For the first time, the streaming giant Netflix is rolling out a linear content channel in France, according to Variety. The service, called Netflix Direct, is already launched on the 5th of November in some locations of France and the company will expand in other locations in the upcoming month.
This newly launched service is available for the existing Netflix subscribers in France. Netflix does not offer any new content but provides all the currently available content in a linear form similar to satellite and cable TV services.
The major reason for testing programmed linear content channels by Netflix is to help users in cutting off their decision-making time regarding what TV shows or movies to watch and just watch whatever is broadcasting.
And this linear format service works best especially for those users who can’t decide what to watch most of the time because of having a variety of options coming from different reddit communities, friends, and family members.
When you have so many options to watch, it makes the situation confusing to choose which TV show or movie to watch. But with a linear programming format, there will be no waste of time and all the subscribers will be able to watch the same content at the same time just like the old days.
“Maybe you’re not in the mood to decide, or you’re new and finding your way around, or you just want to be surprised by something new and different,” Netflix officials stated at the time of launching their new service.
Despite choosing a country where Netflix has the most subscribers, it chose France to test Netflix Direct service because traditional TV is still so famous there as French people “just want a ‘lean back’ experience where they don’t have to choose shows,” the company said.
As of now, Netflix has around 9 million subscribers in France. The company has also tested different features in the past for its subscribers to improve their streaming experience such as “Shuffle Button”.
Will Netflix Direct Able to Fulfil Subscribers Binge Hankering?
Well, this new linear channel service might be successful in those countries where traditional TV is still in demand and love by binge-watchers. However, this newly launched service gets more praise from subscribers if they add content from other country content libraries that are geo-restricted because of copyrights agreements and distribution policies.
Though Netflix is available in 190 countries, there is a still huge content gap from country to country. There is no denying that every country’s subscribers have a lot to binge on Netflix. But some of the greatest TV shows and movies such as The Walking Dead, Star Wars, Black Panther, The Office, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Criminal Minds, SuperNatural, and more are still missing in most of the countries.
And this situation triggers the demand for Netflix VPN and proxy tools to access all the exclusive content that is available only in a few regions of Netflix. There are thousands of searches on the internet regarding the best VPN for American Netflix in UK, France, Australia, Canada, and the list goes on.
This incurs an extra cost to subscribers as they pay for a VPN service to get access to additional content by unblocking other region content libraries. And this doesn’t make any sense as Netflix users around the world pay almost the same amount for a subscription.
Another problem with using VPN to access different regions of Netflix is that not all VPN services reliably work. This is because to follow the content distribution policies, Netflix uses an IP tracking system to ban Virtual Private Network servers.
This means if a user subscribes to a VPN that does not work with Netflix is a total waste of money. Additionally, there is no guarantee if one VPN provider is working with Netflix, it will be able to unblock your favorite TV show or movie the next day.
This shows that subscribers all around the world are not satisfied with the content that is available on their Netflix library.
If I see things as a subscriber, getting something like Netflix Direct is not so tempting for me because why should I love it if my favorite TV show or movie will never be broadcast there.
Netflix should look for a way that will allow users to access all the available content regardless of where they are residing.
