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Netflix No Longer Allowing Subscribers to Pay Through Apple's App Store

Netflix is super extra expensive and totally not worth it anymore, now that all streaming services have raised their game. Also, the fact they ignore the integration with apple tv makes me want to get rid of them for ever. £17.99 for the top tier? Just to watch 4k? I mean it’s 2024 and they’re stuck in 2013.
 
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falainber said:
Why? Are you Apple Corporation? If not, why do you care about "their refusal to work with the Apple ecosystem"? BTW, is it their refusal or Apple refusal? If Apple dropped 15% fee (for doing nothing), I am pretty sure Netflix would be fine with accepting the payments through the App Store.
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I think he's referring to the fact that Netflix is pretty much the only hold-out to integrating with the TV app on the Apple TV, which gives you a consolidated view of all your streaming apps and next episode in the shows you are watching.

I get that they don't want to run their subs through Apple. It's more convenient for me, but it costs them to do it. But the refusal to do the aforementioned integration is just annoying and in the end meant that I watched Netflix a lot less over time to the point I didn't need the sub any longer.
 
I had a shared account with three friends, we cancelled when the shared accounts clampdown started but I went back last month. My parents use it a lot, me not so much, at least until WWE comes to Netflix, then I'll watch every week. As much as I would like the easiness of paying via the  Store business-wise Netflix did the right think, like it or not
 
m4mario said:
Ever use Apple Pay on Apple Watch? There is a convenience in going to the farmers market and not taking anything out of your pocket at every shop.
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Yes i do. But the post i replied to assumed the Wallet was gone. Maybe take another look.
 
alchemistmuffin said:
Because that’s how selling stuff on third party works.

If I were to sell your product at my shop, I would expect some form of commission from selling your product. Say 10% to keep it fair. You get more exposure for the product you made and you generate profit from sales by selling at my store.

You can’t expect me to sell your product and I get nothing. I’m not running a charity. It costs money to run the shop selling your product.

Same with Netflix trying to do business with Apple via App Store. Latter aren’t running a charity shop. They are business. They expect to take commission because running a business to sell a third party product costs money.

Nothing new here. Common business practice.
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Please enlighten me how any of that applies here? Does Apple pay a commission on every purchase I make in the App Store to the IT store I bought my iPad from? If not, then why should Netflix do the same? Apple has absolutely 0 expenses on these subscription, they just demand it happens through them, take 15% (or 30%) of the income and leave all the work and expenses to Netflix.
 
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bsolar said:
Those costs are peanuts. The real cost in an App like Netflix is from the content delivery and that cost is 100% on Netflix, not Apple.
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And based on what facts? You know absolutely nothing about the costs Apple has. (nor do I) But I know those costs would exist and I know that they can be rather expensive.
 
SanderEvers said:
And based on what facts? You know absolutely nothing about the costs Apple has. (nor do I) But I know those costs would exist and I know that they can be rather expensive.
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It's undisputable, that operating the App Store has costs associated with it. But Apple also profits enormously from a vibrant App ecosystem. Not having Netflix available on the platform is in my opinion more detrimental to Apple than vice versa. Also, don't forget that Apple has other revenue streams from the App store like ads and payments for iCloud CloudKit services.
 
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cgs1xx said:
Netflix is super extra expensive and totally not worth it anymore, now that all streaming services have raised their game. Also, the fact they ignore the integration with apple tv makes me want to get rid of them for ever. £17.99 for the top tier? Just to watch 4k? I mean it’s 2024 and they’re stuck in 2013.
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Well it depends how much you use it I suppose.

£60 HD with adverts
£132 a year HD
£216 a year 4K

get the 4K price as it's technically 4x the bandwidth to stream.

Another way to look at it

£4.50 a week.
About 80% the price of a single Pint of beer.

65p a day.
The price of a can of Vimto
About 1.8 Freddo Bars.

The Freddo (and Mars, and Beano) Index

Long gone are the days when you could step into your local shop with £1 and walk out with enough sugar to last a week. Explore the price jumps of everything from Freddos to Big Macs.
www.vouchercloud.com www.vouchercloud.com
 
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ItsASpider said:
Please enlighten me how any of that applies here? Does Apple pay a commission on every purchase I make in the App Store to the IT store I bought my iPad from? If not, then why should Netflix do the same? Apple has absolutely 0 expenses on these subscription, they just demand it happens through them, take 15% (or 30%) of the income and leave all the work and expenses to Netflix.
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Well the Store take their Profit in a lump sum up front. They have agreed to that.

Netflix put the app on the app store Agreeing to the T&Cs that they would pay a percentage for in-app purchases.

There is a substantial cost in a few hundred million FREE downloads.

Netflix would have their app on the store completely for free and Access to 1.4Blllion potential customers. Apple seem ok with this as Netflix removed NEW in-app subscription 6 years ago. And there are a few Tentpole apps that any device has to have. Netflix, Amazon Prime and shopping, Disney Plus, Audible etc.

And for a Service to thrive they also HAVE to be on Apple devices. If Netflix dropped Apple for example... I am not going to go replace my ATVs with Google devices... I'll just sail the ocean waves.

Perhaps this all could have been stopped long time ago by having a flat 5% for streaming video and audio companies coving store and payment fees.
 
Onelifenofear said:
And for a Service to thrive they also HAVE to be on Apple devices. If Netflix dropped Apple for example... I am not going to go replace my ATVs with Google devices... I'll just sail the ocean waves.
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I don't think Apple has a lot of leverage over Netflix because of Apple TV. Most TVs already have a Netflix app built in. People would just switch to that.
 
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falainber said:
In US, I keep these subscriptions: Netflix, Amazon, Disney and Max (HBO). I am thinking about flipping Disney and Max with Paramount+ and Hulu from time to time.
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Paramount plus has been surprisingly good lately. Getting some newly released movies on there to watch is nice. Been a few movies i was going to rent and then i saw it was on there and I’m like huh…saved $6.99 on each of these rentals. Nice.
 
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HobeSoundDarryl said:
Based on past Netflix threads, I'm thinking every outraged Apple person has quit Netflix 6 or 7 times in the last 12-18 months or so... so I presume this affects no one. ;)

However, that said, can you blame them? Pay direct and keep 15%. Facilitate another kind of payment and lose 15% "right off the top." If roles were reversed, what would Apple Inc. do?
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Create a service.
 
Dumped Netflix a few years ago and purchased a jail broken Apple TV and have been extremely Happy 👍Netflix will be its own demise
 
SanderEvers said:
And based on what facts? You know absolutely nothing about the costs Apple has. (nor do I) But I know those costs would exist and I know that they can be rather expensive.
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Of course the costs for Apple exists, but are we really arguing that the costs of delivering the Netflix App are not a small fraction of the costs of delivering the content to its users?

A single Netflix hour-long TV show episode in standard quality is about as big as the whole Netflix iOS Application... You only need common sense to do the math and come to a reasonable conclusion.
 
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Netflix seems to be in "cutting-losses" mode. Otoh, paying apple 15% for their payment-system seems like a giant waste of money for hardly any value.
 
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SanderEvers said:
And based on what facts? You know absolutely nothing about the costs Apple has. (nor do I) But I know those costs would exist and I know that they can be rather expensive.
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Based on the fact that Apple collects 3% for their payment service on third party app stores in the EU and that other vendors charges for such services are in the same ballpark.

The thing is, if they provided an app store with more value than other app stores, that might be worth it to pay more. But as it stands they don't - it's full of shovelware, bad app clones, developers complain about a black box and have to seek media attention when Apple breaks its own rules. And on top of that, it's a badly organized heap of apps.

It's understandable that Apple tries as hard as possible to avoid sideloading and third app stores - because on a free market they couldn't compete. Otoh, if they could, they wouldn't need to be as afraid as they obviously are and the "its safer and curated" argument could stick.
 
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Not surprised, Apple was overstepping the line demanding their cut from other companies in this manner, preventing customers from subscribing via the website from the app, making users goto safari than remaining in the app itself and banning links from apps to website payment methods insisting they do their transactions via Apple payment system.

It’s time Apple is forced to allow apps to link to their websites for payments.
 
This is going to lose them a lot of subscribers. A lot of people stay subscribed through inertia, because they don't really care about the money and maybe only watch once in a while. If their subscription through the App Store is canceled, they might not sign up again.

This is probably why they taking so long to do this.
 
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