Can streaming’s behemoth stay on top?
It wasn’t that long ago that TV show’s exclusively drip-fed to fans weekly and films were in cinemas or on DVD’s . But those days are long gone. The introduction of the internet and streaming has meant that we’ve been given access to an unrelenting torrent of media wherever and whenever we please with a combined 30294 titles across the largest streaming platforms in 2022 alone and 500 hours of footage being added to Youtube every minute to say we’re spoiled for choice would be a gross understatement. However, one platform towers over the rest as the behemoth of home video entertainment: Netflix.
Netflix started off life in 1997 as a mail order movie rental company after its founders realised they could move the rental business out of stores and online by mailing the recently popularised (and rugged) DVD format over relatively fragile VHS tapes. A decade after its inception in 2007 the company launched its online streaming platform boasting 1000 ad-free films (and shortly after TV) at a glorious 360p resolution (half that of a DVD’s native resolution). From there Netflix started to grow rapidly gaining distribution deals with media giants like warner-bros and Universal Studios.
Its impact extends past just bringing users content having expanded into creating original media. The company managed to make the first “series distributed via the internet” to be nominated (and then go onto win) an Emmy and has managed to rack up 132 Oscar nominations and 22 Oscar wins. If making the content and streaming the content wasn’t enough, Netflix also managed to create streaming device and smart tv company Roku providing a way for people to get Netflix on their TVs.
Fast forwarding to today Netflix’s streaming model has completely changed how we consume with television and films. With DVD sales down 86% from 2006 to 2018, streaming services set to overtake traditional TV services in spending by 2025 in the UK and 99% of US families being subscribed to at least one or more streaming services it’s not a stretch to say that streaming has all but become ubiquitous. Especially so for Netflix, being available in all but five countries and over 260 million subscribers it’s impossible to escape the streaming goliath.
However, it’s not all been smooth sailing for Netflix. In Spite of its constant innovation and foothold in the production of film and television 2022 Netflix saw its first loss of subscribers since its inception dropping over a million (most likely from people re-assessing their finances in the face of an upcoming recession). On top of this Netflix finally caved and axed its original DVD renting service in late 2023 fully separating it’s physical ties to home video .
The challenge ,in the face of falling subscribers, was obvious. How do you win back an audience when your competitor is a global financial crash? One answer Netflix came up with was to introduce a cheaper TV-like model where users can access (almost) all the same content but with advertisements interspersed throughout viewing. The other was to clamp down on people sharing their accounts passwords with friends and family, a uniquely online practice so common the company once admitted “as long as they aren’t selling them, members can use their passwords however they please”. Even though the latter of these solutions is remarkably hostile to its user base, it worked raising their subscriber count by almost six million in the first three months after introducing the password policy.
The dip in subscribers has not stopped the streaming giant from trying to innovate the streaming landscape. Notably, by producing a new form of interactive entertainment in the form of shows like black mirror’s Bandersnatch which attempted to create a drama that the viewer could directly interact with. This seemingly went well as Netflix branched into the most direct form of interactive entertainment video games. It’s been no small investment with Netflix snapping up award winning developers night school studio putting the studios games (as well as other big name games like the infamous Grand theft auto trilogy ) on the service for no additional cost.
While Netflix is trying to innovate the streaming space it may be neglecting the industry that gave it life in the first place. Having produced content for years the streaming giant has started removing some of its own original series. The issue here is as these titles were born onto a digital platform they never got a physical release essentially removing them from existence (unless you managed to illegally pirate the file).
This trend has (ironically) pushed people towards actually buying physical media again with Christopher Nolan’s latest film Oppenheimer selling out all its physical copies and second hand copies going for over $200. Could this mean that Netflix should get back in the physical media game? Well, if movie streaming’s closest parallel is music is anything to go by definitely. The industry hit a similar point back in 2011 and has since seen a massive rise in sales of physical media especially in vinyl. Netflix’s closest musical analogue Spotify has embraced this shift creating a storefront for artists integrated into their service. Could we see Netflix we see Netflix make the same shift and embrace their roots? They’ve already broken through to reality with a Broadway play so why not?
For now the only thing clear is how volatile the whole landscape is with consumer tastes changing like the weather and the underlying technologies evolving rapidly. Will Netflix continue to drive their digital presence by offering new and more elaborate ways to engage with their platform or try and reclaim their presence in the physical world following its contemporaries? Personally I’d like to see steps taken to protect the art that made the platform what it is today but only time will tell.
