
Netflix is a company offering streaming movies over the Internet, while also offering movie rentals by mail. The company was founded in 1997. Its headquarters is located in Los Gatos in California. In 2009, it offered a collection of 100,000 titles and exceeded 11 million subscribers. In 2011, the service has over 25 million subscribers.
In August 2010, the Company acquired for about one billion U.S. dollars the rights to the online distribution of films, the film studios Paramount Pictures, Lions Gate Entertainment and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In December 2010, Netflix had a market value of about ten billion U.S. dollars. For the third quarter of 2011, the company reported worldwide revenue of 822 million U.S. dollars. And now with 23.8 million subscribers, Netflix is the largest video provider of the United States. In terms of the number of users in the US, Netflix has already more viewers than conventional TV stations.
Services:
DVD Rental
Netflix offers a rental service DVD by mail. The subscriber pays a monthly subscription and receives the films of his choice by mail. There is no time limit but there is a limit to the number of movies that subscribers may simultaneously depending on the subscription level.
Movies Streaming
Netflix offers a movie streaming for computers running Windows , Mac OS and Linux , as well as a number of compatible devices (Wii , Xbox 360 , PS3 , Wii U ). This service is available to subscribers of the default standard Netflix service but the whole catalog is not accessible.
At peak times, that is to say in the evening, Netflix is responsible in 2011 for approximately 29.7% of the traffic Internet in North America.
Productions
In March 2011, Netflix announced to offer its customers productions besides the repetition of other television series. ] The first self-production started in February 2013 David Fincher's political drama House of Cards with Oscar winner Kevin Spacey in the lead role. in early 2012 took Netflix the Norwegian -American co-produced dramedy television series Lilyhammer into their programs, and in May published 2013, new episodes of the 2006 Fox sold comedy series Arrested Development. Also celebrated 2013, the dramedy television series Orange Is the New Black and Horror Series Hemlock Grove at the premiere online service. In 2014 the publications of the drama series are narcos and the science fiction series Sense8 planned.
Competition
Netflix wants to co-exist with ISPs/MVPDs to avoid pricing wars: “The stability of the MVPD subscriber base, despite Netflix large membership, suggests that most members consider Netflix complementary to, rather than a substitute for, MVPD video.” So don’t blame Netflix and therefore don’t punish Netflix customers by charging more for heavy video usage. (This is an argument for net neutrality without using that politically charged term.)