Netflix - would you pay to see the catalog?

Randomface74 · 4 Sep 2020 at 10:11

I unsubbed from Netflix as there wasn't much I wanted to watch that I hadn't already seen. My decision to resub or not depends entirely on whether there's content on Netflix that I want to watch. But Netflix won't let me see the content without subscribing first!! Feels a lot like lootboxes / gambling to me. What do you think?

Netflix UK currently hides the catalog behind a paywall. This means customers are expected to pay for the product before knowing what they will receive.

This is particularly important because Netflix operates in other countries and provides different content in the UK, so USA advertising makes Netflix UK sound like it has more content than it actually does.

I tried to discuss this issue with Netflix UK but they would not budge. They didn't even seem to understand why someone would want to see the product before buying it. I asked for their official complaints process and they don't have one.

I tried to find out who regulates Netflix UK. Apparently it's not Ofcom. I saw somewhere that said it's Holland, but I don't see why the UK would delegate responsibility for the regulation of Netflix UK to Holland. Doesn't make any sense. Seems like the Wild West.

Pigeon_Killer · 4 Sep 2020 at 10:27

While Netflix could easily allow people to see their content before subbing, there are so many websites dedicated to listing their content it's not really an issue.

Haze · 4 Sep 2020 at 10:47

1st world problems for op....

CircleFaust · 4 Sep 2020 at 10:50

yeah i'd say there is a lot out there where you can see what's playing
also the great thing is you can just sign up for a month and then cancel if you don't like the content
unlike the BBC! (had to get a dig in

)

Hades · 4 Sep 2020 at 12:49

US Netflix content is easy to watch too.

But I agree they should show their catalogue to potential subscribers.

arknor · 4 Sep 2020 at 17:29

yea I always found it weird you can't easily see what the package includes and whether it's worth a resub or waiting longer

The_Arbiter · 4 Sep 2020 at 18:55

Try movieofthenight.com

Doesn't give the catalog, but it gives a half decent idea of what is available. Check the list view also.

I sub and unsub also. Monthly contracts are great imo. If it went to yearly i imagine they'd lose some custom.

Gray2233 · 4 Sep 2020 at 18:58

The_Arbiter said:
I sub and unsub also. Monthly contracts are great imo. If it went to yearly i imagine they'd lose some custom.

Agreed.

There's not a ton that really interests me on Netflix, so I sub for a month once a year or so to watch the shows I enjoy.

LuckyBenski · 13 Sep 2020 at 11:47

We've found this really handy for figuring out where to look for content, and occasionally whether to sub to something. Lets you search for a show/film and tells you what platforms it's on.

www.justwatch.com

glenimp617 · 13 Sep 2020 at 19:24

Hades said:
US Netflix content is easy to watch too.

But I agree they should show their catalogue to potential subscribers.

is there much difference these days? I know years ago I used to use unblock-us, but they got shut down. My VPN (torguard) can't do it unfortunately.

Who's the go to now?

Hades · 13 Sep 2020 at 21:02

TheOracle said:
is there much difference these days? I know years ago I used to use unblock-us, but they got shut down. My VPN (torguard) can't do it unfortunately.

Who's the go to now?

There isn't much difference in the catalogue. The only thing I've used it for is to watch old Twilight Zone episodes. ProtonVPN seems to work.

Kenai · 13 Sep 2020 at 22:00

billysielu said:
What do you think?

That a few seconds on Google is probably the easiest way to resolve your problem

https://uk.newonnetflix.info/catalogue/a2z/all/a

ZeroG · 14 Sep 2020 at 12:32

Hades said:
There isn't much difference in the catalogue. The only thing I've used it for is to watch old Twilight Zone episodes. ProtonVPN seems to work.

i wouldn't say that. US Netflix has almost twice as much content last time I checked. We do have some stuff they don't but in general they have much more content. Region content delivery should be a thing of the past in my opinion.

TheVoice · 14 Sep 2020 at 13:15

ZeroG said:
i wouldn't say that. US Netflix has almost twice as much content last time I checked. We do have some stuff they don't but in general they have much more content. Region content delivery should be a thing of the past in my opinion.

As long as different channels and services exist in different countries, there'll be differences in what they can offer. Parity across all regions would be near-impossible, especially with how fragmented the streaming industry is becoming.

As for the Netflix catalogue, I don't really see how it would constitute an issue that could be raised with the regulator even if they were covered by OFCOM.

ZeroG · 16 Sep 2020 at 08:34

TheVoice said:
As long as different channels and services exist in different countries, there'll be differences in what they can offer. Parity across all regions would be near-impossible, especially with how fragmented the streaming industry is becoming.

As for the Netflix catalogue, I don't really see how it would constitute an issue that could be raised with the regulator even if they were covered by OFCOM.

But this isn't just a TV channel in a country. Netflix is online and able to be delivered anywhere in the world that has access to the internet. If they offered the same service to everyone then there wouldn't be the issue of VPNs and downloading content that isn't available in a certain area.

LuckyBenski · 16 Sep 2020 at 09:51

ZeroG said:
But this isn't just a TV channel in a country. Netflix is online and able to be delivered anywhere in the world that has access to the internet. If they offered the same service to everyone then there wouldn't be the issue of VPNs and downloading content that isn't available in a certain area.

That's not how Netflix work and they wouldn't be able to. They have to negotiate the right to distribute (stream) in each region. A show from a national producer such as the BBC may be up for license to the USA now but must be exclusive in the UK for the first 6 months, for instance. Also Netflix only gain the rights for a fixed period. Being allowed to distribute to anywhere worldwide, or to distribute for the rest of time, is much harder to negotiate (and I mean BUY) than you'd think.

Distribution rights acquisition is probably a quarter of all Netflix's operational time/work - alongside marketing/sales/customer support, physically storing/encoding/distributing the content, and producing in-house content.

Don't get caught up in the fact you stream the content, Netflix's business is in gaining rights to TV content, not so much in delivering it. they're a content aggregator.

ZeroG · 16 Sep 2020 at 10:52

LuckyBenski said:
That's not how Netflix work and they wouldn't be able to. They have to negotiate the right to distribute (stream) in each region. A show from a national producer such as the BBC may be up for license to the USA now but must be exclusive in the UK for the first 6 months, for instance. Also Netflix only gain the rights for a fixed period. Being allowed to distribute to anywhere worldwide, or to distribute for the rest of time, is much harder to negotiate (and I mean BUY) than you'd think.

Distribution rights acquisition is probably a quarter of all Netflix's operational time/work - alongside marketing/sales/customer support, physically storing/encoding/distributing the content, and producing in-house content.

Don't get caught up in the fact you stream the content, Netflix's business is in gaining rights to TV content, not so much in delivering it. they're a content aggregator.

I know that's how it works. But I don't think it should work that way. Surely producers want their product in as many markets as possible and Netflix wants as much on their platform as possible to entice people. I don't mind that stuff doesn't stay on Netflix forever but it's annoying that I can't watch an American show for example because it's only on US Netflix. It's going to be even worse in the future with more and more streaming services popping up. I already subscribe to 4 different streaming services for film/tv and I still miss on out things I want to watch cause it's fragmented across so many different platforms.

TheVoice · 16 Sep 2020 at 11:10

I think we'd all like it to work that way but it won't as long as there are different services available in different countries. Individual studios/channels now have their own streaming services all over the world so something that's on Netflix or Amazon in the UK might be on NBC or Hulu's own service in the US.

There are even situations where Netflix-made stuff isn't available in all countries; the rights to Longmire got bought up by Netflix for the final season but it's never been available in the UK because TCM had the rights to broadcast it here before Netflix ever got involved.

ZeroG · 16 Sep 2020 at 11:11

TheVoice said:
I think we'd all like it to work that way but it won't as long as there are different services available in different countries. Individual studios/channels now have their own streaming services all over the world so something that's on Netflix or Amazon in the UK might be on NBC or Hulu's own service in the US.

There are even situations where Netflix-made stuff isn't available in all countries; the rights to Longmire got bought up by Netflix for the final season but it's never been available in the UK because TCM had the rights to broadcast it here before Netflix ever got involved.

And they wonder why people resort to downloading movies/tv..

LuckyBenski · 16 Sep 2020 at 11:22

The fragmentation is definitely an annoyance of our times. It's really expensive if you were to actually use all the services.