Netflix as a provider of streaming video
"Netflix and Chill – A euphemism for inviting someone over to their place to engage in sexual activity."
— Urban Dictionary
Netflix, along with other streaming services, has been responsible for changing how we consume. Nowadays with a decent internet connection and a subscription, there's no need to run to the store and collect masses of plastic discs. We can sit at home in front of a computer or TV, or almost anywhere with a mobile phone or tablet, and binge-watch until we starve. Unless we order something through Uber Eats.
Netflix began in 1997 by offering a subscription service for DVDs. It was a simple enough model; you paid a monthly fee and you got a certain number of films delivered to your door each month. Prepaid envelopes made returns easy, and you could easily order your next film online. This model dealt a blow to the likes of the already-struggling Blockbuster and the mom-and-pop video rental stores on your High Street, thus contributing to the Walmart effect and the death of the downtown. But Netflix was convenient, was easy to use and of course everyone used it because it was cheap and we didn't have to go out in all weathers to get our media fixes (provided you had access to the internet!) Netflix had us participate in our own manipulation. This of course is widely viewed as a Bad Thing by many people.
Out with the old, in with the new
Once Netflix had won hearts, minds and credit card details, in 2007 they began to offer streaming services. The growth of cheap broadband home service now meant you no longer had to wait a few days for your next film or TV series, you could just hook up with Netflix and bag the video online. Soon, DVD rental customers were able to download an unlimited number of films and whatnot for live consumption, and soon enough, streaming services overtook DVD rentals. Deals were made with various studios to enable them to protect their media sales, all the while planning their own expansion in the streaming field to counteract threats from the likes of Hulu and Apple. By 2010 they were doing deals with anyone they could, signing up several deals with film producers and distributors. At the same time they were dipping their toes in international waters, expanding their streaming services overseas, beginning with Canada and many South American countries.
In 2011 they announced the separation of the DVD rental and streaming services, riding on their 30% streaming share in the US and Canada, although outraged uproar from consumers had them roll back that decision. Meanwhile whey were still wheeling and dealing, starting a Political Action Committee called FLIXPAC, "to engage on issues like net neutrality and bandwidth caps". Overseas expansion continued in Europe, all the while scooping up more and more TV shows and films from as many distributors as they could.
Not content with rescuing productions like Breaking Bad, Netflix started planning to move into producing new, original material, beginning with House of Cards, to be followed by Orange is the New Black. They've had many successes here, including The Crown, The Witcher and The Sandman just to mention a few. They've also been responsible for rescuing many series, like Arrested Development. If only they'd begun this a few years earlier perhaps we might have had more Firefly.
Controversy and the future
They've faced their fair share of controversy, both from end-users, the film industry and advocacy groups. Criticism has ranged from showing censored versions of films (Back to the Future), for "romanticizing" suicide (13 Reasons Why), and of course health and moral critique (smoking in House of Cards, the gay Jesus in The First Temptation of Christ). They have also produced various series that have been accused of promoting pseudoscience, such as the archaeology program Ancient Apocalypse (which argues for an ancient civilisation predating conventional scientific thinking), a documentary on Gwyneth Paltrow's dubious products in The Goop Lab and the travel series Down to Earth with Zac Efron which makes exaggerated claims about a variety of diets and superfoods.
Users have griped about the recent clampdown on password sharing between family members, and whilst I can see their point, I also hear the criticism that members of a household are frequently spending time away from home and that the Netflix algorithms need fine-tuning to cope. After the introduction of this adjustment to their terms, the number of new accounts (with an increased revenue stream) was clear to see. Of course, the likes of Cory Doctorow have pointed fingers at them for the enshittification of their service and the abuse of their userbase for profit, and for not doing enough to support users on the fringe:
"Netflix says that its new policy allows members of the same 'household' to share an account. This policy comes with an assumption: that there is a commonly understood, universal meaning of 'household,' and that software can determine who is and is not a member of your household."
There's a fine line to be trodden there, and my internal jury is still out on that one.
Netflix continues to push at both reducing costs and advancing technology to support their platform. Given that their streaming accounts for about a third of download bandwidth during the evening hours, they have a vested interest in saving money both for themselves and their internet partners. To that end they've developed what is in effect their own content delivery network using their own dedicated hardware. This can be installed at collaborating ISPs, enabling them to cache content rather than fetch it as required. In addition there are several settlement-free exchanges available. Both these features reduce the need for pressure on bandwidth at peak viewing times. The end result is that Netflix itself no longer requires its own physical data centres.
For better or for worse, streaming content is now vastly preferred over all other means of media distribution. Proof, were it needed, is in the vast numbers of DVD (and even Blu-Ray) discs available at your local second-hand shop or thrift store. Owning media is out, streaming is in. I have some catching up to do.
$ xclip -o | wc -w
1040