, but it also works both ways.
Have they changed the rule recently?
It's likely you're sharing it across households/relatives. Not sure I'd go to such lengths for something that costs as much as a Chipotle burrito tbh
By traveling you are sharing netflix?
And I'm sure they would love for you to roll over, too. Come on, man.
They killed all the interest shows for me. I stopped watching when they cut Santa Clarita diet. Bojack horseman was the last complete show I watched.
Please open source it.
Tangent: As much as it feels like we just have “bundles” like the bad old cable days, I really enjoy getting to change streaming providers every 2-3 months. My wife and I just Hoover up whatever we’re interested in then move on. And in a year we’ve got that service back and we Hoover up the last year’s added content that looks good.
Lots of ways to measure it but when I think about how much I pay and what my experience is like, I’m doing far better than in the cable days. I’m much happier.
I gave up on that nonsense.I have a raspberry pi that rapidly pulls down new torrents for stuff and processes and/or copies it to my media center for free....which is another raspberry pi.
I've no problem paying for content (I am "upper class"), but companies, especially Netflix clearly haven't figured things out.
For Netflix, I am mostly referring to the account sharing stuff. I did not share my account with anyone, but false advertising rubbed me the wrong way, so they went from whatever their current top tier pricing is to zero from me. Other huge gripes include streaming quality and number of streams.
I can also afford streaming services but choose instead to steal it. You don't need to justify it with such weak excuses.
"steal"
The 'upper class' dont have enough eye balls to keep the content industry afloat.
>My wife and I just Hoover up whatever we’re interested in then move on.
Probably saner than my chaotic good approach of having gone back to torrenting but donating a subscription worth of money to the Against Malaria foundation to ease my conscience now that I'm not a broke student any more. I can't be bothered with the obnoxious subscriptions and autplay UIs
This is the way to go
It's the go-to strategy for us as well, but I'll bet you dollars to donuts this is the next target for some sort of crackdown
They will simply make monthly plans absurdly expensive unless you commit to a 1-year contract. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Having a middleman cut out and being able to watch on whatever device you want, whenever you want, is not things staying the same.
My experience of being able to search the TV app on iOS or tvOS or macOS and then being given the option to play, buy, or rent the media is pretty seamless. And subscriptions are simple to cancel, so starting them is not a concern.
Complete opposite of dealing with cable/satellite TV contracts and advertising breaks when watching stuff.
You miss the point. First, no middle man had been eliminated anywhere, the platforms have simply replaced them with better offers for the consumer right now. Secondly, Doctorow's law of enshittification more or less dictates that once users and content creators are locked in, the tech company will start to deliver poorer quality service and squeeze as much revenue as possible out of you.
So currently, sure I can move around and it is better than the cable companies, but the trajectory of where the platforms are headed is not a good one and trending towards behavior more aligned with what the cable companies do.
Ironically a one year contract isn’t even an option for Netflix right now (in the US, can’t speak for other countries). Honestly not sure why, since it seems like it’d be more profitable for them, even with a slight discount.
You’ll have to call Netflix to cancel and they’ll just pass you around the call Center until they hang up by accident.
It's 2023. My ChatGPT based AI agent will continue calling and deliver persuasive Haiku poems requesting a discount on my package. It will persist until it achieves it's desired goal...
I assume the Netflix AI team will develop an agent that convinces your AI to agree to a more expensive plan. They are known for their technical excellence afterall.
They just laid off their technical excellence would you settle for the overworked, fearful group that remains?
More like, if you cancel, your account gets deleted for good, so you lose your profile with users, history, recommendations. You can pay x/month to pause your membership.
Come on, we all know deleting your data would be a premium-only feature.
Netflix recommendations are useless, so this sounds like a win to me. Random is more interesting then "let us fail at understanding you based on limited demographics".
I’d seriously consider paying them a fee for that! I certainly hope they go in that direction.
Netflix already deletes your account after 10 months, probably for this specific purpose.
Is that a new policy? I’ve had Netflix off and on since 2008 (for DVD rentals) and still have info from them. I’m pretty sure we’ve been gone for longer than 10-month windows.
FTC is enforcing against companies that do this. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2021/10/...
> You’ll have to call Netflix to cancel and they’ll just pass you around the call Center until they hang up by accident.
Nonsense. Cancelling is easy: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/407
$20 for a month, $120 for 12 months
So either pay $240 for 10 different “channels” or pay $120 for one…
More like 3, with (hbo) max and disney+. What would the others be?
Agree. I think they would've numbers by now how many are doing like that. Like if its 0.01% maybe not worth the effort now. Once its reach 0.1%, its time to empower customers by providing weekly/monthly/quarterly plans at different pricing points.
Rotating content.
That's a pretty good approach, but there is one drawback that may be significant for some.
You see a movie or show and then want to talk about it with your friends and find that they've all either won't be back on the right streaming service for a new months or they've seen it months ago and aren't that interested in talking about it any more.
That’s just a reality. I tend to not binge shows. Rather I try to slot them into one of my weekly slots.
Since I limit my weekly intake, I also start shows late. A typical conversation for even a new show is as along the lines of “Oh yeah, we binged the entire thing!”
I’ve learned it’s not worth talking about the show to someone who’s seen it since they’re more often than not bursting wanting to talk about something I haven’t seen. Or 2 months later when I’m done, they’ve forgotten a bunch of it anyway, moving on to other stuff I haven’t seen.
It’s not like the old days when there were forums for shows like “Lost” just abuzz with speculation.
As much as I hated having to wait for a show to come on TV I do miss the mass event that was watching Game of Thrones when it airs. Especially the last season with watch parties and stuff.
I like HBOs new method for releasing their less major hits. They release 2 to 3 episodes a week, which usually is about the amount of episodes I want to watch in one sitting, especially hour long shows. There's less pressure to get through a full season and it still gets the full season out pretty quickly.
I've seen some other services copy this strategy a little bit, releasing 2 to 3 episodes at the start of the season, but then sadly dragging out the season after with single weekly episodes until the end of the season
Comment sponsored by Big Stream ;)
In seriousness, I think this is actually a neat strategy.
That’s really funny, I was just an hour ago reading this long New York magazine story on streaming consolidation that Pocket suggested to me which contains this line:
“ Netflix claims its Basic With Ads tier brings in more revenue per user than its standard commercial-free plan”
“More revenue” links to https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/ads-on-netflix-12....
Overall story paints a picture of the chickens coming home to roost in streaming https://www.vulture.com/2023/06/streaming-industry-netflix-m...
So I guess it’s not surprising that they would take away the least profitable plan.
Ads will typically be more profitable for most things entertainment. Entertainment is generally cheap and far more profitable industries can pay more for ads than users are willing to spend.
People here are balking at paying like $10 a month for Netflix if they can't split it but likely take it as a given that you need to spend several hundreds each month for insurance.
Getting one customer on the latest aids medication can net a company 10s of thousands per year.
Drank the water at camp lejune? You may be worth millions of dollars to the right law firm.
Crave recently did the same thing in Canada, got rid of their $9.99 “mobile” plan, and now the $24.99 subscription is the only choice available for new subscribers. Sucks because all I want to watch is new Star Trek series, which means paying $28/month after tax to watch about 3.5 hours of content.
I wanted to try Crave but I bought an nVidia box instead. Install kodi found some popular addons. Now I can see anything on Crave or any other network from any point in history. I'm watching season 2 of Big Brother, I'm watching shows not available on streaming services. I didn't realize this user experience and availability was possible. I still have netflix, prime, plex and cable but that might give me .1% availability
Curious about your setup. Which nVidia box do you have? It’s been a while since I touched Kodi. Last time I played with it, I found that the addon ecosystem was hit and miss. Any suggestions there?
What plugins are you using? I have nvidia box and kodi and I am not aware of what you are describing!
If you really like it subscribe for one month, watch it and cancel.
But the worst parts of crave seems not the pricing but that they also can’t deliver any quality. I had it for a year via a forced Telus PikTv subscription and everything looked like 480p.
I want to watch some newer HBO stuff (house of dragons) but really don’t want to use this inferior service for it.
Pretty much the only thing I use crave for. They haven't been too strict on password sharing so I've been using a family member's account to watch it. In the end it may not even matter, supposedly they'll be losing the series in Canada soon.
You could see that as the price of a movie ticket!
> Without Even A Heads Up
Since it only affects new users, and existing users on the plan remain, who cares about a "heads up"?
Maybe it's newsworthy that they dropped the cheapest plan going forwards, but it's not as though there's some expectation that plan changes for new members are supposed to be announced months in advance or something.
When I go to the grocery store and strawberries are now $4.99 instead of $2.99 last week, I don't complain the supermarket didn't give me a "heads up".
I mean, a ton of people complain about the rising cost of groceries.
But nobody complains that the grocery store didn't warn them in advance.
So why does the article's headline think that price changes are supposed to be pre-announced? Netflix has done plenty of things that legitimately deserve criticism, but not pre-announcing a price change is a silly thing to judge them for.
It's a clickbait headline, trying to stir up outrage where it doesn't even make sense.
Presumably the grocery store didn't have everybody's email address.
Netflix doesn't have these people's e-mail addresses either. Because this is about increasing the price for new customers, not existing ones. And it has no idea who's going to sign up.
(Also, grocery stores very often do have the e-mail addresses of most of their regular shoppers, if they use a rewards program in order to get sale prices. But they certainly don't use it to daily price hikes.)
Netflix has the email address for people who don’t have an account yet but might in the near future want to subscribe to the cheapest plan?
I'm in Canada and keep thinking of ditching Netflix but I keep procrastinating maybe today is the day. Or tomorrow since Monday is my billing date $24.14 for Premium.
I can't recall when I last watched Netflix. Streaming services are the gym membership of the 21st century the companies hope we forget or find it a pain to cancel.
It just looks like the game is up. Every company is trying to raise prices and squeeze more, so that stock prices remain up.
If they could accept a lower stock price instead, they'd just be more stable, and retain loyalty on the other side of the recession curve.
Inflation is high. And before you say, "Record profits are causing inflation," that's only a part of the explanation. [1]
The fact is, the median-aged person was in diapers when their parents were getting double-digit mortgages. We are now looking at home loans and car loans at 7%. This is different from the last decade or two of low, stable inflation.
We should expect almost everything we buy to have significant price increases and wage increases much more frequently than we are used to. [2]
[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CURRCIR
[2] https://www.atlantafed.org/chcs/wage-growth-tracker?panel=1
They should have stayed private then. If you're issuing stock you better make sure it goes up or you're paying dividends or nobody will buy it.
Stock going up is not the purpose of public companies. In fact you should always assume that the current price of a security considers all available information and has no reason to diverge from natural market returns.
Company exists to return capital to shareholders. In the absence of a dividend, that has to be from stock price going up. If neither happens, leadership will be changed. Efficient market hypothesis is also nonsense.
Public companies are meant to have public voting rights. The capital part of it is not the priority. Also, it’s not “Efficient Market Hipothesis”. If you have material non public information you definitely can make alpha purchasing stocks. If you don’t, then you are only betting on a decentralized casino.
Soon they'll learn that eventually you run out of other peoples money
I get it, the ad tier probably makes a lot more revenue per-user than the ad-free basic plan. They’ve done the research (I assume) and I guess came to the conclusion that price-sensitive users will tolerate ads to save money, and the users that would have chosen basic solely because it was the cheapest option without ads will simply switch to the new cheapest ad-free option.
Either way, Netflix actually stands to make more money removing that tier.
However it’s also another barrier to me ever considering paying Netflix ever again. But we’re the minority of people.
Netflix increase prices. Reddit closes down free API access. Twitter introduces subscriptions.
I've noticed that people are quick to react negatively to such news however I feel like all of these services provide a real value and they are without any real competition.
Also these services are still better than traditional alternatives. I can cancel Netflix anytime and that alone is worth to me more than anything which cable could offer.
this makes total sense. Tech really does funnel money into a smaller set of society and the way to keep doing that is to raise prices on everyone, even if that means the majority of the people that are making way less a year than their employees.
Luckily, I was able just now to switch from Standard to Basic FWIW