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Video streaming is the next big thing in the entertainment industry. More people are getting a soft spot for streaming videos and audios. At the same time, companies like Netflix, Hulu, and Spotify are offering on-demand streaming services to meet this demand. The good thing is that you are not limited to using your laptop or tablet while streaming; you can also use your phone. Unfortunately, streaming uses loads of data in an era where internet data allowances are a reality. While some consumers have devised ways to stream videos and audios data-effectively, others have limited the service to prevent their internet bill from getting out of hand.
Imagine you just signed up for Netflix to catch the latest blockbuster movies and series. You can't wait to watch the latest releases ranging from Bird Box to Apostle and Triple Frontier. You start streaming the Vietnam War drama Full Metal Jacket while your sister in the other room is streaming a romantic comedy Crazy Stupid Love on her iPhone. Suddenly you receive a notification that you are running out of data.
Let's start with the fun facts. First, data is not free and video uses a lot of data. Therefore, because you are streaming video on Netflix, you definitely use a lot of data. Second, your internet provider is in business to make money. That means that there's a probability of a cap in the data you use monthly and extra charges for surpassing the set amount. This causes headaches for Netflix subscribers who would like to watch much content but are limited by their data and avoidance of extra charges. Buckeye Broadband can eliminate these headaches by offering you data plans that meet your streaming needs - including unlimited data.
The question that follows is 'how much data does Netflix use?' The answer is simple 'it depends.' It depends on two principle things namely the length of the film you are watching and the resolution you are using. Watching a show that takes 30 minutes does not use the same amount of data as watching a 2 hours long movie. The longer the film, the more data you use. The resolution you use also affects the amount of data you use. According to Netflix, you use about 1GB of data per hour for streaming a TV show or movie in standard definition and up to 3GB of data per hour when streaming HD video.
Nevertheless, you can change the data usage settings in your Netflix account to reduce the bandwidth Netflix uses and hence lower data consumption. Netflix offers four data usage options discussed below.
One cool thing about Netflix is that you don't have to always stream your movies and shows. You can download content and view it later when offline. This saves you a huge chunk of data. The download option and view later is available on both Android and iOS Netflix apps. However, this feature is not without a catch. You can only download specific content including but not limited to Orange is the New Black, To Kill a Mocking Bird and Stranger Things. The good thing is that downloadable content is a mix of contemporary and classic films in different genres. If you can't get enough of the series Scandal or Jane the virgin, just download it and you can re-watch it ten times.
With Netflix's download option, you can never get bored. Your phone becomes a portable TV and you can watch films on your long car ride, boring flights, or just spend the whole night on the sofa. How do you download a movie on Netflix? It's simple; use your Netflix app that is available for Android and iOS. You can also use the Netflix app for Windows 10 on your laptop. Open the Netflix app, choose the download quality and choose the download option (where available). Lastly, enjoy your offline viewing.
In the current digital age, prolific media streaming is the order of the day. Netflix is leading the pack by offering numerous movies and series that you can stream and download. Unfortunately, the current age also comes with capped data packages for home internet users. This makes it necessary to know how much data Netflix uses when streaming movies and TV shows.
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Netflix (NFLX -0.56%) has shifted a growing portion of its massive content budget to original productions. Not only that, but it's moving more of those productions in-house to Netflix Studios instead of licensing content from other studios. The shift provides Netflix more control over its projects, including the ability to stream shows globally and retain the intellectual property.
But producing content in-house also ends up saving Netflix a lot of money in the long run. "There's a 30% to 50% markup on the shows that are produced by the studio for us," Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos told the audience at a recent investors conference.
Considering Netflix eventually wants 50% of its content to be original productions, and it has a content budget that could reach $8 billion this year, we're talking a savings of billions of dollars per year in content expenses over the long run.
Of course, Netflix has dozens of suppliers of many sizes from all over the world, so being the largest doesn't mean it's close to a majority of content. That said, Sarandos also mentioned that "85% of all new spending is on originals."
When another studio produces a show for Netflix, it simply licenses that content similarly to how it licenses content that first aired on television or in theaters. Netflix doesn't have to pay for the entire production, instead opting for ongoing payments to the production studio. That reduces the pressure on cash flow.
Producing content with Netflix Studios requires a significant cash outlay from the start. The upside is there's no ongoing licensing fee, so if Netflix creates a hit that's very rewatchable, it pays out dividends over the long term.
With the growth of in-house productions, Netflix has seen its free cash flow crater. The company burned $2 billion in cash last year, and it expects to burn as much as $4 billion this year as it steps up its originals and its marketing efforts.
Those cash expenses don't show up on the income statement all at once due to the way Netflix amortizes the cost of its original content over its useful life. That's how Netflix can show a profit while burning cash. Ultimately, spending the cash now should result in lower content spend in the long run than if it kept licensing originals from other studios.
Aside from the long-term cost savings from producing series and films in-house, Netflix gains a lot of benefits from owning the content itself. Owning the intellectual property gives Netflix the ability to do things like licensing and merchandising, which can create an entirely new source of revenue for the company. It's already experimented on that front with Stranger Things.
Netflix also benefits from a more streamlined approach to renegotiating contracts for successful series. Sarandos points out those negotiations are a lot more complicated when a third-party studio is involved than when it's just Netflix and the showrunner and top talent. That can save a lot of time and money for Netflix over the course of a series' run.
Perhaps most importantly, owning the creative rights to a series and its characters allows Netflix to be more creative with its marketing. This can help Netflix achieve its marketing goal mentioned in its first-quarter letter to shareholders about growing the "density of viewing":
We're investing in more marketing of new original titles to create more density of viewing and conversation around each title (i.e bigger hit in a nation or demographic). We believe this density of viewing helps on both retention and acquisition, because it makes our original titles even less substitutable.
Tim Robinson: Right, right. When you start putting sketches back to back some of it can feel exhausting, so we decided to just keep cutting them down. Then when we got to that length, everything flowed way better.
Netflix can be a double-edged sword. You have a lot of creative control, but you're also competing for attention from people who are just gonna load up season 3 of The Office for the 14th time. How do you make sure that it's gonna get seen?
Akiva [Schaffer], from Lonely Island, who produced and directed it, he's really good at that, so he talked to them. Coming from Comedy Central, where my last show was, was a world of difference because it's streaming as opposed to cable which people are moving away from.
Right, you don't have to build in ad breaks or anything like that. In a lot of reviews for this show, one of the things that kept coming up is its constant examining of awkward social situations. Was there an overarching philosophy going into this show, or was it really just what makes you laugh, and sometimes it really is just someone at a party being awful?
The latter. Zach [Kanin] and I just found ourselves writing a lot of scenes like that, where the person is refusing to admit they've done something wrong, or lying, and will do anything to cover that up. So it became the theme of the whole show because we kept gravitating towards writing those scenes.
Right. That's only to benefit the artists. You're right, then you can fall on your own sword if it doesn't go well, but when you get over-noted at some places you have some sort of resentment towards the network or the executives, whereas it's better Netflix lets people go and do their own thing.
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