Netflix "trying out" commercials in front of shows

[gaastra]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/20/busi ... s-ads.html

Remember when youtube was just "trying out" ads in front of videos? What harm could it do right?

[Randall]

Ugh. Not a deal-breaker, and perhaps inevitable, but unfortunate.

[Ben]

Okay, so this is really just trailing other shows, between episodes, and can be skipped?

Where’s the problem!?

I’m more peeved that I only get five seconds to find the remote and have to manually revert to fullscreen when the credits of anything come up because they want to shove other content in my face!

I’ll wait to complain when they start to insert REAL commercials INTO content and then offer a "premium" service that cuts them out again! You know that’s coming, sometime, once we are all conditioned to automatically pay our monthly fee and take Netflix for granted...

[gaastra]

Due to nasty backlash Netflix has "changed it's mind".

http://www.nbc-2.com/story/38913340/rel ... ommercials

[EricJ]

The story I heard was pretty much the way NYT said it in the first place:
"Netflix Tests Promotional Videos but Users See ‘Commercials’"
In fact, the NBC2 article didn't say Netflix was "backing down", it said they were "setting the (original) story straight" after it had been blown into some completely different fan-hysteria.

The backlash sure did sound like the cultural "Ack, COMMERCIALS!!...Kill them with fire!" knee-jerk horror and terror that Streaming-era audiences have toward the "old days" of broadcast/cable.
And that that reaction naturally blew the "Between-episode promos" story into "They're deluging us with non-stop ads...We've been betrayed!"

Happened the last time Starz cancelled its titles off of Netflix, and everyone cried "Our queues are disappearing!"--Whenever there's any hint that the world of streaming isn't the Utopia that modern 10's TV audiences think it is, and that the real world will intrude on their indignantly isolated binge-viewing, viewers always go freakazoid.
Maybe they just haven't quite dealt with all the issues and bridges they've burned with traditional broadcast TV as they think they have?

[Randall]

I admit that I didn't read the original story (until now). Yeah, it seems like a lot of griping over nothing. Entitlement strikes again. (Though I also dislike the credits shrinking away into a little box; but no biggie.)

[ShyViolet]

Umm...was watching The Devil’s Advocate (one of my favorite movies, Keanu is actually excellent there) on Prime and...they now have about two minutes’ worth of commercials right in the middle of the film, and not just once but many times throughout. )

I mean I do understand, that with less and less people actually watching TV, Amazon (as well as other mega-corporations) still need to make money. But still, it definitely took me by surprise. I also subscribe to other channels like HBO through Prime, and so far no commercials during the movie. I really hope that won’t change, but I’m not holding my breath.

[Randall]

Another win for owning films on disc.

I subscribe to a couple of streaming services myself, but for films I love, it's discs all the way.

[Daniel]

(one of my favorite movies, Keanu is actually excellent there)

I feel it's one of his better overall performances, but that accent was terrible!

[ShyViolet]

Lol. . Towards the end it definitely was, probably because the script kind of falls apart during the last twenty minutes and he doesn’t have much to work from.

Heck, even Pacino couldn’t really save the material at that point; he just sort of pulls out all the stops and overacts to his heart’s content (actually, I take that back, Pacino’s overacting actually DOES save the material: it’s absolutely hilarious!)

All in all, though, I feel that 90% of the film was a stunning psychological thriller you can’t take your eyes off of. I do concede that Reeves’ accent kind of came and went, but still....


NOTHING could be worse than his British accent in Dracula. NOTHING.



BTW, cute av Dan!

[Daniel]

Yeah, Pacino has a few epic monologues in the film. Even that Mona Lisa line is so good... works on its own, and makes more sense when you know who he is.

[ShyViolet]

Definitely. My favorite one is definitely the Eddie Barzune speech. Amazing scene. (Even more so for how unbelievably prophetic it was in predicting what the 21st century would end up being like. )