Many of us have missed Netflix while on a long flight or on poor connection days. Often, these days also found us railing against the injustice of bad Internet and wishing that all this content was available to use, offline. Well, American multinational entertainment company Netflix has come up with a solution to this problem — finally introducing offline playback.
The media streaming company has announced that users will be able to download Netflix content while they’re away from a data connection, starting from Wednesday. However, the movie download option is available for select content only.
The announcement was made through a Tweet on Wednesday, which said,
Airplane mode. Road trip mode. Stuck-in-the-subway-for-20-minutes mode. Your favorite stories are now available for download any time.
As of now, Netflix has added a “download” button for only selected films and TV shows, which include Orange is The New Black, Narcos and The Crown. However, the company has plans to increase the number of movies and shows that are available for download. The company is starting with its original content, given the relatively simpler licensing arrangements involved.
The feature is available on Android and iOS smartphones and tablets, provided they’re running iOS 8.0 or Android 4.4.2 or later respectively.
Interestingly, Netflix has a remarkable success story of its own. The company began in 1997, offering DVD subscriptions. The company made the most of the growing mobile technology and ever-increasing Internet speeds and became one of the largest video distribution networks across the world.
After a decade, in 2007, Netflix expanded its business and introduced media streaming. It then expanded internationally and made the new service available to Canada in 2010. There has been no looking back for the company ever since. It continued to expand its streaming service and by January 2016, Netflix was available in over 190 countries. The number of users has also expanded exponentially.
In October 2016, Netflix reported over 86 million subscribers worldwide, including more than 47 million in the United States.
