Here are 30 interesting Netflix facts.
1-5 Netflix Facts
1. Netflix uses disguised warehouses and unmarked trucks for security purposes. – Source
2. Just 67% of Netflix users still pay for cable TV, compared to 80% in 2014, and 88% in 2010. – Source
3. In some European markets, Netflix monitors illegal downloads to decide which shows to purchase. – Source
4. Netflix has over 76,000 categories, including “Cool Moustaches,” “Dark Canadian Thrillers” and “Understated Detective TV Shows.” – Source
5. After Netflix’s S3 House of Cards was released the bandwidth required to run Netflix went from 30% to 45% of the total Internet bandwidth in the U.S. – Source
6-10 Netflix Facts
6. Reed Hastings started Netflix after forcibly paying $40 in fines for returning Apollo 13 late. – Source
7. Netflix uses the ‘Chaos Monkey’ which intentionally breaks things on their live site so they are forced to build multiple redundancies in their systems. – Source
8. The star ratings on Netflix movies and shows are not the actual rating of the film but instead are how much Netflix thinks you’ll enjoy them based on your previous viewing history. – Source
9. The first Netflix original series was a Norwegian-American show called Lillyhammer. It premiered in Norway with a record audience of 998,000 viewers (1/5 of Norway’s total population). – Source
10. Blockbuster had the chance to buy Netflix for $50 million in 2000 but turned it down to go into business with Enron. – Source
11-15 Netflix Facts
11. The movie, “Napoleon Dynamite” was cited by Netflix as being the hardest film to recommend based on your previous likes and dislikes. – Source
12. Netflix employees get unlimited vacation days. – Source
13. Two privacy researchers from the University of Texas were able to unmask Netflix users’ political and sexual orientation by taking the “anonymized” movie ratings (released as part of Netflix Prize) and comparing them against non-anonymized movie ratings posted at IMDB. – Source
14. Netflix and HBO have nearly identical revenue ($5.5bil and $5.4bil), but for HBO $1.8bil of that is profit and for Netflix, only $266mil is profit (2015). – Source
15. From 9 PM to 12 AM, Netflix accounts for 33% of all bandwidth in North America. – Source
16-20 Netflix Facts
16. The reason all videos are subtitled on Netflix is because the National Association for the Deaf filed a class-action lawsuit against them in 2010. – Source
17. Netflix spends 20 times more on postage than bandwidth. – Source
18. Netflix employs a team of “taggers” who are paid to watch Netflix and tag the content. – Source
19. Netflix, iTunes, Hulu, and Amazon have all refused to stream the 200th and 201st episode of South Park due to the appearance of Muhammad in them. They are currently unavailable to watch anywhere legally as South Park was also forced to partially censor the episodes on the DVD releases. – Source
20. In 2006, CNN included Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on their “10 People Who Don’t Matter” list. – Source
