The 2010s was the decade of Netflix

Vanity Fair

"This decade has been dominated, directly and indirectly, by the consolidation, rise, and reign of Reed Hastings’s DVD startup that in 1998 was nothing but a twinkle in Blockbuster’s rearview mirror," says Sonia Soraiya. "In 2007, Netflix introduced streaming on its platform—a model that would become fundamental to a rapid transformation of content creation and distribution—but cable infrastructure could barely keep up with Netflix users’ demand, so the world-shaking innovation took a while to catch on. Streaming video requires staggering amounts of bandwidth—eventually, the internet had to be reshaped to accommodate it—and while taking out rental rival Blockbuster, which folded in 2013, Netflix got into spats with internet service providers over users’ video quality. The problem was that their product was growing faster than the internet could keep up with. For a fairly cheap monthly fee, Netflix delivered users a lot of content, free of advertisements and interruptions—and customers were using the hell out of it. Mid-decade, nearly 40% of North American peak-time internet usage came from Netflix. Currently, Netflix accounts for 15% of the world’s total internet traffic. Netflix’s attempts to stay ahead of its expansion ended up defining the decade of TV. Viewers catching up on Netflix ended up boosting seasons of Mad Men and Breaking Bad, as well as unleashing Great British Baking Show mania on America. Netflix was dealing in digital licensing years before distributors realized how lucrative these rights could be; early Netflix was a treasure trove of everything you’d ever wanted to watch, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Parks and Recreation. Now, of course, digital content licensing has become a hot little corner of the entertainment industry, as decades-old reliable shows like Friends have become coveted assets for a platform’s portfolio."

ALSO:

• The 50 best comedy sketches of the decade include: SNL's "David S. Pumpkins" and "Black Jeopardy!" and Inside Amy Schumer's "Last F*ckable Day"
• The most iconic TV characters of the 2010s include: Community's Abed Nadir, Fleabag's Fleabag, Girls' Hannah Horvath and Parks and Rec's Leslie Knope
• Penny Dreadful was the 2010s show most robbed of recognition
• Queer Eye and RuPaul's Drag Race are among the 10 best reality shows of the 2010s
• The Great British Bake Off is the reality show of the decade
• BoJack Horseman, Adventure Time and Rick and Morty are among the best animated series of the decade
• Here are the most standout moments of the 2010s: From the acclaimed Mad Men series finale to the disappointing How I Met Your Mother series finale