To comment on the software/UX side:
Well one reason might be how horrible Netflix is at handling what people have watched and if something you watch has a new season (outside of the week that season releases).
AppleTV start the home screen with large trailer but with a watch list just below it, and that list then will display a show you watched to the end but that a new episode/season released on.
Makes it much easier to watch new seasons of shows I've watched without having to manually remember and find them.
Also Netflix insistance in recommendations of content you just watched (eg not taking watched status into account) just makes this even worse because shows with no new content are on same lists as shows with new..
This is why I don't even start shows on Netflix anymore until I know they've either concluded or at least end in a place where I won't mind if they never come back. I've been burned by netflix too many times.
Easy solution, make a show that lasts exactly one season, put all the good plot elements in it, and give it a proper ending, so it doesn't become a fucking never-ending soap opera.
Netflix should just focus on having quality shows with satisfying conclusions in their library and stop worrying about when people watch them. There is so much content available competing for our time that not everybody is going to immediately jump on the newest show/season they push at us. I know that makes it harder to control the narrative on social media. I know advertisers hate it. I know the metrics are more exciting when something is massively popular all at once. It doesn't matter though. We'll get to it when we get to it, on our schedule. It doesn't matter when, as long as we go away happy with the show then we'll be happy with netflix.
Netflix -- and most streamers at this point -- seem to think that dragging out the time between seasons to 2, 3, sometimes even 4 years is something they can do without a cost. Viewers forget the plot lines, lose interest in the characters, etc and ultimately don't tune in (and are less engaged if they do tune in) for seasons 2+.
Netflix execs have expressed envy over HBO's uncanny ability to make money off decades old IP. HBO still makes money off decades old IP because much of their decades old IP is made to the highest standards in television.
Netflix's spreadsheet method of developing shows was a defacto attempt at trying make AI generated content before actual generative AI was available. We can all see clearly see how following that path leads to soulless and forgettable products.
Netflix has made enough quality shows that I'm upset at how often they've canceled them before the story finishes. They can make good content. They just don't want to commit to seeing it through which leaves them left with a bunch of shows that will either be ignored by anyone who knows it doesn't have an ending or continue to disappoint and piss off their customers. Right now the first thing I ask someone who tells me about a new Netflix show they liked was "did it have a proper ending?", and if the answer is "No" I'm not even going to bother starting it.
Because no matter how good they may be in the eye of the beholder, seasons 2..n are almost certainly going to be just more of the same. The incentive to get creative and mix things up after a first season (successful enough to warrant subsequent seasons) just isn’t there. Why risk a new formula when the last one worked just fine?
To comment on the software/UX side: Well one reason might be how horrible Netflix is at handling what people have watched and if something you watch has a new season (outside of the week that season releases). AppleTV start the home screen with large trailer but with a watch list just below it, and that list then will display a show you watched to the end but that a new episode/season released on. Makes it much easier to watch new seasons of shows I've watched without having to manually remember and find them. Also Netflix insistance in recommendations of content you just watched (eg not taking watched status into account) just makes this even worse because shows with no new content are on same lists as shows with new..
Netflix is also abandoning shows after one season, so it's fair.
This is why I don't even start shows on Netflix anymore until I know they've either concluded or at least end in a place where I won't mind if they never come back. I've been burned by netflix too many times.
Easy solution, make a show that lasts exactly one season, put all the good plot elements in it, and give it a proper ending, so it doesn't become a fucking never-ending soap opera.
Netflix should just focus on having quality shows with satisfying conclusions in their library and stop worrying about when people watch them. There is so much content available competing for our time that not everybody is going to immediately jump on the newest show/season they push at us. I know that makes it harder to control the narrative on social media. I know advertisers hate it. I know the metrics are more exciting when something is massively popular all at once. It doesn't matter though. We'll get to it when we get to it, on our schedule. It doesn't matter when, as long as we go away happy with the show then we'll be happy with netflix.
Netflix -- and most streamers at this point -- seem to think that dragging out the time between seasons to 2, 3, sometimes even 4 years is something they can do without a cost. Viewers forget the plot lines, lose interest in the characters, etc and ultimately don't tune in (and are less engaged if they do tune in) for seasons 2+.
because they are crap?
And because they cancel them after one season?
Netflix execs have expressed envy over HBO's uncanny ability to make money off decades old IP. HBO still makes money off decades old IP because much of their decades old IP is made to the highest standards in television.
Netflix's spreadsheet method of developing shows was a defacto attempt at trying make AI generated content before actual generative AI was available. We can all see clearly see how following that path leads to soulless and forgettable products.
Netflix has made enough quality shows that I'm upset at how often they've canceled them before the story finishes. They can make good content. They just don't want to commit to seeing it through which leaves them left with a bunch of shows that will either be ignored by anyone who knows it doesn't have an ending or continue to disappoint and piss off their customers. Right now the first thing I ask someone who tells me about a new Netflix show they liked was "did it have a proper ending?", and if the answer is "No" I'm not even going to bother starting it.
Because no matter how good they may be in the eye of the beholder, seasons 2..n are almost certainly going to be just more of the same. The incentive to get creative and mix things up after a first season (successful enough to warrant subsequent seasons) just isn’t there. Why risk a new formula when the last one worked just fine?
In other words, bean counters > creatives.
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