Netflix have been making a profit since 2003 and only recently introduced ads. They are just trying to squeeze more profit.
Comment on All the ways streaming services are aggravating their subscribers this week
FortuneMisteller@lemmy.world 1 month ago
They let people believe that streaming is cheap, but it is not. A server can send streams to many people at the same time, but not so many as it seems and sever up time is a cost, in terms of energy and in terms of sysadmin time. Maintenance of the network is also expensive, especially in the US where most of the people live in low density neighbourhoods.
The dirty cheap subscriptions were meant to attract new customers, the service was heavily subsidized. The companies looked profitable just because other companies bought more ad space than necessary. Overadvertising is the preferred method to give stealth subsidies, but it is a cost for the other businesses of the network. After a while they have to shift those costs to the customers.
Oaksey@lemmy.world 1 month ago
MSids@lemmy.world 1 month ago
When I worked at an internet provider, Netflix sent us a cache (I’m sure they have several now). I can’t imagine it cost them more than a few thousand dollars, as it was just a bare bones box full of hard drives. We gave them free power, internet, and rack space in our data center. Every night during the slow period it would fill up with whatever they thought would stream the next day.
There was nothing to do with neighborhoods, the cache served customers all over Maine and they didn’t pay us anything. Netflix’s costs are more likely content and licensing.
darganon@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Netflix is a public company, you can just go look at how wrong you are about this.
They took in $9.3 billion in Q1 2024, and spent $702 million on “technology” and $3.7 billion on adding “content assets”
Their net profit was $2.3 billion, for one quarter. They could afford to just charge less money, but the line must go up.
HopingForBetter@lemmy.today 1 month ago
Those poor multi-billion dollar…
Nope, I cannot even finish typing that sentence.
Fuck 'em.
nyctre@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Yeah, that could be true. But seeing as how 99% of companies are following the same business model of squeezing more and more profit out of people, I’m gonna go with Occam’s razor on this one and say they’re most likely just trying to make more money because they can. As long as it keeps working, they’ll keep doing it.
FortuneMisteller@lemmy.world 1 month ago
To get an idea of the cost choose any cloud service and see how much you pay for the server usage by the hour. Try to llok at all the other costs involved in the business, production of dedicated content is not cheap. All the company staff, the administration and the billing have a cost.
Do not go by assumptions, measure, try to get an idea of the real costs.
KillerWhale@orcas.enjoying.yachts 1 month ago
I’m sure the cloud cost that is advertised to me is there same as what would be provided to a multinational corp.
Valmond@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I have access to 40€/month 10Gb symmetric (this is a commercial offer, so it’s obviously cheaper for them). Now tell me bandwith is so so expensive.
It was expensive back in the day, not so much any more, and prices plunge every year.