Netflix Posts Some Educational Documentaries On YouTube For Free

Netflix is helping educators and parents who have found themselves in home-teaching roles with the release of some documentaries on YouTube. The documentaries are free for anyone to stream, unlike the documentaries found on its streaming platform, which requires a monthly subscription. Netflix says that it decided to make this content available for free after receiving requests from teachers.

The free content is all, as you'd expect, Netflix Originals. The selection is expansive, including full episodes from Our Planet, as well as the full feature documentaries 13th, Period. End of Sentence., Knock Down the House, The White Helmets, and Zion. As well, the free offerings include full episodes from shows like Explained, Abstract, and Babies.

Netflix's willingness to make this content available for free on its own Netflix US YouTube channel isn't surprising — in addition to exposing non-subscribers to its content, the move also builds upon Netflix's existing policy that allows teachers to screen its documentaries in their classrooms. By moving the content to YouTube, teachers can continue to do this during the quarantines.

Each of the newly uploaded videos on Netflix's YouTube account includes descriptions about the media, as well as relevant details like the age rating. All of the videos are in English, but Netflix says that it will soon offer subtitles for the videos in more than a dozen languages — you'll have to wait a few days for those to arrive, though.

Teachers can find more detailed description of each piece of content on Netflix's website, which links to educational resources for every show, as well. These documentaries join a number of other educational programming available on various streaming platforms, including YouTube itself, competitors like Amazon Prime Video, and dedicated learning hubs like Kanopy.