Netflix is now the U.K.’s most popular streaming service

By Lulu Chang March 28, 2016

Netflix Announcement — Netflix

“Netflix and chill” may have originated in the United States, but it’s really taken root in the United Kingdom, where the video streaming service is now the top dog. While other web-based platforms have tried to give Netflix a run for its money (looking at you, Hulu and Amazon Prime, and HBO Now), at least when it comes to the U.K., the red and white really does reign supreme. According to a new report from British TV ratings agency Barb, more than 5 million British homes used Netflix in 2015, whereas just 1.6 million subscribed to Amazon Prime Instant Video and fewer than 1 million took to Now TV, provided by Sky.

These impressive figures for Netflix translates to its presence in almost one out of every four U.K. households, and by 2019, business researchers at IHS suggest that Netflix will hit around 7.5 million subscribers. And with 1.5 million new watchers in 2015 alone, this upward trajectory shows no signs of slowing.

Already, Netflix has established itself as the entertainment system of choice in around 200 countries, and with the overwhelming popularity of original shows including House of Cards and Orange is the New Black, it’s no wonder new binge watchers are signing up in droves to get in on the action.

And expansion is certainly on the forefront of the streaming service’s mind. “Based on our forecasts,” says Richard Eary, the UBS head of European media equity research, “We expect Netflix will spend more on content globally than the top seven commercial broadcasters in Europe by 2018-19.” Given the streaming service intends to spend around $5 billion on content this year (almost double its $3 billion budget last year), UBS’ predictions seem reasonable.

The U.K. certainly appears to be an area of focus for the California-based company, as Netflix is allegedly spending 100 million pounds on The Crown, the very first original U.K. drama produced by the streaming service. Based on Peter Morgan’s The Audience, the royal biopic will star Wolf Hall’s Claire Foy and former Doctor Who actor, Matt Smith.

So binge away, U.K. watchers. You’ll have more than enough content to keep you occupied for years to come.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…

Entertainment

If you have to watch one Netflix show this May, stream this one

if you have to watch one netflix show this may 2024 stream archer featured

Fans of romance movies and shows on Netflix are probably locked into watching the first part of Bridgerton season 3, while drama lovers may gravitate toward A Man in Full, which is currently one of the most popular shows on Netflix. Animation is also well-represented this month with a new season of Blood of Zeus and the premiere of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory. But our choice for the one Netflix show this May that you have to stream is the animated spy comedy Archer.

Adam Reed created Archer for FX in 2009, and the series has had remarkable staying power. Through 14 seasons, Archer has amassed 145 episodes. This series has been streaming on Hulu for years, but now it has a chance to attract an even wider audience on Netflix, which is no stranger to adult-oriented animated shows like Big Mouth and BoJack Horseman.

Entertainment

If you have to watch one Netflix movie in May, stream this one right now

A man raises his hands in May December.

It's not uncommon to find a great classic movie on Netflix -- there are dozens to choose from. If, however, you want to be confident that the movie you pick is actually going to be great and not just mediocre, then you have a problem. Netflix has flooded its own service with so much stuff that it can be difficult to tell the good from the bad.

Here's the good news: We've pulled out the one movie you should definitely make time for on Netflix this month. May December tells the story of a couple who started out when the man was just 13 years old, and spirals out the implications of that twisted, uncomfortable tale. Here are three reasons you should definitely check it out on Netflix.
It features three all-time-great performances
Natalie Portman in May December | Netflix

Entertainment

One of HBO’s biggest hits is back. Here’s why you need to stream 2024’s most addictive crime saga

Three people stand at a wedding in The Jinx: Part Two.

On March 15, 2015, the most infamous hot mic moment ever to air on television shocked the world. Real estate scion Robert Durst, who had been implicated, but had thus far escaped justice in three murders committed from 1982 to 2003, inexplicably agreed to sit for a series of interviews with filmmaker Andrew Jarecki. The director had made a fictional feature film, All Good Things, that was loosely based on the disappearance of Durst’s first wife, Kathie, starring Barbie actor Ryan Gosling and Civil War's Kirsten Dunst.

Confronted, finally, with near-irrefutable evidence collected by Jarecki’s team that seemed to implicate Durst in the murder of his best friend Susan Berman in 2001, Durst lumbered off to the bathroom, where, forgetting his microphone was still on, he murmured, “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.” Such was the ending of The Jinx, a phenomenon for HBO when it aired more than nine years ago. But there was more story still to tell, and Jarecki’s follow-up, The Jinx: Part Two, now airing on HBO and streaming on Max, bucks the odds by sustaining the intensity and pure weirdness with which The Jinx concluded nearly a decade ago.
A new cast of larger-than-life characters