Amazon takes over Bond franchise

[Guest 85555]

Netflix has bought the rights to a zillion international shows, obviously hoping for more Squid Games and mostly not getting them, although they did successfully use Narcos to get a lot of people to turn on closed captioning and watch foreign language content. (I know a huge number of women now into Korean soaps.)

I'm not sure how many truly good shows they're cancelling, though.

This site lists only one show I've heard of that was cancelled in 2024 (other than Neil Gaiman's show), and that only because of Jeff Goldblum -- and which I never heard of anyone watching. Canceling a likely expensive show that few people watched seems pretty reasonable to me.

The 2023 cancellation list is also pretty reasonable.

Even if someone loves one of those shows, the fact is that it's probably just them and their cat watching a lot of these.

Yeah they have a ton of international shows on there. Netflix has quite a few as well. I will say though, Amazon is kind of a mess in this respect. I am more into movies these days than shows, but sometimes I still watch wuxia drama series from China. And some are like the whole series, but some are the series cut down to an edited movie and it isn't always clear what you are getting. Also some of the transfers on prime for older international movies are unforgivable. I wanted to show my mother Wing Chun with Michelle Yeoh when I was at her house and the version they have up is like some weird VHS transfer where the frame rate is all off (it completely ruins the experience of watching it). I have it on multiple different DVDs so I know there are decent transfers out there (there are a lot of bad ones too). I get for some movies they may only be able to get faded and old transfers, but the thing is I have seen some movies where they have a great transfer up, then you go to watch it a year or two later and the transfer is horrible. And don't get me started on how they organized Doctor Who on prime (it would be very easy for people who don't know the full list of episodes to miss crucial specials that have important plot points, and even if you know about them they can be a pain to find)

 

[Morrus]

Easy answer. Fork the road.

Multiple shows/movies series going on or being worked on simultaneously.

Your “easy” answer is the thing we’ve been discussing for 210 posts now, with half afraid of that and half in support of it.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'm not sure how many truly good shows they're cancelling, though.

They've cancelled an awfully large number over the years.

Even if someone loves one of those shows, the fact is that it's probably just them and their cat watching a lot of these.

No, and I think it's a little strange that you're carrying water for them here, as it appears to be untrue.

We don't know the exact viewing figures, but based on all the information we do have (like shows going into and staying in the top 10), a lot of shows they've cancelled have been pretty widely watched, probably doing numbers other networks would kill for. Certainly better than a lot of shows that survive.

But that's not how Netflix operates - unless shows are at least one of:

A) Extremely, staggeringly cheap (this has saved a fair few shows, esp. reality ones, to be fair).

B) Doing insane numbers.

C) Favoured by a particular Netflix exec (sometimes even for genuinely "corrupt" reasons, like the Netflix doco exec getting multiple seasons for his conspiracy theorist dad's show)

They usually get cancelled after 1-2 seasons, and then Netflix just uses the money to do another show, because what they're really shooting for is another Stranger Things or The Crown (but more the former). A reason to specifically sub to Netflix. I think they've been worse at than they wish they were. And I think part of the reason they're not great at it is that they cancel shows so rapidly.

Shadow and Bone, for example, appeared to be doing very well, spending quite a bit of time in the top 10 in America and much of Europe (and indeed being #1 for quite a while, for both seasons), and Netflix had all but promised it an S3, but then bam, axed. I'm kind of expecting The Diplomat (the only good "current" Netflix show I can think of) to be next.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Shadow and Bone, for example, appeared to be doing very well, spending quite a bit of time in the top 10 in America and much of Europe (and indeed being #1 for quite a while, for both seasons), and Netflix had all but promised it an S3, but then bam, axed. I'm kind of expecting The Diplomat (the only good "current" Netflix show I can think of) to be next.

Well, we're missing three data points that are probably key to this discussion:

1. Cost of the show
2. Actual viewership (Netflix puts out intentionally murky data, probably to avoid paying higher fees to talent)
3. What the ratio between those two that Netflix wants to maintain

It's certainly possible that Netflix wants a higher profit per show than other streamers -- some of whom are very open about the fact that they're losing their shirts, of course.

It may be that Netflix is spending more upfront than they ought to, which means that shows then have to do exceptionally well to keep going.

Or it may be that Netflix cares more about international audience beyond just the US and Europe.

The two lists I was able to find for the last two years don't show any obvious "wow, why'd they cancel that" shows. They were from pretty random sites, but I wasn't able to find comparable lists from more respected sites, though.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It's certainly possible that Netflix wants a higher profit per show than other streamers -- some of whom are very open about the fact that they're losing their shirts, of course.

We know they do - they've talked about it interviews for years.

Or it may be that Netflix cares more about international audience beyond just the US and Europe.

They definitely do, but I don't think that really explains the approach they're taking by itself.

It may be that Netflix is spending more upfront than they ought to, which means that shows then have to do exceptionally well to keep going.

This was true like 5+ years ago with Netflix, again discussed in interviews - I don't know if it still is - they were actually more prone to giving shows time to gain an audience back then though, oddly enough.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This was true like 5+ years ago with Netflix, again discussed in interviews - I don't know if it still is - they were actually more prone to giving shows time to gain an audience back then though, oddly enough.

This feels like the kind of thing that stock price-driven decision makers would eventually walk back, unfortunately.

I've worked for corporations where "we'll give you lots of runway" lasts until there's a single bad year-end report.

 

[billd91]

Netflix has bought the rights to a zillion international shows, obviously hoping for more Squid Games and mostly not getting them, although they did successfully use Narcos to get a lot of people to turn on closed captioning and watch foreign language content. (I know a huge number of women now into Korean soaps.)

I don't know that I'd say it was just speculation mining for another Squid Games. Netflix's international coverage has been growing and I think it's partly because the domestic market here in the US has gotten so crowded with competitors. If Paramount+ has all the CBS/Star Trek covered, Disney+/Hulu has all the Marvel, Disney, Fox, ABC sewn up, Amazon Prime is renting tons of stuff to everybody, etc, and are cutting into Netflix's market in the US - the big growth market for Netflix is overseas. And that's why I'm sure we're seeing much more Eastern European, Latin American, and Indian programming.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't know that I'd say it was just speculation mining for another Squid Games.

Oh, I don't think it's the only motivation -- they want to be (and already are) an international player and need to have a good robust catalog that serves them all over the world. (I watched a South African spy show on Netflix that wasn't amazing, but was interesting in that it showed many aspects of African life I was simply unaware of.) Domestically, though, the goal is that they can get more American viewers enjoying that same content, which makes it more profitable to have on the platform.

 

[Morrus]

Oh, I don't think it's the only motivation -- they want to be (and already are) an international player and need to have a good robust catalog that serves them all over the world. (I watched a South African spy show on Netflix that wasn't amazing, but was interesting in that it showed many aspects of African life I was simply unaware of.) Domestically, though, the goal is that they can get more American viewers enjoying that same content, which makes it more profitable to have on the platform.

There’s other factors. Many countries require a certain amount of domestic content if you are going to operate in their jurisdiction. The streamers have to make a certain amount of, say, British content (and so you see stuff like Slow Horses, etc.) I don’t know what the specifics are for other countries but I’m sure there are similar rules.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There’s other factors. Many countries require a certain amount of domestic content if you are going to operate in their jurisdiction. The streamers have to make a certain amount of, say, British content (and so you see stuff like Slow Horses, etc.) I don’t know what the specifics are for other countries but I’m sure there are similar rules.

Yeah, Canada famously has what seems like a pretty high required level of Canadian content.

And anything that results in more shows like Slow Horses is a good thing in my book.