With nearly 150 million subscribers around the world, Netflix has a commanding lead in the streaming wars. But it’s also facing heavy competition from deep-pocketed conglomerates like Disney, Apple, and AT&T, and an ongoing wave of narrow, targeted streaming sites like CBS All Access and DC Universe, which can draw on popular existing franchises for original content. As fewer companies are willing to license out their films and shows to other streaming sites, Netflix is pouring billions of dollars annually into its own original content. Follow along with The Verge as we look at Netflix’s new films and shows, its evolving strategies against new entrants in the market, and how it’s leveraging its technological and marketing lead.
Tonight’s a big occasion for WWE and Netflix. Monday Night Raw will make its premiere on the streaming service. The first episode has a stacked card, and many WWE legends will be making an appearance.
Ahead of the stream, WWE has posted the cold open that’ll air before everything kicks off from the Intuit Dome at 8PM ET.
While you’ll have to look to Disney Plus for the latest adaptation of R.L. Stine’s books, the horror author says that another new trilogy of films based on his Fear Street novels is in the works.
If you search for “Squid Game” on the web or mobile, an invitation card will appear at the bottom of the screen. Click on it, and you’ll see a group of characters you have to carefully guide toward Squid Game’s giant doll when it’s not looking.
The streamer says the new season broke all kinds of records, including garnering 68 million views in its first week, which made it the number-one show in 92 countries.
Here’s a nice, long read from n+1 on Netflix’s victims, from Blockbuster to residuals for TV and film creators (which it now must pay) to the Hollywood film, buried in what author Will Tavlin calls the Typical Netflix Movie:
From the outside, the TNM looks ... designed to cater to each of Netflix’s two thousand “taste clusters,” the genre-like groupings Netflix uses to ... recommend films and shows to subscribers. The TNM covers every niche interest and identity category in existence, such as a movie about a tall girl, Tall Girl, but also Horse Girl, Skater Girl, Sweet Girl, Lost Girls, and Nice Girls.
According to Netflix and Nielsen, peak viewers for the streamer’s Christmas Day NFL games reached over 27 million during Beyoncé’s halftime show. Now, it’s available to stream directly without the football game.
Here’s what to watch over the holidays in case all those live sports broadcasts don’t work out.
After years of brand tie-ins and ill-conceived spinoffs, the series is back — and it’s just as tense as ever.
The Chiefs just beat the Steelers, and we’re not hearing about any Paul vs Tyson-level issues other than scattered reports of weird buffering blips and TV going-to-sleep bugs.
But the real test for Netflix’s live broadcast ambitions will come when Beyoncé performs during halftime of the Ravens-Texans game (Update: if you missed it, the stream is staying up for three hours after the broadcast ends, and Netflix says it will be available as a standalone soon.)
One way or another, Netflix’s help page is setting expectations early with a warning message.
There will be a lot of eyes on Netflix today for the 1PM ET Chiefs/Steelers game, and the company is using that big holiday spotlight to remind viewers of some original content coming next year.
This first look at Happy Gilmore 2 includes familiar faces (like Shooter McGavin) and a very timely cameo. The movie’s release is expected later in 2025.
Netflix filed the lawsuit in Califonia federal court Monday, claiming Broadcom subsidiary VMware has cloud software that infringes on five Netflix patents. As reported by Reuters, Netflix says VMware’s vSphere platform for deploying and managing virtual machines infringes on Netflix patents related to virtual-machine communications.
De Niro plays a former President called in to investigate a cyberattack that resulted in plane crashes, train derailments, and thousands of deaths in the limited series, premiering February 20th on Netflix.
Zero Day was created by Eric Newman (Narcos) and Noah Oppenheim (The Maze Runner) and also stars Angela Bassett, Matthew Modine, Connie Britton, and Clark Gregg.
Netflix is good at streaming. It quickly learned that streaming live is a whole different ballgame.
That’s Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk talking to Variety in a story that explores how the show became a worldwide phenomenon and a massive business for Netflix. Most notable, though, is how much the creator seems done with it all:
I’m so sick of my life making something, promoting something. So I’m not thinking about my next project right now. I’m just thinking about going to some remote island and having my own free time without any phone calls from Netflix.
Netflix has released another trailer for The Electric State, a live-action film that looks like a slightly goofier take on artist Simon Stålenhag’s retrofuturistic book. This time the clip dives deep into the robot war that created its post-apocalyptic future. Directed by the Russo brothers, the movie starts streaming on March 14th.
The bookmarking feature initially launched just on iOS, but now it’s available on Android, Netflix spokesperson Dorian Rosenburg tells The Verge.
I used the feature to bookmark the best scene in Lost.
The parade continues. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew met with the President-elect earlier today, Sarandos is set to meet with him tomorrow, and Jeff Bezos’ meeting is apparently on Wednesday.
After over 30 years on cable TV, WWE’s Raw is moving to Netflix starting January 6th. The first streaming episode will broadcast live from LA’s Intuit Dome.
This week, WWE is holding a “Netflix kickoff event” at its headquarters as the company loads up the event card for the biggest debut possible — hopefully with minimal technical issues.
In a first for Netflix, the streamer has announced that the upcoming mobile game Squid Game Unleashed will be available for anyone to play, not just subscribers. However, it will only be that way for “a limited time” after the game launches on December 17th.
The Sega legend previously made the arcade shooter Air Twister on Apple Arcade, and his next release — called Steel Paws — will be a Netflix exclusive when it launches in 2025. According to Netflix, players will “embark on an adventure alongside Buddy Robots to conquer a mysterious tower that reappears every century.” Here’s the first teaser.
She’ll be doing a taped performance of “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” Netflix says.
Beyoncé’s halftime show later in the day will be live.
Reality TV contestants have typically been classified as independent contractors or even volunteers rather than employees whose labor is essential to their shows’ production.
That distinction keeps reality stars from unionizing, but that might change now that the National Labor Relations Board has launched a complaint against Love Is Blind accusing the Netflix show of “several labor violations, including unlawful contractual terms related to confidentiality and noncompete provisions.”
[The New York Times]
New Year’s Day is a time to reflect and think about what you want to accomplish in the year ahead. If that just so happens to be, uh, not aging, you might want to check out Netflix’s doc on Bryan Johnson, which starts streaming on January 1st. It’s called Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever — and might make a good double feature with Nosferatu.
Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos spoke during the UBS conference about technical issues that impacted the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight, and said the company is interested in doing more “big scale live events” like the upcoming Christmas Day Games.
“We were stressing the limits of the internet itself that night. So we had a control room up in Silicon Valley that was re-engineering the entire internet to keep it during this fight because of the unprecedented demand that was happening.”
If you’re a Netflix subscriber, you can now check out Monument Valley 3, which takes the beloved puzzle franchise in some interesting new directions. It’s available on both iOS and Android.
After seeing this animated short to promote Monument Valley 3, I’d watch 10 others like it.
Ustwo returns with a sequel that looks to evolve the puzzle franchise, all while continuing to offer a sanctuary in your pocket.
Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld’s first season feels like a classic monster slaying story remixed for a new generation.
We don’t know exactly what it will look like, but Call of Duty will feature some kind of Squid Game collaboration in January that covers both Warzone and Black Ops 6. That’s right after season 2 of the show hits Netflix on December 26th.
Arcane’s final season featured one of the better examples of how universe-hopping really can bring some depth to a character’s story. And in a new interview with Polygon, writer / co-executive producer producer Amanda Overton explains how “making it feel like the fabric of that episode is absolutely interconnected to the rest of the season” was essential to making this multiverse work.
I’m still not really sure why Player 456 is heading back for season 2 of Squid Game, but the new trailer at least gives a good sense of what he’s in for. The show premieres in one month, hitting Netflix on December 26th.
Monday Night Raw starts streaming live on Netflix on January 6th, 2025, and the streamer just released its first trailer for the show:
The Netflix animated series was a clever reinvention of Scott Pilgrim, but according to creator Bryan Lee O’Malley, the story in season 1 of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is all we’re getting.
Though the excellent Pokétoon web series has just wrapped for the season, Netflix is getting ready to drop the next chapter of its (very different, but still very good) mainline Pokémon anime that will follow as Liko (Alejandra Reynoso), Roy (Anjali Kunapaneni), and Dot (Faye Mata) set out to find the legendary land of Laqua. The new episodes are scheduled to debut on February 7th.
