All your questions, answered: What is Netflix, do I need it and how do I get it?

Netflix, one of the world’s largest online TV streaming systems, has launched in Australia today.

We don’t mean to overstate the importance of this but Netflix will do for Aussie’s TV watching habits what the invention of home delivered pizza achieved for hungover university students:

Complete. And. Utter. Game. Changer. 

(And an enabler of great joy but also great laziness. More on that in a moment).

A Netflix subscription will mean you can download and watch your favourite television shows and movies, without advertising and in high quality, directly onto your mobile, your laptop, your tablet or your television screen.

While it may sound beyond most of our technical capacities, it’s actually surprisingly easy. We spoke to tech expert Charlie Brown and it turns out that you don’t need an IT degree to wrap your head around this one.

In fact, if you can use a microwave? Netflix operational abilities are firmly within your grasp.

DD: What is Netflix?

CB: Netflix is a television and movie service where you use an app and a web browser to stream the content you want to watch. You can watch a movie or tv show on your phone, tablet, smart TV or computer. You don't download it, you just stream it.

Where did it come from?

CB: It started off as a mail order movie service in the late 90's. Then it became a mail order TV and movie service. [When the internet took off] it started streaming movies online. Now it creates TV shows (House of Cards, Orange is the New Black) and movies and streams them online [to those who have subscriptions.]

How do I access it?

CB: Online, or on the Netflix app, which connects with different smart phones, smart TV's, playstations, xboxes and computers.

So I can watch it on the TV?

CB: Yes.

How exactly does it differ from other streaming services?

CB: They have a clear price instruction for Australia – for one stream (that's one screen) subscription it is $9, for two screens it's $13, for 4 screens, or the family plan that's $14.99.The higher you go on Netflix, the better quality it is.

How is it different to Foxtel - and will it replace Foxtel?

CB:  For some people it does replace Foxtel. It depends on what shows you want to watch though. Foxtel provides sport and news. Netflix has movies and TV shows. However [unlike Foxtel] Network allows you to lock programmes and has no advertising.

Will it chew up my internet downloads?

CB: Big time. Quite substantially. If you are with Optus and iinet – 4^th and 2^nd biggest internet suppliers in the country – Netflix data isn’t counted to your monthly allowance – you won’t incur a data usage. But with others, depending on your plan, you will.

Is this the end of normal TV?

CB: What we’ve seen in the us is people are still watching tv – but they are watching a mix of it. The biggest challenge in the industry is pay TV – if the shows that you are going to watch, of course you will go the cheaper one. No one is going to cut the internet cable – but people will cut Foxtel because Netflix is cheaper.

Take a look at some of Netflix's shows that will be available in Australia: