Remember the rush of getting home from school to catch your favourite programme on TV?
Well, forget that because on-demand is the new norm. Be it a blessing or a curse, it is what we are used to now because Netflix has changed the broadcast television that we had grown up with.
More than ever Netflix has become a global brand since its humble beginning as an online DVD rental company in 1998 and the main competitor of Blockbuster Video. Nowadays, television providers have been taking pages out of Netflix’s playbook, with on demand television becoming increasingly popular, and the Global Box Office also feeling the brunt of Netflix’s power.
Not surprisingly, in 2017 Netflix reported an increase in subscribers to reach 135.2 million in 2018. The figure has been on the rise since it first started to offer its signature streaming service in 2007. However, the increased interest in recent years is mainly related to a global expansion as well as to the introduction of quality original content such as House of Cards, Stranger Things, Orange is the New Black, Breaking Bad and, more recently, You. The making of The Crown was of particular significance as it brought in older viewers into the fold.
As Netflix started to increase the quality of its content the effort was being recognised by the Hollywood community as The Crown, House of Cards and Master of None are all Golden Globe winners in their own right. Roma also earned its fair share of accolades being: Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film, and Best Cinematography at the Academy Awards and many other nominations.
Interestingly, even as price rises were tested, subscribers were apparently willing to bear the increase in general to get the prized possession of unlimited films and TV programmes.
Even with a newer rival – Amazon Prime, Netflix is still the current streaming service champion and an epitome of the subscription economy. Nonetheless, storm clouds are brewing for Netflix as Disney has threatened to pull its content from the service and the running costs for generating content increase.
