Netflix enshittification will continue until morale improves

197 comments

After quitting i feel like im missing out on nothing. I sail the seas if i actually need anything, and it probably wasn't on netflix anyway
- I never had Netflix. Or any streaming subscription. I considered it once, several years ago, but I couldn't justify it at prices then, and I sure as shit won't waste my money now. I'll help them save their bandwidth.
- I had Netflix and Hulu about 10 years ago and it was worth it. Then I dropped Netflix and got Prime. Dropped Prime and Hulu then did Disney+ bundle...that was good but now I sail the seas with friends. So much better. So many movies and shows I would have missed out on.
- I didn't mind the small increase to 11.99, but the way they're doing this just rubs me the wrong way.
  They're not only increasing the sub price, but tinkering with the display quality too AND laying people off... Netflix just doesn't deserve my cash when I can access most of this content via other means.
  I got rid of a bunch of subs at the beginning of the year, getting rid of NF too.

Kinda shitty of the chart creator to leave out 2018 and 2021. While the point still stands, it biases it against Netflix.
It’s just purposefully misleading. Not cool, chart maker dude. Not cool.
- This is not even a correct chart.
  
  I wasn’t going to go that far and get blasted with comments - but I agree.
- What happened in those years and why were they omitted? It's odd that they just leave it out with (as far as I could tell from the linked source) no explanation for that.
  
  Nothing happened. There was no price increase those years. The chart isn't misleading at all, OP just cut off the title, "Netflix Price Hikes 2011-2023." 2018 and 2021 aren't relevant because there was no change.
- That is the article that made this chart.
  https://flixed.io/netflix-price-hikes
  If you want another one that shows the same basic increase in prices here is another one from statista.
  https://www.statista.com/chart/16684/netflix-subscription-prices-in-the-united-states/

For a streaming platform to be actually useful it needs to be a almost monopoly like steam. Netflix had a chance but missed the spot, due to the greed of Studios. So it's back to fractured marked until someone comes with a fresh idea of how to distribute video.
- Or many service providers competing on price, quality of service and features, not competing on exclusivity like they do now.
  Like grocery stores. Imagine if only one chain has the exclusive rights to sell potatoes and another one has rights to pasta. They can ask whatever price they want, because what you gonna do? Go to another store to get your 'taters cheaper? Hah, you'll cry and you'll pay what we ask! (BTW, growing your own potatos and sharing them with your neighbor infringes on our rights and is illegal. We'll sue you to oblivion if we catch you doing it.)
  
  I think a better example is just physical media sales. Retailers generally all carried the same physical stock. You would occasionally see special editions or something that might only be available at certain stores, but it was extremely rare to only be able to buy certain titles at certain retailers.
  Or the prime example: movie theaters. We passed regulations to prevent movie theaters from being bought by studios and used as exclusive avenues for the distribution of certain media. You had a movie, you released it to all movie theaters that wanted it, you couldn't just make a deal or buy out Regal or Cinemark, or make your own theater. It ensured a level playing field.
  One of the biggest problems with streaming that we have simply refused to acknowledge is that the safeguards necessary to create a healthy market, the safeguards we've used previously with other distribution models, were never put in place. And we're seeing the fallout of that now.
  
  Does not work for media, since media is a good that you need a specific version of. You don't really care what potatoes you buy (simplification) but if you want to watch a specific show, movie or play a game -you can't really subsidize it with another. So exclusivity does not work for potatoes but works for media. We would need a global overhaul of copyright to work this one out.
  
  Imagine having to pay for your potato subscription even if you're only eating pasta this month but maybe next month will be 'tatember
  
  This is the perfect comparison!
  
  You wouldn't download a potato
  Oh yes, I would!
  
  Not a great analogy since pasta is easy to make potatoes are easy to grow.
- No, it doesnt have to be. Look at Spotify vs Apple Music, vs tidal etc. full catalogues at all of them. It’s the business model that needs to change.
  
  Good point, I think it might have to do with the way music is differently licensed. You will often have a "monopolistic" rights management organization like BMI in USA whereas rights for video and games the rights management lies more with the overarching productions companies.
- TBH Steam feels like a ticking timebomb. At some point Valve is going to get a new shite CEO or something and everyone will go "oh..."
  
  If Gabe cares, he will make a foundation or something.
  
  Absolutely. I don't think Steam is exactly malicious (particularly when compared with publicly traded corporations,) but that said the framework is firmly in place to screw over the vast majority of non-console gamers with a snap of the fingers or a meeting of the board.
  The community is slow walking into horse armor (or paid mods if one prefers,) again.
  
  I've been thinking about that. It's the one walled garden I don't mind, I've poured shameful amounts into it but the thought is always there in the background that it can't go on like this forever.
  At the end of the day I don't mind too much and just try to enjoy it while it lasts, since worst comes to worst I'll just have to sacrifice some convenience and dive back into full-time piracy to regain access to the vast majority of the content anyway. The wonders of an open platform!
- Little unfair to say they "missed" anything when they can't control what studios do with their licenses.
  I still see people occasionally complain that Netflix "got rid" of stuff, like the Office. There's a lot of shitty things you can blame Netflix for, but that isn't one of them.
  It's also not new. HBO, Showtime, Stars, etc all had rotating on-demand catalogs for years before Netflix, with content appearing briefly before being removed, and no one thought that was odd. I never once heard anyone suggest HBO was shit because Austin Powers or whatever was taken off it. It came with the understanding this content was not permanently available.
  Part of it is that people had a bad understanding of what Netflix was, and assumed it would be a permanent replacement for a personal collection. That was always a foolish mindset.
  
  Little unfair to say they “missed” anything when they can’t control what studios do with their licenses.
  Little unfair of your to leave out:
  due to the greed of Studios
  Wich makes clear, I don't blame netflix.
- I'm not sure why there are always monopoly apologists popping up in these. You know Netflix isn't any less greedy than the studios, right? A private monopoly isn't a good thing.
  
  Why are you that antagonizing?
  A private monopoly isn’t a good thing.
  Most times. But for media, people want to have all their media in one place for a cheap price - so far only monopolistic or oligopolistic services were able to provide that. It worked quite well for games and in some form for music (you will often have single right management companies in the music industry - like BMI in USA or GEMA in Germany). But in general, I would agree that monopolies (outside natural monopolies and those should be run by the state) are unfavorable for the customer.
- Netflix started out as a blessing. That's why I bought a subscribtion intially. Nowadays they've been screwed over as much as I have and they suck as much as every other service, but I'm sticking with Netflix. It is the most convenient method for my kids to watch their stupid cartoons and I also get to enjoy something every once in a while. I've tried others, but it's not worth it.
  
  I hate subscription models. After adobe, never again.
- We have a way of doing that.
  It's called Radarr, Sonarr, Jellyfin and a big fuck-off hard drive, and they won't like it.
  But yeah, if there was a service with everything in high quality (up to 4K Blu-ray quality for those with the bandwidth) for like £30 a month (with no ads ever, and configurable UI that doesn't try playing the next episode the millisecond the last one finishes), then they'd get paid for it. The longer they wait, the more entrenched into my setup I'll be, and harder to wean off it.
  
  It's so damn great to just be able to power on the TV and instantly start watching what I want.
  No navigating through a mess of a menu. No pre roll ads. No "recommended" content all over my stuff. No thinking of which service has what. It's also a bit faster since I can stream locally.

VPNs are much cheaper than Netflix, torrents don’t have ads, it’s always perfect quality, and the content catalog is excellent.
- The only difference is when you want to watch in another primary language, for children and so. Torrents are great for popular stuff in a popular language. Not so great otherwise.
  
  Yeah convenience is what still keeps me on subscriptions. With torrents I have to find 2 versions of the movie or with I have luck I can find a dual audio version. Besides that I have to find the subtitles for the movie.. Sometimes is hard to find a synchronized one in the first try..sometimes jellyfin just doesn't show the subtitles right and the text gets out of sync even with the right sub file..too much trouble

Their subscriber rate goes up anyway, so they dont care.
Most of the people are to lazy or dont care enough to vote with their wallet unfortunately
- You're not gonna like this but that is voting with your wallet! They are voting yes since they are paying for it. The truth is, we are in the minority. The majority still finds Netflix affordable.
  
  But is that so bad? Someone has to pay for the content they produce. Just not me.
- I went to get a new phone plan and one of the plans I looked at has Netflix included. Am I counted as a subscriber if it comes bundled with something else I need, but never use Netflix?
  
  I got this same deal from T-Mobile a while back, it gave Netflix with two screens.
  Eventually my Dad went and got an upgrade and they raised his price. He asked to join my plan so we split the bill.
  Easy, two screens two accounts, we each had our own login through Netflix family.
  I have since moved away for a job, and now he can't use Netflix because we have different addresses. We can't use a license we rightfully own as it was originally sold to us.
  I wish they offered another video service instead. I'd rather swap to it and not even use it just to spite the hasty cash grab Netflix made.
  
  yes you are because the plan has some sort of arrangement with netflix whwre they probably get a reduced price, but still counts you as a subscriber
- Today they probably groan and attribute it to inflation tbh

Why is 2018 and 2021 skipped over?
- Do you really think these years existed?
  
  Granted, my memory isn't great. But I think so. Maybe? I'm not sure any more.
- They didn't fit the agenda so they had to be removed.

And their catalog is actually super small now. My wife and I watch a bunch of horror movies, and I think there's only like 20. They try to pad that number by pretending that foreign films are actually in English.
- And their recommendation engine sucks.
  Netflix used to be famously good at suggesting films. Articles were written about it, and there was even a cash reward for anyone who could contribute to its performance. Then it just turned to shit.
  And the funny thing is that it would have helped counteract the shrinking library. Sure, there would be fewer films on the platform, so you'd be less likely to find a specific title, but at least you could select a film Netflix recommended based on your past ratings and be fairly confident you'd enjoy it. Now? Absolutely not.
  
  My bachelors thesis was basically about recommender systems like this. Netflix truly is a sunken ship.
  
  I find the same thing with music streaming on Spotify. I used to discover lots of new music I liked on it but these days I can't get it to generate an interesting playlist. It's songs I already know interspersed with things that are boring. Seems like the recommendations got worse.
  
  Hell, I remember when they had 'Max' back when I watched on my PS3. I absolutely loved that it would ask me a bunch of questions and then give me a movie to watch. I'm surprised I haven't seen that more around, that was an amazing feature.
- And they change the pictures around all the time to make you think it's something new, when in fact you've seen it before. And because it's bland as all fuck, you notice this like 45 minutes in.
  
  It isn't just the cover art, they also A/B descriptions. And some of them are so different they're basically lies.
- Or they pad it with a ton of absolute garbage
- I've been spending the last 2 days downloading a bunch of horror, ramping up for when I finally get rid of the rest of our subcription services. I can't even remember when Netflix's horror selection was even remotely good. Like they have The Ritual and Apostle, but yeah it's mostly crap.
- They do have an extensive selection of stand up. More than the others
- Yeah the foreign films coming up are the worst. I’m sure it’s great for the people who speak those languages but I don’t generally find it entertaining to watch with subtitles. It’s annoying when they keep coming up on recommended and even worse when it takes more clicks to see the language then to just start it.
  Somehow Netflix thinks I speak Norwegian and I didn’t see a way to turn that off
  Anyway -1 premium account, when they started down their path to enshittification
  
  I hate Netflix as much as anyone here but "how dare Netflix recommend foreign content to me" is the most American thing I've ever heard.

Price increase alone isn't enshittification. But the amount and quality of what they offer is dropping at the same time.
- Agreed. Price increase is normal inflation is everywhere.
  The number of insane limitations they impose is not acceptable however.
  
  Please do not normalize this rampant artificial inflation. There is no reason prices should be as high as they are. None. Corporate profits are higher than ever. This is pure and simple corporate greed. This should not be normal.

And yet, they got 13 million new subscribers last 3 months
- Does Netflix still do the "free trial period" and "get free months if a friend sent you" thing?
  Are there any numbers about how many unsubscribers to compare to the subscribers? That'd be a juicy number.
- We moved from paying for a premium family plan to just using the free ads-based netflix plan provided by the T-Mobile.
- Why can't people live without Netflix? Don't they have a job, a family, OR a hobby?
  I am honestly confused...
  
  Movies and TV are some peoples' hobbies. I have a co-worker who used to spend $300/mo on a cable bill because she had all the movie channels and stuff. She watched tons of movies and shows. At first I thought she was weird for watching so much TV, but then I thought about how much gaming I do, and realized "Oh, that's just her hobby like gaming is mine." Granted, I'm not spending $300/mo on gaming, but people do tend to spend money on hobbies. Sometimes even more than $300/mo.
  Anyway, I've been letting her use my Netflix account -- surprisingly neither of us have seen anything from Netflix about it -- for the last several years. She recently (finally) got a Smart TV so she cancelled her crazy-ass cable package and I think pays for YouTube TV now. I'm sure she's watching just as much as TV and movies as ever, but at least she's saving some money.
  
  Same reason people can't get off Twitter and other social platforms.
- I think of it like those people are subsidizing my free content.
  If no one subscribes, we don't get Love, Death and Robots season 3 4!
  
  Ooh boy, do I have some good news for you!
- Gross or net?
- What they don't advertise is how many of those "new" subscribers are actually from their "emerging" markets such as India, where a subscription price is peanuts. Also, im fairly certain these numbers are intentionally skewed to paint a better picture as they lump in all the "free" accounts people get with their other subscriptions.
  I get Paramount+ free with Walmart+. I get Hulu/Netflix/AppleTV with Tmobile Mobile. I get Max with ATT Fiber.
  I'm sure that these streaming companies have more new subscribers when they literally give it away and simultaneously strangling their existing consumers. It's more of a question of how long is it sustainable for them to raise prices every time they're not going to have a record quarter.

Can't enshittificate our torrent clients 🤷
- µTorrent would like a word
  
  Who still uses that garbage? qBittorent is the same thing except theres no adware or spyware.
  
  Still rocking 2.2.1 Don't think I'll ever be able to upgrade
- Utorrent moment
- Here here!

standard stayed the same price for a whole year so i guess that it's due for a price hike

I get that "enshitification" is the hot new buzzword but cold we please give it a rest. Reading this community you start to think that people can't express that the Internet is not to their liking in any other way.
- "Enshitification" does not mean "I don't like it". It is specifically about platforms that start out looking too good to be true and turn to shit when the user base is locked in. The term is generally used for cases where the decline in quality was pre-planned and not due to external factors. Using the same term each time is, in my opinion, an appropriate way to point out just how common this pattern is.
  
  I think Dr CD outlined a specific arc that companies follow, but the term has been co-opted to mean any process that drives out competition before turning the screws on their customers. Did Netflix follow the three steps?
  Netflix was certainly good to its subscribers 15 years ago.
  Were they then good to their business customers (studios) at the cost of the users? I don't think they were ever good to studios.
  Have they now clawed back surpluses for themselves? Abso-fuckin-lutely.
  I think step 2 is the key to the original definition, and the one commenters often ignore. All companies burn cash to get started. All companies try to become a monopoly, and monetize everything once they do.
  
  Yes, it is frequently misused, but not in this case.
- You're in the piracy sub. A large part of the conversation is going to be about the late-stage capitalism that is driving us to piracy.
- "Enshitification" means a service getting worse in order to charge their customers extra for a service similar to their previously good one. If we're using the word too much, it's because it's happening too much.
  
  I'm fully aware of what the word means, but I'm sick of it being used so often. There are plenty of other words in the English language to describe the situation.
- https://youtu.be/rimtaSgGz_4
  It's very enshitification
  
  Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  https://piped.video/rimtaSgGz_4
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
  
  I was there!
- No. That is the word. It's not a buzzword. It's a statement.
- The graph literally demonstrates the enshittification.
- I might finally add it to my blocklist, I get why some people reach for it but it’s way overused

I wouldn't subscribe to Netflix if it saved their families from cancer. Stop fucking increasing your prices while you decrease service.

I think I’m going to buy one of those sketchy streaming boxes with thousands of channels.
That or learn how to download and host my own content.
Anyone have any thoughts or ideas?
Edit: just realized what sub I’m in. Guess I better start reading up.
- Stremio and if you got time + hardware jellyfin, then like ever base is covered
- Buy PIA VPN. Look up a guide to setup Plex, radarr, sonarr, and jackett. You can get fancier once you're comfortable with how everything works
- Like the commenter below said, Streamio is the answer. We use Streamio with Torrentio plug in running on a cheap windows PC and its been very good so far.
- I wish there was something like this but in Czech language
- Don't. They usually have annoying line of sight remotes, buffer all the time, and try to send spam email in your name.
- A NAS or an old PC for hosting Plex and I'm not sure if Nvidia is still updating the Nvidia Shield TV, that one was one if not the best Android TV box

After seeing this post a couple times (which speaks to its relevance) it got me thinking that enshittification (of the world) will definitely continue until our morale improves, as in until we make them stop. Are there any online collectives that work together to stop this tomfoolery?
- I didn’t see the OP’s pic but these groups generally work against enshitification of the world:
  !asshole_crappy_design@slrpnk.net
  !activist_investing@lemmy.whynotdrs.org
  !escapebigtech@lemmy.escapebigtech.info
  !cyber_activism@sopuli.xyz
  !netneutrality@sopuli.xyz
  !right_to_unplug@sopuli.xyz
  !buyitforlife@slrpnk.net
  !anticonsumption@sopuli.xyz
  !fightforprivacy@feddit.ch
  !offgrid@slrpnk.net
  !foss@beehaw.net
  !privacy@links.hackliberty.org
  !climate_action_individual@slrpnk.net
  Notice that none of those communities are on Cloudflared instances (thus also avoid propagating the enshitified portion of the fedi).
  
  Thats awesome! Thank you very much!
- The only way to stop this is bringing down capitalism.
  
  Long term, this is probably the consequence. But to delete a giant tree (or tumour, decide your own mental image) you have to cut it back, then cut it down, then rip out the roots, one after the other.
  You can also rip it out at once but you need giant machines and will cause tons of damage to the environment and leave a giant crater.
  I dont think capitalism is even the whole tree. Its actually greed and selfishness which needs to go.
  People who miss the basic empathy to take from others just because they can need to be educated and - if needed - contained and pathologized as to keep them from winning against the fair and „gullible“. This will be insanely complex and long to eradicate that.
  But step one is joining a collective to change things. All positive change came from collectives, never from individuals. Individuals are easy to beat, to intimidate, to silence. But groups are very hard to do this to.
  Doing something to lift the dread off your heart and getting change going is the most sane approach imo.
  
  crony capitalism
  
  Or limiting it at least. Instead of the free for all big business American and Chinese version.
  
  Ending capitalism is not the /only/ way. Within a capitalistic system, you can boycott shit. Most consumers are pushovers but it doesn’t have to be that way. I’m boycotting hundreds of shitty companies. Off the top of my head:
  Amazon
  Cloudflare
  Microsoft
  Facebook
  Google
  Apple
  (surveillance advertisers in general)
  (all closed-source s/w)
  HP
  Proctor & Gamble
  Unilever
  all ALEC members (American Express, Anheuser Busch, Boeing, CenturyLink, Charter Communications, Chevron, FedEx, Motorola, PNC bank, Sony, TimeWarner)
  many shitty banks
  Paypal
  AT&T
  GMA members (Coke, Pepsi, Kraft - Heinz, Kellogg’s, General Mills, McCormick, Hormel, Smucker)
  BetterThanCashAlliance.org members (visa, mastercard, unilever) -- war on cash
  Bayar-Monsanto
  Dupont
  Hershey
  Nestlé
  Exxon/Mobil
  Comcast
  Koch
  Home Depot
  Lowes
  …etc
  Those are all shitty companies that significantly worsen the world. Giving money or data to any of them contributes to enshitification of the world.
  Of course it’s an option to stop supporting assholes. Become ethical. Be the change you want to see.
- Are there any online collectives that work together to stop this tomfoolery?
  Same as it has been for the last 100 years: Vote with your money. If you don't like the product/service, don't buy it. Stop thinking you can force them to change their offering.
  
  Vote with your money.
  I really hate this phrase. It basically is saying that if you have more money then you have more "votes".
  Or to put it in another way: If you have more money you matter more.
  
  Great idea. Next we leave countries that become autocracies.
  Na fam. First the autocrats burn.
  
  Same as it has been for the last 100 years: Vote with your money. If you don’t like the product/service, don’t buy it. Stop thinking you can force them to change their offering.
  Oh yeah, it is * S.U.P.E.R * effective /sarcasm

It's included with our cellular plan. If they drop it, I be returning to the high seas, yarr.
- What good content is still on there I have nearly nothing from Netflix in my Mediathek
  
  I really enjoyed the live-action One Piece series much more that I thought I would. Other than that, we'll watch the occasional bad horror flick or goofy comedy.
  
  If you use a VPN, change your country and see if that affects the content you're offered. I'm in Manchester according to my VPN, and Netflix is offering me tons of British sitcoms and dramas, shows not available in my home country.
- Same. I would definitely be one of the people complaining if I wasn't getting it for free.