March 29, 2024

With the technological advancements that millennials have been surrounded by as they grew up, playing on cellphones and iPads and sitting in front of the television for hours on end was the typical childhood. Reed Hastings noticed this change in behavior and used it to his advantage by creating Netflix, the most popular streaming service to date.
According to Netflix.com, Netflix, founded in 1997, was a DVD by mail service until 2007 when it started the now famous streaming service.
Since most high school and college students are surrounded by technology, Netflix quickly gained popularity. So many people were familiar with Netflix that it even acquired its own phrase, “Netflix and chill?” This phrase, at first, simply meant friends hanging out and watching Netflix together, but quickly gained a sexual connotation of “Let’s watch a movie and maybe ‘fool’ around.”
“What is the point of waiting a week for a new episode of your favorite show when you can watch the entire season in two days?” Olivia Zink, ‘19, said.
Seeing the profit and rise in popularity of Netflix, other streaming services, such as Hulu and Amazon, quickly jumped on the wagon. However, Netflix remains on top of the business.
According to Victor Luckerson, a writer for time.com, Time magazine’s website, Netflix makes “$148 million in extra revenue from the U.S.,” in one year.
“Even though Hulu is the cheaper option, Netflix has far more options to choose from like their original shows and movies that cannot be seen anywhere else,” Rebekah Sattler, ‘19, said.
For some people, Hulu is problematic.
“I tried Hulu but I could no longer put up with the ads,” Lane Schlicher, ‘17, said. “If I am paying a monthly fee, I should not have to deal with that.”
Over the past few years, Netflix subscribers have noticed a rise in price of their monthly subscription by $1. At first some customers were furious with the increase, but once they saw the new perks, some of the complaints died down.
“It may cost more than it used to, but they gave us more shows to choose from,” Zink said. “They gave us originals like ‘Orange is the New Black’ and ‘Jessica Jones.’ Personally, I think that one extra dollar a month is well worth it.”
Netflix is starting to become more popular than cable television and some people are even starting to turn away from cable television entirely. According to Luckerson, Netflix has between 60 million to 90 million subscribers in the United States alone.
Dennis LoConti, the current area coordinator for New Hall and Woodlawn Hall on Wittenberg’s campus, was previously an area coordinator at The College of Wooster. He said that Wooster cancelled their cable services due to the popularity of streaming services.
Why spend $60 to $100 plus dollars on cable television when viewers only watch five or six of the channels out of the hundreds they pay for? Customers can easily save money by switching over to streaming services, such as Netflix, where they do not have to deal with commercials and they can watch as many episodes of their favorite show as they please.

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