Netflix features i'd pay more for

When subscriber growth slowed, Netflix cracked down on password sharing & raised subscription fees. While financial growth is important for shareholders/stock prices, continuing to squeeze money out of subscribers without improving the service probably isn’t the best long-term solution.

Instead, Netflix should offer new, premium membership tiers, with exciting features that make people want to pay more rather than forcing them to. What kind of features could be exciting enough to make people want to pay even more for Netflix? I’ve got a few ideas….

The social tier is all about bringing subscribers together and allowing them to share their watching-experience with friends through recommendations, shared viewing experiences and (limited) social media integration.

Recs: Subscribers would be able to make/receive what-to-watch recommendations that get added directly to a “Recommended by friends” watchlist. Between the algorithm and your friends, this tier would offer a more tailored viewing-experience, and make it more convenient to watch/remember shows that have been recommended to you.

Watch-Party: This feature would let a group of subscribers in different locations have a movie night/binge-session remotely. Users would be able to see the same thing, all in real-time, there would also be chat/vocal features for jokes, critiques & commentary during the movie (depending on how your group likes to get down). A Google chrome extension that does this currently exists, but I’m proposing an official Netflix feature with higher functionality.

Social Integration: With social media apps like Letterboxd & TV Time being used for people to track & review what they watch, it’d be extremely convenient if you could connect your Netflix to these apps. After signing into Letterboxd or TV Time through Netflix, these apps would be able to keep track of what you watch & update your progress automatically. As someone who regularly forgets to log shows/movies I’ve seen, I for one would find this incredibly helpful. It could also be used for a “Spotify wrapped” style list of everything you watched during the year.

Netflix essentially created the binge-watching mode, so I think it’s something to lean into. Encouraging viewers to binge-watch means they’re more likely to finish shows, the more minutes viewed, the better the headlines, the hype builds, more people watch and Netflix gets growth.

Binge Challenge: For completing Netflix shows under specified conditions (i.e. “Binge Challenge: Watch all eps of *latest show* within 24 hrs), subscribers would get points that they could accumulate over time and exchange for exclusive (can only be won, not bought) merchandise of the show in question.

Binge Rankings: As more challenges are completed, subscribers will rise in binge-rankings and at a certain rank, (I was thinking that rank would be called Binge God but the idea of sharing my title makes me violently ill) subscribers could even be sent sneak previews of upcoming shows, and even episodes in advance (only one or two: Enough to get people excited but not enough to give them the power to ruin anything).

To many cinephiles, Netflix is to cinema what McDonalds is to a Michelin star restaurant (it makes a lot of “content”, and leads the streaming wave, which has conditioned people to watch stuff at home…and not go see stuff in cinema). If I’m not mistaken, that’s a big part of why Letterboxd (app for logging & reviewing movies) doesn’t include TV shows. I think a cinephile tier could help Netflix stop being perceived as part of cinema’s ruin and potentially one if its saviours.

Netflix Cinema: Netflix sometimes puts movies in cinemas for a limited amount of time. Subscribers to this tier would be able to use their subscription to collect one free ticket to see Netflix movies cinemas. They would also be able to opt-in to raffles for Netflix movie premieres.

Vote For It: Netflix would give subscribers to this tier the opportunity to vote on certain aspects of a movie by providing them with pre-approved options for movies that they’re considering making. This lets Netflix know which way subscribers are leaning (if people are happy with the shows/movies Netflix makes, everybody wins), and gives subscribers a feeling of agency in what they’re paying to watch.

Save Cinema: This tier would also give subscribers the opportunity to make donations (that Netflix would match) to a fund 100% dedicated to fostering local talent. Cinephiles will feel good about their financial contribution to the future of cinema, and Netflix could build strong relationships with up & coming talent that could be mutually beneficial to all parties involved.

Offering new and exciting features is a much more sustainable way to promote long term growth. While squeezing existing subscribers seems to be working for now, I don’t see that being the case for much longer. Some people are already contemplating deleting their accounts and getting their content through..."other" methods, so netflix really needs to be careful. Which of these tiers/features is most appealing to you, and could you see yourself paying a premium fee to access them? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments!