How to know the Netflix catalog by countries

According to the 2020 annual report known form 10-k  Netflix had a total of approximately 191 million subscribers in 190 countries. This data is likely to have changed a lot and in the annual report of 2021 it will be possible to know how the company has done, although the quarterly reports point out that it already exceeds 200 million in October 2021.

Netflix’s catalog of TV series and movies fluctuates between countries, and it may happen that a movie is licensed to view in some countries and not in others. In addition, there are series and movies that Netflix removes from its catalog when a license of use that they have contracted expires.

Number of Netflix subscribers

These subscribers have been calculated taking into account the average of the four regions that the Netflix platform has. The 191 million subscribers come from the average sum of the year 2020 whose calculation is 71 million between the United States and Canada, 66 million subscribers in the europe, Midwest and Africa area,  33 million subscribers  in Latin America and  21 million in the Asia-Pacific area as can be seen in Fig 1. The last value is likely to be the one that changes the most due to the thrust of “Squid Game“.

Catalogue by country

But in these almost 200 countries there is not the same catalog or the same series or movies… For example, according to this study, Spain offers about six thousand series and movies. These are variable figures depending on the date on which they are consulted, but they serve to get an idea of the total volume.

In each country, the catalog is around 6,000 films or series. In addition, many releases arrive later in a country due to rights issues. You can consult the catalog of series of one country and then if there is a series that can not be seen in your country, but in another, use a VPN service to access the content.

How this data is obtained

The way to get this data is usually by using an API. API is the acronym for Application Programming Interface, that is, an intermediary software that allows two applications to talk to each other. Every time you use apps like Facebook, send a message to someone else, or check the weather on your phone, you’re using an API.

In the case of the Netflix API, we can say that it is a server that contains structured data of the company and that you can work with them through programming languages such as Python. Netflix for a few years had its public API, but in 2014 the company retired it. Given the growth that the platform had had and in order to focus Netflix’s efforts on meeting the needs of subscribers, they withdrew it on November 14 of that year.

However, some developers who participated in that Netflix API continued to provide them with data from the platform and there are still pages that show that data obtained directly from Netflix.

Data using the Netflix API

From the Netflix Global Search on uNoGS page you can search for what each country has, what can be seen and what can not be seen according to the country. You can filter by type, by audio, by subtitles or even search for the keyword you want when viewing the catalog. Without knowing for sure it is likely that this website will connect to the Netflix API, but I can not say that it is.

The data held by this website are from 38 countries, not the 190. They are sorted in alphabetical order as shown in Fig. 2 and show the videos, movies and series that Netflix has at that time in its catalog. In addition, there is a button that shows the news of the last 7 days, as well as the videos that are about to expire and will no longer be available in the catalog.

Search tool

The tool is quite useful. It allows you to search for the 250 most valued movies on IMDB and know which netflix has in its catalog (today there are 148). In addition, the 250 best television series and also know which can be seen on Netflix, which as can be seen in Fig. 3 are 93 series. Or the news that is in the catalog the last 5 days, 10 days, or a day.

Summary

Finding something to watch on Netflix is like going to a clothing store full of shelves. It’s hard to decide that nothing to choose and sometimes it’s hard to find something you like.

Netflix’s unofficial global online search called uNoGS makes it easy to search for series and movies for you to enjoy. It also allows you to see what is the catalog that Netflix has and search for new series. you can already know if a series or movie is available or not in your country, and if it is not, you can use VPN to watch that content without leaving your home.