Netflix Taking Hulu Threat Seriously: Hiring Director Product Management - TV Shows

Netflix has posted a job opening for a director of product management - TV shows to "...make Netflix the place people go to watch TV shows." From the job description:

• Work with design, engineering, content buying and marketing partners to create industry leading way to find and watch TV shows on the Netflix website and on devices, such game platforms, set top boxes, digital TVs, etc.

• Develop a deep understanding of the characteristics of TV shows, how they differ from movies, and how best to bring TV shows to life within the Netflix service.

• Leverage this understanding to develop winning hypotheses on how to increase engagement with our content.

• Lead design and engineering teams in implementing your ideas.

I'd like to be notified when a new episode of a TV show in my queue is available, and (obviously) see more TV shows available on Netflix streaming. 

How do you think Netflix could improve the TV watching experience?

Comments

[noor]

my way to make it better is remove unwatch tv or movies. bring more good tv shows from 90s reruns full house boys meet world family matters and friends. some new series as of right now each week is new episode.

[GeeksterGirl]

They need to add in season updates for tv shows to really cut off Hulu's legs! Do that and it makes Hulu's pay plan worthless because everything will be on Netflix for less and more value.

[chris]

They better do something quickly b/c with their spotty (at best) streaming television selection, I am seriously thinking of switching to Hulu when it comes to XBox (and I've heard that is coming with the next update). Since I use Netflix mainly for two categories (TV and documentaries), Netflix may become unnessecery for me. If Hulu can fill the need I have at a quarter of what I pay now, I don't see why I wouldn't switch. I use the 7-out plan because of my humongous television watching obsession. I pay about $42 per month on that plan. If I go lower it doesn't fit my needs as much because I am waiting for DVDs to arrive. This way I am on a consistent rotation of DVD's and never waiting. The bottom line is this:

If Netflix wants to compete seriously for TV dominence online, they need to fix their streaming catalog. It reeks. There are series in the catalog that have season 5 but not 1 -4. Or, the catalog will have season 3 but not 1-2 and, even worse, 4 - last full season. They have to, they have to, let me say it again, Netflix has to make their online tv catalog match their hard disk tv catalog for the most part. It doesn't have to be perfect (although that would go a long ways more) but it has got to be better than it is right now. Far better. For instance: I am losing seasons 4 and 5 of Law & Order: Criminal Intent on August 9th. But season 6 gets to stay. Does that even make sense? Thats the sort of crap that needs to be fixed.

[Sean]

I would love to see a "play all" option. Rarely anyone who watches the TV series' on Netflix watch just one episode....especially if it's a 20-30 min program.

[pdq]

It would be nice to have a show/season/episode kind of interface instead of by disc like it is now. In other words, I don't want to have to find all the seasons of a show by searching for discs. But as is mentioned above, it doesn't seem to matter since they don't really have a major amount of TV shows at this point.

[Steve]

Play All? Really, Sean. You're going to watch a whole season in one sitting?

Anyhow, I think they need to design network-specific pages. Or perhaps "highlight" particular shows and create pages (or links to pages) that desribe that particular show in greater detail.

[ps3 fanboi]

Get me HBO.

[syanne]

I think they should update the shows when they air, like they used to do with Leverage. Unfortunately, because TNT wanted more people to watch on their own web site, they didn't utilize Netflix, but I'm sure, like Hulu, a deal can be worked out with other niche shows like Man vs. Food or No Reservations.

[Andrew Lynch]

Netfilx should consider itself the replacement to the DVR.

[Josh]

Maybe not Play All but it would be nice to be able to play several at a time. Watch Instantly has very few sitcoms. How about Cheers - Roseanne - Cosby Show - All in the Family - Home Improvement - Taxi - Barney Miller - I Love Lucy - MASH - Mary Tyler Moore Show - Newhart - Bob Newhart Show - Frasier - Sanford and Son - Hogans Heroes. I'm looking for TVLAND without the commercials and other crap on the screen.

[Jenny]

I would maybe like a play all button or "continuous play" button as well. Also "Friends" definitely needs to be added at some time.

[Tomguy]

Glad to hear that Netflix has hired someone to develop that area.

Hulu, from what I've read in their comments, has begun adding even more commercials to their streams. [I had read that one Hulu exec intends for more commercials to be added 'until Hulu has about the same number as TV broadcasts'.]

I like many of the old TV programs, and I look forward to Netflix offering even more of them. I do hope they rid or update the 'expiration dates' on many of their streams.

[Taryn]

Subtitles. That's all I want right now.

[PS3 fanboi]

>>> Subtitles. That's all I want right now.

I second that motion!

[Seth]

I noticed that immediately when Hulu Plus rolled out that the Glee Disc 1 I had been waiting forever for suddenly went from Very Long Wait to Available Now.

I think Netflix is buying more TV show discs in response. Perhaps the discs for shows that Hulu is offering.

[dAVe]

"Develop a deep understanding of the characteristics of TV shows..."

I wonder what any applicant for the job is going to say or do with that. From a consumer's point of view, me, the TV show rental pattern is this: 1) I don't waste my time watching TV shows/seasons/episodes I've already seen, 2) I watch Season 1 in episode order and, if I enjoyed it enough, 3) move onto Season 2. I do the same with current broadcast TV shows using my DVR. But if the TV season is to full of shows I might like, I'll pick shows to skip entirely and wait for them to come out on DVD. I'm currently doing that with Breaking Bad. As soon as the show finale's and the final season is out on DVD, I'll be renting Season 1 and roll though the show. For HBO/Showtime shows, I can only stand to wait until the end of the season.

As others have pointed out, the current ability of Netflix Streaming to provide me with that type of consumption is FAIL. Not all seasons are available to Stream and in the past I've noticed that some episodes within a season are not available. Other people have noticed this and have speculated that soundtrack music licensing might be its cause.

Another more general FAIL of Streaming over Disc is Special Features. When it comes to TV Shows, having the Director/Creator Commentary turned on during playback of the Pilot episode is a real insight into the show, cast and general show business information that I find entertaining and adds value to experience.

I might be one of few on this matter but I can not see myself exhibiting "channel surfing" mentality when it comes to Streaming TV Shows.

[John]

I'd love to see them get episodes of shows shortly after they air, like Hulu does.

But I can't see this happening unless Hulu goes out of business. Hulu is a joint venture of NBC and Fox - which also happen to be the largest source of content for Hulu.

They aren't going to hand their content over to Netflix on the same timetable. There is absolutely nothing in it for them - it's competition they don't need.

But once Hulu is available on one of my devices, I might pay for Hulu plus. It's a hell of a lot cheaper than cable, and even though it's mostly network shows, I don't get good antenna reception where I live, so I don't really have the option to (legally) get that same content for free.

[Tvaddic]

Netflix wants to make all our streaming wishes come true, but there are two factors 1) Money. It would be very expensive for Netflix to have the latest episodes of the latest season, it doesn't cost Netflix the 1.99 it cost at iTunes. And the 3 head people at Hulu would never want that to happen. It might happen if Hulu Plus turns out to be a major fail, I believe there is a 60% chance of this.
2) The Studios. If NEtflix had all the money in the world there still could be one word that holds them back, "no" NEtflix couldn't try to sneak and do it because they will get sued.
I believe that a lot of the content won't leave, but do expect anything new sometime soon.

[Shawn]

I agree with John, the owners of Hulu are not going to give their content away if they can make money with their service. The only way that Netflix can get current programming is to pay the networks big licensing fees, they would have to raise the basic $8.99 subscription fee.

I would rather wait one year for it to come out on DVD or streaming and pay $8.99.

[Crow550]

There TV section seems fine to me. Again they are always expanding. Would like a Play all or continuous play option for short shows.

All I can say is yeah........More shows are always good.

More Movies too.

Other than that I don't know what to say about improving the TV section? The whole site maybe....

[AndyLand]

Remember when we used to get the newest episode of all the 3 different CSI's, Numbers, NCIS & Heroes etc. the day after the were on regular television. I miss those days.

[Crow550]

@AndyLand

Yeah Netflix needs more of that.

Why did CSI go away? I know people who still say how much they miss those shows....

[pdq]

I noticed that Leverage went to amazon video for something like $1.99 an episode. I'll bet most or all of the "missing" shows went somewhere else where they got a better deal.

[Sam]

There should be a whole page dedicated to tv pilots that are stream able. It should go off of a rating system that is separate from the movie recommendations, and suggest new shows to me.

Sometimes people want to get into watching new shows, but they don't know what they like. This will enable them to find a great new show.

[Erwin]

I would like more anime tv series please. It is all I ask from Netflix.

[MiniMonkey]

For watching TV, what I need is the COMPLETE series. I want to be able to sit down and watch a TV show I've never seen before, whether it's in its 1st or 8th season, and be able to watch every episode up to the one currently airing on broadcast TV.

The problem with Hulu is that for most shows they only have the last several episodes aired. Even with Hulu Plus, which touts the "entire current season" available feature... there are very few shows that have back seasons available for viewing. If I can't start watching a show from its beginning, I'm not going to watch it at all.

The problem with Netflix (though this is less of an issue in my opinion) is the entire lack of the current season... so it's impossible to ever catch-up with what's currently on air. Also, as others have pointed out, there are some shows that lack earlier seasons/episodes for unknown reasons.

Whichever service comes up with a way for me to watch more good shows in their entirety from beginning to end (or current)... that service will get my money.

[Sock Puppet]

As long as the "New Hire" recognizes that people are Sick and Tired of all the frigging commercials and provides programming that doesn't contain them?

Why then, I'll be happy with just about anything!

[RowdyReptile]

MiniMonkey, that's not quite true. I watched the previous three seasons of Mad Men on blu-ray this spring, in plenty of time to watch season 4 on AMC (started this week). Of course that's subject to the DVD release timetable of the studios but in most cases I've seen, the previous season DVD is released before the current season starts. In the case of The Office, though, it may only be by a few weeks.

[MiniMonkey]

You're right, RowdyReptile. For DVD/Blu-Ray this is usually the case. I was referring primarily to streaming in this case, however, since it's the subject of the post. Also, there is still no way to to catch up to a show that is in the middle of a season (with a small handful of exceptions), even on discs, since you have to wait for the current season to end and then for the release of the DVD/Blu-Ray, which hopefully happens before the new seasons begins.

[scJohn]

Seems like a waste of money to hire this person. It all boils down to how much NF want to pay and whether or not the content owner is even interested.

As stated in the latest quarterly conference call, NF is committed to the subscription base model. Currently, the content owners are committed to a transaction based model for current DVD/BR releases and the current season of TV shows. So until one side cries uncle nothing is going to change.

Hulu is something of a hybrid but you have to remember the Hulu is owned by NBC, FOX and ABC. Hulu would be totally different if it was independently owned and operated.

[scJohn]

Maybe NF should try and become the aggregator of current season Cable TV shows and let Hulu do the network TV shows.

[Beggars can't be choosers]

@scJohn

I was going to post exactly the same thing, but you beat me to it.

You get what you pay for; Hulu has good content because the revenue stream is based on commercials and Netflix has sucky streaming content because they have no commercials and don't shell out the big bucks to secure cool content.

[Dante]

Of course I would like it if all TV DVDs were also available for streaming, but more realistically I would like it if they grouped TV shows by series instead of by season, so it would be easier to browse. So much room is taken up when browsing the site by season after season of the same show. Also, I'd like it if there were some way to see only shows where at least the first season is available, if I'm looking to get into something new.

I would be willing to pay a lot more than I am now if suddenly every TV show ever put on DVD were available to stream.

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