(Source: Avijeet Sachdev/flickr)
Netflix has rolled out its second year of “Netflix Recommended” televisions. The move is set to hold the TV hardware industry to a new set of standards on a global scale. (The company has expanded into over 100 countries.)
The Recommended TV program — launched in 2015 — evaluates which TVs make the user’s Netflix experience optimal, and has seven core criteria, of which manufacturers must meet at least five to use the Netflix logo on their devices.
The recommendation program is a good idea because it leverages Netflix’s prowess in the TV world to both entrench itself further as a driver for innovation in hardware, and to advise consumers. But it is intriguing in the grand scheme of Netflix’s trajectory as well. The company made its first inroads with people who were looking for TV alternatives — many of them cord-cutters and young people who couldn’t afford fancy TV hardware and watched Netflix on their computers. But times have changed; Netflix’s program illustrates the new world of TV-watching, and how it has risen to global domination amid competitors like Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and other streaming services. Those cord cutters are now money-making millennials. They can afford decent TVs, and will look to Netflix’s trusted brand to find them.
If a Netflix logo proves to be a coveted emblem for a TV manufacturer’s device, it goes to show how dramatically the TV world has changed since the days of cable.
