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The video streaming service plans to spend up to $8bn on content next year to compete with fast-growing rivals.
Netflix will issue bonds to investors, although the interest rate it will pay has yet to be decided, the company said in a statement.
Netflix plans to release 80 films next year, but some analysts are wary about its cash burn and debt interest costs.
The company's latest debt fundraising is its largest so far, and the fourth time in three years it has raised more than $1bn by issuing bonds.
Earlier this month, Netflix said it would raise prices in countries including the UK and US for the first time in two years.
Has Netflix added enough original material to make up for the licensed content they've dropped and the price increase they mean to enact?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday October 24 2017, @11:43PM (4 children)
Passive VR content: the ultimate laziness from a consumer standpoint (although not a creator standpoint).
Taking full advantage of 360 degrees requires a new standard in cinematography and direction. Multiple things may be happening at once within "the frame". Subtle details add to the illusion or distract if absent.
Adding interactivity morphs it from film to game development. Powerful AI/computers will be needed to create an entire virtual world that responds to the player's actions, unless everything is very narrowly scripted with only a few choices.
Graphics still has a long way to go to make open world video games look as good as pre-rendered CGI films (pick whichever one you think looks the best for the comparison, maybe an Avengers film, since they will only be getting better).
But back to your assessment of Netflix. Netflix is doing just fine [soylentnews.org]. If Netflix runs into trouble in the next 5 years, it will probably be because of its many competitors (Amazon, Hulu, Apple, Google/YouTube, Disney, etc.) rather than the societal shift you identify. Society will not give up consuming "fake people's stories". What might happen is that niche content and curation (sifting through all the content to find the things someone is likely to enjoy) becomes more important. We aren't living in an era where 121 million people tune into the season finale (M.A.S.H.). We are living in an era with hundreds of channels, streaming platforms like Netflix tailoring content for narrow and binge-y audiences, and every bit of foreign content being subtitled within hours of release.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @11:58PM (1 child)
The 1960s hippies represented the first attempt, but their lifestyle was too unproductive to catch on.
In the coming years, we'll see first world societies' tear down the War on Drugs, and people will begin experimenting once again with their states of consciousness, especially by using psychedelics. I think we'll see the Church of Consciousness spring up, where people not only investigate what it means to be sentient, but also engage in drug-related rituals that are scientifically proven to enhance visceral spiritual experiences.
Go onto YouTube and binge watch discussions about psychedelics, especially about DMT breakthroughs and microdosing. The productive people of the world are starting to get interested in this stuff, and that's what will lead to humanity finally launching out of its hollow, spiritless malaise.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday October 25 2017, @12:43AM
Maybe. I doubt that much will happen other than getting DMT, LSD, et al. onto Schedule II down from Schedule I.
Can people have visceral spirtual experiences when using psychedelics while Netflix/mindless entertainment is playing in the same room? Or does Netflix make it an invalid and "unproductive" use of psychedelics? What about smoking dank weed while watching Netflix?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday October 25 2017, @12:02AM (1 child)
I've only seen one. It was like something out of dungeons and dragons.
3-D works well if it is used subtly, but what we actually find is the one I saw, in which a rope is lowered down a whole, but appears to be horizontally appearing out of the screen then through my forehead.
I have a 3D pr0n magazine. They're not Playboy shots. It's all women with freakishly huge breasts pointing at the camera.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday October 25 2017, @12:37AM
3D is not the same as 360°/VR.
3D is not dead [wikipedia.org] (scroll to 2017) but it is basically used as a gimmick and is technically inferior to VR.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]