[indziektor]

It's a difference in expectations for me. When I was browsing the Netflix catalogue, I wanted to be in control and find something myself that's interesting. When some video starts auto-playing, then it feels like some kind of obnoxious banner ad for some show I may or may not even remotely care about, and it's distracting me from my task.

Then again, I'm not currently a customer, but that's my recollection of it. For regular TV, I couldn't especially say, since I mostly only ever get a chance to watch it in hotels nowadays, but I don't ever recall something distracting you from channel surfing or using the guide channel and breaking you out of your zone.

As far as regular TV being more relaxing, I suppose there's maybe something meditative about going through all the channels, but I wouldn't say it was a better experience. It's just easier to settle with something mediocre when you're sure you've seen all your choices (assuming no commercials were playing at the time).