A brief Netflix history

I had initially planned on making my next post to be about Walter White and his story in Breaking Bad but instead I chose to postpone that and talk about the history of Netflix. 

I myself have had Netflix for what fells like many many years. For a long time I actually thought that I had in fact taken the plunge and signed up for the service when it was first released, however when I actually did some research into when Netflix was founded I swiftly realised I was talking a lot of nonsense! 

Netflix was founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph (I know I was pretty shocked too). This means that the company has actually been around for about 18 years! I myself am 21 so would be rather impressed with my 3 year old self if I had managed to sign up to Netflix. 

Netflix was initially setup as a video rental service, over time offering customers the chance of unlimited rentals for a low monthly cost. It was essentially the online version of Blockbuster if you will, meaning customers could arrange rentals online and get them delivered in the post.

It would be about 10 years before Netflix would be able to offer users an online streaming service that would allow customers the ability to watch film/TV on their personal computers. 

In this ten years though Netflix had a following of over 4.2 million users which has only grown since. 

From the years 2008 to 2010 Netflix expanded there target audience from computer users to anyone that had an Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo wii, iPod, iPad, iPhone, any internet connected TV as well as any other internet enabled device. The service was also made available in 2010 in Canada. 

It wouldn't be until 2012 that Netflix would become available in the UK (which is a slightly more realistic date for me to have initially signed up for the service haha) Netflix was now available in America, Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe including the United Kingdom, Ireland and in the Nordic Countries. In 2012 Netflix was also awarded its first Prime Time Emmy Engineering award. 

From 2012 until now Netflix has expanded even further becoming available in the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland. They revieved 31 primetime Emmy nominations including outstanding drama series, comedy series and documentary or nonfiction special for “House of Cards”, “Orange is the new black”, and “The Square” respectively (all tv series produced by Netflix). House of Cards went on to win three Primetime Emmy Awards. Netflix was actually in fact the first internet TV network nominated for the primetime Emmy. In 2014 Netflix won 7 creative Emmy Awards for House of Cards and Orange is the new black. 

Netflix now has over 50 million users world wide, a massive leap from the initial 600 thousand American users they had in 2002. Netflix is a prime example of a company that has grown, expanded and worked with technology available to stay active to provide its users with what they want. 

Companies like Blockbuster a company that offered a very similar service as Netflix to begin with have fallen at the wayside as time has progressed but Netflix has been willing to develop and grow which has helped it thrive and prosper as a company. 

Prison Break

Here goes! essentially writing my first review for my first ever blog, exciting times, who knows maybe I will be head hunted by Netflix and paid a fortune to continue my blog writing ways haha one can only dream.

Anyways I should probably go ahead and start the review. However when I say review I don't plan on going to in depth. My opinion is my own and I don't want to sway anyones decision on a programme they may not have even watched yet whether it be good or bad. 

I plan on pointing people in the direction of programmes I have watched and liked as well as give a bit of background info to help decide if they want to watch or not.

The first show I will discuss is.....drum roll please.....

Prison Break

"Due to a political conspiracy an innocent man is sent to death row and his only hope is his brother who makes it his mission to deliberately get himself sent to the same prison in order to break the both of them out from the inside out." - IMDb

Prison Break is not a new TV show. Initially aired in 2005 it has actually been out for quite a while, 10 years to be precise. The programme follows the lead character Michael Scofield:

"Michael J. Scofield, played by Wentworth Miller, is a fictional character and one of the two protagonists of the American television series Prison Break. The character first appeared in the series pilot, in which he deliberately sends himself to prison so as to break his elder brother, Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell), out before his execution for a crime he didn't commit. The storyline of the first season revolves around the two brothers and Michael's plan to help Lincoln escape his death sentence. Later seasons detail their life on the run and their quest for the truth behind Lincoln's imprisonment." - Wikipedia

The series itself averaged a rating of 8.6 out of 10 from the 253,001 votes it received, each season also received around 9 million viewers when it was initially aired and has since then grown. I myself would agree with giving the show such a high rating. Although slow at times watching Michaels plans unfold was still an exciting, thrilling watch and I would highly recommend it! A common misconception though is that some people expect the prison break itself to last the full 81 episodes (4 seasons), something that in fact stopped me from watching the show every time I flicked past it in the Netflix directory hunting for something to watch. This however is not the case, the show is full of different plots and characters and has a little bit of something for everyone. It is not everyone's cup of tea however but if you have a spare afternoon or fancy watching something as you go to sleep, give it a go and see what you think.

The show can be found on Netflix, but if you prefer to own the DVD the full box-set can be bought via Amazon for around £23.06 -  You can get the Box-Set Here - However if you think you can get through all 81 episodes in a month or two then I would highly advise you just to use Netflix for the price of £6.99 a month - You can sign up here - or if you have never used Netflix before you can sign up for a free months trial!

The next programme I will plan on discussing is "Breaking Bad" a show about a "Mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher Walter White thinks his life can't get much worse. His salary barely makes ends meet, a situation not likely to improve once his pregnant wife gives birth, and their teenage son is battling cerebral palsy. But Walter is dumbstruck when he learns he has terminal cancer. Realizing that his illness probably will ruin his family financially, Walter makes a desperate bid to earn as much money as he can in the time he has left by turning an old RV into a meth lab on wheels." The show was initially aired in 2008 and is one of the best TV shows available to watch today, so stay tuned to see what I have to say about it...

Any feedback on my blog would be great and would ideally add some form of extra credit or something along those lines to my university project. So feel free to leave a comment, positive or not any feedback will be taken on board :) thanks, Scott.