Netflix News

Comfortable atop the video streaming playing field, Netflix is now pivoting towards gamers. Without much ballyhoo, it’s acquired a number of studios over the past couple of years – studios that Netflix could use to develop games that line up with its exclusive content.

Feeling its oats, Netflix’s game lineup now totals more than 70 different titles for the members of its ad-free tier. Coming soon, subscribers to that tier can dive into games based on streaming hits like “Squid Game” and “Wednesday,” as well as the Netflix Stories app — a collection of interactive narrative games that the company is building out.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Netflix has plans to up its game even further, and has discussed a licensing deal that would allow it to release a game based on “Grand Theft Auto.” 

But can a company whose stock and trade are movies take on Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft and get gamers to move away from their PS2’s and X-Box’es and become “something for everyone” as it recently claimed? 

It could take a while, Jacqueline Corbelli, founder and CEO at BrightLine, a company that delivers ads for major streamers such as Disney and Hulu, told ConsumerAffairs.

“While Netflix's venture into gaming promises exciting possibilities, the challenges of adapting gaming technology from mobile and desktop platforms to TV streaming are considerable,” Corbelli said.

Can Netflix deliver what games require?

The biggest hurdles Corbelli sees Netflix having to address will be issues like latency -- the lag or delay you might see in the stream -- and complexity in creating seamless gaming experiences on TV.

In other words, Netflix is going to have to crawl before it walks and start with more casual games until TV technologies catch up more broadly to deliver more story-driven experiences to viewers, which will take more time.

“This move can be seen as a way to diversify their services, appealing to a wider audience,” Corbelli said, a feeling seconded by Yaroslav Melnyk, co-founder and CEO at kudos.tv.

“I think that their angle of reaching out to casual gamers or non-gamers is a smart play. It feels like a doorway for many to step into the gaming realm, which, in my view, is a positive ripple,” Melnyk contends.

However, both Melnyk and Corbelli think that capturing the attention of avid gamers might require more than just the casual gaming experience Netflix is serving up. 

“It will take a considerable amount of time and most importantly, investment in the evolution of TV streaming technologies before Netflix will be in the business of attracting serious gamers. TV streaming apps just cannot support that type of experience at this stage,” Corbelli said. 

“[However], transitioning some of their iconic movie titles into games, as they already announced, could be a strategy to spark interest among the dedicated gaming demographic and provide some short-term gains for their ‘new’ platform,” Melnyk added.

Release the hounds!

Will other streamers follow suit Netflix’s move? “It's possible. The gaming world has its appeal,” Kristoffer Thun, IT professional and gaming enthusiast, told ConsumerAffairs.

“On the upside, game streaming offers flexibility and accessibility.” The downside? Thun agrees with Corbelli that potential lag and ensuring quality can be challenges.

“It will be a nifty bonus for subscribers, but there's a feeling that maybe Netflix is charting unknown waters without a clear map,” he said.

As for the future of streamers developing gaming platforms, it’s likely going to be a wait-and-see situation. Apptopia reports that Netflix games have been downloaded 70.5 million times globally as of Sept. 20, but that’s less than 1% of Netflix’s 238 million subscribers who are playing Netflix’s games daily.

Not too many companies are going to be drooling over numbers like that – and the fact that the uphill climb will be long and hard for anyone who wants to reach the 400 million legions that games like “Candy Crush Saga” rule. 

However, competing at that level may not be Netflix’ goal. Thun contends that Netflix’ move could release the proverbial hounds and we could be looking at more variety and perhaps it simply wants a broader audience.

“But the key will be delivering a seamless experience. If streamers can nail that, they're on the right track,” he said.

If you have a Netflix account and share it with anyone who doesn’t live in your household, be prepared to face the music and pay up. The company has begun sending out emails to members who share Netflix accounts with friends and family who don’t live at the same address.

“A Netflix account is for use by one household,” the company said in the emails it’s sending infringers. “Everyone living in that household can use Netflix wherever they are — at home, on the go, on holiday — and take advantage of new features like Transfer Profile and Manage Access and Devices.”

“We recognize that our members have many entertainment choices. It’s why we continue to invest heavily in a wide variety of new films and TV shows — so whatever your taste, mood or language and whoever you’re watching with, there’s always something satisfying to watch on Netflix.”

Going forward, these are the options

From here on, Netflix account holders have two choices if they want to share their account: “buy” an upgrade for the other person for $7.99/mo., or tell that account-sharer to transfer their profile to an account of their own.

If you don’t know who the freeloaders are on your account, you should check what devices are listed on the account, sign out of the ones that shouldn’t have access, then change your password. Here’s a video explaining how to remove the extra devices.

For everyone who feared that the streaming service landscape would eventually be littered with advertisements, the earth moved another couple of inches in that direction last week.

Leading the concerns is Disney+. It’s only been a half year since Disney+ raised its ad-free subscription price, but its latest subscription totals have hit the wall.

The company now has 4 million fewer subscribers, but as the company frames the narrative, that’s okay. The Mouse’s spreadsheet shows that it’s actually closer to profitability because its losses are down 26% year over year. CEO Bob Iger likes what he sees so much that he’s indicated that Disney+ will raise prices again for its ad-free option before the year’s out.

Disney also announced last week that it'll start piping content from Hulu into its Disney+ app later this year. 

Ads are where it’s at

“The sad truth is that viewers who watch ads are better for business than those who don't. Commercial-free TV will become more of a luxury as a result,” says TechHive’s Jared Newman. In other words, consumers better start getting comfortable with ads, because they'll have to pay through the nose to avoid them.

Newman looked all the way back to 2019 to find out how we got here. It all began with Hulu which was the first to figure out that it could carry more money to the bank from ad-supported viewers than ad-free ones.

Even though the ad-supported customers paid less, the company made tons more simply because of all the money it made serving ads to those customers.

Eventually, that same light bulb lit up at Netflix. It too, says that its $6.99-per-month plan with ads brings in more money per subscriber than its standard $15.49/mo. plan in the U.S.

Others want more money, too, whether it’s from ad-free or ads-on options. HBO Max – er, make that just “Max” – is in the with-ads world too, and recently raised its monthly price by a dollar. A dollar might not sound like much, but it can add tens of millions a month to the company’s checking account.

Will Disney+ follow? Newman says it hasn’t shown its hand in that regard, yet. However, on a recent earnings call, Iger said his company’s last hike had “proven successful,” and that the next one will “better reflect the value of our content offerings.” 

Read those tea leaves as you like.

Tom and Charlotte rule the world

Reelgood – a streaming aggregator and app recommended earlier in ConsumerAffairs feature about streaming services – tells ConsumerAffairs that its eyeball-driven Top 10 is packed with new favorites this week. Tom Hanks’ comedy-drama movie A Man Called Otto and original show Queen Charlotte – both on Netflix – secured their place among the most popular titles this week, along with AppleTV+’s Silo at number three.

The entire Top 10 streaming shows go like this:

A Man Called Otto (Netflix)

The Diplomat (Netflix)

Jury Duty (available on Amazon's freevee)

Silo (on AppleTV+)

Queen Charlotte (Netflix)

Ghosted (on AppleTV+)

Succession (HBOMax)

Citadel (PrimeVideo)

Scream VI (Paramount+), and

Peter Pan & Wendy (Disney+)

If you don’t like ads in your streaming content, are you in for a surprise. According to new data from NPAW, a streaming analytics company, 76% of subscription streaming video-on-demand (VOD) services plan to pump up the volume of ads in their content over the next two years.

Frankly, it’s all because every streaming service’s slice of the pie keeps getting smaller and smaller. Where there was once a Netflix, an HBO, a Starz, and a couple more, there are now more than 60 vying for eyeballs. And about the only way to make money and keep the lights on in a field that crowded is to commercialize content.

“Online video advertising is the fastest growing market,” noted Marija Masalskis, senior principal analyst, media and entertainment, at Omdia, speaking at a recent industry conference.

The silver lining

There’s actually a silver lining inside this cloud. More than half of the VODs interviewed said they’re looking to build out a hybrid model, one where there’s a budget’ish ad-supported tier plus a premium, subscription-based one, kind of like Netflix began doing earlier this year.

And industry savants say that their research shows consumers aren’t as ad-averse as one might think and, because of that, the projected growth for the free ad-supported (FAST) market is strong.

“We are projecting that this market will breach $12 billion [in revenue] globally in the next five years,” Masalskis said. “The U.S. will remain the largest territory in FAST, but it is growing in a number of regions globally as well.”

If you’re not “FAST’ing,” maybe you should reconsider

An unbelievable number of video streaming viewers in the U.S. are actually using free streaming services according to Horowitz’s latest State of Media, Entertainment & Tech: Subscriptions 2023 study. The study shows that at least once a month, 69% of video watchers are going the “FAST” option, a 27% jump from 2019. 

Some of those consumers might be trying to cut back on the $30-$60 they’re shelling out every month for all the services they subscribe to or finally figuring out that they just don’t have the time to watch all there is to offer. But the cost of those services is going to get worse before it gets better.

Disney+ and Hulu have already bumped up their monthly price, and Google’s YouTube is raising its price to $73 per month for its big fat bundle of local and network channels, cable news, live sports, and entertainment. 

ConsumerAffairs’ trusted authority on cord-cutting, Jared Newman, says that if you’re fed up with paying for all that content, you do have some free, FAST-driven options. In fact, lots of them.

Plenty of news sources

If you’re paying for cable when all you really watch little more than the local or national news, Newman says that you can get your local news content for free on NewsOn, Vuit, Stirr, Local Now, Haystack News, Tubi, the Roku Channel, or Amazon’s Fire TV News app, not to mention the local news station’s own website.

As far as national news is concerned, he recommends Pluto TV, Tubi, The Roku Channel, Xumo, Sling TV Freestream, and Redbox, which all offer round-the-clock streaming news channels including NBC and CBS. 

“If you’re into a particular show from cable, chances are it’s also available to stream without a big bundle,” Newman said. “FX, for instance, makes all its original shows available on Hulu, while Bravo shows are now available on Peacock.”

To see where your favorite shows are available to stream, he suggests searching on Reelgood or using the search feature on your streaming device. Wrapping up his advice, Newman said, “And remember, there are many ways to save on these individual streaming services, especially if you don’t subscribe to them all at once.” 

Who among us hasn’t shared a password or two among friends and family? Well, those free rides may soon be over starting with a new Netflix policy.

The company has been wringing its hands for nearly six months trying to figure out how to approach its tsunami of sharing which is estimated to be 33% of all Netflix subscribers.

Doing the math, that’s a fairly substantial choke on the company’s revenue stream, too – nearly $739 million a month possibly lost to password-sharing.

Netflix isn’t going to try and recoup all that lost revenue by making every password sharer repent for their sins, but it is instituting a plan that it thinks is a win-win. Beginning in early 2023, it will add fees to anyone’s plan who has “extra member” sub-accounts outside of a subscriber's household.

How much is this going to cost you?

While the company did announce its intentions, it remained mum on how much this is going to cost any rogue customer. However, the fee schematic is currently being tested in a handful of Latin American countries and weighs in at close to a fourth the rate of a "standard" Netflix plan. 

Grumbling aside, if that winds up being the case in the U.S., each subaccount would cost somewhere between $3.50 and $4, a far cry from being a total deal breaker. Besides, Netflix can probably make up more of its lost revenue as new subscribers buy into its new ad-supported streaming service. 

The forecast for that new ad-driven model is good, at least in the company’s eyes. “We really anticipate that [the ads-based plan] is going to be a pro-consumer model that will be more attractive, bring more members in because the consumer basic price is low,” Gregory K. Peters COO & Chief Product Officer of Netflix, commented in the company’s latest earnings call.

If you can put up with a few ads, Netflix has a new deal for you.

As forecast in July, the mother of all streaming services is rolling out “Basic with Ads” beginning November 3. The new tier is priced at $6.99 a month and available in the U.S. and 11 other countries.

Subscribers who pay for other packages can rest easy, too. They will not be impacted in any way, shape, or form, and still have the Basic $9.99/month, Standard $15.49/month, and Premium $19.99/month

The difference between Basic and Basic with Ads

The company says that Basic with Ads comes with the same features as the current Basic plan, but just a few shades different. 

Still the same: Netflix says that the ad-supported tier will have a wide variety of great TV shows and movies; a personalized viewing experience; and will be available on a wide range of TV and mobile devices.

One plus is that where some subscription services make consumers pay for a whole year to get a big discount, Netflix isn’t. It says subscribers can change or cancel their plan at any time.

New and different: Where is Netflix cutting back? Video quality up to 720p/HD (the same as its Basic plan); a limited number of movies and TV shows won't be available due to licensing restrictions, which the company says it’s working with rights holders to turn around; and there’s no ability to download titles so you can watch something on-the-go.

Now, about the ads: When it comes to ads, Netflix said the new package will have an average of four to five minutes of ads per hour. That's a tad more than the likes of HBO Max and Peacock which reportedly cap ads at under five minutes per hour.

How will those ads play out? To begin with, ads will be 15 or 30 seconds in length and play both before and during shows and films. For parents who want to shield their children from adult’ish ads that might contain sex, nudity, or graphic violence, not to worry – at least, not too much. Netflix said that advertisers have the “ability” to prevent ads from appearing on content that might be inconsistent with their brand. Whether that “ability” comes with agreements from advertisers is too early to tell. 

And other streamings are raising prices

Down the streaming street, Netflix’ competitors are going the other way with their prices. Just this week, Hulu raised the price of its ad-supported on-demand service from $7 to $8 per month, and its ad-free tier from $13 to $15 per month. 

CordCutter’s Jared Newman said that Disney is also raising the price of Hulu + Live TV, Disney+, and the Disney bundle, a package that includes Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+, on December 8. 

In fact, consumers can expect more bundling – which, like cable TV packages, comes with channels you don’t want.

“The main takeaway here is that Disney really just wants you to bundle everything together, hence the major price hikes on all its individual services, and relatively modest hikes on the Disney bundle,” Newman said, adding that streaming lovers better get ready because we may well be entering the era of nickel and diming.