I think a lot of their non-original programming has been on other services. But the same is true in the other direction. Generally speaking, if it’s on Netflix it’s not on Amazon and vice versa, same with most of the other services. The main exceptions I’ve seen are a small amount of overlap on Hulu (not sure what the deal is there) and distinctly small-fry services like VRV or Shudder.
Personally, I have plenty of stuff I haven’t gotten to, and it doesn’t matter if it used to be on another service if I haven’t gotten to it before it switched over to Netflix.
One of the nice things about “My list” in Netflix is that so many of the shows and movies I added in the early years of Netflix streaming are still on there, technically, even though they don’t show them. So when I resubscribe to Netflix, I’m always surprised that a movie shows up on “my list” even though I don’t remember putting it there. It’s because I added it years ago when it used to be on Netflix, and then it went away. But now it’s back!
Of course, I still don’t watch it. There’s more episodes of Great British Baking Show to get to.
Hmm. No, that’s not what I’m seeing at all. Most of the non-original stuff that @Ginger_Yellow mentioned is also on Hulu right now. Stargate is on Amazon, Hulu, and apparently coming to Netflix. I’m open to being wrong on this but from where I sit it looks like there’s a lot of overlap, at least in the stuff I watch. Because yeah, clearly I agree with:
rshetts
1633
While Amazon hasn’t quite yet reached Netflix levels of proprietary content, they are aggressively going for it. They have put out a fair amount of quality programming with shows like The Boys, Upload, Bosch and The Expanse, just to name a few and have a lot of stuff in the pipeline as well. Amazon Prime video may well have been seen as a toss in for Prime members in the past but it ain’t that anymore.
LockerK
1634
I’m interested to see what the new long running sitcom binge show will be when The Office leaves Netflix at the end of the month. Maybe Schitt’s Creek?
That’s also one weakness in the Netflix content creation model - most of their projects are killed after 3 seasons. They don’t have that forever series that you can put on in the background and watch for a solid month.
@vinraith Your taste for other services’ shows is totally valid, of course, but I think one difference that it’s easier to find more you really want to watch on Netflix if you spend time with it. If you pop on just for things you read about in the news you’ll miss a lot of what they have that you would like, because they rely on discovery within the app to do a lot of their marketing, so they aren’t spending a lot of money to reach you about every show, just the ones they think they can get you to return for. So you never build your queue, so you have no reason to stay to watch it, etc. etc.
That situation is currently unique to Netflix because of how much they spend on content; everyone else can either piggyback off of the marketing for traditional TV they’ve licensed, so it’s more legible to infrequent subscribers, or simply doesn’t have a deep bench of shows to surface.
Not in the UK. No Hulu here. Also, even if it is available, you still have to pay for Hulu.
Yeah, while I like more Netflix originals than Amazon originals (especially if you include fake originals like Better Call Saul), Amazon has a much better hit rate for me in the last 12 months.
Very much agree with this. Some of my favourite Netflix shows have been their foreign language originals, which apart from Dark and maybe Money Heist and Elite, seem to get no press at all. Also their best original films tend to be pretty low key, like I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Any More, or The Babysitter. Their high profile movies have almost all been terrible - Roma, Marriage Story and Uncut Gems are the only exceptions I can think of, and the last of those was only international distribution.
This is a really good point. I had Netflix continuously for many years but at a certain point maybe 5(?) years ago I let it lapse because I felt they’d lost too many things I liked and hadn’t added anything sufficient to make up for it. It stayed lapsed for so long that they apparently deleted my account, because when I went back they gave me a month free like a first-time user and my queue was gone. I’ve not had a sustained presence on the service since, so I’m certainly not benefiting from the discovery phenomenon you’re talking about. I pop in for a month out of the year to watch a few shows I want to watch, or new seasons of shows I’ve previously enjoyed, and that’s it. Perhaps I’m missing out, though part of what pushed me away from Netflix was that I seemed to have to work harder and harder to find anything I really wanted to spend time with. So the notion of going back to build a new queue is not really appealing.
Fair enough. I was just addressing malkav’s statement that shows were rarely shared among services at the same time, which doesn’t match my experience (at least not regarding shows I pay attention to, which is admittedly a limited subset).
Also remember that Netflix has a much better selection of non-original content in the UK than it does in the U.S. especially movies. Back when they allowed me to freely use VPN-like tricks, I much preferred to “live in the UK” or “live in Canada” than living in the US for the excellent movie and TV show additions I got.
Ah, right. I was wondering how Rick and Morty had migrated back to Netflix, but I gather in the US it hasn’t. International Netflix is often better for this kind of thing, I’d forgotten that.
They seem to have new content every month. I like them more for their original stuff now than anything else. They’re relatively inexpensive too.
I could drop Netflix and use that money to rotate through other services, watching CBS All-Access one month and Hulu the next, and on and on, but that’s way too organized for how I watch TV. I watch TV by flopping down on the couch when the mood strikes and looking for something appealing.
This is how lazy we are about TV. We can get AT&T TV for $10 per month with her employee discount, and get HBO Max with it for free, and we haven’t bothered yet. That’s a full cable package except it’s over the top. We’ll get it pretty soon but we’ve been busy putting a house up for sale (closes today, yay!) and working on the new house. Plus I have to fit in my lazy time.
Yup. This is actually why I dropped Netflix a few years back, I flopped down on the couch and realized there wasn’t a single thing on the entire service I actually wanted to watch. Hulu serves my “flopping” needs much better, but obviously it’s down to personal taste.
LockerK
1643
Discount aside, right there with you. I picked up Sling for a month to watch Ohio State (and between COVID and broadcast networks used it for a whole one game - great value!) and tried to give it a shot for general TV watching as well. I found that beyond disliking the interface and ridiculously low DVR capacity having to watch things on their schedule was frustrating (which was exacerbated by only having a 10 hour DVR). Half the time I’d see something I was interested in, then realize I’d missed the first X minutes and keep scrolling.
Remember that Ginger is in the UK, which has different Netflix. Star Trek Discovery isn’t on US Netflix, nor is Rick & Morty. And Discovery isn’t on US Hulu, either, unless you get their “Live TV” package and that’s probably not “on” it in the same sense as it is on CBS All Access (but I’m not paying $40/mo or whatever to find out). Same with Schitt’s Creek. But yes, Hulu does have some minor cross pollination - Community, of the above list, and I’ve noticed they also have American Horror Story, which Netflix has. There’s probably a few other examples. That’s not generally true for most stuff, on most services. I’ve not seen HBO Max or Amazon Prime have any cross-pollination with Netflix, for example. I wish it were more common, it’d make things a lot less annoying.
JD
1645
Might as well mention it here, too…
Holy moly! That’s huge! Won’t the theater chains get mad at them and retaliate?
There may not be any theatre chains by then.
LockerK
1648
There isn’t anything credible the theaters could do right now to threaten or retaliate against production studios.
They won’t object. They will strenuously object!
