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Leda Billock
While mainstream consumer adoption of online movie watching will take a number of years due to content and technology hurdles, the time is right for Netflix to take the first step. Over the coming years we'll expand our selection of films, and we'll work to get to every Internet-connected screen, from cell phones to PCs to plasma screens.
By 2010, that change had arrived. In an earnings call, Hastings declared that they had fully transitioned to become a streaming company. They were no longer a DVD-by-mail company that happened to offer some streaming. By the end of the year, they were expecting to deliver more entertainment hours via streaming than via mail.
In pursuit of this, Netflix went out and licensed TV shows and movies for its leading streaming service. They signed deals with Miramax, Walt Disney Studios, and Time Warner. By the end of 2013, Netflix had accumulated a whopping US$7.3 billion in content liabilities.
As cable subscriptions slowed and then reversed, original content producers like Disney and HBO began to look into starting streaming services of their own. Netflix saw the writing on the wall earlier than most: they realised that if their content providers got into the streaming game, they would likely pull their programming off Netflix, causing the service to lose its differentiation and perhaps even its scale advantage.
Was this rational spending, or debt-fueled excess? On their part, Netflix believed that their leadership in subscriber count gave them the ability to spend these large sums of money in producing original content. Their cost per subscriber in developing House of Cards was about US$2.75 with 36 million Netflix subscribers at its premiere. If Hulu was to spend an identical US$100 million in producing its own original content, their cost per subscriber would be a much more prohibitive US$25 with 4 million subscribers in 2013.
For the 75th annual Emmy Awards, the streamer earned 103 nominations, won 22, with series like Beef making history and sweeping the competition. If you're looking for something new to watch, Netflix should be your first pick.
Depending on the plan you choose, Netflix costs between $7 and $23 per month, which is at the higher end for a streaming service, as you can see in the chart below. However, the pricier package lets you watch up to four screens at once and create different user profiles. Thanks to its sheer variety and number of new things to watch, Netflix also gives you the most bang for your buck.
Between 2012 and 2013, Netflix premiered its first original TV shows, including Lilyhammer, House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black. Today, it has a catalog of more than 1,500 original TV shows and movies, including global hits like Stranger Things, Emmy winners such as Bridgerton and The Crown, as well as Oscar-nominated movies such as All Quiet on the Western Front and Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio.
The company launched its ad-supported tier in November 2022 for $7 per month. It's since become the streamer's most popular plan, even with the company's password-sharing crackdown in effect where you pay more if you want people outside your household on your account. The days of crowdfunding your Netflix subscription have ended.
We should mention that Netflix's slate of video games is growing at a rapid pace, with the stream launching new games every month. Though access is only available for mobile users, the company has been conducting tests for the TV app.
Like Max's ad-supported subscription, the Netflix with ads $7 plan promises roughly 4 to 5 minutes of commercials per hour of content. The streamer also said it would implement frequency caps to prevent viewers from seeing the same ads over and over while watching an episode or movie. However, we found that not every title -- new or old -- features ads and the length of each ad break varies.
For example, Community episodes do not have any ads, not even a pre-roll before an episode of the show begins. The Bodyguard had a 30-second pre-roll, but no ads played during the entire movie. Jane the Virgin, on the other hand, had three ad breaks and a 30-second pre-roll in a 40-minute episode. Each ad break lasted 60 seconds and contained two to three commercials.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith had longer commercial breaks during its two-hour runtime. After a 30-second pre-roll, there were four ad breaks, with the first three lasting 75 seconds each with three to four commercials. The last break ran for 1 minute total and contained two ads. 30-minute episodes of Attack on Titan and Cobra Kai only had two ad breaks.
When I watched the Netflix original Love is Blind, there was a 30-second pre-roll and four commercial breaks that lasted for 60 seconds each. There were two to three ads per break. Another Netflix original, Enola Holmes 2, only had a 30-second pre-roll of ads and no commercials during the film. This seems to reflect Netflix's commitment to omit ads from new movies.
The streamer also seems to keep its word about ad variety, and barely saw the same commercial twice while watching one title. Commercials for T-Mobile, Nyx, Cadillac, Progressive Insurance, Carnival's Funderstruck, Vaseline, Prada and Duracell were among those that aired. There was an M&Ms holiday-themed ad that syncs up with the current holiday season. I did not notice any commercials on kid-friendly content I tested in the adult profile for shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender, Cocomelon, Raising Dion or Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitsu.
The ads do not operate as pop-up surprises. Yellow dots on the progress bar indicate when and how many ad breaks will appear in a TV show or movie. If you don't see the dots, there aren't any commercials in that particular piece of content. But there is a countdown clock that tells you how long each break will last.
Though you can watch in HD, you can't download any content for offline viewing. This is comparable to other platforms like Max and Hulu which require you to have an ad-free subscription to download.
Prior to launch, Netflix said that some titles would not be available on the ad-supported version due to licensing restrictions. This content is marked with a lock icon, similar to Peacock Free's setup where the symbol indicates which titles are behind a paywall. In Netflix's case, this means you have to upgrade to an ad-free account. A quick note on the thumbnail lets you know the title is unavailable due to licensing. But if you click on it, Netflix will prompt you to choose an ad-free plan to watch it.
In addition to popular shows like House of Cards and Peaky Blinders, a number of animated titles and movies are unavailable to stream unless you upgrade to a higher-priced subscription. They include A Man Called Otto, Bullet Train, Boss Baby: Back in the Crib and The Age of Adaline. Netflix's Kids' Profile does not play ads at all, but some children may be disappointed to learn all the Boss Baby titles aren't available to watch. It's probably worth spending the extra money on the ad-free plan just to access Netflix's whole catalog.
Netflix may have had the first-to-market advantage in the world of streaming services, but it's kept its momentum with its increasing number of original shows and movies -- many of which have won critical acclaim and major awards and nominations.
Compared to other streaming platforms, you can't beat Netflix's slate of original TV shows that are now considered among the best of the modern era of television, including those mentioned above plus many more, such as Beef, The Witcher, Wednesday, Money Heist and Cobra Kai.
Outside of TV shows, Netflix's original programs include a wide range of foreign films and shows, documentary series, anime, stand-up comedy specials, live events and reality dating and competition shows. Not all of them are runaway hits, but many of them are, and there's enough to explore interesting shows that may not have found a home on traditional network TV. The company's dip into live event streaming has been expanding in the past year. Netflix offers sports events like The Netflix Cup, an upcoming boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul, and NFL games on Christmas. The platform also streams live comedy specials, including the Tom Brady roast and Katt Williams' stand-up show.
Though the theater experience has become normalized again for moviegoers, Netflix offers your own home as a place to find new films. The selection spans across genres and geography, and it includes K-dramas, animated features and fantasy book adaptations.
Netflix typically adds shows a full season at a time, though not while a show is airing on network TV -- so if you don't have cable or another platform like Hulu, you'll have to wait to watch for a few months to watch seasons in full. In some cases, -- like Bridgerton -- there are split seasons where the first five episodes will stream one month and the last half of the season will premiere in the following month or so.
One complaint: Netflix content sometimes can come and go without warning. The only way to tell if something is leaving the service in the next 30 days is if you see the Leaving Soon label on the tile for a given show or movie -- or search online for everything coming and going in a given month.
Another potential content issue to flag: In recent years Netflix has lost some of its most popular content (such as The Office, which moved to NBC's Peacock, Daredevil, which moved to Disney Plus and Friends, which moved to Max) as other networks created their own streaming services. However, new licensing agreements may revive interest -- Suits and Ballers are the most recent examples -- and help the platform's catalog to flourish. With NBC/Universal and Warner Bros. Discovery willing to ink deals with Netflix, the streamer can grow programming and audience.
I first subscribed to Netflix back in the early streaming days of 2007, so using the platform feels like second nature at this point. Even if you're new to it, it's pretty user-friendly: Open the app and tap on your profile (if you have one set up), and you'll see a homepage. You'll see Popular on Netflix, Continue Watching, Trending Now, Top Picks for you and a number of (sometimes oddly specific) other categories based on shows you've watched before. Mine include Edge-of-Your-Seat Thrillers TV Shows Based on Comics, for example.
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