Netflix has been in the news ever since it was officially announced in India and 130 other countries recently. Now with the number of Netflix users climbing steadily, it is but natural for us to view the same on our televisions. The next time you want to binge watch any Netflix show along with your pals, the best bet would be a large TV screen instead of a laptop or a smartphone display. This was the very reason Netflix had fired up a “Netflix Recommended TV” program in the US in 2015 which was aimed at identifying smart Televisions that would help users with an ultimate Netflix experience.
Now the company wants to extend this program worldwide and has also set up new criteria for 2016. Netflix is expected to work glove in hand with the OEMs to optimize the Netflix performance. As of now, two of the manufacturers are already manufacturing such TVs including LG (for UHD TVs with webOS 3.0) and Sony (for Android 4K UHD TV’s). It is very likely that other manufacturers will jump on the bandwagon and the “Netflix Recommended” might as well become one of the important things to consider while looking out for a new TV.
To carry the Netflix Recommended TV logo, a smart TV must have met at least 5 out of the 7 following criteria:
- TV Instant On
- TV Resume
- Netflix Button on Remote
- Easy Netflix Access
- Fast App Launch
- Fast App Resume / Background Mode
- Latest Netflix Version
Now coming to the benefits, Netflix Recommended TVs come with a feature called Instant On, this means that the screen will wake up in a jiffy and will have everything including the Internet TV services all setup. Furthermore, it will also feature the TV Resume, which will turn on the Netflix automatically if it was the last used app.
The Sony and the LG devices are expected to be sold in all the countries with Netflix presence and the TV variants covered under this program will be explicitly mentioned in the Netflix Recommended TV page. The bottom line is that Netflix wants to bring in force an equalized TV viewing experience agnostic to the platforms or the device used. With most of them “cutting the cords” it is evident that Netflix or as a matter of fact any of the other Video-on-Demand is all set to be the big thing.
Disclosure: The announcement was made at the Netflix Labs Day in Los Gatos, California where the editor of this blog was present on Netflix’s invite.