Learn how to adjust your downloads settings to get Netflix to automatically manage it for you with its Smart Downloads features, and how to manage downloads for countries with restricted licenses. For more, learn about Netflix's hidden menu or see CNET's reviews of all the streaming services
If you're familiar with using Netflix on your mobile device, you've probably noticed the dark "Download" button that sits right below "Play." Clicking that button starts a download of a local version of the movie or TV show you want.
You can download Netflix movies and TV shows on iPhone, iPad, Android and Amazon Fire devices, as well as computers with Windows 10 or 11 and some Chromebooks and Chromeboxes. Netflix downloads are set by default to only use Wi-Fi, though you can change that in your app settings.
TV shows can be downloaded individually by clicking the download icon next to each episode. On Android devices, you can download an entire season of a show by tapping the separate Download Season button next to the My List, Rate and Share links near the top of a movie or show listing.
Netflix allows you to keep a maximum of 100 downloads on as many devices as are included in your subscription plan. Each of the downloads has a different expiration date based on its content license -- some expire as early as 48 hours after you first start watching. Downloads can be renewed, but some have a limit on how many times per year. If a movie or show leaves the Netflix service, all downloads for it immediately expire.
You can delete individual movies and shows by unselecting the check box next to each title. You can remove all of your downloads by going into your App Settings and clicking "Delete all downloads" under Downloads.
A "Downloads" tab (called "My Downloads" on Windows) that sits at the bottom of the Netflix app shows you which downloads are in your library and lets you play them. It also lets you customize your download settings, such as Smart Downloads.
When turned on, Download Next Episode will automatically delete TV show episodes once you've watched them and then download the next episode in the season. It's a no-brainer for anyone who downloads TV shows, which is probably why the feature is turned on by default in Netflix apps.
Downloads for You expands the automatic downloading and deleting options for Netflix that are used in Download Next Episode. The feature is available in the iPhone, iPad and Android versions of the Netflix app, as well as some Chromebooks and Chromeboxes.
After Downloads for You is turned on, Netflix uses your viewing habits and preferences to download movies and TV shows that the service thinks you will like. Once you watch them, they're automatically deleted.
If you don't want to watch a downloaded title, you can delete it the same way you would delete downloads that you initiated manually. You can also click the icon of a square surrounded by a broken circle to cancel downloads in progress. Downloads for You only works over Wi-Fi.
Turning that feature on will then open up options for limiting how much data Netflix will automatically download for each user profile, anywhere from 0.5GB to 9.5GB. (Netflix notes that one hour of video at normal quality is about 0.25GB.)
Whether a movie or TV show can be downloaded on Netflix depends on its content license, and licenses vary from title to title. Netflix says that it tries to make as many titles available for download as possible, and when a movie or show is not downloadable it's usually because of three reasons:
In my informal survey, the titles I found mostly likely to be excluded from downloading are popular TV shows from cable or broadcast networks. "Grey's Anatomy," "Gilmore Girls" and "The Walking Dead" are three shows you can stream on Netflix, but not download.
Geographical restrictions that limit streaming titles in certain countries also apply to downloaded movies and TV shows. If you're traveling in a country where Netflix is not showing the title you downloaded, you won't be able to watch it, even though you already downloaded it in your home country.
Trying to watch a downloaded movie in a country where Netflix doesn't show it will result in an error message in the Netflix app: "Download Not Available in This Country -- Not all downloads are available to watch in every country."
VPN software that create virtual private networks can be used to get around geographical restrictions, but Netflix makes a strong effort to block VPN from working with its service. Using a VPN to bypass geo-blocking could also be considered a violation of Netflix's terms of use.
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Netflix reported 84.11 million paid streaming subscribers across the United States and Canada in the second quarter of 2024. After a decline in the U.S. and Canadian subscriber base during the first nine months of 2022, this marked a growth of nearly nine million compared with the same quarter of the previous year.
The EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) region is Netflix's top-performing market in terms of subscribers, surpassing North America in the third quarter of 2022 for the first time. The company reported losing an estimated one million users worldwide in the second quarter of 2022, with the number of Netflix users standing at approximately 221 million that quarter. But why have audiences canceled their subscriptions? One reason for the unprecedented drop in account holders is Netflix's monthly fee, which has been increasing rapidly over the past few years. On top of that, viewers have also voiced criticism over Netflix's cancellation of popular shows and its lack of big movie franchises.
Netflix's vast content library offers anything from reality TV to Hollywood blockbusters, with shows and movies delivered in many different languages. As of early 2023, European countries such as Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Iceland boasted the largest content catalogs on Netflix. In the U.S., where audiences could choose from approximately 6,400 titles, "NCIS" and "Suits" ranked among the most popular streaming series on Netflix in 2023. As of that year, fan favorites "Stranger Things" and "One Piece" were the most expensive Netflix original series, with production costs of 30 and 18 million U.S. dollars per episode, respectively.
There are no two ways about it: Netflix has had a tough year but is still absolutely dominating the streaming video market. According to the Q2 2022 figures, Netflix now has approximately 220 million global paid memberships, and remains the largest premium video on-demand service in the world.
For perspective, Netflix competitor Hulu ended Q2 of 2022 with 45.6 million subscribers in total. While researching the use of VPNs to securely access Netflix, we struggled to find a really comprehensive source of Netflix statistics, facts, and figures so decided to compile our own.
Initially, Netflix only received $2 million in venture capital funding during its Series A funding round from Reed Hastings. Just three years later, during its Series E funding round, it only raised $50 million with three backers.
Now the company is raking in almost $8 billion per year (2022), with estimated operating profits of $5.9 billion. These are impressive figures, however, it is worth noting that the expansion of Netflix is now slowing with the company beginning to lose customers en-masse to its rivals.
The company began offering a subscription-based DVD-by-mail service in 1999. In 2000, Netflix began using a combination of collected big data and analytics tools to recommend videos for users to rent.
After reaching 4 million subscribers in 2004, and realizing the potential higher-bandwidth internet could provide, Netflix launched online video streaming in 2007 alongside its dominant DVD-by-mail option.
Netflix officially branched out to international markets in 2010 with its Canadian launch. 2011 marked a major year for Netflix as the streaming service dove further into the international market, launching in Latin America and the Caribbean. Netflix finally migrated to Europe in 2012, officially becoming available in the UK, Ireland, and Nordic countries.
Netflix continued its march across the globe in 2015, finally launching its service in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and other locations. As of 2022, Netflix is available worldwide except for a select few countries.
Even as Netflix was available worldwide, the company began to aggressively crack down on region hoppers. On February 29, 2016, reports began rolling in that the streaming service was blocking virtual private networks (VPNs) and other proxy services.
In 2021, Netflix massively extended that record by gaining 129 nominations; of which it won a staggering 44 awards. This set the Emmys record for most wins in a single year, which had previously been held by CBS since 1974.
In a letter to shareholders, Netflix revealed that it had gained an additional 15.77 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2020 alone as billions of people around the world were forced into quarantine and social distancing.
According to statistics from 2019, Netflix viewers across all of its available countries watched around 164 million hours per day of content. Netflix has not released similar numbers since 2017 but has started releasing total viewing stats for select original content.
While Netflix is available in almost every country in the world, its home base is still its most important one. Of the 220 million Netflix subscribers, more than 73 million are in the United States and Canada, with the US leading the pack.
North America has generated paid subscription revenue of $3 billion, which is around 45% of worldwide revenue. In Q2 2022, the average monthly revenue per paying subscriber differed by region as follows:
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