question: Why is it that Netflix wants us to spend as much time as possible on their platform?
comment: If you stop watching, something else will grab your attention, and eventually it'll take Netflix's place.
passages: On November 30, 2016, Netflix launched an offline playback feature, allowing users of the Netflix mobile apps on Android or iOS to cache content on their devices in standard or high quality for viewing without an Internet connection. The feature is primarily available on selected series and films, and Netflix stated that more content would be supported by the feature over time. Netflix will partner with airlines to provide them with its mobile streaming technology. This will start in early 2018 as part of an effort to get airlines to provide better in-flight Wi-Fi.
   Hunt says Netflix may link profiles to specific devices, in time, so a subscriber can skip the step of launching a specific profile each time s/he logs into Netflix on a given device.
  
  Critics of the feature have noted:
  
  BULLET::::- New profiles are created as "blank slates", but viewing history prior to profile creations stays profile-wide.
  
  BULLET::::- People don't always watch Netflix alone, and media watched with viewing partner(s) – whose tastes might not reflect the owner(s) – affect recommendations made to that profile.
   Leaked e-mails from the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack revealed statements by Keith LeGoy, Sony Pictures Television's president of international distribution, describing the international usage of Netflix over VPN services as being "semi-sanctioned" piracy that helped to illicitly increase its market share, and criticizing the company for not taking further steps to prevent usage of the service outside of regions where they have licenses to their content, such as detecting ineligible users via their payment method. On 14 January 2016, Netflix announced its intent to strengthen measures to prevent subscribers from accessing regional versions of the service that they are not authorized to use.
   Netflix's video on demand streaming service, formerly branded as "Watch Now", allows subscribers to stream television series and films via the Netflix website on personal computers, or the Netflix software on a variety of supported platforms, including smartphones and tablets, digital media players, video game consoles and smart TVs. According to a Nielsen survey in July 2011, 42% of Netflix users used a standalone computer, 25% used the Wii, 14% by connecting computers to a television, 13% with a PlayStation 3 and 12% an Xbox 360.
   In June, 2012, a storm in the Eastern US caused power outages in a major Amazon data center. This caused a three-hour downtime in Netflix services, and resulted in some improvements to the Netflix recovery software.
  
  Another outage was experienced on December 24, 2012.
   In 2011, Netflix introduced a Netflix button for certain remote controls, allowing users to instantly access Netflix on compatible devices.
   Also in January 2016, Netflix announced it would begin blocking virtual private networks, or VPNs. At the same time, Netflix reported 74.8 million subscribers and predicted it would add 6.1 million more by March 2016. Subscription growth has been fueled by its global expansion. By the end of the year, Netflix added a feature to allow customers to download and play select movies and shows while offline.
   On November 15, 2013, the Netflix app became available for download on the PlayStation 4 via the PlayStation Store upon the console's U.S. release.
  
  Shortly after Microsoft's November 22, 2013 release of the Xbox One in the United States, Netflix became available for download as an app for the console. In 2014, Microsoft changed the terms for Xbox Live, no longer requiring a Gold subscription to access Netflix and any other online streaming service on Xbox consoles; however, a Netflix subscription is still required to access content.
  
  Section::::Set-top boxes.
   Section::::Finance and revenue.:2016.
  
  In April 2016, Netflix announced it would be ending a loyalty rate in certain countries for subscribers who were continuously subscribed before price rises. Netflix spent about $5 billion on original content in 2016; this compares to a 2015 revenue of US$6.77 billion (2015).
  
  Section::::Criticism.
  
  Section::::Criticism.:Film distribution model.
   Netflix service plans are currently divided into three price tiers; the lowest offers standard definition streaming on a single device, the second allows high definition streaming on two devices simultaneously, and the "Platinum" tier allows simultaneous streaming on up to four devices, and 4K streaming on supported devices and Internet connections. The HD subscription plan historically cost US$7.99; in April 2014, Netflix announced that it would raise the price of this plan to $9.99 for new subscribers, but that existing customers would be grandfathered under this older price until May 2016, after which they could downgrade to the SD-only tier at the same price, or pay the higher fee for continued high definition access.
   As of July 2019, Netflix officially supports 23 languages for user interface and customer support purposes: Arabic (Modern Standard), Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian and European), Romanian, Spanish (Castilian and Latin American), Swahili, Swedish, Thai and Turkish.
   The Netflix model has also affected viewers' expectations. According to a 2013 Nielsen survey, more than 60-percent of Americans said that they binge-watch shows, and nearly 8 out of 10 Americans have used technology to watch their favorite shows on their own schedule. Netflix has continued to release its original content by making the whole season available at once, acknowledging changing viewer habits. This allows audiences to watch episodes at a time of their choosing rather than having to watch just one episode a week at a specific scheduled time; this effectively gives its subscribers freedom and control over when to watch the next episode at their own pace.
   In a leaked e-mail revealed by the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack in 2014, Sony Pictures Television's president of international distribution, Keith LeGoy, described VPN usage of Netflix as being "semi-sanctioned" piracy, and he criticized the company for not taking further steps to detect these users and restrict their access to content Netflix had not licensed for their region.
  
  In response, on January 14, 2016, Netflix announced its intent to strengthen measures to restrict access to unlicensed material, by viewers using VPNs or proxies.
  
  Section::::Content issues.
  
  Section::::Content issues.:"13 Reasons Why".
   With the growing effect of streaming sites and online television, there is an upward trend towards OTT (over-the-top) streaming sites, which causes a disruptive effect on cable television. In 2013, 63% of the households in the United States have been using a video streaming and delivery service, and 22% of those households watch Netflix every week of the year. In English Canada, Netflix is owned by 25% of households, and that increases to 33% for households with teens. Having the ability to watch commercial-free episodes at any given time and however and wherever the consumer desires, Netflix is shifting the way viewers consume television to a more digitalized, online manner.
   Netflix reinvigorated the "Profiles" feature on August 1, 2013 that permits accounts to accommodate up to five user profiles, associated either with individuals or thematic occasions. "Profiles" effectively divides the interest of each user, so that each will receive individualized suggestions and adding favorites individually. "This is important", according to Todd Yellin, Netflix's Vice President of Product Innovation, because, "About 75 percent to 80 percent of what people watch on Netflix comes from what Netflix recommends, not from what people search for". Moreover, Mike McGuire, a VP at Gartner, said: "profiles will give Netflix even more detailed information about its subscribers and their viewing habits, allowing the company to make better decisions about what movies and TV shows to offer". Additionally, profiles lets users link their individual Facebook accounts, and thus share individual watch queues and recommendations, since its addition in March after lobbying Congress to change an outdated act. Neil Hunt, Netflix's former Chief Product Officer, told CNNMoney: "profiles are another way to stand out in the crowded streaming-video space", and, "The company said focus-group testing showed that profiles generate more viewing and more engagement".
   In addition, a growing number of multichannel television providers, including cable television and IPTV services, have also added Netflix apps accessible within their own set-top boxes, sometimes with the ability for its content (along with those of other online video services) to be presented within a unified search interface alongside linear television programming as an "all-in-one" solution.
   However, in June 2012, Netflix began to cut back the availability of its public API.
  
  The company instead focused on a small number of known partners using private interfaces, since most of the traffic came from those private interfaces.
  
  In June 2014, Netflix announced that they would be retiring the public API. This became effective November 14, 2014.
  
  Netflix then partnered with the developers of eight services deemed to have been the most valuable, including Instant Watcher, Fanhattan, Yidio, and Nextguide.
  
  Section::::Information technology.
   In January 2018, Netflix named Spencer Neumann as the new CFO.
  
  Section::::Services.:Disc rental.
   The science fiction drama "Sense8" debuted in June 2015, which was written and produced by The Wachowskis and J. Michael Straczynski "Bloodline" and "Narcos" were two other drama series that Netflix released in 2015. On November 6, 2015, "Master of None" premiered, starring Aziz Ansari. Other comedy shows premiering in 2015 included "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt", "Grace and Frankie", "", and "W/ Bob & David".
   In 2018 Netflix introduced the "Skip Intro" feature which allows customers to skip the intros to shows on its platform, also known as "cold openings". They do so through a variety of techniques including manual reviewing, audio tagging, and machine learning.
  
  Section::::Services.:History.
  
  On October 1, 2008, Netflix announced a partnership with Starz to bring 2,500+ new films and shows to "Watch Instantly", under Starz Play.
   The rise of Netflix has affected the way that audiences watch televised content. Netflix's CPO Neil Hunt points out that the Internet allows users the freedom to watch shows at their own pace, so an episode does not need cliffhangers to tease the audience to keep tuning in week after week because they can just continue into the next episode. Netflix has allowed content creators to deviate from traditional formats that force 30 minute or 60 minute time slots once a week, which it claims gives them an advantage over networks. Their model provides a platform which allows varying run times per episode based on a storyline, eliminates the need for a week to week recap, and does not have a fixed notion of what constitutes a "season". This flexibility also allows Netflix to nurture a show until it finds its audience, unlike traditional networks which will quickly cancel a show if it is unable to maintain steady ratings.
   Section::::Linux support.
   On May 7, 2017, it was announced that Netflix had renewed the series for a second season. 
  
  On June 6, 2018, Netflix renewed the series for a third season, which is set to be released on August 23, 2019.
  
  On August 1, 2019, it was announced that the series had been renewed for a fourth and final season.
  
  Section::::Production.:Casting.
   Netflix continued to dramatically expand their original content in 2016. The science fiction horror "Stranger Things" premiered in July 2016, music-driven drama "The Get Down" in August, historical drama "The Crown" in November, and the year's premieres included comedy shows such as "Love", "Flaked", "", "The Ranch", and "Lady Dynamite". Netflix released an estimated 126 original series or films in 2016, more than any other network or cable channel.
   A 2016 study at the University of London detected 233 individual locations over six continents, with the largest amount of traffic in the USA, followed by Mexico.
  
  Section::::Netflix OSS.
  