An important thing to keep in mind however is that since this still requires a proprietary binary, this being included in the standard would not automagically get you Netflix support in Linux.
Chrome supports Netflix on a Linux kernel right now. They only allow it to work in ChromeOS on authorized devices that are not "rooted". There are no technical hurdles to supporting Netflix on normal Linux distributions, it simply is not something that they are interested in doing. If you support this stuff being added to the standard because you want to watch Netflix on your MBP running Debian (or similar), then you are misguided.
> An important thing to keep in mind however is that since this still requires a proprietary binary, this being included in the standard would not automagically get you Netflix support in Linux
I expect, though, that it will make it more likely for Netflix to add native Linux support, because providing one decryption plugin should be a lot easier than providing a whole movie playing application.
The support they have in ChromeOS could be made to work in "regular" Linux with minimal to no effort. In ChromeOS netflix is played through Chrome, not with a completely separate movie playing application. They don't allow it to work off of ChromeOS on official ChromeOS devices.
Actually it probably requires hardware support (like ARM's security extensions (not sure how x86 does it)) so it probably can't be made to work with any old hardware.
I doubt it would make much different either way, they will add Linux support when there are hordes of people threatening to throw credit cards at them for it.
(I have been using Linux as my primary desktop for over a decade now)
So, never?
They have "Linux" support: on ChromeOS, Android, Roku, and likely several TVs and other devices. The ChromeOS support in particular is relevant to "regular Linux" support.
They just don't care, they don't have any real pressing reason to care, and frankly I don't think they ever will. The future of general consumer computers is in device/OS combos like Android and ChromeOS. When people flee Windows that is the sort of device they go to.
If Ubuntu Phone or whatever it is called ever takes off, I wager it will only support Netflix as ChromeOS does: works in Ubuntu Phone but not if you are running Ubuntu Phone Edition on "unofficial" hardware.
Sure. Either way, those people are not fleeing to standard PC hardware running "traditional" Linux distros. There is not going to be any great push sometime in the future for Netflix to support "traditional" Linux.
Chrome supports Netflix on a Linux kernel right now. They only allow it to work in ChromeOS on authorized devices that are not "rooted". There are no technical hurdles to supporting Netflix on normal Linux distributions, it simply is not something that they are interested in doing. If you support this stuff being added to the standard because you want to watch Netflix on your MBP running Debian (or similar), then you are misguided.