To be honest, I'm finding Netflix going downhill for me (and I've heard the same from lots of others), especially with the Disney stuff going soon.

Firstly, great to see it overtaking terrestrial TV because it is the future. But...

 

There are a few reasons why I think that Netflix has problems that it hopefully will have to confront, but only the first is directly their fault:

 

a) Their system that does not allow you to filter content. No matter how many times you scroll past a show you know you never want to watch, you can't hide it. You can sort by genre but that's only a small thing. So they keep up the illusion that they have more content relevant to you than they do, and this is frustrating.

 

b) Geoblocking. It's an outdated and antiquated practice that does nothing but encourage piracy. E.g. the American catalogue is far superior on the whole, but you'd lose out on some great shows that the UK only has. Which is to do with local rights holders and this feeds into the biggest problem the streaming industry is going to have:

 

c) The way they approach competition. Netflix and its emerging competitors are evolving into effectively on-demand channels with exclusive content. Problem is with exclusive content is that that becomes the reason you get subscribers; they aren't sticky, and they'll leave once you don't have the show they subscribed for (c.f. HBO losing a ton after GoT ended). It's the wrong angle for capitalistic competition, because... it isn't competition. Each show is its own unique product, which means that if the consumer wants to have legal access to everything they desire to watch, the consumer ends up paying each competing company. That's not what happens in nearly any other industry. It also means that the way they keep subscribers isn't by improving their service, but by buying more shows from their competitors. Imagine instead, in a world without exclusivity, where streaming sites competed on site design, streaming speeds etc, you know, the things they directly provide, but with a full catalogue. If that meant streaming prices went up, that would be fair. But that's how they should approach competition.