The day the name started to make sense
On 16 January 2007, Netflix announced Watch Now, a feature that let subscribers stream films directly in a web browser instead of waiting for a red envelope in the mail.1 The launch offered about 1,000 titles, a fraction of the 70,000 DVDs the company then stocked, and it looked modest next to the core business serving 6.3 million subscribers.2 In hindsight, it was the most consequential move in the company's history: the moment a logistics brand began turning into the streaming brand the name had always promised.
The promise was there from the start. Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph had named the company Netflix, not Mailflix, and Hastings had said for years that postal DVDs were a bridge technology while movies waited to travel over the internet.1, 3 Watch Now, announced in the company's tenth year, was the first consumer-facing proof of that thesis.3, 4
A cautious first step
The launch mechanics reveal how carefully Netflix managed the transition. Watch Now was not a separate product but a free addition to existing DVD plans, with streaming allotments tied to the subscription tier; a subscriber on a plan of about $18 per month received roughly 18 hours of viewing.1, 2 The feature required Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player, used adaptive streaming that adjusted quality to the viewer's bandwidth, and rolled out to the subscriber base over about six months.1, 2 Netflix committed more than $40 million to the initiative in 2007.2
The structure meant no subscriber had to choose between formats. Streaming was framed as a bonus of the brand people already paid for, which avoided the trap of positioning the new technology against the old one. The contrast with the era's dominant model was deliberate: while Apple and Amazon promoted download-to-own movies, Hastings emphasized convenience and simplicity, the same brand values that had beaten late fees a decade earlier.2 Owning a file was a transaction; Netflix sold a relationship, and Watch Now extended that relationship to a new screen without changing its terms.
The caution also protected the company's most beloved physical asset. The red envelope was among the most recognizable brand objects in American households, a piece of packaging that customers photographed, joked about, and waited for. A pivot announced too aggressively would have told millions of loyal renters that the thing they loved was obsolete. By introducing streaming as an extra rather than a replacement, Netflix let the envelope retire on the audience's schedule instead of the company's.
From feature to identity
What began as a feature steadily became the identity. In 2008, Netflix moved off the computer screen through partnerships that brought streaming to televisions, including the first Netflix-ready player from Roku, a device that had begun as an internal Netflix project, followed by game consoles and Blu-ray players.3, 5, 6, 7 In 2010, the company launched its first streaming-only subscription and its first international market, Canada.3, 4 Each step shifted the center of gravity of the brand from the mailbox to the screen, until streaming stopped being the add-on and DVDs became the legacy tier.
The repositioning demanded rare discipline: Netflix was deliberately building the business that would cannibalize its own core product. The company's stumbles in managing that handover, most visibly in 2011, showed how delicate the operation was, but the strategic direction set in January 2007 never reversed.3, 4
The pivot as brand blueprint
The DVD business it left behind wound down with unusual grace, continuing under the Netflix name until the final red envelope was mailed in September 2023, more than 16 years after Watch Now made it obsolete in principle.3, 4, 8 By then the streaming service the feature had seeded operated in over 190 countries and had redefined what a television brand could be.3, 4
As a branding case, the 2007 pivot is a study in name-led strategy. Because the brand had been defined around movies rather than around a delivery mechanism, Netflix could change its entire product without changing its identity; the name absorbed the transition that destroyed rental brands tied to physical formats. Blockbuster, the category giant of the DVD era, filed for bankruptcy in 2010.9 Netflix, whose name had quietly claimed the internet a decade early, simply grew into it.
Written with AI assistance, edited by a human. Find out more about our Use of AI.
1. Netflix, "Netflix Offers Subscribers the Option of Instantly Watching Movies on Their PCs", press release, Los Gatos, 16 January 2007, issued over PR Newswire and read in the full text reproduced by Anime News Network, off whitelist, because no copy on a Netflix or PR Newswire domain was reachable on 2 October 2026, for the announcement that members could instantly watch about 1,000 movies and TV series on their PCs by clicking a "Watch Now" tab on their home page, the feature included in the monthly membership plans at no additional cost, with hours of online watching tied to the plan (six hours on the $5.99 plan, 18 hours on the $17.99 plan), the video quality rising with the viewer's bandwidth, the phased roll-out over the next six months, and the words of Reed Hastings, Chief Executive Officer: "We named our company Netflix in 1998 because we believed Internet-based movie rental represented the future, first as a means of improving service and selection, and then as a means of movie delivery." Hastings gives the naming year as 1998; the body names no year. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2007-01-16/netflix-offers-subscribers-the-option-of-instantly-watching-movies-on-their-pcs
2. Forbes, Quentin Hardy, "Netflix To Stream Live Movies For Free", 16 January 2007, for the service beginning with about 1,000 titles, mostly older films, against the 70,000 titles Netflix rented, the company's some 6.3 million subscribers, a subscriber paying $18 a month to be sent three DVDs at a time receiving 18 hours of free viewing, the requirement of Microsoft's Internet Explorer and the latest version of Windows Media Player, the application detecting the user's bandwidth and streaming at optimal resolution, the rollout taking about six months with more than $40 million set aside for it in 2007, and Hastings's words "a lot of companies, like Apple and Amazon, focused on that 'download-to-own' number" and "We focused on convenience and simplicity." The link to late fees is the article's own framing. https://www.forbes.com/2007/01/15/netflix-free-video-streaming-tech-media-cz_qh_0116netflix.html
3. Wikipedia, "Netflix", consulted on 2 October 2026, for the founding of Netflix by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings on 29 August 1997, which places January 2007 in the company's tenth year, for Hastings reportedly telling Mynette Louie in the late 1990s that his goal was always streaming media and that Netflix rented DVDs only to grow its customer base for streaming, for Netflix recruiting ReplayTV founder Anthony Wood in April 2007 to build a "Netflix Player", a project Hastings shut down and which was spun off as Roku, for the standalone streaming service offered from November 2010 and the launch in Canada in September 2010 as the first international market, for the split of the subscription plans announced in July 2011 and the Qwikster plan of September 2011, dropped in October 2011 when Netflix said it would retain its DVD service under the Netflix name, for the end of the DVD by mail service on 29 September 2023, and for availability in more than 190 countries, stated there as of 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix
4. Wikipedia, "Timeline of Netflix", consulted on 2 October 2026, for the founding in Scotts Valley, California, on 29 August 1997 by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings and the website launch on 14 April 1998, the expansion of the streaming service to Canada on 22 September 2010 as the start of its international rollout, Hastings's blog post of 18 September 2011 announcing that the DVD section would be split off and renamed Qwikster, the expansion into 130 new territories announced on 6 January 2016 that made the service available nearly "worldwide", and the wind down of DVD.com announced in April 2023 with the last shipment on 29 September 2023. The page dates the streaming announcement to 15 January 2007, a day before the press release. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Netflix
5. TechCrunch, Michael Arrington, "Netflix Roku: Free Is Such A Beautiful Word", 20 May 2008, for Netflix announcing a $100 set top box, built by the California startup Roku, that streams movies to the living room for Netflix subscribers, and for more devices with Netflix built in, including one from LG, expected later that year. The page does not call the box the first Netflix-ready player. https://techcrunch.com/2008/05/20/netflix-roku-free-is-such-a-beautiful-word
6. Microsoft, "Microsoft and Netflix Unveil Partnership to Instantly Stream Movies and TV Episodes to the TV via Xbox LIVE", press release, Los Angeles, 14 July 2008, for Netflix instant streaming coming to the TV through the Xbox 360 game console and Xbox LIVE from late fall 2008, and for Netflix also partnering with leading consumer electronics companies on devices that stream movies and TV episodes to members' TVs. https://news.microsoft.com/source/2008/07/14/microsoft-and-netflix-unveil-partnership-to-instantly-stream-movies-and-tv-episodes-to-the-tv-via-xbox-live/
7. TechCrunch, "LG intros Blu-ray player with Netflix streaming", 31 July 2008, byline given only as Contributor, for the LG BD300 Network Blu-ray Disc Player letting Netflix subscribers instantly stream more than 12,000 movies and TV episodes to the television. https://techcrunch.com/2008/07/31/lg-intros-blu-ray-player-with-netflix-streaming/
8. Netflix, Ted Sarandos, Co-CEO, "Netflix DVD - The Final Season", 18 April 2023, the item on the Netflix newsroom listed in the original sources, for the decision to wind down DVD.com after a 25 year run and the final discs shipping on 29 September 2023. https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-dvd-the-final-season
9. TechCrunch, Robin Wauters, "Once Upon A Time In America … Blockbuster Files For Bankruptcy", 23 September 2010, for Blockbuster filing a voluntary Chapter 11 petition that day in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. https://techcrunch.com/2010/09/23/blockbuster-goes-bust/
