alt Hacker NewsI've worked in streaming. If you see a feature pulled, or announced and delayed, or announced and never shipped, 99.99999% of the time it's due to licensing. Every single permutation of any action that a user may find beneficial is covered by a different license with a different cost.
Oh. And ads. There's another can of worms if you need to serve ads.
In this case it could be that Netflix is an asshole. Or could be that they really could not figure out proper device atteibution and ad reporting to the leeches that are the content owners and ad networks.
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Don't build the Torment Netflix? These fundamentally anti-consumer moves are why it's called the Internet of sh**y things.
I have no concern whatsoever whether this is about licensing or just money grubbing. You're making things suck for the paying customer. But to be fair, all the streaming services are chasing the last few drops of blood from the stone trying to stop people from actually watching from two screens they paid for in two different locations and other idiocy. I canceled Netflix a while back. And I only watch prime video through an ad blocker on my PC now. Clearly I must hate freedom.
Advertising is a virus that invades and destroys every ecosystem it can.