in France to help with decision fatigue.
Netflix is testing a linear channel in France that should help with decision fatigue
Netflix is testing a linear channel in France that should help with decision fatigue
Netflix is testing a linear channel
1 - 12 of 12 Posts
Joined
·
1,631 Posts
Video Pandora.. Good way not to be exposed to something new.. That's a curse, not a feature
lol. Don't know what that even means.
Not sure why it would be a day late and dollar short just because YouTube queues up 50 Eddie Van Halen videos after you watch one.
Plus Netflix already recommends new content to watch based on what you watched similarly to what YouTube does.
And actually iirc Netflix automatically plays a new tv show after you finish the most current season of another.
This is just testing a channel feature that mimics cable tv channels aka the channel surfing experience.
Never mind YouTube and Netflix aren't exactly direct competitors. I know for me they serve different needs.
Joined
·
1,572 Posts
A linear channel makes no sense today without trick-play and DVR functionality.
heh? It is Netflix. There are no commercials. And you watch on demand. The linear thing is for those people who just want to turn the thing on and see content playing. Given it will be the same content, one can always watch it on demand and start wherever they want in the program or series.
Joined
·
1,572 Posts
My point is this: what is the point of an linear TV service if Netflix already acts like a service with "DVR" because Netflix is an On-demand service and consider that OTT linear TV services like have limitations regarding DVR services and less than decent trick play, an OTT linear TV experince is poor compared to a TiVo DVR or any DVR like the Hopper. I would also make the point that we shold be allowed to DVR linear TV IN our HOMES like we do today with cable and satellite. That is the case with OTA channels, but the studios/media companies don't want any local DVR possibilities with their pay TV content. Otherwise, the On-demand services are the superior OTT experience.
I would also just add that there seems to be a phenomena of people actaully being overwhelmed with all the content on services like Netflix and feel that can't navigate it well or discover content nearly as easily as they can a linear TV service with a traditional EPG guide and channels and the limitation of watching or recording what is coming down the pipe at any moment. I had talked about such a phenomena some time ago and just recetnly I read an article about this very thing. Perhaps this is Netflix's way of addressing what is sometimes and overwhelming amount of content to rummage through to find something one would care to watch because accoridng to many users and my own experience, those algorythms aren't doing the job.
You answered your own question. What's the point of linear tv on Netflix? For those that are overwhelmed with the choosing aspect. ...who just want to come home and turn something on and tv is playing.
They obviously have gotten some feedback regarding some need for it and are testing out the idea in a country that I guess where that demand is highest.
Joined
·
1,572 Posts
Still, any linear TV service is pointless in these modern times without DVR and Trick-play functions. And it is not clear if a Netflix linear service will include such functions because it may NOT. Perhaps a Netflix liear TV service will be to turn more people onto to Netflix orignial VOD service. I'm saying if anyone wants to launch a linear TV service--who does not have a Netflix-like VOD option, it would be like watching TV in the era even before consumer VCR's, and that does not make sense in these modern times.
It's not a new linear tv service. IT's just Netlfix with an additional linear tv feed inside if one just wants to turn it on and see something playing. Inside that feed is their own content. ...which means you can always just watch said content like one watches Netflix now. ON-demand, commercial-free, pause any time, free to rewind and skip forward as much as you want. etc.
Yeah. This is the way the Showtime app has functioned since the get-go. In addition to all the on-demand library categories in the main menu, it also has a "Live TV" menu option with east and west coast feeds of the original linear Showtime channel. And as you scroll through the live schedule, every title (except those that have yet to premiere) has a "watch on demand" button next to it.
I remember reading an article a year or so after Showtime launched their OTT app in which the CEO said they were surprised at the amount of time that viewers spent in the live linear channel. A lot of long-time TiVo users have zero use for live linear TV and can't understand why anyone would want it. But, as you say, there are still folks who sometimes like to just drop into "whatever's playing" rather than be faced with a scrolling wall of on-demand choices. I'm one of those folks (which is why I still launch OTA TV as well as Pluto TV). I don't think that aspect of viewer behavior with ever go away.
A lot of it is old habits die hard.
But there is probably something inherently appealing about a linear feed that on-demand doesn't have. As you said, not having to choose. Or I sometimes miss joining in the middle of a show. Something about maybe reliving a scene you saw before or just having 15 minutes to watch or trying to figure out what is happening even though you missed the beginning. Sometimes starting in the middle of something can get you oddly interested in it. You hit the ground running sorta speak.
1 - 12 of 12 Posts
