Since the day it started streaming shows, Netflix has enjoyed exponential growth in their user base. Even though it was founded in 1998, Netflix grew to have millions of subscriber after it started streaming services in Canada in 2010 and went international. Since then Netflix has expanded its user base and now is world’s leading television network.
Netflix was crowned world’s leading television network because of their users base with over 86 million users in over 190 countries. Netflix introduced its services in India and 130 markets around the world on January 6th 2016, they have added over 9 million accounts since then.
Netflix offered various services and features to customers that cable TVs could never provide them. Mainly – binge watching! Honestly, it is way more fun to binge watch a whole series and its multiple seasons in a week than to wait a whole week for every new episode.
With already an impressive and huge catalogue of shows and movies, Netflix has made some pretty sweet deal for its users in India. They have recently secured a long-term contract with Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies and are going to be home to upcoming and past films of the production house.
Netflix’s arrival in India has been very beneficial for independent and upcoming filmmakers. Multiple independently produced filmmakers and their content have found a global platform, something which seemed impossible just two years ago. It is impressive considering Netflix has millions of users around the world. Brahman Naman, Raman Raghav 2.0, Ludo, Filmistaan, LSD and Shor in the City are few popular titles that were released on Netflix in this year alone.
They also started offering local content in several languages, for example Hindi–Piku, Dhanak, Placebo, Gujarati– The Good Road, Marathi- Sairaat, Court, Tamil– Interrogation, Punjabi– Anhey Ghorhey da Daan and even Assamese–Kothanodi.
Netflix has also released statistics about Indian users and they are very interesting.
Some of the most popular shows for the year in India were Narcos, House of Cards (my two personal favorites), Marvel’s Daredevil, Brahman Naman, Marvel’s Luke Cage, The Crown , Stranger Things and Master of None.
Narcos – based on the life of Pablo Escobar and Kevin Spacey starrer House of Card were the most popular shows in India
India Beats World in Binge Watching TV Serials
Interestingly, India beats the rest of the world in binge watching a TV series. Indians took 3 days to devour an entire TV series on average, while the global average is 4 days! The binge watched series were Narcos, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Marvel’s Jessica Jones and Bloodline. Sci-Fi ended up being the most popular genre in India with shows like Sense 8 and Ascension.
Ascension and Sense8 were the most popular shows in Sci-Fi genre
According to Netflix, on an average it took 4 episodes for an Indian to get hooked to a show. Indians were hooked to Narcos and Suits in episode two only. In some instances, Indians were hooked to a series faster than the rest of the world, for example Narcos (episode 2 vs. episode 3) and Marvel’s Daredevil (episode 4 vs. episode 5). While they were also hooked later compared to the rest of the world to series like Orange is the New Black (episode 6 vs. episode 3), Outlander (episode 9 vs. episode 5) and Pretty Little Liars (episode 6 vs. episode 4).
The statistics of watching a movie after TV binge is something almost all Netflix users do according to Netflix. Indians paired shows with movies too, like Fuller House followed by Piku, Orange is the New Black with The Big Short, Gilmore Girls with Silver Linings Playbook, Stranger Things with I Am Legend and Bloodline with BA Pass.
Netflix has spent massive $800 million on technology and development in 2016. The key features rolled out in 2016 were personalization and global algorithm for better user experience, an option to download shows, video previews (90 second ads for shows), and 4K / HDR support. Netflix is also working with marvel to bring all their titles in HDR.
Netflix has assured a binge worthy roster for 2017 too with shows like :
- Marvel’s Iron Fist
- A Series of Unfortunate Events
- Sense8 S02
- Master of None S02
- Stranger Things S02
- War Machine
- The Discovery
- First They Killed My Father
- Dear Zindagi
- The Defenders
With titles like that, 2017 sure looks like a good year for all the binge watchers out there.
