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Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand
over-the-top An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms: the types of companies that traditionally act as controllers or distributors ...
streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...
service and
production company A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and ...
based in
Los Gatos, California Los Gatos (, ; ) is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population is 33,529 according to the 2020 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area just southwest of San Jose in the foothills of the ...
. Founded in 1997 by
Reed Hastings Wilmot Reed Hastings Jr. (born October 8, 1960) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the co-founder, chairman, and co-chief executive officer (CEO) of Netflix, and sits on a number of boards and non-profit organizations. A former member ...
and
Marc Randolph Marc Bernays Randolph (born April 29, 1958) is an American tech entrepreneur, advisor and speaker. He is the co-founder and first Chief executive officer, CEO of Netflix. A serial entrepreneur who helped found the U.S. edition of ''Macworld'' mag ...
in
Scotts Valley, California Scotts Valley is a small city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States, about thirty miles (48 km) south of downtown San Jose and six miles (10 km) north of the city of Santa Cruz, in the upland slope of the Santa Cruz Mounta ...
, it offers a film and television series library through
distribution deal A distribution deal (also known as distribution contract or distribution agreement) is a legal agreement between one party and another, to handle distribution of a product. There are various forms of distribution deals. There are exclusive and no ...
s as well as its own productions, known as
Netflix Originals Netflix is an American global Internet streaming-on-demand media provider that has distributed a number of original streaming television shows, including original series, specials, miniseries, and documentaries and films. Netflix's original pro ...
. As of September 2022, Netflix had 222 million subscribers worldwide, including 73.3 million in the United States and Canada; 73.0 million in
Europe, the Middle East and Africa EMEA is a shorthand designation meaning Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The acronym is used by institutions and governments, as well as in marketing and business when referring to this region: it is a shorthand way of referencing the two ...
, 39.6 million in
Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
and 34.8 million in the
Asia-Pacific Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the part of the world near the western Pacific Ocean. The Asia-Pacific region varies in area depending on context, but it generally includes East Asia, Russian Far East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Pacific Isla ...
region. It is available worldwide aside from Mainland China, Syria, North Korea, and Russia. Netflix has played a prominent role in
independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, i ...
distribution, and it is a member of the
Motion Picture Association The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distribu ...
(MPA). Netflix can be accessed via
web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on ...
s or via
application software Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a c ...
installed on
smart TV A smart TV, also known as a connected TV (CTV), is a traditional television set with integrated Internet and interactive Web 2.0 features, which allows users to stream music and videos, browse the internet, and view photos. Smart TVs are a techno ...
s,
set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of sign ...
es connected to
television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
s,
tablet computer A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being comput ...
s,
smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
s,
digital media player A digital media player (also sometimes known as a streaming device or streaming box) is a type of consumer electronics device designed for the storage, playback, or viewing of digital media content. They are typically designed to be integra ...
s,
Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
players,
video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally placed i ...
s and
virtual reality headset A virtual reality headset (or VR headset) is a head-mounted device that provides virtual reality for the wearer. VR headsets are widely used with VR video games but they are also used in other applications, including simulators and trainers. VR ...
s on the
list of Netflix-compatible devices A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
. It is available in
4K resolution 4K resolution refers to a horizontal display resolution of approximately 4,000 pixels. Digital television and digital cinematography commonly use several different 4K resolutions. In television and consumer media, 38402160 (4K Ultra-high-definitio ...
. In the United States, the company provided Digital Video Disc (DVD) and
Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
rentals delivered individually via the
United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...
from regional
warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities ...
s. Netflix initially both sold and rented DVDs by mail, but the sales were eliminated within a year to focus on the DVD rental business. In 2007, Netflix introduced
streaming media Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...
and
video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...
. The company expanded to Canada in 2010, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean. Netflix entered the film and television production industry in 2013, debuting its first series ''House of Cards''. In January 2016, it expanded to an additional 130 countries and then operated in 190 countries. The company is ranked 115th on the ''
Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...
'' and 219th on the
Forbes Global 2000 The ''Forbes'' Global 2000 is an annual ranking of the top 2000 public companies in the world, published by ''Forbes'' magazine. "The Global 2000" annual ranking is assembled by ''Forbes'' using a weighted assessment of four metrics: sales, profi ...
. It is the second largest entertainment/media company by
market capitalization Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by t ...
as of February 2022. In 2021, Netflix was ranked as the eighth-most trusted brand globally by Morning Consult. During the 2010s, Netflix was the top-performing
stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...
in the
S&P 500 The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. As of D ...
stock market index In finance, a stock index, or stock market index, is an index that measures a stock market, or a subset of the stock market, that helps investors compare current stock price levels with past prices to calculate market performance. Two of the ...
, with a total return of 3,693%. Netflix is headquartered in
Los Gatos, California Los Gatos (, ; ) is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population is 33,529 according to the 2020 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area just southwest of San Jose in the foothills of the ...
, in
Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...
, with the two CEOs, Hastings and
Ted Sarandos Theodore Anthony Sarandos Jr. is an American businessman who serves as the co-chief executive officer and chief content officer for Netflix. Early life Sarandos was born in Phoenix, Arizona. His father was Ted Sarandos Sr, an electrician, and ...
, split between Los Gatos and
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, respectively. It also operates international offices in Asia, Europe and Latin America including in Canada, France, Brazil, Netherlands, India, Italy, Japan, Poland, South Korea and the United Kingdom. The company has production hubs in Los Angeles,
Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...
,
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
,
Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
and
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
. Compared to other distributors, Netflix pays more for TV shows up front, but keeps more "upside" (i.e. future revenue opportunities from possible syndication, merchandising, etc.) on big hits.


History


Launch as a mail-based rental business (1997–2006)

Netflix was founded by
Marc Randolph Marc Bernays Randolph (born April 29, 1958) is an American tech entrepreneur, advisor and speaker. He is the co-founder and first Chief executive officer, CEO of Netflix. A serial entrepreneur who helped found the U.S. edition of ''Macworld'' mag ...
and
Reed Hastings Wilmot Reed Hastings Jr. (born October 8, 1960) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the co-founder, chairman, and co-chief executive officer (CEO) of Netflix, and sits on a number of boards and non-profit organizations. A former member ...
on August 29, 1997 in
Scotts Valley, California Scotts Valley is a small city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States, about thirty miles (48 km) south of downtown San Jose and six miles (10 km) north of the city of Santa Cruz, in the upland slope of the Santa Cruz Mounta ...
. Hastings, a computer scientist and mathematician, was a co-founder of Pure Atria, which was acquired by Rational Software Corporation in 1997 for $750 million, then the biggest acquisition in
Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...
history. Randolph had worked as a marketing director for Pure Atria after Pure Atria acquired a company where Randolph worked. He was previously a co-founder of
MicroWarehouse MicroWarehouse was the largest and longest established at the time, direct resellers of branded IT products and services to business in the United Kingdom. At the height of their industry dominance, Micro Warehouse had 3,500 employees in thirteen ...
, a computer mail-order company as well as vice president of marketing for
Borland International Borland Software Corporation was a computer technology company founded in 1983 by Niels Jensen, Ole Henriksen, Mogens Glad and Philippe Kahn. Its main business was the development and sale of software development and software deployment products ...
. Hastings and Randolph came up with the idea for Netflix while
carpool Carpooling (also car-sharing, ride-sharing and lift-sharing) is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. By having more people usi ...
ing between their homes in
Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz (Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a pop ...
and Pure Atria's headquarters in Sunnyvale.
Patty McCord Patty McCord is a human resources (HR) consultant and executive. She was the chief talent officer at Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gat ...
, later head of
human resources Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include m ...
at Netflix, was also in the carpool group. Randolph admired
Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...
and wanted to find a large category of portable items to sell over the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
using a similar model. Hastings and Randolph considered and rejected selling and renting VHS tapes as too expensive to stock and too delicate to ship. When they heard about DVDs, first introduced in the United States on March 24, 1997, they tested the concept of selling or renting DVDs by mail by mailing a compact disc to Hastings's house in Santa Cruz. When the disc arrived intact, they decided to enter the $16 billion
home-video Home video is prerecorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD, Blu-ray and streaming med ...
sales and rental industry. Hastings is often quoted saying that he decided to start Netflix after being fined $40 at a Blockbuster store for being late to return a copy of ''Apollo 13'', a claim since repudiated by Randolph. Hastings invested $2.5 million into Netflix from the sale of Pure Atria. Netflix.com launched as the first DVD rental and sales website in 1998 with 30 employees and 925 titles available—nearly all DVDs published. Randolph and Hastings met with
Jeff Bezos Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ''né'' Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former preside ...
, where
Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...
offered to acquire Netflix for between $14 and $16 million. Fearing competition from Amazon, Randolph at first thought the offer was fair but Hastings, who owned 70% of the company, turned it down on the plane ride home. Initially, Netflix offered a per-rental model for each DVD but introduced a monthly subscription concept in September 1999. The per-rental model was dropped by early 2000, allowing the company to focus on the business model of flat-fee unlimited rentals without due dates, late fees, shipping and handling fees, or per-title rental fees. In September 2000, during the
dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...
, while Netflix was suffering losses, Hastings and Randolph offered to sell the company to
Blockbuster LLC Blockbuster LLC, formerly known as Blockbuster Video, was an American-based provider of home video and video game rental services. Services were offered primarily at video rental shops, but later alternatives included DVD-by-mail, streaming med ...
for $50 million.
John Antioco John Antioco is an American businessman, known for being the former CEO of Blockbuster Video who missed an opportunity to purchase Netflix before it became a multi-billion dollar streaming platform. He is now the chairman of the board of directo ...
, CEO of Blockbuster, thought the offer was a joke and declined, saying "The dot-com hysteria is completely overblown." While Netflix experienced fast growth in early 2001, the continued effects of the dot-com bubble collapse and the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
caused the company to hold off plans for its
initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
(IPO) and to lay off one-third of its 120 employees. DVD players were a popular gift for holiday sales in late 2001, and demand for DVD subscription services were "growing like crazy", according to chief talent officer
Patty McCord Patty McCord is a human resources (HR) consultant and executive. She was the chief talent officer at Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gat ...
. The company went
public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
on May 29, 2002, selling 5.5 million shares of
common stock Common stock is a form of corporate equity ownership, a type of security. The terms voting share and ordinary share are also used frequently outside of the United States. They are known as equity shares or ordinary shares in the UK and other Com ...
at US$15.00 per share. In 2003, Netflix was issued a patent by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to cover its subscription rental service and several extensions. Netflix posted its first profit in 2003, earning $6.5 million on revenues of $272 million; by 2004, profit had increased to $49 million on over $500 million in revenues. In 2005, 35,000 different films were available, and Netflix shipped 1 million DVDs out every day. In 2004, Blockbuster introduced a DVD rental service, which not only allowed users to check out titles through online sites but allowed for them to return them at
brick-and-mortar Brick and mortar (also bricks and mortar or B&M) refers to a physical presence of an organization or business in a building or other structure. The term ''brick-and-mortar business'' is often used to refer to a company that possesses or leases r ...
stores. By 2006, Blockbuster's service reached two million users, and while trailing Netflix's subscriber count, was drawing business away from Netflix. Netflix lowered fees in 2007. While it was an
urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
that Netflix ultimately "killed" Blockbuster in the DVD rental market, Blockbuster's debt load and internal disagreements hurt the company. On April 4, 2006, Netflix filed a
patent infringement Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may v ...
lawsuit in which it demanded a
jury trial A jury trial, or trial by jury, is a Trial, legal proceeding in which a jury makes a decision or Question of law, findings of fact. It is distinguished from a bench trial in which a judge or Judicial panel, panel of judges makes all decisions. ...
in the
United States District Court for the Northern District of California The United States District Court for the Northern District of California (in case citations, N.D. Cal.) is the federal United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, Del ...
, alleging that
Blockbuster LLC Blockbuster LLC, formerly known as Blockbuster Video, was an American-based provider of home video and video game rental services. Services were offered primarily at video rental shops, but later alternatives included DVD-by-mail, streaming med ...
's
online DVD rental In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" or ...
subscription program violated two patents held by Netflix. The first
cause of action A cause of action or right of action, in law, is a set of facts sufficient to justify suing to obtain money or property, or to justify the enforcement of a legal right against another party. The term also refers to the legal theory upon which a p ...
alleged Blockbuster's infringement of copying the "dynamic queue" of DVDs available for each customer, Netflix's method of using the ranked preferences in the queue to send DVDs to subscribers, and Netflix's method permitting the queue to be updated and reordered. The second cause of action alleged infringement of the subscription rental service as well as Netflix's methods of communication and delivery. The companies settled their dispute on June 25, 2007; terms were not disclosed. On October 1, 2006, Netflix announced the
Netflix Prize The Netflix Prize was an open competition for the best collaborative filtering algorithm to predict user ratings for films, based on previous ratings without any other information about the users or films, i.e. without the users being identified ...
, $1,000,000 to the first developer of a video-recommendation
algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specificat ...
that could beat its existing algorithm Cinematch, at predicting customer ratings by more than 10%. On September 21, 2009, it awarded the $1,000,000 prize to team "BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos." Cinematch, launched in 2000, is a recommendation system that recommended movies to its users, many of which they might not ever had heard of before. Through its division
Red Envelope Entertainment Red Envelope Entertainment (originally Netflix First) was a film production unit created by Netflix in 2006. The studio produced independent content for the company's DVD-by-mail service. The company produced and/or distributed over 100 films, ...
, Netflix licensed and distributed independent films such as ''
Born into Brothels ''Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids'' is a 2004 Indian-American documentary film about the children of prostitutes in Sonagachi, Kolkata's red light district. The widely acclaimed film, written and directed by Zana Briski and Ross Ka ...
'' and ''
Sherrybaby ''Sherrybaby'' is a 2006 American Drama (film and television), drama film written and directed by Laurie Collyer. Screened at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2006, the film received a limited release in the United States on September 8, ...
''. In late 2006,
Red Envelope Entertainment Red Envelope Entertainment (originally Netflix First) was a film production unit created by Netflix in 2006. The studio produced independent content for the company's DVD-by-mail service. The company produced and/or distributed over 100 films, ...
also expanded into producing original content with filmmakers such as
John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his Cinema of Transgression, transgressive cult films, including ''Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), ''Pink Flamin ...
. Netflix closed Red Envelope Entertainment in 2008.


Transition to streaming services (2007–2012)

In January 2007, the company launched a
streaming media Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...
service, introducing
video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...
via the Internet. However, at that time it only had 1,000 films available for streaming, compared to 70,000 available on DVD. The company had for some time considered offering movies online, but it was only in the mid-2000s that data speeds and bandwidth costs had improved sufficiently to allow customers to download movies from the net. The original idea was a "Netflix box" that could download movies overnight, and be ready to watch the next day. By 2005, Netflix had acquired movie rights and designed the box and service. But after witnessing how popular streaming services such as
YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
were despite the lack of high-definition content, the concept of using a hardware device was scrapped and replaced with a streaming concept. In February 2007, Netflix delivered its billionth DVD, a copy of ''
Babel Babel is a name used in the Hebrew Bible for the city of Babylon and may refer to: Arts and media Written works Books *Babel (book), ''Babel'' (book), by Patti Smith * Babel (2012 manga), ''Babel'' (2012 manga), by Narumi Shigematsu * Babel (20 ...
'' to a customer in Texas. In April 2007, Netflix recruited Anthony Wood, one of the early DVR business pioneers, to build a "Netflix Player" that would allow streaming content to be played directly on a television set rather than a PC or laptop. While the player was initially developed at Netflix, Reed Hastings eventually shut down the project to help encourage other hardware manufacturers to include built-in Netflix support. In January 2008, all rental-disc subscribers became entitled to unlimited streaming at no additional cost. This change came in a response to the introduction of
Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...
and to
Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
's new video-rental services. In August 2008, the Netflix database was corrupted and the company was not able to ship DVDs to customers for 3 days, leading the company to move all its data to the
Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Amazon that provides Software as a service, on-demand cloud computing computing platform, platforms and Application programming interface, APIs to individuals, companies, and gover ...
cloud. In November 2008, Netflix began offering subscribers rentals on
Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
and discontinued its sale of used DVDs. In 2009, Netflix streams overtook DVD shipments. On January 6, 2010, Netflix agreed with
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
to delay new release rentals 28 days prior to retail, in an attempt to help studios sell physical copies, and similar deals involving
Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
and
20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
were reached on April 9. In July 2010, Netflix signed a deal to stream movies of
Relativity Media Relativity Media is an American media company founded in 2004 by Lynwood Spinks and Ryan Kavanaugh. The company brokered film finance deals and later branched into film production and other entertainment ventures. The company was commercially s ...
. In August 2010, Netflix reached a five-year deal worth nearly $1 billion to stream films from
Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...
,
Lionsgate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...
and
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
. The deal increased Netflix's annual spending fees, adding roughly $200 million per year. It spent $117 million in the first six months of 2010 on streaming, up from $31 million in 2009. On September 22, 2010, the company first began offering streaming service to the international market, in Canada. In November 2010, Netflix began offering a standalone streaming service separate from DVD rentals. In 2010, Netflix acquired the rights to ''
Breaking Bad ''Breaking Bad'' is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the series follows Walter White (Bryan Cranston), an underpaid, overqualified, and dispirited hig ...
'', produced by Sony Pictures Television, after the show's third season, at a point where original broadcaster
AMC AMC may refer to: Film and television * AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain * AMC Networks, an American entertainment company ** AMC (TV channel) ** AMC+, streaming service ** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company *** ...
had expressed the possibility of cancelling the show. Sony pushed Netflix to release ''Breaking Bad'' in time for the fourth season, which as a result, greatly expanded the show's audience on AMC due to new viewers binging on the Netflix past episodes, and doubling the viewership by the time of the fifth season. ''Breaking Bad'' is considered the first such show to have this "Netflix effect." In January 2011, Netflix introduced a Netflix button for certain
remote control In electronics, a remote control (also known as a remote or clicker) is an electronic device used to operate another device from a distance, usually wirelessly. In consumer electronics, a remote control can be used to operate devices such as ...
s, allowing users to instantly access Netflix on compatible devices. In May 2011, Netflix's streaming business became the largest source of Internet streaming traffic in North America, accounting for 30% of traffic during peak hours. On July 12, 2011, Netflix announced that it would separate its existing subscription plans into two separate plans: one covering the streaming and the other DVD rental services. The cost for streaming would be $7.99 per month, while DVD rental would start at the same price. In September 2011, Netflix announced a content deal with
DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios and simply known as DreamWorks) is an American animation studio that produces animated films and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division ...
. In September 2011, Netflix expanded to 43 countries in Latin America. On September 18, 2011, Netflix announced its intentions to rebrand and restructure its DVD home media rental service as an independent subsidiary called Qwikster, separating DVD rental and streaming services. On October 10, 2011, Netflix announced that it would retain its DVD service under the name Netflix and that its streaming and DVD-rental plans would remain branded together. On January 4, 2012, Netflix started its expansion to Europe, launching in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In February 2012, Netflix signed a licensing deal with
The Weinstein Company The Weinstein Company (usually credited or abbreviated as TWC) was an American independent film studio, founded in New York City by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in March 2005. TWC was one of the largest mini-major film studios in North America prior ...
. In March 2012, Netflix acquired the
domain name A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...
DVD.com. By 2016, Netflix rebranded its DVD-by-mail service under the name ''DVD.com, A Netflix Company''. In April 2012, Netflix filed with the
Federal Election Commission The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is an independent regulatory agency of the United States whose purpose is to enforce campaign finance law in United States federal elections. Created in 1974 through amendments to the Federal Election Cam ...
(FEC) to form a political action committee (PAC) called FLIXPAC. Netflix spokesperson Joris Evers tweeted that the intent was to "engage on issues like
net neutrality Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent rates irrespective of co ...
,
bandwidth cap A data cap, often erroneously referred to as a bandwidth cap, is an artificial restriction imposed on the transfer of data over a network. In particular, it refers to policies imposed by an internet service provider in order to limit customers' u ...
s, UBB and
VPPA The Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) is a bill that was passed by the United States Congress in 1988 as and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. It was created to prevent what it refers to as "wrongful disclosure of video tape rental ...
". In June 2012, Netflix signed a deal with
Open Road Films Open Road Films, LLC (formerly Global Road Entertainment from 2017 to 2018) is an American film production and distribution company based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded by Eric Hohl on March 26, 2011 as a joint venture between the t ...
. On August 23, 2012, Netflix and
The Weinstein Company The Weinstein Company (usually credited or abbreviated as TWC) was an American independent film studio, founded in New York City by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in March 2005. TWC was one of the largest mini-major film studios in North America prior ...
signed a multi-year output deal for RADiUS-TWC films. In September 2012,
Epix Epix (pronounced ''epics'' and stylized as P) is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by the Epix Entertainment LLC subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), a subsidiary of Amazon's MGM Holdings, Inc. The channel's pr ...
signed a five-year streaming deal with Netflix. For the initial two years of this agreement, first-run and back-catalog content from Epix was exclusive to Netflix. Epix films came to Netflix 90 days after premiering on Epix. These included films from Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lionsgate. On October 18, 2012, Netflix launched in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. On December 4, 2012, Netflix and Disney announced an exclusive multi-year agreement for first-run United States subscription television rights to Walt Disney Studios' animated and live-action films, with classics such as ''
Dumbo ''Dumbo'' is a 1941 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The fourth Disney animated feature film, it is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, a ...
'', ''
Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
'' and ''
Pocahontas Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, known as Matoaka, 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman, belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of ...
'' available immediately and others available on Netflix beginning in 2016.
Direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...
releases were made available in 2013. The agreement with Disney ended in 2019 due to the launch of
Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and deligh ...
. Netflix retained the rights to continue streaming the Marvel series that were produced for the service until March 1, 2022, following Disney's reacquisition of the rights to those series. On January 14, 2013, Netflix signed an agreement with
Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...
's
Turner Broadcasting System Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (alternatively known as Turner Entertainment Networks from 2019 until 2022) was an American television and media conglomerate. Founded by Ted Turner and based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner (lat ...
and Warner Bros. Television to distribute
Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...
,
Warner Bros. Animation Warner Bros. Animation Inc. is an American animation studio which is part of the Warner Bros. Television Studios division of Warner Bros., a flagship of Warner Bros. Discovery. As the successor to Warner Bros. Cartoons, which was active from 1 ...
, and
Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as
dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...
and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...
content, as well as
TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...
's ''
Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
'', beginning in March 2013. The rights to these programs were given to Netflix shortly after deals with
Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...
to stream
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...
and
Nick Jr. Nick Jr. (known on-air as the Nick Jr. Channel) is an American pay television channel spun off from Nickelodeon's long-running programming block of the same name. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Gr ...
programs expired.


Development of original programming (2013–2017)

In 2013, the company decided to slow launches in Europe to control subscription costs. In February 2013, Netflix announced it would be hosting its own awards ceremony, ''The Flixies''. On March 13, 2013, Netflix added a
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
sharing feature, letting United States subscribers access "Watched by your friends" and "Friends' Favorites" by agreeing. This was not legal until the
Video Privacy Protection Act The Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) is a bill that was passed by the United States Congress in 1988 as and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. It was created to prevent what it refers to as "wrongful disclosure of video tape rental ...
was modified in early 2013. In February 2013, DreamWorks Animation and Netflix co-produced '' Turbo Fast'', based on the movie ''
Turbo In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pro ...
'', which premiered in July. Netflix has since become a major distributor of animated family and kid shows. In July 2013, ''
Orange Is the New Black ''Orange Is the New Black'' (sometimes abbreviated to ''OITNB'') is an American comedy-drama streaming television series created by Jenji Kohan for Netflix. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir '' Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Wo ...
'' debuted on Netflix, which became Netflix's most-watched original series. On August 1, 2013, Netflix reintroduced the "Profiles" feature that permits accounts to accommodate up to five user profiles. In September 2013, Netflix launched in the Netherlands and was then available in 40 countries. In November 2013, Netflix and
Marvel Television Marvel Television was an American television production company responsible for live-action and animated (through Marvel Animation) television shows and direct-to-DVD series based on characters from Marvel Comics. The division was based at affil ...
announced a five-season deal to produce live-action Marvel superhero-focused series: Daredevil,
Jessica Jones Jessica Campbell Jones Cage is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Michael Gaydos and first appeared in ''Alias'' #1 (November 2001) ...
, Iron Fist and
Luke Cage Lucas "Luke" Cage, born Carl Lucas and also known as Power Man, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in ''Luke Cage, Hero for Hire'' #1 (June 1972) and was created by Archie Go ...
. The deal involves the release of four 13-episode seasons that culminate in a mini-series called '' The Defenders''. ''Daredevil'' and ''Jessica Jones'' premiered in 2015. The ''
Luke Cage Lucas "Luke" Cage, born Carl Lucas and also known as Power Man, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in ''Luke Cage, Hero for Hire'' #1 (June 1972) and was created by Archie Go ...
'' series premiered on September 30, 2016, followed by '' Iron Fist'' on March 17, 2017, and '' The Defenders'' on August 18, 2017. The series, however, were removed from Netflix on March 1, 2022, following Disney's announcement to reacquire the series' rights after Netflix's deal expired. In February 2014, Netflix discovered that
Comcast Cable Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, doing business as Xfinity, is an American telecommunications company and division of Comcast Corporation used to market consumer cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the com ...
was slowing its traffic down and agreed to pay Comcast to directly connect to the Comcast network. On March 7, 2014, new ''Star Wars'' content was released on Netflix's streaming service: the sixth season of the television series '' Star Wars: The Clone Wars'', as well as all five prior and the
feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
. In April 2014, Netflix signed ''
Arrested Development The term "arrested development" has had multiple meanings for over 200 years. In the field of medicine, the term "arrested development" was first used, ''circa'' 1835–1836, to mean a stoppage of physical development; the term continues to be use ...
'' creator
Mitchell Hurwitz Mitchell Donald "Mitch" Hurwitz (born May 29, 1963) is an American television writer, producer, and actor. He is best known as the creator of the television sitcom ''Arrested Development'' as well as the co-creator of ''The Ellen Show''. He is a ...
and his production firm The Hurwitz Company to a multi-year deal to create original projects for the service. In May 2014, Netflix acquired streaming rights to films produced by
Sony Pictures Animation Sony Pictures Animation Inc. is an American animation studio owned by Sony Entertainment's Sony Pictures Entertainment through their Motion Picture Group division and founded on May 9, 2002. The studio's films are distributed worldwide by Son ...
. In June 2014, Netflix unveiled a global rebranding: a new logo, which uses a modern typeface with the
drop shadow In graphic design and computer graphics, a drop shadow is a visual effect consisting of a drawing element which looks like the shadow of an object, giving the impression that the object is raised above the objects behind it. The drop shadow is of ...
ing removed, and a new website UI. In September 2014, Netflix became available in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany,
Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
, and Switzerland. On September 10, 2014, Netflix participated in
Internet Slowdown Day Internet Slowdown Day, part of the "Battle for the Net" initiative, was a series of coordinated protests organized to promote net neutrality and regulations for the equal treatment of Internet traffic, occurring on September 10, 2014. The official ...
by deliberately slowing down its speed in protest of
net neutrality Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent rates irrespective of co ...
laws. In October 2014, Netflix announced a four-film deal with
Adam Sandler Adam Richard Sandler (born September 9, 1966) is an American comedian, actor, screenwriter, producer and singer. He was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1990 to 1995, before going on to star in numerous Hollywood films, those of wh ...
and his
Happy Madison Productions Happy Madison Productions is an American film and television production company founded in 1999 by Adam Sandler, which is best known for its comedy films. Happy Madison takes its name from the films ''Happy Gilmore'' and ''Billy Madison'', two b ...
. In April 2015, following the launch of '' Daredevil'', Netflix director of content operations Tracy Wright announced that Netflix had added support for
audio description Audio description, also referred to as a video description, described video, or more precisely called a visual description, is a form of narration used to provide information surrounding key visual elements in a media work (such as a film or telev ...
(a narration track with aural descriptions of key visual elements for the blind or visually impaired), and had begun to work with its partners to add descriptions to its other original series over time. The following year, as part of a settlement with the
American Council of the Blind The American Council of the Blind (ACB) is a nationwide organization in the United States. It is an organization mainly made up of blind and visually impaired people who want to achieve independence and equality (although there are many sighted ...
, Netflix agreed to provide descriptions for its original series within 30 days of their premiere, and add
screen reader A screen reader is a form of assistive technology (AT) that renders text and image content as speech or braille output. Screen readers are essential to people who are blindness, blind, and are useful to people who are visual impairment, visually ...
support and the ability to browse content by availability of descriptions. In March 2015, Netflix expanded to Australia and New Zealand. In September 2015, Netflix launched in Japan, its first country in Asia. In October 2015, Netflix launched in Italy, Portugal, and Spain. In January 2016, at the 2016
Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...
, Netflix announced a major international expansion of its service into 130 additional countries. It then had become available worldwide except China, Syria, North Korea,
Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
and
Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
. In May 2016, Netflix created a tool called Fast.com to determine the speed of an Internet connection. It received praise for being "simple" and "easy to use", and does not include
online advertising Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising which uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. ...
, unlike competitors. On November 30, 2016, Netflix launched an offline playback feature, allowing users of the Netflix mobile apps on Android or
iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
to
cache Cache, caching, or caché may refer to: Places United States * Cache, Idaho, an unincorporated community * Cache, Illinois, an unincorporated community * Cache, Oklahoma, a city in Comanche County * Cache, Utah, Cache County, Utah * Cache County ...
content on their devices in standard or high quality for viewing offline, without an Internet connection. In 2016, Netflix released an estimated 126 original series or films, more than any other network or cable channel. In 2016, Netflix announced plans to expand its in-house production division and produced TV series including ''
The Ranch ''The Ranch'' is an American streaming television sitcom series. It starred Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson (who previously co-starred on ''That '70s Show'') as brothers Colt and Rooster Bennett, respectively; who help run the Colorado cattle ...
'' and ''
Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
''. In February 2017, Netflix signed a
music publishing A music publisher is a type of publisher that specializes in distributing music. Music publishers originally published sheet music. When copyright became legally protected, music publishers started to play a role in the management of the intellect ...
deal with
BMG Rights Management BMG Rights Management GmbH (also known simply as BMG) is an international music company based in Berlin, Germany. It combines the activities of a music publisher and a record label. BMG was founded in October 2008 after Bertelsmann sold its ...
, whereby BMG will oversee rights outside of the United States for music associated with Netflix original content. Netflix continues to handle these tasks in-house in the United States. On April 25, 2017, Netflix signed a licensing deal with IQiyi, a Chinese video streaming platform owned by
Baidu Baidu, Inc. ( ; , meaning "hundred times") is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products and artificial intelligence (AI), headquartered in Beijing's Haidian District. It is one of the la ...
, to allow selected Netflix original content to be distributed in China on the platform. On August 7, 2017, in the first acquisition of an entire company, Netflix acquired
Millarworld Millarworld Limited is a comic book company that was founded in 2004 by Scottish comic book writer Mark Millar as a creator-owned line. The imprint is best known for publishing the books '' Wanted'', ''Chosen'', '' The Unfunnies'', '' Kick-Ass ...
, the creator-owned publishing company of comic book writer
Mark Millar Mark Millar (; born 24 December 1969) is a Scottish comic book writer and television producer who first came to prominence with a run on the superhero series '' The Authority'', published by DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint. Millar has written ex ...
. On August 14, 2017, Netflix announced that it had entered into an exclusive development deal with
Shonda Rhimes Shonda Lynn Rhimes (born January 13, 1970) is an American television screenwriter, producer, and author. She is best known as the showrunner—creator, head writer, and executive producer—of the television medical drama ''Grey's Anatomy'', it ...
and her production company
Shondaland Shondaland (stylized as ShondaLand from 2005 to 2016 and shondaland thereafter) is an American television production company founded by television writer/producer Shonda Rhimes. She founded it to be one of the production companies of her first s ...
. In September 2017, Netflix announced it would offer its low-broadband mobile technology to airlines to provide better in-flight Wi-Fi so that passengers can watch movies on Netflix while on planes. In September 2017, Minister of Heritage
Mélanie Joly Mélanie Joly (born January 16, 1979) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs (Canada), Minister of Foreign Affairs since October 2021. A member of the Liberal Party of Canada, Liberal Party, Joly repr ...
announced that Netflix had agreed to make a (US$400 million) investment over the next five years in producing content in Canada. The company denied that the deal was intended to result in a
tax break Tax break also known as tax preferences, tax concession, and tax relief, are a method of reduction to the tax liability of taxpayers. Government usually applies them to stimulate the economy and increase the solvency of the population. By this fi ...
. Netflix realized this goal by December 2018. In October 2017, Netflix iterated a goal of having half of its library consist of original content by 2019, announcing a plan to invest $8 billion on original content in 2018. There will be a particular focus on films and anime through this investment, with a plan to produce 80 original films and 30 anime series. In October 2017, Netflix introduced the "Skip Intro" feature which allows customers to skip the intros to shows on its platform. They do so through a variety of techniques including manual reviewing, audio tagging, and machine learning. In November 2017, Netflix signed an exclusive multi-year deal with ''Orange Is the New Black'' creator Jenji Kohan. In November 2017, Netflix withdrew from co-hosting the 75th Golden Globe Awards with
The Weinstein Company The Weinstein Company (usually credited or abbreviated as TWC) was an American independent film studio, founded in New York City by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in March 2005. TWC was one of the largest mini-major film studios in North America prior ...
due to the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases.


Expansion into international productions (2017–2020)

In November 2017, Netflix announced that it would be making its first original Colombian series, to be executive produced by Ciro Guerra. In December 2017, Netflix signed ''Stranger Things'' director-producer Shawn Levy and his production company 21 Laps Entertainment to what sources say is a four-year deal. In 2017, Netflix invested in distributing exclusive stand-up comedy specials from Dave Chappelle, Louis C.K., Chris Rock, Jim Gaffigan, Bill Burr and Jerry Seinfeld. In February 2018, Netflix acquired the rights to ''The Cloverfield Paradox'' from Paramount Pictures for $50 million and launched on its service on February 4, 2018, shortly after airing its first trailer during Super Bowl LII. Analysts believed that Netflix's purchase of the film helped to make the film instantly profitable for Paramount compared to a more traditional theatrical release, while Netflix benefited from the surprise reveal. Other films acquired by Netflix include international distribution for Paramount's ''Annihilation (film), Annihilation'' and Universal's ''News of the World (film), News of the World'' and worldwide distribution of Universal's ''Extinction (2018 film), Extinction'', Warner Bros.' ''Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle'', Paramount's ''The Lovebirds (2020 film), The Lovebirds'' and 20th Century Studios' ''The Woman in the Window (2021 film), The Woman in the Window''. In March, the service ordered ''Formula 1: Drive to Survive'', a racing docuseries following teams in the Formula One world championship. In March 2018, Sky UK announced an agreement with Netflix to integrate Netflix's subscription VOD offering into its pay-TV service. Customers with its high-end Sky Q set-top box and service will be able to see Netflix titles alongside their regular Sky channels. In October 2022, Netflix revealed that its annual revenue from the UK subscribers in 2021 was £1.4bn. In April 2018, Netflix pulled out of the Cannes Film Festival, in response to new rules requiring competition films to have been released in French theaters. The Cannes premiere of ''Okja'' in 2017 was controversial, and led to discussions over the appropriateness of films with simultaneous digital releases being screened at an event showcasing theatrical film; audience members also booed the Netflix production logo at the screening. Netflix's attempts to negotiate to allow a limited release in France were curtailed by organizers, as well as French cultural exception law—where theatrically screened films are legally forbidden from being made available via video-on-demand services until at least 36 months after their release. Besides traditional Hollywood markets as well as from partners like the BBC, Sarandos said the company also looking to expand investments in non-traditional foreign markets due to the growth of viewers outside of North America. At the time, this included programs such as ''Dark (TV series), Dark'' from Germany, ''Ingobernable'' from Mexico and ''3%'' from Brazil. On May 22, 2018, former President of the United States, president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama signed a deal to produce docu-series, documentaries and features for Netflix under the Obamas' newly formed production company, Higher Ground Productions. In June 2018, Netflix announced a partnership with Telltale Games to port its adventure games to the service in a streaming video format, allowing simple controls through a television remote. The first game, ''Minecraft: Story Mode'', was released in November 2018. In July 2018, Netflix earned the most Emmy nominations of any network for the first time with 112 nods. On August 27, 2018, the company signed a five-year exclusive overall deal with international best–selling author Harlan Coben. On the same day, the company inked an overall deal with ''Gravity Falls'' creator Alex Hirsch. In October 2018, Netflix paid under $30 million to acquire Albuquerque Studios (ABQ Studios), a $91 million film and TV production facility with eight sound stages in
Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...
, New Mexico, for its first U.S. production hub, pledging to spend over $1 billion over the next decade to create one of the largest film studios in North America. In November 2018, Paramount Pictures signed a multi-picture film deal with Netflix, making Paramount the first major film studio to sign a deal with Netflix. A sequel to AwesomenessTV's ''To All the Boys I've Loved Before (film), To All the Boys I've Loved Before'' was released on Netflix under the title ''To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You'' as part of the agreement. In December 2018, the company announced a partnership with ESPN Films on a television documentary chronicling Michael Jordan and the 1997–98 Chicago Bulls season titled ''The Last Dance (miniseries), The Last Dance''. It was released internationally on Netflix and became available for streaming in the United States three months after a broadcast airing on ESPN. In January 2019, ''Sex Education (TV series), Sex Education'' made its debut as a Netflix original series with much critical acclaim. On January 22, 2019, Netflix sought and was approved for membership into the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), as the first streaming service to become a member of the association. In February 2019, ''The Haunting (TV series), The Haunting'' creator Mike Flanagan (filmmaker), Mike Flanagan joined frequent collaborator Trevor Macy as a partner in Intrepid Pictures and the duo signed an exclusive overall deal with Netflix to produce television content. On May 9, 2019, Netflix contracted with Dark Horse Entertainment to make television series and films based on comics from Dark Horse Comics. In July 2019, Netflix announced that it would be opening a hub at Shepperton Studios as part of a deal with Pinewood Group. In early August 2019, Netflix negotiated an exclusive multi-year film and television deal with ''Game of Thrones'' creators and showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. The first Netflix production created by Benioff and Weiss was planned as an adaptation of Liu Cixin's science fiction novel ''The Three-Body Problem (novel), The Three-Body Problem'', part of the ''Remembrance of Earth's Past'' trilogy. On September 30, 2019, in addition to renewing ''Stranger Things'' for a Stranger Things (season 4), fourth season, Netflix announced signing the series’ creators The Duffer Brothers to a nine-figure deal for additional films and televisions shows over multiple years. On November 13, 2019, Netflix and
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...
entered into a multi-year agreement to produce several original animated feature films and television series based on Nickelodeon's library of characters. This agreement expanded on their existing relationship, in which new specials based on the past Nickelodeon series ''Invader Zim'' and ''Rocko's Modern Life'' (''Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus'' and ''Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling'' respectively) were released by Netflix. Other new projects planned under the team-up include a music project featuring Squidward Tentacles from the animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', and films based on ''The Loud House'' and ''Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles''. In November 2019, Netflix announced it had signed a long-term lease to save the Paris Theatre, the last single-screen movie theater in Manhattan. The company oversaw several renovations at the theater, including new seats and a concession stand. In January 2020, Netflix announced a new four-film deal with Adam Sandler worth up to $275 million. On February 25, 2020, Netflix formed partnerships with six Japanese creators to produce an original Japanese anime project. This partnership includes manga creator group CLAMP, mangaka Shin Kibayashi, mangaka Yasuo Ohtagaki, novelist and film director Otsuichi, novelist Tow Ubutaka, and manga creator Mari Yamazaki. On March 4, 2020, ViacomCBS announced that it will be producing two spin-off films based on ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' for Netflix. On April 7, 2020, Peter Chernin's Chernin Entertainment made a multi-year first-look deal with Netflix to make films. On May 29, 2020, Netflix announced the acquisition of Grauman's Egyptian Theatre from the American Cinematheque to use as a special events venue. In July 2020, Netflix appointed Sarandos as co-CEO. In July 2020, Netflix invested in ''Black Mirror'' creators Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones’ new production outfit Broke And Bones. In September 2020, Netflix signed a multi-million dollar deal with the Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Duke and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Duchess of Sussex. Harry and Meghan agreed to a multi-year deal promising to create TV shows, films, and children's content as part of their commitment to stepping away from the duties of the royal family. In September 2020, Hastings released a book about the Netflix culture titled ''No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention'', which was co-authored by Erin Meyer. In December 2020, Netflix signed a first-look deal with Millie Bobby Brown to develop and star in several projects including a potential action franchise.


Expansion into gaming, ''Squid Game'' (2021–present)

In March 2021, Netflix earned the most Academy Award nominations of any studio, with 36. Netflix won seven Academy Awards, which was the most by any studio. Later that year, Netflix also won more Emmys than any other network or studio with 44 wins, tying the record for most Emmys won in a single year set by CBS in 1974. On April 8, 2021, Sony Pictures Entertainment announced an agreement for Netflix to hold the U.S. pay television window rights to its releases beginning in 2022, replacing Starz and expanding upon an existing agreement with
Sony Pictures Animation Sony Pictures Animation Inc. is an American animation studio owned by Sony Entertainment's Sony Pictures Entertainment through their Motion Picture Group division and founded on May 9, 2002. The studio's films are distributed worldwide by Son ...
. The agreement also includes a first-look deal for any future direct-to-streaming films being produced by Sony Pictures, with Netflix required to commit to a minimum number of them. On April 27, 2021, Netflix announced that it was opening its first Canadian headquarters in
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
. The company also announced that it would open an office in Sweden as well as Rome and Istanbul to increase its original content in those regions. In early June, Netflix hosted a first-ever week-long virtual event called “Geeked Week,” where it shared exclusive news, new trailers, cast appearances and more about upcoming genre titles like ''The Witcher'', ''The Cuphead Show!'', and ''The Sandman (TV series), The Sandman''. On June 7, 2021, Jennifer Lopez's Nuyorican Productions signed a multi-year first-look deal with Netflix spanning feature films, TV series, and unscripted content, with an emphasis on projects that support diverse female actors, writers, and filmmakers. On June 10, 2021, Netflix announced it was launching an online store for curated products tied to the Netflix brand and shows such as ''Stranger Things'' and ''The Witcher (TV series), The Witcher''. On June 21, 2021, Steven Spielberg's Amblin Partners signed a deal with Netflix to release multiple new feature films for the streaming service. On June 30, 2021, Powerhouse Animation Studios (the studio behind Netflix's ''Castlevania (TV series), Castlevania'') announced signing a first-look deal with the streamer to produce more animated series. In July 2021, Netflix hired Mike Verdu, a former executive from Electronic Arts and
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, as vice president of game development, along with plans to add video games by 2022. Netflix announced plans to release mobile gaming, mobile games which would be included in subscribers' plans to the service. Trial offerings were first launched for Netflix users in Poland in August 2021, offering premium mobile games based on ''Stranger Things'' including ''Stranger Things 3: The Game'', for free to subscribers through the Netflix mobile app. On July 14, 2021, Netflix signed a first-look deal with Joey King, star of ''The Kissing Booth (film series), The Kissing Booth'' franchise, in which King will produce and develop films for Netflix via her All The King's Horses production company. On July 21, 2021, Zack Snyder, director of Netflix's ''Army of the Dead'', announced he had signed his production company The Stone Quarry to a first-look deal with; his upcoming projects include a sequel to ''Army of the Dead'', the sci-fi adventure film ''Rebel Moon''. In 2019, he agreed to produce an Anime-influenced animation, anime-style web series inspired by Norse mythology. As of August 2021,
Netflix Originals Netflix is an American global Internet streaming-on-demand media provider that has distributed a number of original streaming television shows, including original series, specials, miniseries, and documentaries and films. Netflix's original pro ...
made up 40% of Netflix's overall library in the United States. The company announced that "Tudum, TUDUM: A Netflix Global Fan Event", a three-hour virtual behind the scenes featuring first-look reveals for 100 of the streamer's series, films and specials, would have its inaugural show in late September 2021. According to Netflix, the show garnered 25.7 million views across Netflix’s 29 Netflix YouTube channels, Twitter, Twitch, Facebook, TikTok and Tudum.com. Also in September, the company announced The Queen’s Ball: A Bridgerton Experience, launching in 2022 in Los Angeles, Chicago, Montreal, and Washington, D.C.. ''Squid Game'', a South Korean survival drama created and produced by Hwang Dong-hyuk, had been acquired and produced by Netflix in 2019 as part of its expansion of foreign works and was released worldwide in multiple languages on September 17, 2021. The show rapidly became the service's most-watched show within a week of its launch in many markets, including Korea, the U.S. and the United Kingdom. Within its first 28 days on the service, ''Squid Game'' drew more than 111 million viewers, surpassing ''Bridgerton'' and becoming Netflix's most-watched show. On September 20, 2021, Netflix signed a long-term lease deal with Aviva Investors to operate and expand the Longcross Studios in Surrey, UK. On September 21, 2021, Netflix announced that it would acquire the Roald Dahl Story Company, which manages the rights to Roald Dahl's Roald Dahl bibliography, stories and characters, for an undisclosed price and would operate it as an independent company. The company acquired Night School Studio, an independent video game developer, in September 2021. Netflix officially launched mobile games on November 2, 2021, for Android users around the world. Through the app, subscribers had free access to five games, including two previously made ''Stranger Things'' titles. Netflix stated that they intend to add more games to this service over time. On November 9, the collection launched for
iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
. Some games in the collection require an active internet connection to play, while others will be available offline. Netflix Kids' accounts will not have games available. On October 13, 2021, Netflix announced the launch of the Netflix Book Club, where readers will hear about new books, films, and series adaptations and have exclusive access to each book's adaptation process. Netflix will partner with Starbucks to bring the book club to life via a social series called ''But Have You Read the Book?''. Uzo Aduba will serve as the inaugural host of the series and announce monthly book selections set to be adapted by the streamer. Aduba will also speak with the cast, creators, and authors about the book adaptation process over a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Through October 2021, Netflix commonly reported viewership for its programming based on the number of viewers or households that watched a show in a given period (such as the first 28 days from its premiere) for at least two minutes. On the announcement of its quarterly earnings in October 2021, the company stated that it would switch its viewership metrics to measuring the number of hours that a show was watched, including rewatches, which the company said was closer to the measurements used in linear broadcast television, and thus "our members and the industry can better measure success in the streaming world." On November 16, 2021, Netflix announced the launch of "Top10 on Netflix.com", a new website with weekly global and country lists of the most popular titles on their service based on their new viewership metrics. On November 22, 2021, Netflix announced that it would acquire Scanline VFX, the visual effects and animation company behind ''Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series), Cowboy Bebop'' and ''Stranger Things''. On the same day, Roberto Patino signed a deal with Netflix and established his own production banner, Analog Inc., in partnership with the company. Patino's first project under the deal is a series adaptation of Image Comics' ''Nocterra''. On December 6, 2021, Netflix and Stage 32 announced that they have teamed up the workshops at the Creating Content for the Global Marketplace program. On December 7, 2021, Netflix partnered with IllumiNative, a woman-led non-profit organization, for the Indigenous Producers Training Program. On December 9, 2021, Netflix announced the launch of "Tudum#Tudum (website), Tudum," an official companion website that offers news, exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes videos for its original television shows and films. On December 13, 2021, Netflix signed a multi-year overall deal with Kalinda Vazquez. On December 16, 2021, Netflix signed a multi-year creative partnership with Spike Lee and his production company 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks to develop film and television projects. In December 2021, former Netflix engineer Sung Mo Jun was sentenced to 2 years in prison for an insider trading scheme where he leaked subscriber numbers in advance of official releases. In compliance with the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive and its implementation in France, Netflix reached commitments with French broadcasting authorities and film guilds, as required by law, to invest a specific amount of its annual revenue into original French films and series. These films must be theatrically released and would not be allowed to be carried on Netflix until 15 months after their release. In January 2022, Netflix ordered additional sports docuseries from ''Drive to Survive'' producers Box to Box Films, including a series that would follow PGA Tour golfers, and another that would follow professional tennis players on the ATP Tour, ATP and WTA Tour circuits. The company announced plans to acquire Next Games in March 2022 for as part of Netflix's expansions into gaming. Next Games had developed the mobile title ''Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales'' as well as two ''The Walking Dead'' mobile games. Later in the month, Netflix also acquired the Texas-based mobile game developer, Boss Fight Entertainment, for an undisclosed sum. On March 15, 2022, Netflix announced a partnership with Dr. Seuss Enterprises to produce five new series and specials based on Seuss Dr. Seuss bibliography, properties following the success of ''Green Eggs and Ham (TV series), Green Eggs and Ham''. On March 29, 2022, Netflix announced that it would open an office in Poland to serve as a hub for its original productions across Central and Eastern Europe. On March 30, 2022, Netflix extended its lease agreement with Martini Film Studios, just outside Vancouver, Canada, for another five years. On March 31, 2022, Netflix ordered a docuseries that would follow teams in the 2022 Tour de France, which would also be co-produced by Box to Box Films''.'' Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Netflix suspended its operations and future projects in Russia. It also announced that it would not comply with a proposed directive by Roskomnadzor requiring all internet streaming services with more than 100,000 subscribers to integrate the major free-to-air channels (which are primarily state-owned). A month later, ex-Russian subscribers filed a class action lawsuit against Netflix. At the end of Q1 2022, Netflix announced a decline in subscribers with almost 200,000 fewer viewers than at the end of the previous year. Netflix stated that 100 million households globally were sharing passwords to their account with others, and that Canada and the United States accounted for 30 million of them. Following these announcements, Netflix's stock price fell by 35 percent. By June 2022, Netflix had laid off 450 full-time and contract employees as part of the company's plan to trim costs amid lower than expected subscriber growth. The layoffs represented approximately 2 percent of the workforce and spread across the company globally. On April 13, 2022, Netflix released the series ''Our Great National Parks'', which was hosted and narrated by former US President Barack Obama. It also partnered with Group Effort Initiative, a company founded by Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, to provide opportunities behind the camera for those in underrepresented communities. On the same day, Netflix partnered with Lebanon-based Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), Arab Fund For Arts And Culture for supporting the Arab female filmmakers. It will provide a one-time grant of $250,000 to female producers and directors in the Arab world through the company's Fund for Creative Equity. Also on the same day, Netflix announced an ''Exploding Kittens'' mobile card game tied to a new animated TV series, which will launch in May. Netflix announced that they have formed a creative partnership with J. Miles Dale. The company also formed a partnership with Japan's Studio Colorido, signing a multi-film deal to boost their anime content in Asia. The streaming giant is said to co-produce three feature films with the studio, the first of which will premiere in September 2022. On April 28, 2022, the company launched its inaugural ''Netflix Is a Joke'' comedy festival, featuring more than 250 shows over 12 nights at 30-plus locations across Los Angeles, including the first-ever stand-up show at Dodger Stadium. The first volume of ''Stranger Things (season 4), Stranger Things 4'' logged Netflix's biggest premiere weekend ever for an original series with 286.79 million hours viewed. This was preceded by a new ''Stranger Things'' interactive experience hosted in New York City that was developed by the show's creators. After the release of the second volume of ''Stranger Things 4'' on July 1, 2022, it became Netflix's second title to receive more than one billion hours viewed. On July 19, 2022, Netflix announced plans to acquire Australian animation studio Animal Logic. On July 22, 2022, it was reported that Netflix lost almost a million subscribers, which reduced its total subscribers down to 220.7 million. On September 5, 2022, it was reported that Netflix opened its office in Warsaw, Poland, responsible for the service's operations in 28 markets in Central and Eastern Europe. On October 4, 2022, Netflix have signed a creative partnership with Andrea Berloff and John Gatins. On October 11, 2022, Netflix signed up to the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board for external measurement of viewership in the UK. On October 12, 2022, Netflix signed to build a production complex at Fort Monmouth in Eatontown, New Jersey. At the end of Q3, it was reported that Netflix gained 2.41 million new subscribers, including a gain of 100,000 in North America, totaling 223.1 million subscribers worldwide. This exceeded Netflix’s prediction of a gain of 1 million subscribers for the quarter. On October 18, 2022, Netflix announced they are exploring a cloud gaming offering as well as opening a new gaming studio in Southern California.


Availability and access


Global availability

Netflix is available in every country and territory except for China, North Korea,
Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
, Syria and Russia. In January 2016, Netflix announced it would begin VPN blocking since they can be used to watch videos from a country where they are unavailable. The result of the VPN block is that people can only watch videos available worldwide and other videos are hidden from search results. Variety is present on Netflix. Hebrew and right-to-left interface orientation, which is a common localization strategy in many markets, are what define the Israeli user interface's localization, and in some regions, Netflix offers a more affordable mobile-only subscription.


Subscriptions

Globally, Netflix had 223.09 million paying subscribers at the end of Q3 2022. Customers can subscribe to one of three plans; the difference in plans relate to video resolution, the number of simultaneous streams, and the number of devices to which content can be downloaded. At the end of Q1 2022, Netflix estimated that 100 million households globally were sharing passwords to their account with others. In March 2022, Netflix began to charge a fee for additional users in Chile, Peru, and Costa Rica to attempt to control Account sharing, account sharing. On July 18, 2022, Netflix announced that it would test the account sharing feature in more countries, including Argentina, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. On October 17, Netflix launched Profile Transfer to help end account sharing. In July 13, 2022, Netflix announced a partnership with Microsoft to launch an advertising-supported subscription plan. On August 17, 2022, it was reported that Netflix's planned advertising tier would not allow subscribers to download content like the existing ad-free platform. On July 20, 2022, it was announced that the advertising-supported tier would be coming to Netflix in 2023 but it would not feature the full library of content. Netflix US launched with 5.1% of the library unavailable including 60 Netflix Originals. In September, Netflix announced that the launch would be moved up to November 1, 2022, but in October, the launch date was changed to November 3, 2022. The ad-supported plan is called "Basic with Ads" and it costs $6.99 per month in the United States. In Canada, the plan was launched two days later, on November 1.


Device support

Netflix can be accessed via an internet browser on PCs, while Netflix apps are available on various platforms, including Blu-ray Disc players,
tablet computer A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being comput ...
s, mobile phones,
smart TV A smart TV, also known as a connected TV (CTV), is a traditional television set with integrated Internet and interactive Web 2.0 features, which allows users to stream music and videos, browse the internet, and view photos. Smart TVs are a techno ...
s,
digital media player A digital media player (also sometimes known as a streaming device or streaming box) is a type of consumer electronics device designed for the storage, playback, or viewing of digital media content. They are typically designed to be integra ...
s, and
video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally placed i ...
s (including Xbox 360 and newer, and PlayStation 3 and newer). In addition, a growing number of multichannel television providers, including cable television and IPTV services, have added Netflix apps accessible within their own
set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of sign ...
es, sometimes with the ability for its content (along with those of other online video services) to be presented within a unified search interface alongside linear television programming as an "all-in-one" solution.


Content


Original programming

A "List of Netflix original programming, Netflix Original" is content that is produced, co-produced, or distributed by Netflix exclusively on their services. Netflix funds their original shows differently than other TV networks when they sign a project, providing the money upfront and immediately ordering two seasons of most series. Over the years, Netflix output ballooned to a level unmatched by any television network or streaming service. According to ''Variety Insight'', Netflix produced a total of 240 new original shows and movies in 2018, then climbed to 371 in 2019, a figure "greater than the number of original series that the entire U.S. TV industry released in 2005." The Netflix budget allocated to production increased annually, reaching $13.6 billion in 2021 and projected to hit $18.9 billion by 2025, a figure that once again overshadowed any of its competitors. As of August 2022,
Netflix Originals Netflix is an American global Internet streaming-on-demand media provider that has distributed a number of original streaming television shows, including original series, specials, miniseries, and documentaries and films. Netflix's original pro ...
made up 50% of Netflix's overall library in the United States.


Film and television deals

Netflix has exclusive Pay television, pay TV deals with several studios. The deals give Netflix exclusive streaming rights while adhering to the structures of traditional pay TV terms. Distributors that have licensed content to Netflix include Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment and previously The Walt Disney Studios (including 20th Century Fox). Netflix also holds current and back-catalog rights to television programs distributed by Walt Disney Television, DreamWorks Classics, Kino International (company), Kino International, Warner Bros. Television and CBS Media Ventures, along with titles from other companies such as Allspark (company), Allspark (formerly Hasbro Studios), Saban Capital Group, Saban Brands, and Funimation. Formerly, the streaming service also held rights to select television programs distributed by NBCUniversal Television Distribution, Sony Pictures Television and 20th Television, 20th Century Fox Television. Netflix negotiated to distribute animated films from Universal that HBO declined to acquire, such as ''The Lorax (film), The Lorax'', ''ParaNorman'', and ''Minions (film), Minions''. Netflix holds exclusive streaming rights to the film library of Studio Ghibli (with the exception of ''Grave of the Fireflies'') worldwide except in the U.S., Canada, China and Japan as part of an agreement signed with Ghibli's international sales holder Wild Bunch (company), Wild Bunch in 2020.


Gaming

In July 2021, Netflix hired Mike Verdu, a former executive from Electronic Arts and
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
, as vice president of game development, along with plans to add video games by 2022. Netflix announced plans to release mobile gaming, mobile games which would be included in subscribers' plans to the service. Trial offerings were first launched for Netflix users in Poland in August 2021, offering premium mobile games based on ''Stranger Things'' including ''Stranger Things 3: The Game'', for free to subscribers through the Netflix mobile app. Netflix officially launched mobile games on November 2, 2021, for Android users around the world. Through the app, subscribers had free access to five games, including two previously made ''Stranger Things'' titles. Netflix stated that they intend to add more games to this service over time. On November 9, the collection launched for
iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
. Verdu said in October 2022 that besides continuing to expand their portfolio of games, they were also interested in cloud gaming options. To support the games effort, Netflix began acquiring and forming a number of studios. The company acquired Night School Studio, an independent video game developer, in September 2021. They announced plans to acquire Next Games in March 2022 for as part of Netflix's expansions into gaming. Next Games had developed the mobile title ''Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales'' as well as two ''The Walking Dead'' mobile games. Later in the month, Netflix also acquired the Texas-based mobile game developer, Boss Fight Entertainment, for an undisclosed sum. Netflix opened a mobile game studio in Helsinki, Finland in September 2022, and a new studio, their fifth total, in southern California in October 2022, alongside the acquisition of Spry Fox in Seattle. As of October 2022, the service had 35 games available, and Netflix stated they had more than 55 games in development. By August 2022, Netflix's gaming platform was reported to have an average 1.7 million users a day, less than 1% of the streaming service's subscribers at the time.


Technology


Content delivery

Netflix settlement freely Peering, peers with Internet service providers (ISPs) directly and at common Internet exchange points. In June 2012, a custom content delivery network, Open Connect, was announced. For larger ISPs with over 100,000 subscribers, Netflix offers free ''Netflix Open Connect'' server appliances that cache their content within the ISPs' data centers or networks to further reduce Internet transit costs. By August 2016, Netflix closed its last physical data center, but continued to develop its Open Connect technology. A 2016 study at the University of London detected 233 individual Open Connect locations on over six continents, with the largest amount of traffic in the USA, followed by Mexico. As of July 2017, Netflix series and movies accounted for more than a third of all prime-time download Internet traffic in North America.


API

On October 1, 2008, Netflix offered access to its service via a public application programming interface (API). It allowed access to data for all Netflix titles, and allows users to manage their movie queues. The API was free and allowed commercial use. In June 2012, Netflix began to restrict the availability of its public API. They instead focused on a small number of known partners using private interfaces, since most traffic came from those private interfaces. In June 2014, Netflix announced they would be retiring the public API; it became effective November 14, 2014. They then partnered with the developers of eight services deemed the most valuable, including Instant Watcher, Fanhattan, Yidio and Nextguide.


Corporate affairs


Historical financials and membership growth


Corporate culture

Netflix grants all employees extremely broad discretion with respect to business decisions, expenses, and vacation—but in return expects consistently high performance, as enforced by what is known as the "keeper test." This article was written by ''Forbes'' staff and was the ''Forbes'' magazine cover story for the month of publication. All supervisors are expected to constantly ask themselves if they would fight to keep an employee. If the answer is no, then it is time to let that employee go. A presentation slide, slide from an internal presentation on Netflix's corporate culture summed up the test as: "Adequate performance gets a generous severance package." Such packages reportedly range from four months' salary in the United States to as much as six months in the Netherlands. The company offers unlimited vacation time for salaried workers and allows employees to take any amount of their paychecks in stock options. About the culture that results from applying such a demanding test, Hastings has said that "You gotta earn your job every year at Netflix," and, "There's no question it's a tough place...There's no question it's not for everyone." Hastings has drawn an analogy to Athletics (physical culture), athletics: professional athletes lack long-term job security because an injury could end their career in any particular game, but they learn to put aside their fear of that constant risk and focus on working with great colleagues in the current moment.


Environmental impact

In March 2021, Netflix announced that it would work to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by the end of 2022, while investing in programs to preserve or restore ecosystems. The company stated that it would cut emissions from its operations and electricity use by 45 percent by 2030. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lack of content production, Netflix had a 14 percent drop in emissions in 2020. In 2021, Netflix bought 1.5 million carbon credits from 17 projects around the world.


Awards

On July 18, 2013, Netflix earned the first Primetime Emmy Award nominations for original online-only web television programs at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards. Three of its web series, ''Arrested Development'', ''Hemlock Grove'' and ''House of Cards'', earned a combined 14 nominations (nine for ''House of Cards'', three for ''Arrested Development'' and two for ''Hemlock Grove''). The ''House of Cards'' episode "Chapter 1 (House of Cards), Chapter 1" received four nominations for both the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards and 65th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, becoming the first webisode of a television series to receive a major Primetime Emmy Award nomination: David Fincher was nominated in the category of Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. "Chapter 1" joined ''Arrested Development'' "Flight of the Phoenix (Arrested Development), Flight of the Phoenix" and ''Hemlock Grove'' "Children of the Night" as the first webisodes to earn Creative Arts Emmy Award nomination, and with its win for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series, "Chapter 1" became the first webisode to be awarded an Emmy. Fincher's win for Directing for a Drama Series made the episode the first Primetime Emmy-awarded webisode. On December 12, 2013, the network earned six nominations for Golden Globe Awards, including four for ''House of Cards''. Among those nominations was Wright for Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama for her portrayal of Claire Underwood, which she won at the 71st Golden Globe Awards on January 12. With the accolade, Wright became the first actress to win a Golden Globe for an online-only web television series. It also marked Netflix's first major acting award. ''House of Cards'' and ''Orange is the New Black'' also won Peabody Awards in 2013. On July 10, 2014, Netflix received 31 Emmy nominations. Among other nominations, ''House of Cards'' received nominations for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series and Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series. Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright were nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. ''Orange is the New Black'' was nominated in the comedy categories, earning nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series. Taylor Schilling, Kate Mulgrew, and Uzo Aduba were respectively nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series (the latter was for Aduba's recurring role in season one, as she was promoted to series regular for the show's second season). Netflix got the largest share of 2016 Emmy award nominations, with 16 major nominations. However, streaming shows only got 24 nominations out of a total of 139, falling significantly behind cable. The 16 Netflix nominees were: ''House of Cards'' with Kevin Spacey, ''A Very Murray Christmas'' with Bill Murray, ''Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt'', ''Master of None'', and ''Bloodline''. ''Stranger Things'' received 19 nominations at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards, 2017 Primetime Emmy Awards, while ''The Crown (TV series), The Crown'' received 13 nominations. In December 2017, Netflix was awarded People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, PETA's Company of the Year for promoting animal rights movies and documentaries like ''Forks Over Knives'' and ''What the Health''. At the 90th Academy Awards, held on March 4, 2018, the film ''Icarus (2017 film), Icarus'', distributed by Netflix, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. During his remarks backstage, director and writer Bryan Fogel remarked that Netflix had "single-handedly changed the documentary world." ''Icarus'' had its premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was bought by Netflix for $5 million, one of the biggest deals ever for a non-fiction film. Netflix became the network whose programs received more nomination at the 2018 70th Primetime Emmy Awards, Primetime and 70th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, Creative Arts Emmy Awards with 112 nominations, therefore breaking HBO's 17-years record as a network whose programs received more nomination at the Emmys, which received 108 nominations. On January 22, 2019, films distributed by Netflix scored 15 nominations for the 91st Academy Awards, including Academy Award for Best Picture for Alfonso Cuarón's ''Roma (2018 film), Roma'', which was nominated for 10 awards. The 15 nominations equal the total nominations films distributed by Netflix had received in previous years. Its increased presence in the Academy Awards has led filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg to speak out against the nomination of streaming content. Netflix acquired Grauman's Egyptian Theatre to host events and screen its films and series. However, there are no plans to roll out full theatrical releases there. In 2020, Netflix received 20 TV nominations and films distributed by Netflix also got 22 film nominations at the 78th Golden Globe Awards. It secured three out of the five nominations for Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama, best drama TV series for ''The Crown (TV series), The Crown'', ''Ozark (TV series), Ozark'' and ''Ratched (TV series), Ratched'' and four of the five nominations for Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama, best actress in a TV series: Olivia Colman, Emma Corrin, Laura Linney and Sarah Paulson. Films and programs distributed by Netflix received 30 nominations at the 2021 Screen Actors Guild Awards, more than any other distribution company, where their distributed films and programs won 7 awards including best motion picture for ''The Trial of the Chicago 7'' and best TV drama for ''The Crown (TV series), The Crown''. Films distributed by the company also received 35 nominations at the 93rd Academy Awards, where the films won 7 awards. In February 2022, ''The Power of the Dog (film), The Power of the Dog'' gritty western distributed by Netflix and directed by Jane Campion, received 12 nominations, including Best Picture, for the 94th annual Academy Awards. Films distributed by the streamer received a total of 72 nominations. Campion became the third female to receive the Best Director award, winning her second Oscar for ''The Power of the Dog''. At the 50th International Emmy Awards in November 2022, Netflix original ''Sex Education (TV series), Sex Education'' won International Emmy Award for Best Comedy Series, Best Comedy Series.


Criticism

Netflix has been subject to criticism from various groups and individuals as its popularity and market reach increased in the 2010s. Customers have complained about price increases in Netflix offerings dating back to the company's decision to separate its DVD rental and streaming services, which was quickly reversed. As Netflix increased its streaming output, it has faced calls to limit accessibility to graphic content and include viewer advisories for issues such as sensationalism and promotion of pseudoscience. Netflix's content has also been criticized by disability rights advocates for lack of captioning quality. Some media organizations and competitors have criticized Netflix for selectively releasing ratings and Audience measurement, viewer numbers of its original programming. The company has made claims boasting about viewership records without providing data to substantiate its successes or using problematic estimation methods. In March 2020, some government agencies called for Netflix and other streamers to limit services due to increased broadband and energy consumption as use of the platform increased. In response, the company announced it would reduce bit rates across all streams in Europe, thus decreasing Netflix traffic on European networks by around 25 percent. These same steps were later taken in India. In May 2022, Netflix's shareholder Imperium Irrevocable Trust filed a lawsuit against the company for violating the U.S. Security (finance), securities laws.


See also

* List of streaming media services


References


Further reading

* *


External links

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