According to its website, the number of homes streaming Netflix on a regular basis has increased 20 percent in the last year. On average, one in four houses has Netflix. As Netflix has adapted to the new ways people are able to stream video, including smart phones, tablets, and more, Netflix and its concepts truly hold the next big idea in web-streaming media.
Netflix is a streaming video service that offers a vast selection of movies and television shows. With new shows being added constantly, there is always something to watch. Each account can hold up to five profiles individualized to each person’s interests in television and movies. Charges range from $6.99 to $11.99 per month, depending on a preference of how many screens can be streaming at a time on an account. Customers can stream on television through devices such as Apple TV and gaming consoles, as well as on smart phones and other devices that use internet.
Netflix was created by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph back in 1997 in Scotts Valley, California. As one of the company’s CEOs and founders, Randolph left the board of directors in the company in 2004, but Hastings remains at the top, also working on the directors’ board of Facebook, Microsoft, and other technology companies.
Competitors can’t seem to keep up with Netflix; sites like Hulu and Amazon have attempted to get in on the trend of expanding their ways to offer streaming video, but in a national poll conducted by Sound&Vision in November of last year, Netflix has double the percentage of people streaming in their homes compared to Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime, which, combined, don’t come near Netflix’s statistics.
Sophomore Eva Mattioli has Netflix and feels that it’s a great way to pass time. “If I have nothing to watch on regular TV, I can always start a new series and have something new to watch. It’s exciting. My favorite thing about Netflix is that I have the freedom to watch any show at any time with the touch of a button. I can use it on all of my devices and pick up anywhere in a show or series. When I start a new show, they give me recommendations and I just get more and more to watch,” she said. “Other than when my internet connection is down and whatever I’m watching starts buffering, I’m really happy with Netflix.”
With the statistics Netflix has, it is no shock that conversation about different shows and actors is heard among the halls in LHS. Some students even watch shows during free periods on their cell phones and computers. While many students voice their opinions about how much they enjoy having Netflix’s services, sophomore Kelly Waldvogel is opposed to the services.
“I need to maintain my grades and I feel like if I had access to all these wonderful shows I would be distracted and I wouldn’t do anything else. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing, but if my grades started dropping because of Netflix, I would know that that’s the problem,” she said. “I would enjoy having it at my disposal, but it would not benefit me in the long run, so really, what good would come out of it?”
In July 2011, Netflix announced that subscription prices were changing. DVD rental prices would be decreased by around 20%, but free streaming would start being charged, resulting in the price being increased by 60%.
Another increase in prices for a Netflix subscription comes from the option of having DVDs come right to your door with Netflix DVD. With an additional charge of $7.99 a month, customers have the option of ordering movies or television shows on DVD to anywhere in the U.S. DVDs are delivered in approximately two to three days, and they are delivered and returned in the order of a queue that is found on each Netflix account. Customers can arrange their queues as they wish to receive DVDs and also track shipments and deliveries.
When this change was announced, some members were aggravated to see that their favorite shows, which they could once see for free, were now being moved as an extra way for the company to make more money.
According to its website, as the world’s leading Internet television network, Netflix has over 44 million members in 41 different countries around the world. Members enjoy over a billion hours of TV shows and movies every month, including original series exclusive to the site such as “Hemlock Grove,” “Derek,” and the Emmy-winning “House of Cards.”
According to USA Today and Nielsen Ratings, 38% of Americans use or subscribe to Netflix as of January 2014, compared to the statistics back in 2013 that showed that the previous year held only 31%. Last year, Hulu expanded into Hulu Plus to compete as another subscription streaming service, but didn’t see the same statistics for themselves, coming in at 12% for the free version, and 6% for subscription nationwide.
With its track record, Netflix is only gaining popularity day by day. The past three years have topped their company’s statistics since it was created in 1997. With how much success the company has seen, the future looks bright.
