Opinion: Why I still can’t get my TV fix with Netflix

Regular readers of my rants will know I’m a sucker for good TV. So imagine my delight when Netflix announced late last year it was coming to Hong Kong. Yay, no more feeling guilty about all that illegal downloading. Oops. Probably shouldn’t have mentioned that.

So when I finally got around to signing up I thought I’d struck gold. For a monthly fee of about 80 bucks I could go crazy. House of Cards, Making a Murderer, Suits, Better Call Saul, Orange Is the New Black, Chelsea Does … all great TV series just waiting to be watched (and in some cases re-watched). I was set. My friends would think I was in hiding, or finally busted and locked away for all that aforementioned downloading activity.

Fact is, my complimentary month-long subscription hasn’t even ended and already I’ve watched the whole damn lot. Documentaries of Pablo Escobar, comedies, you name it.

That’s the problem when they make it so easy to consume content on the go. You watch so much more of it. It’s an insatiable appetite, but now I want more. I need more. You can’t get people hooked like that then cut the supply. Reruns of Goodfellas, Fight Club and Jack Reacher just won’t work.

To make matters worse, Netflix is not even playing the fourth season of House of Cards in Hong Kong. Those rights have been sold to its rival LeEco and that’s going to cost you an extra $100 – plus they tease you with just one episode a week, which goes against the entire philosophy of the House of Cards creators – the freedom of on-demand bulk viewing.

I’ve always maintained that the key ingredient for all these new channels – LeEco, Viu, Netflix or even HBO GO – will be consistently good content. Now they just need more of it to keep this demanding customer happy.