Sometimes it seems unclear what Netflix’s business strategy is. Constantly taking twists and turns, making controversial decisions, they are not afraid to alienate their audience by finding the balance point between being profitable and remaining the leading streaming platform. That’s why we are not surprised that their latest business decision is, if not controversial, then extremely peculiar. Because they have decided to switch to analog.
It’s not that Netflix is going to start releasing its series and movies on BluRay, but something much more prosaic. They want to open up a series of venues where fans can soak up the worlds of their favorite franchises.
Under the name Netflix House, these places would be a mix of store, restaurant and live experiences, according to Josh Simon, the company’s vice president of consumer affairs. Although they have not specified specific details about what the Netflix House would be like, the idea would be that they would be facilities that would rotate over time, including shows inspired by popular series, restaurants that would include food from their reality shows and clothing stores that would sell replicas of the costumes from their shows.
While this may seem like something out of nowhere, Netflix has actually been experimenting with something similar in the past. Having created 40 pop-up experiences in 20 different cities around the world, all of them in major capitals around the globe, this would be a logical evolution of this concept. The difference is that it would be a permanent or semi-permanent space with which to rotate these kinds of experiences over time.
In any case, this will not happen soon. Netflix doesn’t plan to open its first two Netflix Houses until 2025, starting with the U.S. before expanding the concept to the rest of the world. So, if you find the idea interesting, we’re afraid you’ll still have to wait a while to see what exactly this whole idea translates into.
