Netflix is poised to become one of the largest media organisations in the world after announcing plans to buy the TV, film studios and streaming division of Warner Bros Discovery for $72 billion. The streaming giant has wholly rewritten the Hollywood script over the past decade — upending how and when consumers watch movies and television shows. And its name is a household fixture across the world with more than 30 million paid subscribers. But it might have been named somewhat differently…if not for a series of unavailable domains.
“Fun fact… Netflicks was taken. So was NetPix. Webflix was available…so that was an option. And Flix.com was “willing to deal”. Luckily, we landed on Netflix,” co-founder Marc Randolph wrote on X.
“29 years I debated whether I could afford to spend $50K to buy the domain name I really wanted for Netflix (http://replay.com). I decided that was crazy money. Netflix it was. Now they can afford to pay 70 Billion for something. Who woulda thunk,” he marvelled in a second post.
Brainstorming ‘funky’ names
The remarks from Randolph came in response to an update shared by the company about its acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery on Friday. He and co-founder Reed Hastings had started the company (originally known as Kibble) in 1997. The name ‘Netflix’ came during a brainstorming session later that year — mixing net (for internet) with flicks or movies.
“We had a whole bunch of names that we were playing with. We did a brainstorming session, and we had words evocative of movies in one column. In the second column, there were words that were evocative of the internet. Then, we began mixing and matching. They were funky names, and I remember a lot of them were already taken like flicks.com. We had ‘net’ in one column and ‘direct picks’ in the other,” he told Entrepreneur last year.
Randolph also recalled his consternation about the fact that pornography was often called a ‘skin flick’ in the 90s. The ‘flix’ suffix in the brand name, he told the publication, did not seem to help anything. Netflix was ultimately born from a dearth of good choices — with Randolph explaining that “everything else was bad” and this was the “best we can do”.
What is the Warner Bros – Neflix deal?
The streaming giant concluded a deal to buy the TV, film studios and streaming division of Warner Bros Discovery for $72 billion on Friday. Netflix will gain access to a trove of content — built over the last century — including marquee franchises such as “Game of Thrones” and “Harry Potter,” and DC Comics’ roster of superheroes, including Batman and Superman.
But the agreement is likely to face heavy antitrust scrutiny in Europe and the US as it would give the world’s biggest streaming service ownership of a rival that is home to HBO Max and boasts nearly 130 million streaming subscribers. Some members of Congress also said a Netflix–Warner Bros Discovery deal could harm consumers and Hollywood — even before the bids were in.