from the never-travel-without-your-towel dept.
Earlier this year, Netflix launched in pretty much every country -- except China. That hasn't changed 10 months later, and it looks like it won't.
The company on Monday told shareholders that it's ditching efforts to bring its popular streaming service to the People's Republic, the world's most populous nation. Instead, it'll sell its shows, like "Narcos" and "Daredevil", to Chinese media companies.
"The regulatory environment for foreign digital content services in China has become challenging," the report read. "We now plan to license content to existing online service providers in China rather than operate our own service in China in the near term."
They didn't develop the right guanxi .
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Netflix's foray into original content is paying off:
[Rather] than pay money out to studios for the right to show existing content, it instead ploughed its cash into shows such as Stranger Things, The Crown, Luke Cage and the remake of Gilmore Girls. In 2016, those "Netflix Originals" - already a term you could argue has become synonymous with quality - came thick and fast. The firm said it produced 600 hours of original programming last year - and intends to raise that to about 1,000 hours in 2017. Its budget to achieve that is $6bn - a billion more than last year.
On Wednesday we learned the company has been rewarded handsomely for putting its eggs in the original content basket. After hours trading on Wednesday saw the company's stock rise by as much as 9% on the news it had added 7.05 million new subscribers in the last three months of 2016. That's far greater than the 5.2 million they had anticipated, and left them ending the year with 93.8 million subscribers in total - and an expectation of breaking the symbolic 100 million mark by the end of March. In all, 2016 saw Netflix take in $8.83bn in revenue - with a profit of $186.7m.
Also at USA Today, TechCrunch, and Reuters.
Previously: Chris Rock Reportedly Signs $40 Million Deal With Netflix for Two Comedy Specials
Netflix Throws In the Towel On China
Netflix Lets Users Watch Videos Offline -- No DVDs Required
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @06:35AM
And who cares because Netflix sucks! Given a choice between piracy and Netflix, who seriously chooses Netflix? Rich idiots? Newbs who haven't found the pirated streams yet?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday October 20 2016, @09:16AM
You're not really being fair. I don't watch television, I watch very few movies. But, the wife lives for her video entertainment (and her grandbabies). I showed her how to torrent quite a long time ago. Still, she has a netflix account. Crazy woman eats up all my bandwidth, streaming a movie from Netflix, while pirating something else in qbittorrent. And, I have no use for any of it.
We're gonna be able to vacation in Gaza, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and maybe Minnesota soon. Incredible times.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @09:56AM
Who chooses Netflix? Crazy women. Got it. Thanks.
Oooooo. Season premiere of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on Friday. Must watch. Must watch on PrimeWire, because Netflix sucks and torrents suck! You know Josh will agree with me!! Josh will agree after I cancel his Netflix account and delete all his torrents and set his home page to PrimeWire!!!
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday October 20 2016, @01:46PM
I just have to say that "must watch" is some kind of an oxymoron. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of "must watch" things that I've never watched. I'm still alive and bitching about the moronic offerings from Hollyweird.
We're gonna be able to vacation in Gaza, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and maybe Minnesota soon. Incredible times.
(Score: 1) by cloud.pt on Thursday October 20 2016, @10:52AM
for 3 bucks a month splitting a 4k account (that allows 4 people simultaneously), I'd say you have to be 3rd-country poor not to afford it. And at that price, it's actually incredible value, especially when u compare it to ultra-premium music services that only allow account sharing for family members in the same address (e.g. Spotify et al: 10$ for 1 account...).
I actually do both - I use Netflix as it is SUPER convenient and makes me work 0 for getting what I now consider 50% of my video entertainment (because I will actually watch more of their shows just because of how convenient it is), and then I just pirate time-shift whatever Netflix doesn't have that I must see (blatant example HBO stuff like GoT, Westworld, leaked movie rips, blu-ray rips, etc).
Now why would I go and admit I pirate stuff? Because I consider my case not to hamper their business. I wouldn't buy the movie or go to the theater for the amount of content I need to watch, so basically I would see less and have to pay to see more. If this was a material thing, I'd maybe agree with them, but I can't put a price on something that enters my brain unless that person actually loses time to do it in physical presence (such as college classes, live concerts and shows). I pay for those. I won't pay for something which's price is inflated and which's availability is restricted to either TV/Theater and have to physically be present when it is played back - if they won't do it for me, why would I do it for them. Or wait fuking long for when it comes out on DVD/BR.
Netflix is worth it because they make it affordable, and they take away all the cumbersome of the old ways. I can even watch it on my phone or cast it in another friend's house TV. It is better than pirated content in many ways. The only exception is, as I said, not everything is licensed, but a whole lot of library is there and to me it's enough for being worth. YMMV
(Score: 1) by cloud.pt on Thursday October 20 2016, @11:25AM
And because I know you're gonna counter with the "plex server with a seedbox setup" argument - fck plex, fck downloading content to a seedbox. Just the price of the seedbox alone is more expensive than a 4-way Netflix account. And don't even get me started on the time I waste setting up plex+seedbox+whatever gets your shows and subtitles and whatever automtically. That would span years of Netflix subscriptions at full price.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @11:42AM
You don't know me at all! I'm gonna counter with the PrimeWire argument! Watch online free! Because free is cheaper than everything else!
Oooooo. Season premiere of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on Friday. Must watch. Must watch on PrimeWire, because Netflix sucks and torrents suck! You know Josh will agree with me!! Josh will agree after I cancel his Netflix account and delete all his torrents and set his home page to PrimeWire!!!
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday October 20 2016, @06:44PM
I have seen most of GoT ether on free trials when I had cable (convenient HBO "free week" just in time to boost GoT ratings) or streaming, so I didn't pay them for it.
But since it's a good show that people discuss a lot at work, I know of at least two people who got HBOgo so they could keep up with cooler talk. Indirectly, they benefited from having non-subscribers see them.
I may even get HBOgo for a little while next year, to catch up on the latest Hollywood remakes, and binge on older stuff without having to learn to google in Vietnamese or Thai...
(Score: 2) by tibman on Thursday October 20 2016, @02:29PM
You are not allowed to complain about any of your favorite shows being cancelled.
If you can pay for it, you probably should. Also, it doesn't have to be a choice between the two. Do a combination of both (and many other services, free, pirated, and paid).
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 1) by ewk on Thursday October 20 2016, @08:00AM
That's a strange way to spell bribes...
I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday October 20 2016, @11:01AM
The pinyin is guanxi (connections).
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Thursday October 20 2016, @09:19AM
Call it quanxi or whatever, it amounts to protectionism. Which puts all of their "trading partners" at a disadvantage. China will protect Chinese interests, and wherever they cooperate with outside interests, it's only because the outsider has something that the Chinese want. Once the Chinese have that something, the "cooperation" goes to hell.
We're gonna be able to vacation in Gaza, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and maybe Minnesota soon. Incredible times.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @03:40PM
That works in the short term, but long term it fucks them up. That bubble is going to burst and its going to hurt like fuck. The rich have been exporting their cash back to the west, [qz.com] paying inflated prices because they are desperate to avoid losing it all. That's money coming back into our economy rather than invested in theirs. What goes around comes around, and its now on track to come around bigly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @05:50PM
Not sure how seriously to take your referenced article. Who the fuck spells outflow as "outfl0w ." If this some sort of a "l33t" speak publication? And trust me, in order not to make a "f00l" of myself, I googled the word with their spelling just to make sure it's not some sort of "@cc0unting" jargon I was unfamiliar with. Top search in google is their stupid article.... Maybe that was the reason?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @03:44PM
I'm a lot more worried about the chance that Disney will acquire netflix. [marketwatch.com] The last thing we need is more media consolidation. Programming exclusivity deals are bad enough, but outright ownership would put the brakes on all of netflix's potential to change the market.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @06:11PM
I would literally vomit at that news.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 20 2016, @06:19PM
After Netflix shares jumped 20%, any buyout became a bit less likely.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 21 2016, @04:59AM
Don't be so sure. A leveraged buyout makes the share price much less of an obstactle. If anything, a good quarter makes them even more attractive.