The online streaming website Netflix announced on Wednesday that it was expanding its availability to 130 more countries, including Israel, causing millions in the country to rejoice as the long-awaited service finally arrived.
Previously available in only 60 countries worldwide, Netflix, the world’s leading streaming site with 70 million subscribers, was launched in the US in 2007 and expanded to Canada, Latin America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, leaving most of the world without access.
However, all of that changed on Wednesday, when Netflix went live in “nearly every country in the world”, said Reed Hastings, co-founder and chief executive of Netflix at a Las Vegas conference.
“Today you are witnessing the birth of a new global Internet TV network,” he announced.
One notable exception to the launch was China, where online content is censored by the government, though Netflix said that it was continuing to explore options there.
English remains the main language for most of the new markets, with 17 other languages currently available. Netflix said that it had added support for Arabic and Korean, though not Hebrew. Some users testing out the service in Israel noted that the site’s location language logarithm had loaded it in Arabic by default.
It seems likely that Hebrew will eventually join the list of options, as Hastings said that Netflix would be gradually adding more languages and more content as it expands.
Netflix, which launched in the US in 2007, offers unlimited streaming service for a monthly fee. The website provides access to thousands of movies and TV shows both dated and current, including critically acclaimed original content produced by Netflix.
The announcement was met with an outpouring of excitement from Israelis. Even the Israeli Embassy joined in the celebration, with a tweet welcoming Netflix:
For the 5+/- days a year the weather’s not good… @Netflix, now in Israel! https://t.co/5ksBPcUCBF
— Embassy of Israel (@IsraelinUSA) January 6, 2016
A Reddit thread about the expansion to Israel suggested a number of Israel-themed alternatives to the common phrase “Netflix and chill”, including “Netflix and schwarma”, “Netflix and mazgan (air conditioning)”, and “Netflix b’sababa (awesome).”
