Netflix: How Does This Movie End?
Case Report
April 26th, 2017
ISM 318
Netflix is an online media content provider and distributer with an estimated 62 million
subscribers worldwide. They are also estimated to have about 42 million subscribers in the
United States alone, which makes them the largest online movie and TV show distributer in the
country. While Netflix is currently number one, online digital content hasn’t always been their
model.
If you can imagine Netflix as a movie with a beginning, a series of transitions and an end; then
this case report narrates its story and tries to predict an end to it.
Netflix started operations in 1997 as a mail-in DVD service that people could rent old movies
and TV shows, and have it mailed directly to their homes at a cheap price. This model was
competing with traditional rental models like Blockbuster, Hollywood videos, and local rental
stores. It gave viewers the ease of not having to go out to the local stores to do rentals, but
instead have the luxury of staying home and receiving it by mail. In 2000, Netflix raise the antsy
by creating a rental subscription service that charge viewers monthly for unlimited rental, with a
few limitations. This went on for a few more years until they got to the model which exist right
now. In 2007, Netflix began offering online on-demand video streaming subscriptions for both
