Hoping to maintain viewers engaged with its content material, Netflix in the present day introduced the launch of a brand new part known as “Latest” in its TV app, designed to spotlight the streaming service’s current and upcoming releases. The addition isn’t simply one other row or two inside the principle Netflix homepage. Instead, the “Latest” part will get its personal devoted space within the Netflix TV app, which is accessible from the left-hand sidebar navigation.
Here, it’s discovered beneath the “Home” button and above the hyperlinks to the devoted “Movies” and “TV Shows” pages.
The part shall be personalised to the tip person, primarily based on their viewing historical past, the corporate says.
At the highest of “Latest” is a row that showcases new content material that arrived this week, which is then adopted by two rows displaying content material that’s as a result of arrive this week and the following.
Users may click on on these future releases and set alerts to remind them when the TV present or film they’re considering watching has arrived.
Netflix says the characteristic is now globally out there on its TV app, which suggests you’ll solely discover it on streaming units just like the Fire TV, Apple TV or Roku, as an illustration, or on different sensible TV or sport console platforms. However, the corporate tells TechCrunch it already has an identical characteristic for Android customers and is presently testing the “Latest” part on iOS.
The firm first spoke to Variety in regards to the addition, including that the personalised recommendations replace a number of instances per day.
Netflix director of product innovation Cameron Johnson advised the outlet the expertise was comparable, in a manner, to film trailers, because it’s additionally designed to get individuals considering upcoming releases.
However, the launch comes at a time when individuals will quickly be contemplating the worth they obtain from their Netflix subscription. The firm not too long ago posted a disappointing quarter the place it introduced it misplaced U.S. subscribers for the primary time since 2011 and broadly missed estimates of 5 million subscriber additions, by including simply 2.7 million new subscribers globally.
The streamer blamed its mild content material slate for the declines. While it did declare a few shiny spots in Q2, just like the darkish comedy Dead to Me and the restricted sequence When They See Us, an excellent little bit of Netflix’s authentic content material is changing into formulaic and copycat-ish.
It’s now doing its personal model of Project Runway, and has a slate of exhibits which can be clearly impressed by (if not exactly copied from) common actuality TV hits like Million Dollar Listing, Say Yes to the Dress, Cupcake Wars, Top Chef, The Bachelor, Real Housewives, and others. It manages to snag beloved stars, however then places them into mediocre fare. It underwhelms with its by-the-numbers authentic movies.
That mentioned, Netflix deserves credit score for a way far it has come since its early days as a mail-order film service. Today, its multi-billion greenback investments in authentic content material has led to the streamer being greatest identified for its personal breakout hits, like Orange is the New Black or House of Cards, for instance.
But as its sheds its catalog content material in favor of shifting its viewers to in-house productions, its picture has modified as nicely. It’s now not considered a one-stop-shop for something you wish to watch mixed with a wealthy slate of high quality originals. And now it’s poised to lose a few of its hottest licensed content material — Friends and The Office — as the normal media license holders transfer into the streaming market.
Variety had reported in July that content material from NBCU, Disney/Fox and Warner Bros. accounts for 60%-65% of Netflix’s viewing hours.
Now Netflix is dealing with competitors from Disney+, which can undercut Netflix’s pricing at $6.99 per 30 days and be provided in a $12.99 per 30 days bundle that additionally contains Hulu and ESPN+. That’s the identical value as Netflix’s normal U.S. plan.
More than ever, Netflix must preserve its viewers locked in, and among the best methods to do that is to remind them there are new films and exhibits…
