Gone are the days when we have to visit the nearest video rental shop in town just to rent or buy movies and albums for a weekend stay-in or a DVD marathon party with friends. It was such a hassle back then, right? The worst part was, your late return rental fees kept piling up just because you had no time to go down the store to pay for your dues. This scenario dismayed Reed Hastings, when he, too, was charged big time for not retuning a rented DVD on its due date. And so, Reed Hastings, together with Marc Randolph, got inspired to launch a company that will provide online pay-per-rental movies. In 1997, Netflix Inc., an Internet streaming media, was founded.
From the year of its inception, Netflix, Inc. continues to boom in the United States region, and still continuously expands in other parts of the globe. It was in 1999 when flat-fee subscription-based digital distribution movie and television show rental service was introduced, and within the United States, they provide flat rate DVD-by-mail service. In 2009, the number of subscribers skyrocketed up to 10 million. Researchers and surveys concluded that Netflix encouraged the growth of DVD player users in household in year 2004. By 2011, Netflix subscribers reached 23.6 million and the total revenue reached $1.5 billion. The company managed to settle film rights to following film and television distributors Paramount Pictures, MGM, Lions Gate Entertainment, Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, Overture Films, and Anchor Bay Entertainment, NBC Universal, 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., and Disney-ABC Domestic Television, enabling thousands of movie and television show rights.
Netflix has truly become a massive breakthrough in home entertainment industry. The company lives up to its legacy of revolutionizing “the way people watch movies.” Due to the positive response of viewers, several electronic device companies manufactured units that have Netflix compatibility. First in line is the Netflix set-up box manufactured by Roku that transfers online instant movies to a TV. Then, in 2009, Netflix has partnered with LG and Vizio to stream movies directly to high definition TVs. How to get Netflix on TV has been made convenient and superb through Netflix-ready HDTVs. Over the years, Netflix expanded with Samsung, Insignia, Apple TV, Panasonic, Seagate, Philips, Sony BRAVIA, and Sharp.
At present, Netflix has introduced Internet video streaming. You can access thousands of movies and television shows in your laptop or Internet-ready video game consoles as long as you have a good network connection. But what makes it great is, you can also connect and watch these films in a bigger TV screen using an HDMI cable.