STREAMING SATURDAY: The Blockbuster Syndrome

Remember Blockbuster Video? I don’t mean its sad final days. I mean the days, nearly 30 years ago, when Blockbuster was a real destination by itself. You could find friends their, scouting for new releases. There were big events when high-profile movies were finally available. It was the place to be back in the days when MC Hammer told you not to touch this.

We all know what happened. Blockbuster died, and most folks believe it’s because they couldn’t keep up with technology. The lure of having DVDs sent to you and keeping them as long as you wanted overshadowed the idea of going to the video store. And then of course streaming changed the model forever. But is that what really happened?

Why Blockbuster really died​

Blockbuster really died because they got so bad that you were actually willing to pay more money for less convenience. You were willing to wait for stuff to show up even though you could go down to the video store, get the movie today, and pay less to rent it than you paid for Netflix.

Why? Because Blockbuster became a mess. Chances are you couldn’t find that new movie, or anything you wanted. The in-store experience was a mess. Blockbuster was too involved in trying to get you to watch what they had to sell you instead of getting the content you wanted to watch. Their tech stunk too. Paper cards with faded bar codes? Yes that’s where we were at. They largely ignored every improvement in tech as it happened, and eventually they paid the price.

Emblematic of all of Blockbuster’s failures at the same time was its “new releases” wall. Here you would find movies from the last two years, but never the movie you actually wanted to see from last month. That movie was held back for months while the studios tried to sell you copies instead of renting them.

Here’s why I’m talking about this on Streaming Saturday.​

So, I’ve told you why Blockbuster died. Now let’s talk about Max. Yes, I’m trashing them again.

Let’s run this down point by point, shall we?

“Chances are you couldn’t find that new movie, or anything you wanted.”​

Max is a bewildering mess of content without any real understanding of what the Max brand stands for. There are about seven ways to filter things, all in different places, and you still can’t find what you’re looking for.

“Their tech stunk too.”​

After months, I still have issues with Dolby Vision and frame rates in the Max app. They’re a lot better, but they’re still there. The biggest problem I have is that as I scroll down a long list, the list will randomly scroll back to the top for no reason. It makes going through that long list incredibly painful.

“…its new releases wall”​

Have you noticed that Max has completely given up on the idea that a “new release” is something that’s actually new? OK, so, writer’s strike and the like. There’s not as much new content out there. But Max’s new releases are often movies and shows that have been out for a year, were hawked to the highest bidder instead of staying on Max, and have just come back.

There’s also the more modestly named “Just added” which can have content from anytime in the last 100 years, to be honest. But at least they’re not calling it new.

Max isn’t the only app with this problem…​

Yes, I would say that Netflix and Hulu suffer from some of this as well. But Max stands as the worst of the incredibly high-priced tier of streaming services. And their prices stand to go up even higher, I’m sure.

Here’s the funny thing. Not that I’m so bullish on Netflix, but they do seem to do things “just better enough.” Yes, Netflix is a bewildering mess of content without any real attempt at creating a brand. But in that regard it’s kind of like Costco. You go in there knowing that there’s a lot of stuff and you will probably find something you didn’t know you wanted.

In contrast, Max is more like Costco after a hurricane hits it. (Personal experience here: I’ve actually seen one of these in real life, back in the 1990s.) You walk in, and there’s stuff everywhere. Some of it’s broken, some of it’s in the wrong place. If you’re lucky you can find something but you feel a little sense of misery for what the place used to look like before calamity (aka David Zaslav) came around.

In a very real way, I hope Max gets its act together. I hope it returns to being a premier destination for 100 years of Warner and Turner content. For my money, the Discovery stuff can all go away if it helps keep costs down. I hope that the company brings in a team of top programmers to fix the rest of the bugs and stops trying to reinvent things that worked perfectly last year. Maybe then, I’d feel a tiny bit more comfortable with a price increase. Keep things the way they are, though, and my Max password will probably get as much use as my old Blockbuster video card.

The post STREAMING SATURDAY: The Blockbuster Syndrome appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.

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[Bruce]

A few things-

Have you noticed that Max has completely given up on the idea that a “new release” is something that’s actually new? OK, so, writer’s strike and the like. There’s not as much new content out there. But Max’s new releases are often movies and shows that have been out for a year, were hawked to the highest bidder instead of staying on Max, and have just come back.

The average time for a Warner movie to go from theater to MAX is about 4-6 months, if it is a hit, if a flop, a lot sooner, see The Flash and Shazam2 for example.

In the pre-streaming services day, it used to be a year.

But others do it differently, Disney+ has been about 3-4 months, hit or not, Paramount+ is all over, used to be 3 month in the post covid lockdown world, now varies depending on the Box Office, for example, Top Gun 2 was on P+ 7 months after opening at the theaters.

There’s also the more modestly named “Just added” which can have content from anytime in the last 100 years, to be honest. But at least they’re not calling it new.

There is not much to add, specially since HBOMAX lost the contracts to air new Universal, Fox and certain Sony movies ( Columbia).

Yes, I would say that Netflix and Hulu suffer from some of this as well. But Max stands as the worst of the incredibly high-priced tier of streaming services. And their prices stand to go up even higher, I’m sure.

Netflix stands above them all, same price as MAX, hands tons of content ( more then I can keep up with) and makes a profit.

Hulu I am starting to wonder why it exists, no brand identity at all, but it bought back new episodes of Futurama, so happy to have it right now.

Here’s the funny thing. Not that I’m so bullish on Netflix, but they do seem to do things “just better enough.” Yes, Netflix is a bewildering mess of content without any real attempt at creating a brand. But in that regard it’s kind of like Costco. You go in there knowing that there’s a lot of stuff and you will probably find something you didn’t know you wanted.

Great comparison.

In contrast, Max is more like Costco after a hurricane hits it. (Personal experience here: I’ve actually seen one of these in real life, back in the 1990s.) You walk in, and there’s stuff everywhere. Some of it’s broken, some of it’s in the wrong place. If you’re lucky you can find something but you feel a little sense of misery for what the place used to look like before calamity (aka David Zaslav) came around.

Also great.

In a very real way, I hope Max gets its act together.

Not while Zaslav is there, there was someone working in my old department, he worked at Discovery well before the merger, said it was the cheapest place in the world to work for, the type of place that makes you collect paper clips and reuse them.

I hope it returns to being a premier destination for 100 years of Warner and Turner content.

Now that Warner is again selling their content, this time to a competitor , Netflix, shows the only goal is make money fast and hopefully sell the company before bankruptcy.

For my money, the Discovery stuff can all go away if it helps keep costs down.

There is two main reasons why the Discovery content is there, the first, give the illusion of adding new content while cutting HBO type content.

The second, the Discovery content is already paid for by airing on the cable channels, so that helps the bottom line and helps keep them from making more expensive HBO type content.

Maybe then, I’d feel a tiny bit more comfortable with a price increase.

If they raise the price, during a time where there will hardly be any new HBO type content for 2 years due to the strikes, my yearly when up will become a month to where I binge on everything then drop the service until 12 months later, rinse and repeat.

Keep things the way they are, though, and my Max password will probably get as much use as my old Blockbuster video card.

I have not used the service for a month ( really regrettIng that year sign up), the only thing I need/want to catch up on is Succession , all seasons, after that slim pickings.