Quote:
Originally Posted by OLD BOY
In which case I recommend you take them off, jfman and accept that change is inevitable. 
---------- Post added at 16:51 ---------- Previous post was at 16:40 ----------
I think that is a very narrow way of looking at it. I started watching a programme on Netflix about a week ago and my wife referred to the storyline and neither of us could think of what it was from. Fortunately I came across the title just this afternoon - 'The Maid' on Netflix. It wasn't on the watchlist on my box because Netflix has not integrated their content to enable you to bookmark it on the 360.
Frankly, we have watched less on Netflix since we had the 360 box for that very reason. So I would disagree with the premise that by not integrating content from all streamers you are taking away viewers. The reverse is true. We've certainly watched a lot more from Prime since we swapped boxes. That's because Prime is integrated and so we can see the programmes we listed as worth watching as well as those we've started just by scrolling through the watchlist. |
OB, as per, you’re arguing that black is white and up is down, on the basis of your own, extremely limited, experience and very personal preferences.
As with most aspects of this topic, we have been here before, at some point, though frankly I lack the will to go and search for it. What’s at issue here is commoditisation. What service are you actually buying? A load of streamed TV shows from Virgin Media or a streaming experience provided by Netflix, or Apple, or whoever?
What you’re demanding is commoditisation of content in favour of a single, Virgin Media branded experience. But streamers that have invested a fortune in their brand awareness have absolutely no incentive at all to sacrifice that to the Virgin Media EPG. Each streamer has a unique character, driven by its app functionality and its content acquisition strategy. Netflix, in my opinion, is particularly strong on this point.
Amazon Prime can overcome this to a great extent as long as it’s the only streaming brand doing full integration. As Amazon commissions far less original content than Netflix, has a much smaller free-to-members back catalogue than Disney, and lacks the high-end reputation of Apple, there was a distinct commercial advantage in it going down the integration route. Certainly on our living room TV, which has all of the major streamers but no integration, Prime is the least accessed of the lot.
Commoditisation is what all brands fear and what they all expend a great deal of effort trying to avoid. This is why, for example, you will occasionally see a member of Walkers staff surveying the crisp aisle in your local supermarket. Walkers is a major brand and it has the clout, which many smaller player lack, to dictate even to the likes of Asda and Tesco, how their product is to be displayed. Many smaller brands get whatever placement they are given and often have to make sale-or-rebate promises to the supermarkets in order to get any shelf space at all.
Netflix has no incentive to surrender control of its brand to a search engine in your 360 box. The personal preferences of some random Old Boy are really irrelevant here. At the scale they are interested in (I.e. the entire viewing market, not your lounge) there is greater value in maintaining brand strength and awareness.