'House of Cards' was Netflix's first original prestige drama and one of the earliest examples of a 'bingeable' streaming show.

HBO’s success in the early 21st century bred plenty of imitators, who were now more willing to embrace darker, more challenging series like “Weeds,” “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad,” and “House of Cards.”

Netflix's pivot towards original, prestige content would not have been possible if HBO had not blazed that trail decades earlier. Ironically, HBO later used Netflix as a business model when reinventing itself as a streaming app.

The network took an early gamble on longer episodes and more complicated narratives than a standard television drama. That paid off and, in the process, created what we now consider "prestige TV."

The premium network is known for groundbreaking shows like “The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City,” “The Wire,” “Game of Thrones,” Succession,” and more. Unlike traditional broadcast television, HBO shows were not bound by strict time limits, advertising, or FCC regulations, allowing for more creative freedom.

In April 2017, Netflix reached 100 million subscribers worldwide—a figure that hit 300 million by 2025. With 50 million in the US alone, it has revolutionized the way people consume entertainment. Newsweek takes a look into the company's history and how it became the dominant force in entertainment.

From offering an internet-based, mail-order Blockbuster alternative to its eventual status as a market leader in streaming entertainment, Netflix has led nearly every major paradigm shift in the television and movie business since its inception.

“Prestige television,” sometimes referred to as “the golden age of TV,” is a critical term for serious, darker, auteur-driven television from the late 1990s through the 2020s. HBO shows are often cited as examples of this style, with “The Sopranos” evolving the style and developing a model for the form.

HBO CEO Casey Bloys steered the network’s programming to critical acclaim and cultural relevance with hits like “Succession” and “The White Lotus.” Bloys discusses how the network’s programming evolved as it shifted toward streaming—and how the success of shows like “House of the Dragon” informs HBO’s future.

Ever since the rise of “prestige television” in the early 2000s, critics and viewers alike have argued that TV has replaced the novel by becoming the most significant storytelling medium, citing the cultural importance of shows like “The Sopranos,” “The Wire,” and “Succession.” This essay notes that streaming has strengthened that argument, turning episodes into chapters, and explains why this has been bad for storytelling in both forms.

Netflix has regularly experimented with how it releases episodes, but its miniseries "Kaleidoscope" experimented with linear storytelling by crafting a show that supposedly allowed viewers to enjoy the show in any order they pleased.

As more subscribers put Netflix on in the background, the company has encouraged more expositional dialogue in its original scripts. Filmmaker Justine Bateman claims the streamer doesn't "want anything on your show to distract [viewers] from their primary screen."

At its inception, Netflix disrupted the entertainment industry, in particular the movie rental business, by mass mailing DVDs to customers who made selections online. That brand is evident in this 2004 commercial.

The streaming behemoth saw the potential in subscriptions early, and in this 2002 profile CEO Reed Hastings was already talking about plans to offer "downloadable" movies. The profile serves as a historical artifact confirming the startup's risky bets and showcases the contingent factors that led to its success.

HBO launched in 1972, with an initial focus on commercial-free movies and sports events. The network’s first-ever broadcast was an NHL game between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks, signaling its commitment to premium, live content.

The first Netflix customers selected DVDs from the company’s website and received and returned them through regular mail. The approach included no late fees and quickly added the ability to rent an unlimited number of DVDs for a flat monthly fee, with the company passing 1 million subscribers in 2003.

Amazon's Prime Video is a subscription streaming service that includes a variety of original shows and movies for free with a paid Prime membership. This Rotten Tomatoes ranking details 100 of the best Prime Video shows available to watch, including the dramas “Fleabag” and “The Boys.”

The most consequential business stories involve intense rivalries. The story of Netflix versus Blockbuster is one of those: an agile upstart versus an entrenched incumbent. This nine-part podcast explores the key strategies and pivotal moments in the rivalry that upended the entertainment business, setting the stage for the streaming wars.

The 2025 film, which combines K-pop music and Korean mythology, became a big hit on the streaming platform. It was equally successful in its limited theatrical release, shooting to the top of the box office rankings.

Throughout much of its history, Formula 1 racing was a European sport that failed to ever find a major audience in the US. That changed with "Drive to Survive," the Netflix docuseries that premiered in 2019. This analysis from two communications professors unpacks how the series has successfully presented the sport for an American audience and cultivated a dedicated fanbase in the process.

HBO’s The Sopranos followed New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano as he struggled to balance his violent criminal life with his personal and family issues. Its blend of crime drama, pitch-perfect comedy, and intergenerational family dynamics made for a complex show not easily reduced to typical genre tags.

As a means of keeping existing subscribers engaged, and to add new users on the margins, the streaming service began releasing its own original video games. Many are based on existing Netflix titles and franchises. See their current offerings here.

Streaming has changed more than how we watch movies—it's changed the way we recognize them during awards season. When movie theaters shut down during the early days of the pandemic, studios had no choice but to release their films on streaming. Once the shift occurred, there was no going back.

"Black Mirror" began as a modest anthology show on Britain's Channel 4, offering bleak satire about contemporary technology. It quickly became a hit and attracted stars like Daniel Kaluuya, Jon Hamm, Rashida Jones, and Jesse Armstrong (who'd go on to show run HBO's "Succession"). This oral history of the show details its evolution to an international Netflix hit, providing insights into creator Charlie Brooker's approach to storytelling.

Accordingly, each year, Netflix releases an expansive slate of international shows and movies to subscribers worldwide, including hits that crossed over to the US, like "Squid Game."

When the dark prison story debuted in 1997, it was HBO’s only drama and followed a principle that would come to define the network’s shows for decades: “‘I don’t care if they’re likable as long as they’re interesting,’” show creator Tom Fontana told Vice. “That was my mantra.”

Before the streaming era, television shows lived and died by their weekly ratings. That led to early cancellations for several well-regarded shows, like "Freaks and Geeks," "Party Down," and "Veronica Mars." Thanks to DVD boxsets and streaming, the shows often became cult classics long after they were taken off the air.

In 2006, Netflix launched an open competition for data science teams to develop approaches to outperform its recommendation algorithm. Three years later, the prize was awarded after a group of competitors merged, developing a solution that beat Netflix's internal algorithm by more than 10%. Today, recommendations are based on what users watch, particularly via bingeing.

With almost 270 million paying users, Netflix is the dominant force in streaming entertainment. But after enjoying a first-mover advantage for years, competitors are beginning to catch up. Most notable is Amazon, which leverages its Prime subscriptions to bundle Prime Video, and has amassed an estimated 200 million users. See an updated tracker of the world's biggest platforms by audience.

As of 2025, Netflix had amassed more than 300 million subscribers globally and saw quarterly revenue over $11B.

After debuting in 1998, the comedy ran for six seasons on HBO, offering a frank take on the lives of well-to-do single women. Critics argue the show established a model for other shows to follow, including those that aired on HBO, like "Girls" and "Insecure."

Anne Aaron, Netflix’s senior encoding tech director, spent a decade improving how Netflix streams its content. Then came the challenges of live events. Netflix has experimented with live content like stand-up comedy and sporting events. In this interview with The Verge, Aaron walks through the associated technical and coding challenges.

HBO has released a long list of classic TV shows which have come to define the medium. This Rotten Tomatoes chart ranks HBO’s best series based on their aggregated critics’ scores, with classics like “The Sopranos” and “The Wire” joining newer hits like “Succession” and “Barry.” Check it out here.

In addition to establishing the blueprint for TV in the 21st century, HBO has also been responsible for excellent comedies ("Veep"), talk shows ("Last Week Tonight with John Oliver"), and historical dramas ("Chernobyl").

Hitting "play" on Netflix is easy, but it triggers a multistep process that fetches the selected content, converts it for your screen, and finds the closest server to deliver it in the highest quality.

Stand-up comedy was already on television in the 1970s thanks to Johnny Carson, but comics were limited to clean sets that typically lasted five minutes. HBO, on the other hand, offered stand-ups the opportunity to air their unadulterated material like they would at a club.

It's rare for a production studio to have a fanbase, but A24 Films has achieved that in its decade of existence. This five-minute video explains why the studio's focus on authentic, "cool" films has helped make it standout.

Carrie Bradshaw, Selina Meyer, Tony Soprano: The list of standout HBO characters is endless. The network is known for fantastic writing and even better acting from the likes of Michael K. Williams, Kieran Culkin, Edie Falco, and hundreds of other A-listers.

Few people have done more to define HBO—and American television—than David Simon, creator and writer for “The Wire,” “Treme,” “Show Me a Hero,” and other shows. In this interview, Simon explains how he approaches a script and what he believes TV writers should aim to do beyond entertainment.