Netflix has been around since 1997! Bill Clinton was president, the movie ‘Titanic’ was released, and the comet known as Hale-Bopp swung by to say hello. All while we were getting our first DVDs in the mail.
The Birth of Netflix
It all started with two men, Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings (currently Executive Chairman). It launched as NetFlix.com in 1998 and charged a fee per rental for DVDs. (Those are the shiny disks with movies on them, kids.) You would go to the website, select your movies, and pay a fee for each rental.
In 1999, it switched to a subscription model and started charging a monthly fee of $19.95. You could add movies to a queue and get three of them in the mail at a time. There were no late fees, so subscribers could take as long as they wanted to watch them. Then, you’d send them back in those cute red envelopes and wait for the next one. Finding one of those red envelopes in the mailbox was a treat!
Interesting fact: In 2000, their brick-and-mortar competitor Blockbuster was given the option to buy them and turned them down. Someone must have felt some regret over that. At the time, Netflix wasn’t profitable, and it didn’t become so until 2006 when it generated over $80 million. But, they did add the algorithm that looked at past rentals to suggest what a subscriber might like next. Before that, there was just scrolling through the lists of options.
Then Came Netflix Streaming
In 2007, movies at home took a turn. Netflix introduced streaming, and it was included in the DVD subscription plan. It launched in Canada and then rolled out to the U.S., Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe by 2012. It also partnered with the makers of devices like gaming consoles and Blu-ray players to include an app for the service and later introduced the apps for iOS and Android.
Only three years later, in 2010, Netflix changed their focus to streaming instead of DVDs. And Blockbuster, that brick-and-mortar movie rental store, filed for bankruptcy.
In 2011, the platform separated the physical rental and streaming into different plans. They briefly had the physical rentals under a separate company they called “Qwikster” but reversed that when they lost a large number of subscribers. Folks do not like change.
It wasn’t until September of 2023 that Netflix ended the physical DVD subscriptions. The last ones were mailed out on September 29. Goodbye to the red Netflix envelope!
Netflix Originals
It’s hard to imagine a time before original shows on Netflix and other streaming services. It started with the platform in 2012. Lilyhammer, a crime drama about a former gangster who moves to Norway in witness protection, was the first. It may not have been a big hit (65% on Rotten Tomatoes), but Netflix released ‘House of Cards’ next, which had more success. IMDB lists 3,882 original series on Netflix currently. We were unable to confirm this number with other sources.
After creating the original series, it made sense to continue with movies. IMDB lists 617 titles, although that doesn’t include documentaries and short films. It’s difficult to find a definitive number as different sources show different information. Suffice it to say, there are a lot of series, movies, documentaries, and more that were created for Netflix streaming.
With the popularity of streaming and original programming in the spotlight, other services popped up and started to deliver their own content to compete. Services like Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Disney+ would come on the scene, followed by many more.
Gaming on Netflix
A surprising addition to Netflix came in November of 2021. They added mobile games for Android and, later, for iOS as well. There’s a variety of games there, but this part of the service gets very little marketing or hype.
Some games are even available for TV and computers. They’ll appear in the games row if they are and if your account is part of their beta for that service. Time to explore some games!
Challenges for Netflix
Even with the increase in cord-cutters, the influx of competition has cluttered the market, giving consumers a lot of choices when it comes to streaming services. Inflation and the cost of producing big-budget content have caused the platform and other services to increase prices, which creates waves with subscribers. Add controversial programming, celebrities, and topics, and there are plenty of challenges for the company.
In 2023, it started cracking down on password sharing. Everyone knew someone with a Netflix account, and sharing your account with folks outside your household was commonplace. Netflix saw this as a loss of possible revenue and started putting changes in place to prevent it. Currently, you can add an Extra Member only if you have a Standard or Premium plan. Netflix wasn’t the only service to do this, though. Other services added similar safeguards to prevent sharing.
The Future of Netflix
The future can be difficult to predict, but if we look at recent changes, we can get a good idea of what’s on the horizon. In 2023, the platform started streaming live programming with Chris Rock’s stand-up special. In 2024, they carried the highly anticipated fight between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul. And, in 2025, they have an agreement with WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) to show live wrestling. Could there be more live programming coming?
After the fourth quarter of 2024, the company was doing well. Folks have tighter wallets, though, and some may even be switching back to cable TV from streaming. Netflix still has a strong position as the service we think of first when we think of streaming. With popular shows like Stranger Things and Squid Game, Netflix can still do very well.
We haven’t finished watching Netflix yet!
