These people could’ve archived every disc they got in the mail and together that’d probably be quite a selection. It’s not like they couldn’t have known the DVD rental business was eventually coming to an end.
Comment on Netflix Prepares to Send Its Final Red Envelope
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I’m on another forum which includes a bunch of film buffs who are fans of the obscure and they are mourning the end of this era of Netflix because so many films are now inaccessible to them. Apparently there are a couple of small-time operations trying to fill the gap, but they don’t have the selection. And piracy doesn’t usually give you all the bonus features of a DVD, especially if it’s a relatively unknown movie, and you can’t always find a copy to download.
So this is a huge loss for them.
I realize this has become a non-tenable business for Netflix, I just wish they were willing to sell their stock to another company that wants to provide the same service.
narc0tic_bird@lemm.ee 1 year ago
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 year ago
There are hundreds or even thousands of potential things they could have rented in the future which are now unavailable to them except for spending a huge amount of money on a disc so rare that it would cost them $200.
thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com 1 year ago
It also fucks over people in rural areas without high speed internet. My mom only gets 3Mbps on a good day, and definitely can’t stream anything without a ton of buffering.
kaitco@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I wish they would sell their stock as well and let someone else pick up the pieces. I’ve had this service since like 2006 or something; literally since before Blockbuster closed. I’ve watched hundreds of shows and films through them and even as I was trying to clear out my queue in this last couple months, there were still a ton that you just couldn’t find elsewhere.
The next closest thing will be to buy off Amazon or something as Used and just sell them back when I’m done, but it’s not the same. A bunch of my friends laughed when I said I was sad this service was ending because they were like “wtf? Who gets/uses DVDs??” But, this service has been a major source of entertainment for me over the years.
Like, you can always pirate anything popular, but getting into random French films that you’d never see elsewhere…The streaming collection has never been quite as robust because of various rights, and it’s even worse now that everyone has their own streaming service. This is very likely going to be the move that leads me to finally cancel Netflix entirely.
Venomnik0@lemm.ee 1 year ago
As they later pay $17 to barely watch any movies or have their favorite and shows get removed or cancelled for no reason.
thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com 1 year ago
That’s mostly on the content owners, not Netflix. They can’t control other companies from pulling their content to foolishly set up yet another streaming service.
Canceling shows is definitely on them, though.
Sendbeer@lemm.ee 1 year ago
It was a great value! I didn’t constantly subscribe because I am not a big movie buff but I had looked into reupping my sub about 2-3 weeks before they announced the closure but it kept erroring out. I tried a few more times after that figuring it would be fun to ride it off into the sunset as it closed but I think they must have just shut down new subscribers. But $15 a month and very little limitations on what kind of movie you could select. It was Way better than the limited options streaming is giving us.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Exactly. The only real option now is purchase and hope you can sell it back. And even then, it could be ridiculously expensive. Most of the people who do this don’t have the time or the money to spend on such a venture. It would be different if there were still video stores. Even Blockbuster let you make requests.
The limitation of obscure films is a real loss to a lot of people. As they said, 50,000 rentals a week. That’s not nothing. I mean, it is for Netflix, but it’s not nothing for people who really love film. They have little recourse.