Navigate Through The Streaming-Services – Part 2: Netflix

The streaming services have caused us to change the behavior in the way we watch our favorite programs and movies. The services have grown rapidly like a weed, challenging traditional tv-watching. Many of these services have shown their capacity in the growth of subscribers and the attention worldwide by getting awards for their content.  This is an article series covering an in-depth look at services, available in several continents; Amazon, AppleTV Plus, DisneyPlus, HBO, Netflix, and Paramount Plus. Purposely, to show the difference and compare these services. A series published with weekly intervals.

Netflix has been established for almost eight years as dominating streaming- business, and before it was not as known as it is now. It’s the father of all online platforms and has sort of revolutionized the way how we consume entertainment and content online. It’s a standard we have taken for granted and the traditional TV-watching we’re used to is gone. This is a new way.

It wasn’t before 2007 the streaming in the U.S came available for the audience there. It wasn’t before 2013, the company launched its own programming in form of Orange Is the New Black and House of Cards, one prison drama, and another political thriller. Both successful in their own way and both adapted from popular novels, showcasing the seriousness from Netflix. The fact they could be taken seriously in this new form of entertainment. Throughout the years, the content has varied as Netflix has been a streaming service in the later years, proving that it can take the world by a storm. They weren’t attached to a production company like Amazon, HBO, Disney’s own platforming. Instead, it has hosted a lot of programming from other companies, often based on the right license. But as these companies withdraw their contents, they need to change the strategy due to the new streaming services. And so has the prices for this platform of service. It has increased from $7,99 to a whopping $15,99 over the years. As it has been fairly more expensive to stream, the content has been better. It holds certain standards. Yes, but compared to other streaming services that offer similar programming, what’s unique just about Netflix?

Content

Netflix knows its audience by now. They’ve been in the streaming business more than any of its competition. HBO isn’t close to the UI or the interaction Netflix has with its content and its user. Yes, it has great content. Awesome content but it often in the same type of content. The groundbreaking series is about to end. House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black was two of the company’s flagship and it’s gone now. Making a Murderer was a hit in 2015, but no one is even talking about it. And then there’s a lot of inconsistent programming, that doesn’t give interest to anyone. Netflix also axed Marvel’s Daredevil to everyone’s despair.

There’s a lot of programming, but not so much exciting. Stranger Things is barely popular once it releases on Netflix but not before or after. In a cynical way, Netflix has become a very expensive YouTube Channel where a lot of content is available but nothing ground-breaking. The few hits the company has had has either been canceled, axed or moved away, or erased from the platform. The platform has become an escape route for when studios aren’t even popular enough to be on cinema with a big premiere. Although, it should also be mentioned that Netflix knows also to find interesting true-crime subjects in documentaries although it has differed lately.

Accessibility

Watching Netflix is not on a computer. That’s probably not the best idea. No, It’s available on all devices; gaming consoles, mobile Android and IOS, Tablet, Hubs, and more. Netflix is aimed to watch on the big TV screen or on a tablet, where the functions and the accessibility are available. The prime language of Netflix is English and it hasn’t everything in other languages in subtitles and audio. The difference here with Netflix is that it’s available through VPN and you might get different content due to the license. In fact, the North American version is far more in-depth and far more extensive than the European one which is a bit annoying. But watching on tablet or phone is far more grateful than the other services. This is because of the UI layout. You can lock the screen, so you don’t accidentally swipe away your favorite show.  On smart devices, you can also exit the app while watching a program, which isn’t possible with the other platforms.

Netflix’s system is far more developed and more thankful to a user who likes binge-watching, the services make the perfect platform for just that. You can also have several profiles to your account, changing between the users. It’s so far ahead of the other in how to actually use the platform, that they dominate in just how to actually watch the content that constantly becomes even more expensive every year.  As Netflix has been around more than the other, just like Facebook dominates in the social media area, Netflix has something more to work on. As you add the content to a list, you won’t be able to watch like a playlist which is unfortunate,  which also should be feasible for a dominated company like this one. The search bar isn’t the best, depending on each region.

Conclusion

The  2020s has become the streaming-service era as it has popped up a new one every year lately. Just because Netflix was the first one, doesn’t make it the best one. The content comes and goes as it pleases. Despite winning so many awards and cleaning out some competition, Netflix has a desire to have a variety of its content, therefore a lot of unknown content becomes available, which in the end displeases users. It wants to entertain the world, but as greedier, it has got, the worse it has become. The prices have increased. The content is not what it used to be and the player and UI are still strong but is that really enough to pay a such high price when there’s a better cheaper alternative?