In just a decade, Netflix has grown from a video service with seven million U.S. subscribers to one that reaches 93 million people worldwide. In her book, Portals: A Treatise on Internet-Distributed Television, U-M communications professor explores how Netflix and other internet-distributed video services forced the existing television industry to radically change its practices. During the early 2000s, advances in compression technology – coupled with more homes gaining access to high-speed internet services – allowed large video files to be easily streamed over the internet. These developments set the technological stage for Netflix to evolve its business from DVDs by mail to a national video streaming service, which it launched in 2007. Soon, television series became an integral part of its business model. By the summer of 2016, television accounted for 70 percent of the service’s streaming.
The areas in red show where Netflix has subscribers. (NordNordWest/Wikimedia Commons)
