Netflix
 Logo since 2014 | |
Screenshot  Screenshot of Netflix's English website in 2019 | |
Type of site | OTT streaming platform |
|---|---|
| Available in | List
|
| Headquarters | Los Gatos, California, U.S. |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Area served | Worldwide (except China, North Korea, Russia and Syria) |
| Parent | Netflix Media World |
| Website | www |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Required |
| Users |  238.39 million (as of June 30, 2023[update]) |
| Launched | January 16, 2007 |
| Current status | Active |
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service that serves as the flagship and namesake asset of Netflix Media World. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced by the media company of the same name from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple languages.
Netflix was launched on January 16, 2007, nearly a decade after Netflix, Inc. began its DVD-by-mail service. With 238.39 million paid memberships in more than 190 countries, it is the most-subscribed video on demand streaming service. By 2022, original productions accounted for half of Netflix's library in the United States, and the company had ventured into other categories, such as video game publishing via the Netflix service.
History[edit]
Establishment[edit]
Netflix was founded on August 29, 1997, in Scotts Valley, California, by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings. Randolph worked as a marketing director for Hastings' company, Pure Atria. Randolph was a co-founder of MicroWarehouse, a computer mail order company, and was later employed by Borland International as vice president of marketing. Hastings, a computer scientist and mathematician, sold Pure Atria to Rational Software Corporation in 1997 for $700 million in what was then the biggest acquisition in Silicon Valley history. They came up with the idea for Netflix while commuting between their homes in Santa Cruz and Pure Atria's headquarters in Sunnyvale while waiting for government regulators to approve the merger, although Hasting has given several different explanations for how the idea was created.
Hastings invested $2.5 million in startup cash for Netflix. Randolph admired the fledgling e-commerce company Amazon and wanted to find a large category of portable items to sell over the Internet using a similar model. They considered and rejected VHS tapes as too expensive to stock and too delicate to ship. When they heard about DVDs, which were first introduced in the United States on March 31, 1997, they tested the concept of selling or renting DVDs by mail, by mailing a compact disc to Hastings' house in Santa Cruz. When the disc arrived intact, they decided to take on the $16 billion home video 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. But this is an apocryphal story that he and Randolph designed to explain the company's business model and motivation.
Netflix was launched on April 14, 1998, as the world's first online DVD rental store, with only 30 employees and 925 titles available, which was almost the entire catalogue of DVDs in print at the time, through the pay-per-rent model with rates and due dates that were similar to its bricks-and-mortar rival, Blockbuster.
Membership fee, Blockbuster acquisition offer, growth start[edit]
Netflix introduced the monthly subscription concept in September 1997, and then dropped the multiple-rental model in early 2000. Since that time (see Technical details of Netflix), the company has built its reputation on the business model of flat-fee unlimited rentals without due dates, late fees, shipping and handling fees, or per-title rental fees.
In 2000, when Netflix had just about 300,000 subscribers and relied on the U.S. Postal Service for the delivery of their DVDs, they were losing money and offered to be acquired by Blockbuster for $50 million. They proposed that Netflix, which would be renamed as Blockbuster.com, would handle the online business, while Blockbuster would take care of the DVDs, making them less dependent on the U.S. Postal Service. The offer was declined.
While they experienced fast growth in early 2001, both the dot-com bubble burst and the September 11 attacks would occur later that year, affecting the company badly and forcing them to lay off a third of their employees. However, sales of Apple products then took off as they became more affordable, selling for about $2,000 around Thanksgiving time, becoming one of that year's most popular Christmas gifts. By early 2002, Netflix saw a huge increase in business from rental to laptop DVD users.
Netflix initiated an initial public offering (IPO) on May 29, 2002, selling 5.5 million shares of common stock at the price of US$15.00 per share. On June 14, 2002, the company sold an additional 825,000 shares of common stock at the same price. After incurring substantial losses during its first few years, Netflix posted its first profit during fiscal year 2003, earning US$6.5 million profit on revenues of US$272 million. In 2005, 35,000 different films were available, and Netflix shipped 1 million DVDs out every day.
Randolph, a dominant producer and board member for Netflix, retired from the company in 2004.
Video on demand introduction, declining DVD sales, global expansion[edit]
For some time, the company had 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, they had acquired movie rights and designed the box and service, and was ready to go public with it. But after discovering YouTube, and witnessing how popular streaming services were despite the lack of high-definition content, the concept of using a hardware device was scrapped and replaced with a streaming concept instead, a project that was completed in 2007.
Netflix developed and maintains an extensive personalized video-recommendation system based on ratings and reviews by its customers. On October 1, 2006, Netflix offered a $1,000,000 prize to the first developer of a video-recommendation algorithm that could beat its existing algorithm Cinematch, at predicting customer ratings by more than 10%.
In February 2007, the company delivered its billionth DVD, and began to move away from its original core business model of DVDs, by introducing video on demand via the Internet. Netflix grew as DVD sales fell from 2006 to 2011.
Another contributing factor for the company's online DVD rental success was that they could offer a much larger selection of movie titles to choose from than Blockbuster's rental outlets. But when they started to offer streaming content for free to its subscribers in 2007, it could offer no more than about 1000 movies and TV-shows, just 1% compared to its more than 100,000 different DVD titles. Yet as the popularity kept growing, the number of titles available for streaming was increasing as well, and had reached 12,000 movies and shows in June 2009. One of the key things about Netflix was that it had a recommendation system known as cinematch, which not only got viewers to remain attached to the service, by creating a switching cost, but it also brought out those movies which were underrated so that customers could view those movies too from their recommendations. This was an attribute that not only benefited Netflix, but also benefited its viewers and those studios which were minor compared to others.
In January 2013, Netflix reported that it had added two million United States customers during the fourth quarter of 2012, with a total of 27.1 million United States streaming customers, and 29.4 million total streaming customers. In addition, revenue was up 8% to $945 million for the same period. That number increased to 36.3 million subscribers (29.2 million in the United States) in April 2013. As of September 2013, for that year's third quarter report, Netflix reported its total of global streaming subscribers at 40.4 million (31.2 million in the United States). By the fourth quarter of 2013, Netflix reported 33.1 million United States subscribers. By September 2014, Netflix had subscribers in over 40 countries, with intentions of expanding their services in unreached countries. By October 2018, Netflix's customer base reached 137 million worldwide, confirming its rank as by far the world's biggest online subscription video service.
Early Netflix Original content[edit]
Netflix has played a prominent role in independent film distribution. Through its division Red Envelope Entertainment, Netflix licensed and distributed independent films such as Born into Brothels and Sherrybaby. As of late 2006, Red Envelope Entertainment also expanded into producing original content with filmmakers such as John Waters. Netflix closed Red Envelope Entertainment in 2008, in part to avoid competition with its studio partners.
Entertainment dominance, presence, and continued growth[edit]
Netflix has been one of the most successful dot-com ventures. In September 2002, The New York Times reported that, at the time, Netflix mailed about 190,000 discs per day to its 670,000 monthly subscribers. The company's published subscriber count increased from one million in the fourth quarter of 2002 to around 5.6 million at the end of the third quarter of 2006, to 14 million in March 2010. Netflix's early growth was fueled by the fast spread of DVD players in households; in 2004, nearly two-thirds of United States homes had a DVD player. Netflix capitalized on the success of the DVD and its rapid expansion into United States homes, integrating the potential of the Internet and e-commerce to provide services and catalogs that bricks-and-mortar retailers could not compete with. Netflix also operates an online affiliate program which has helped to build online sales for DVD rentals as well. The company offers unlimited vacation time for salaried workers and allows employees to take any amount of their paychecks in stock options.
By 2010, Netflix's streaming business had grown so quickly that within months the company had shifted from the fastest-growing customer of the United States Postal Service's first-class service to the largest source of Internet streaming traffic in North America in the evening. In November, it began offering a standalone streaming service separate from DVD rentals. 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. Andy Rendich, a 12-year Netflix veteran, was to be CEO of Qwikster. Qwikster would carry video games whereas Netflix did not. However, in October 2011, Netflix announced that it would retain its DVD service under the name Netflix and would not, in fact, create Qwikster for that purpose.
In April 2011, Netflix had over 23 million subscribers in the United States and over 26 million worldwide. In July 2011, Netflix changed its prices, charging customers for its mail rental service and streaming service separately. This meant a price increase for customers who wanted to continue receiving both services. On October 24, Netflix announced 800,000 unsubscribers in the United States during the third quarter of 2011, and more losses were expected in the fourth quarter of 2011. However Netflix's income jumped 63% for the third quarter of 2011. Year-long, the total digital revenue for Netflix reached at least $1.5 billion. On January 26, 2012, Netflix added 610,000 subscribers in the United States by the end of the fourth quarter of 2011, totaling 24.4 million United States subscribers for this time period. On October 23, however, Netflix announced an 88% decline in profits for the third quarter of the year.
In April 2012, Netflix filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to form a political action committee (PAC) called FLIXPAC. Politico referred to the PAC, based in Los Gatos, California, as "another political tool with which to aggressively press a pro-intellectual property, anti-video-piracy agenda." The hacktivist group Anonymous called for a boycott of Netflix following the news. Netflix spokesperson Joris Evers indicated that the PAC was not set up to support the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), tweeting that the intent was to "engage on issues like net neutrality, bandwidth caps, UBB and VPPA."
In February 2013, Netflix announced it would be hosting its own awards ceremony, The Flixies. On March 13, 2013, Netflix announced a Facebook implementation, letting United States subscribers access "Watched by your friends" and "Friends' Favorites" by agreeing. This was not legal until the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 was modified in early 2013.
Rebranding and wider international expansion[edit]
In April 2014, Netflix approached 50 million global subscribers with a 32.3% video streaming market share in the United States. Netflix operated in 41 countries around the world. In June 2014, Netflix unveiled a global rebranding: a new logo, which uses a modern typeface with the drop shadowing removed, and a new website UI. The change was controversial; some liked the new minimalist design, whereas others felt more comfortable with the old interface. In July 2014, Netflix surpassed 50 million global subscribers, with 36 million of them being in the United States.
At the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show, Netflix announced a major international expansion of its service into 150 additional countries. Netflix promoted that with this expansion, it would now operate in nearly all countries that the company may legally or logistically operate in. A notable exception was China, citing the barriers of operating Internet and media services in the country due to its regulatory climate. Reed Hastings stated that the company was planning to build relationships with local media companies that could serve as partners for distributing its content in the country (with a goal to concentrate primarily on its original content), but stated that they were in no hurry, and could thus take "many years".
Also in January 2016, Netflix announced it would begin blocking virtual private networks, or VPNs. At the same time, Netflix reported 74.8 million subscribers and predicted it would add 6.1 million more by March 2016. Subscription growth has been fueled by its global expansion. By the end of the year, Netflix added a feature to allow customers to download and play select movies and shows while offline.
In February 2017, Netflix signed a music publishing deal with BMG Rights Management, where 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 17, 2017, it was reported that Netflix was nearing 100 million subscribers. On April 25, 2017, Netflix announced that it had reached a licensing deal in China with the Baidu-owned streaming service iQiyi, to allow selected Netflix original content to be distributed in China on the platform. The Los Angeles Times stated: "Its series and movies account for more than a third of all prime-time download Internet traffic in North America."
On August 7, 2017, Netflix acquired Millarworld, the creator-owned publishing company of comic book writer Mark Millar. It is the first ever company acquisition in Netflix's history. Netflix plans to leverage Millar and his current and future work for future original content. Chief content officer Ted Sarandos described Millar as being a "modern-day Stan Lee". The following week, Netflix announced that it had entered into an exclusive development deal with Shonda Rhimes.
On January 22, 2018, the company crossed $100 billion in market capitalization, becoming the largest digital media and entertainment company in the world, bigger than every traditional media company except for AT&T, Comcast and Disney and the 59th largest publicly traded company in the US S&P 500 Index.
On March 2, 2018, Netflix stock price surged to new all-time high of $301.05 beating its 12 month price target of $300.00, and finishing the session with a market capitalization of $130 billion putting it within shouting distance of traditional media giants like Disney ($155 billion) and Comcast ($169 billion). The milestone came a day after British satcaster Sky announced a new 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.
On August 16, 2018, Netflix announced a three-year overall deal with black-ish creator Kenya Barris. Under the deal, Barris will produce new series exclusively at Netflix, writing and executive producing all projects through his production company, Khalabo Ink Society.
On August 27, 2018, Netflix signed a five-year exclusive overall deal with international bestselling author Harlan Coben. Under the multi-million pact, Netflix will work with Coben to develop 14 existing titles and future projects. On the same day, the company inked an overall deal with Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch. According to Global Internet Phenomena Report Netflix consumes 15% of all Internet bandwidth globally, the most by any single application.
In October 2018, Netflix acquired ABQ Studios, a film and TV production facility with eight sound stages in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The reported purchase price is under $30 million.
In November 2018, Paramount Pictures signed a multi-picture film deal with Netflix as part of Viacom's growth strategy, making Paramount the first major film studio to sign a deal with Netflix. A sequel to Awesomeness Films' To All the Boys I've Loved Before is currently in development at the studio for Netflix.
Netflix sought and was approved for membership into the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) on January 22, 2019 as the first streaming service to become a member of the association.
Availability and access[edit]
Global availability[edit]
Netflix is available in every country and territory except for China, North Korea, Crimea, Syria and Russia.
In January 2016, Netflix announced it would begin VPN blocking since it 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[edit]
Customers can subscribe to one of three plans; the difference in plans relates 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. 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.
On July 13, 2022, Netflix announced a partnership with Microsoft to launch an advertising-supported subscription plan. 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.
On February 24, 2023, Netflix cut subscription prices in more than 30 countries around the world to attract more subscribers from those countries. Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Croatia, Venezuela, Kenya, and Iran are on the list of countries where the cost for a subscription will be reduced. In the same month stronger anti-password-sharing rules were expanded to Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain. In May 2023, these measures were further expanded to United States and Brazil subscribers.
In July 2023, Netflix added 5.9 million subscribers for the second quarter of the year for a total of 238.39 million subscribers overall. The United States and Canada accounted for 1.2 million subscribers which was the largest regional quarterly gain since 2021.
Device support[edit]
Netflix can be accessed via a web browser on PCs, while Netflix apps are available on various platforms, including Blu-ray players, tablet computers, mobile phones, smart TVs, digital media players, and video game consoles, with the app being available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii & Wii U (discontinued), Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 consoles.
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 boxes, 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.
The maximum video resolution supported on computers is dependent on the DRM systems available on a particular operating system and web browser.
| Operating System | Web Browser | DRM system | Maximum allowed video resolution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Windows 7 or later
MacOS 10.11 or later Linux (dependent on distribution variant)|| Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera||Widevine || Template:Partial | |||
| Microsoft Windows 10 or later | Microsoft Edge | PlayReady | 4K (device must fulfil hardware requirements)[1] |
| MacOS 10.11 through MacOS 10.15 | Apple Safari | FairPlay | Template:Good |
| MacOS 11 or later | Apple Safari | FairPlay | 4K |
| Chrome OS | Google Chrome | Widevine | Template:Good |
| Android | mobile app | Widevine | Template:Depends |
| iOS | mobile app | FairPlay | Template:Good |
Content[edit]
Original programming[edit]
"Netflix Originals" are content that is produced, co-produced, or distributed exclusively by Netflix. Netflix funds its original shows differently than other TV networks when they sign a project, providing the money upfront and immediately ordering two seasons of most series, and keeping more future revenue opportunities from (such as possible syndication, merchandising, etc.) on commercially successful 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, original productions made up 50% of Netflix's overall library in the United States.
Film and television deals[edit]
Netflix has exclusive 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, Warner Bros. Television and CBS Media Ventures, along with titles from other companies such as Allspark (formerly Hasbro Studios), 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 Century Fox Television.
Netflix negotiated to distribute animated films from Universal that HBO declined to acquire, such as The Lorax, ParaNorman, and 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. and Japan as part of an agreement signed with Ghibli's international sales holder Wild Bunch in 2020.
Gaming[edit]
In July 2021, Netflix hired Mike Verdu, a former executive from Electronic Arts and Facebook, as vice president of game development, along with plans to add video games by 2022. Netflix announced plans to release 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 intends to add more games to this service over time. On November 9, the collection launched for iOS. 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. Netflix announced plans to acquire Next Games in March 2022 for €65 million 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 had more than 55 games in development. By August 2022, Netflix's gaming platform had an average 1.7 million users a day, less than 1% of the streaming service's subscribers at the time.
Technology[edit]
Content delivery[edit]
Netflix settlement freely 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 Computer 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 US, 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[edit]
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. Netflix 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 it would be retiring the public API; it became effective November 14, 2014. Netflix then partnered with the developers of eight services deemed the most valuable, including Instant Watcher, Fanhattan, Yidio and Nextguide.
Awards[edit]
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" 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 Developments "Flight of the Phoenix" and Hemlock Groves "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 Golden Globe Award nominations, 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' 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 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 among its competitors, 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 2017 Primetime Emmy Awards, while The Crown received 13 nominations.
In April 2017, Netflix was nominated for Broadcaster of the Year in the UK's Diversity in Media Awards.
In December 2017, Netflix was awarded 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, Netflix won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature for the film Icarus. 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 most nominated network at the 2018 Primetime and Creative Arts Emmy Awards with 112 nominations, therefore breaking HBO's 17-years record as most nominated network at the Emmys, who received 108 nominations.
On January 22, 2019, Netflix scored 15 nominations for the 91st Academy Awards, including Best Picture for Alfonso Cuarón's Roma, which was nominated for 10 awards. The 15 nominations equal the total nominations 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. As a possible solution, Netflix is in the process of buying 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.
Criticism[edit]
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 violence and include viewer advisories for issues such as sensationalism and promotion of pseudoscience. Netflix's content has also been criticized by disability rights movement advocates for lack of closed captioning quality.
Some media organizations and competitors have criticized Netflix for selectively releasing ratings and 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 rate 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. securities laws.
See also[edit]
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