Netflix has some behind-the-scenes photos to remind you Stranger Things' final season is on the way.

If you want to watch the next two FIFA Women’s World Cups in the US, you’ll need a Netflix subscription.

FIFA confirmed the news today, marking an unexpected change for the sports event, which has historically played on free-to-air broadcast channels. The shift to a streaming platform inevitably makes it more costly and hurts viewer accessibility, while likely injecting FIFA with a lot of cash.

Netflix and FIFA haven’t said how much Netflix is paying for exclusive airing rights. But Netflix and other streaming services have been paying out hefty, sometimes record-setting sums to air live sporting events as the company seeks to earn more revenue from commercials and draw more viewers. Netflix, for example, paid $5 billion to swipe the World Wrestling Entertainment’s weekly RAW program from the USA cable network for 10 years, starting next month.

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Let the games begin! When Squid Game returns to Netflix on Dec. 26, its tentacles are guaranteed to grasp hold of the global pop culture conversation. A new campaign from the streamer and WhatsApp hopes to make the messaging platform the forum of choice for the South Korean show's international fanbase. The campaign includes two...

• The holiday season is incomplete for many people without holiday movies.
• This year, Netflix is streaming a wide range of Christmas classics and original movies.
• Business Insider has rounded up what critics say are the best and worst Christmas movies on Netflix.

It is the time of year when many turn to Christmas and holiday movies to get them through the winter.

Netflix has a bunch of Christmas films available, many of which are originals.

Here are six movies to watch this holiday season — and six to consider skipping.

Monkey D. Luffy actor Iñaki Godoy asks Eiichiro Oda what fans can look forward to in the hit series' second season.

Science Saru exceeds all expectations, delivering the quintessential anime adaptation of 2024.

• "Squid Game" was a massive hit for Netflix, which greenlighted a second and third season.
• Its creator, Hwang Dong-hyuk, said he's "exhausted" after working on the show and wants a break.
• Netflix has spun off "Squid Game" into a reality series, in-person experiences, and a video game.

After "Squid Game" became a global sensation in 2021, Netflix invested big time in the series and the franchise — and after working on the show's second and third seasons, its creator is ready for a break.

"I'm so exhausted. I'm so tired," Hwang Dong-hyuk, the mastermind behind the show, told Variety. "In a way, I have to say, I'm so sick of 'Squid Game.' I'm so sick of my life making something, promoting something. So I'm not thinking about my next project right now."

He added: "I'm just thinking about going to some remote island and having my own free time without any phone calls from Netflix."

"Squid Game," a Korean-language series, captured global audiences three years ago with bright, childlike aesthetics juxtaposed against a gripping, deadly story.

Unable to provide for himself or his mother's medical care, Seong Gi-hun, a divorced dad, signs on to a game where people in heavy amounts of debt play children's games in pursuit of a 45.6 billion won cash prize. To do so, they wager their lives: Losing a game means instant death. Seong, played by Lee Jung-jae, survives, but the other 455 players don't — and at the end of season one, he sets off to shut down the games himself.

The series was a massive hit for Netflix, to the tune of 330 million viewers and 2.8 billion hours viewed to date, according to Variety. Bloomberg reported a month after season one's premiere in October 2021 that Netflix estimated the series would make the company $900 million. The first season was critically successful as well: The show was nominated for 14 Emmy awards and won six, including outstanding directing for a drama series for Hwang and outstanding lead actor in a drama series for Lee.

In the three-year gap between seasons one and two, the streaming platform has capitalized on the property, spinning off the "Squid Game" franchise into the reality series "Squid Game: The Challenge" and in-person experiences where people can play through nondeadly versions of the games with their friends. This year, Netflix launched the video game "Squid Game: Unleashed" and made it available to nonsubscribers.

Hwang has been kept in the loop on these "Squid Game" projects and consults on prospective on-screen continuations of the franchise, Variety said. However, he told the publication that he was more concerned with finishing the main series.

He told Entertainment Weekly he'd intended seasons two and three to be one story but had to split them in two because of what would have been a lengthy episode count. The second and third seasons were filmed back-to-back, and season three is expected in 2025.

It's a lot of work for a creator who didn't anticipate he'd be doing a second season at all.

"I had no intention of doing a second season," Hwang said, "because the overall process of writing, producing, and directing the series was so challenging."

Science Saru will be back with more of the fan-favorite anime in July 2025.

• Netflix's small-town drama "Virgin River" returned with its sixth season on December 19.
• The last season ended with a bombshell baby reveal and an unexpected return from the dead.
• Here's a reminder of where all the main characters ended up ahead of the new episodes.

"Virgin River" returned Thursday with its sixth season, delivering another dramatic chapter in Mel and Jack's romance.

The last time audiences saw the couple, played by Martin Henderson and Alexandra Breckenridge, they were planning their wedding while also dealing with the devastating loss of a pregnancy.

The fate of several other characters was also hanging in the balance.

Here's a refresher on where everyone ended up.

Director Hwang Dong-hyuk also explains the surprising casting choice made for season two standout Player 120.

Five years later sounds like a half-baked sequel to a well-known zombie flick franchise. But it’s a reference to how long it’s taken a data access complaint against Netflix to deliver a penalty decision in the European Union. The fine that’s — finally — been issued under the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is […]

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Aaron Rodgers’ flirtation with politics was addressed in the second episode of his three-part Netflix documentary, "Enigma."

The New York Jets quarterback was floated as a possible running mate to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. earlier this year before the independent presidential candidate eventually dropped out of the race and endorsed Donald Trump.

Rodgers and Kennedy went on a hike, and the four-time NFL MVP admitted to Kennedy that John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 initially piqued his interest in politics.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

"I mean, I got into politics back when I was a sophomore in high school. I mean, the idea, all around, honestly, your uncle’s death, and that was my first entrance into pulling the veil back, as I call it, on, like, what’s actually going on because I read the Warren Commission’s report about it. I remember it hit me going, ‘This is what they said happened?’ This can’t be real," he said.

"And then I went to Berkeley, which is a crazy political environment. It’s super leftist, and I grew up in a really conservative, small-town environment. So, that was fun to have, like, my ideologies tested. But, I mean, it’s … I’ve just been disheartened forever, that there’s a two-party system that’s really one party. The one party that's ruling is the people with the money. So, I really didn’t have any hope in politics until, really, you announced your candidacy."

EAGLES' JALEN HURTS BENEFITING FROM 'PRETTY PRIVILEGE,' ESPN NFL ANALYST SAYS

Rodgers later confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked him to be his running mate. However, he chose to continue playing football with the Jets.

"Retire and go into politics or play two or three more years," he said. "I definitely envisioned a life without football, and it wasn’t scary. I felt comfort in being able to move on at some point. But I love football. I want to keep playing. And I hated the way last year went. There’s still some unfinished business in New Jersey."

Amid the drama that came with the possibility of Rodgers being Kennedy’s running mate was a report that claimed he allegedly shared conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook shooting.

Rodgers denied the allegations at the time and in the episode he seemed shocked that someone would paint him that way.

"Misrepresentation is a trigger for sure. Trauma, trigger, whatever," Rodgers said.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

• Advertising took over the streaming-TV experience this year, and it'll only get bigger next year.
• Interactive ads that try to get viewers to shop or take other actions are gaining traction.
• This article is part of "Transforming Business," a series on the must-know leaders and trends impacting industries.

It's back to the future in Hollywood.

Streaming is starting to look like the TV days of old. Entertainment for the masses is back. Bundles are making it easier to consolidate subscriptions.

And ads seem to be everywhere.

Netflix, Disney+, and Max — which all started ad-free — now have cheaper ad-supported tiers. Amazon turned on ads in Prime Video this year, making advertising de facto for more than 100 million viewers in the US in one fell swoop.

EMARKETER expects streaming advertising to reach half of linear-TV advertising's size in 2024 and approach parity with it in 2027.

According to the analytics firm Antenna, these cheaper versions are gaining traction with viewers, too. In May, most new paying subscribers to five major streamers were choosing ad-supported tiers — a year earlier, this was true for only two streamers.

On Disney's latest earnings call, execs said that about 60% of new subscribers in the US were opting for its ad-supported tier, which accounted for 37% of its total US subscribers.

Ad-supported TV viewing also is on the rise through free services like Fox's Tubi, Paramount's Pluto TV, and The Roku Channel. According to Nielsen, those services plus YouTube made up 14.8% of viewing in July, up from 12.5% a year earlier.

"What's old is new again," said Jonathan Miller, a veteran media executive and chief executive of Integrated Media Co., which invests in digital media.

Miller sees ad tiers as a validation of the dual revenue streams that long supported cable. "Advertising and subscriptions have always been a successful model," he said.

Streaming ads are here to stay because — along with bundling, cheaper programming, and password-sharing crackdowns — they're one of the ways streamers can help make themselves sustainable.

Ads have also begun to directly shape the content streamers offer. Streamers are showing more sports and other live programming because of the big audiences and advertisers they attract.

For example, Netflix's highly anticipated Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight on November 15 was a win for the streamer despite some tech glitches. Why? Because it showed Netflix's ability to draw huge audiences at once; it said that as many as 60 million households tuned in. That large audience bodes well for Netflix's NFL games on Christmas and its live WWE programming set to debut in January.

Viewers' tolerance for ads will be increasingly tested

Streamers that dipped a toe in the ad space are looking to wade in.

The ad load — or ad volume per hour of entertainment — has crept up over the past year, according to the measurement firm MediaRadar. There was an average of six minutes of ads per hour in September across eight leading ad-supported streamers, up by 9% from January 2023, when Netflix and Disney had just entered the ad-supported game. That's still far lower than cable, where ad loads can push an eye-watering 15 minutes or more an hour. Viewers are also more likely to tolerate ads in live sports because people are used to them being part of that content.

Amazon and Warner Bros. Discovery recently said they'd start showing more ads to their streaming viewers in 2025, while emphasizing that their ad loads were lower than their competitors.

"On the ad-load side, we are light," WBD's streaming chief, JB Perrette, said of the streamer Max during the company's third-quarter earnings call. "We have a very light ad load compared to everyone else in the market, so there's room to grow on the capacity side."

The industry consensus is that streaming ad loads won't become a throwback to cable, though — at least not anytime soon.

For one thing, it's a buyer's market. Amazon flooded the market with ad inventory, which depressed ad prices for everyone. Streamers aren't incentivized to add too much more ad inventory because it'll just drive the price down more. Some advertisers are also wary of annoying viewers who are still getting used to seeing ads in streaming.

"The supply has grown significantly over the last few years," said Maureen Bosetti, the chief investment officer for Mediabrands. "It's created a marketplace for marketers."

Makers of streaming video ads are also becoming more ambitious. It's not enough for an ad to be seen — they'll try to get viewers to take action, whether by clicking a QR code or dropping a featured product in their shopping cart. These interactive ads could get higher price tags at a time when streaming ad prices have come down.

"As a consumer, I'm seeing more of them," Jessica Brown, a managing director of digital investment at GroupM, said of interactive streaming ads. "We're getting more pitches from the streaming partners. You can measure success in a different way."

Warner Bros. Discovery recently rolled out two such formats. "Shop with Max" identifies items in TV shows and films and matches them with relevant advertiser products that viewers can shop while they watch. "Moments" uses AI to figure out themes, sentiments, and on-screen elements that line up tonally with the advertiser's message.

Fubo recently announced four ad formats, including ones that show trivia questions or polls and product carousels. Fubo said such ads made people 47% more likely to purchase something compared with standard video ads.

"A big objective we have is to make a majority of ads have some form of interactive or engaging feature," Krishan Bhatia, an NBCUniversal exec who was hired by Amazon to lead its Prime Video ads push, said at a recent event. "What brands love about it is not just the fact that you generate a potential purchase off it but people are spending more time with your brands."

It may not get a sequel, but at least you'll be able to watch Cyberpunk: Edgerunners without worrying it'll get pulled from Netflix one day.

Fans will meet a whole new Gi-hun, aka Player 456, when the Netflix show returns December 26.

• James Everett Duchtske tried to assassinate Barack Obama with ricin letters in 2013.
• He carried out the plot to frame his associate, Paul Kevin Curtis.
• The wild story is the focus of the Netflix docuseries, "The Kings of Tupelo."

James Everett Dutschke, a former Taekwondo instructor, sent poisoned-laced letters in an attempt to kill President Barack Obama in 2013.

The failed attempt was meant to frame his associate, Paul Kevin Curtis, an Elvis impersonator.

Netflix explains how the bizarre set of events unfolded in its latest true crime docuseries, "The Kings of Tupelo."

The three-part series is mainly told from Curtis' perspective, as he explains his belief that an illegal organ harvesting operation was being run out of a Mississippi medical center.

The feud began when Dutschke refused to publish Curtis' claims in a newspaper he owned.

It culminated in an April 2013 attempt kill Obama as well as Roger Wicker, a US Senator from Mississippi, and a local judge.

Dutschke sent letters to the trio that were dusted with the poison ricin.

James Everett Dutschke is serving a 25-year prison sentence for sending the ricin letters

GQ profiled Curtis 2013, a few months after the attempts. He told the magazine that authorities arrested him before realizing that Dutschke was actually the prepatrator.

The Secret Service managed to intercept the letters to Obama and Wicker. Although the letter to Holland was opened, no one was hurt.

Dutschke was arrested 10 days after Curtis and charged with the attempted assassination.

He struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors, agreeing to a 25-year prison sentence, with no right to appeal. He was sentenced in May 2014.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Dutschke remains incarcerated in the Tucson penitentiary and is not due for release until 2034.

The Netflix show's lead writer hopes its queer representation will pave the way for more video game adaptations to come.

• Netflix is reportedly reining in some of the generous employee perks it's known for.
• This includes its parental leave policy, salaries, and even merch, the Wall Street Journal reports.
• The changes signal a culture shift at a firm that's grown considerably and faces investor pressure.

The tech industry's war on perks seems to have switched to its newest channel: Netflix.

The media and entertainment giant is reportedly trying to rein in some of its employee perks, including its parental leave policy, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The company is trying to discourage employees from using the unlimited time off it gave parents for a year following the birth or adoption of a child, the Journal reported, citing internal communications and interviews with current and former employees.

"We did not plan for employees to use 1-year as the starting point for evaluating how much time away they needed for bonding and care, nor did we assume that employees would view this as a 1-year-leave," one HR official wrote to managers, according to the Journal, which said that Netflix has been trying to curb usage of the full year of leave since 2018.

Among employees, taking more than 6 months of parental leave is now "widely understood to be an unwise career move," the Journal reported. A Netflix spokesperson told the Journal that over the last four years, US employees at the company averaged 6.3 months of parental leave, and employees outside the country averaged 7.5 months.

A Netflix spokesperson told BI in a statement, "Employees have the freedom, flexibility and responsibility to determine what is best for them and their family. Our parental leave policy has always been to 'take care of your child and yourself.'" Sergio Ezama, Netflix's chief talent officer, said the company has "not pulled back" on its parental leave policy.

The company has also implemented a limit of $300 in company swag such as coffee mugs or sweatshirts per year that each employee can order, the Journal reported.

Meanwhile, the streamer has asked managers to tighten the purse strings on compensation. It previously let them pay above market rates to attract and retain talent; now, managers are asked to ensure salaries stay within 50% to 95% of employees' peers, per the Journal, citing emails.

Netflix updated its well-know culture memo in June, removing the "freedom and responsibility" section and adding one called "People Over Process" which spoke of hiring "unusually responsible people" who thrive on openness and freedom.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said at The Wall Street Journal's Tech Live conference in October that he received pushback for changing the memo.

"We are constantly working on improving the culture," he said. "And so when anyone says, 'Hey, the culture is changing.' Yes, of course it needs to. We definitely change the culture. We wanted to reflect how we work, not dictate how we work."

He said that the company had fewer than 300 employees when he and Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings wrote the memo. While the initial memo was "perfectly suited" for the company's size at the time, the revised version "actually reflects much more today our 14,000 employee business culture," he said.

The changes signal a culture shift at the streamer as it contends with pressure from Wall Street and other challenges. The company has recovered from shedding subscribers for the first time in a decade in 2022, but in recent years has cracked down on password-sharing to boost its subscription numbers.

Netflix isn't the only company reining in perks. As a focus on efficiency sweeps the tech industry, spurring mass layoffs and cost-cutting initiatives, other companies are cracking down. Meta recently fired some employees who misused its $25 Grubhub meal perk. Google told staff last year it was reducing café hours on campus and shifting fitness class offerings and shuttle schedules based on usage.

Purnell wonders if she'll become a victim of her own success if she keeps knocking it out of the park with video game adaptations.

• Netflix's "The Kings of Tupelo" is about an Elvis impersonator called Paul Kevin Curtis.
• He went down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories after he said he discovered a fridge full of body parts.
• In 2013, he was accused of using ricin to try to assassinate Barack Obama.

Netflix is continuing its trend of telling true crime stories that seem almost too wild to be true with "The Kings of Tupelo."

The three-part docuseries follows Paul Kevin Curtis, an Elvis impersonator from Tupelo, Mississippi, who was accused of using the poison ricin to try to assassinate Barack Obama in 2013.

As shown in the series, Curtis was a self-employed janitor in 1999 when he said he discovered a fridge full of body parts while cleaning the morgue at the North Mississippi Medical Center. After raising the issue with management, Curtis claims he was ejected from the building by security guards and was told he was banned from the hospital. North Mississippi Medical Center did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

He attempted to publicize his unfounded theories that the body parts were being used for an illegal operation. But when the media ignored him, Curtis approached James Everett Dutschke, a Wayne Newton impersonator, who also lived in Tupelo.

In 2013, GQ reported that Dutschke owned an independent newspaper and promised to publish any story that the mainstream media wouldn't. However, the pair's relationship soured when he refused to publish Curtis' story, fearing it could harm his chances of starting a political career.

This led to a feud between the two men, and Dutschke framed Curtis for attempting to assassinate Obama.

Dutschke sent letters containing ricin, signed with Curtis' name, to Obama in April 2013, as well as US Senator Roger Wicker and Lee County Justice Court Judge Sadie Holland.

The authorities arrested Curtis on April 17, 2013, but quickly established that Dutschke was the culprit when they found his DNA on a dust mask that he wore while making the ricin. Curtis was released without charge.

Paul Kevin Curtis avoided prison and still performs in Tupelo

Dutschke pleaded guilty in 2014 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison for sending the ricin letters.

Curtis posts pictures and videos on Instagram of him singing, but doesn't share much about his personal life.

He has made a few promotional posts about "The Kings of Tupelo," which he appears in throughout.

In one post, he wrote, "Watch my life story on Netflix on December 13, 2024. I am the first Elvis Presley impersonator ever framed in a presidential assassination plot and lived to tell the story."