Although relying on Silverlight as a video player had many advantages for Netflix, one of the unfortunate side effects was its inability to play on platforms that couldn't support the plugin -- like Chrome OS. With the (not so quickly) approaching deadline for Microsoft's shutdown of Silverlight, the move to HTML5 had to happen at some point, and luckily that move is starting today. With the combination of what Netflix is calling "HTML5 Premium Video Extensions", the player is now available for the latest ARM-based Samsung Chromebook.
The player still has some hurdles to overcome because Chrome OS doesn't natively support WebCrypto for streaming protected content, but Netflix has a temporary fix in place. Using two of its three extensions it is able to currently provide and the crypto it needs until Google brings its own into the OS. Provided these early versions work well on Chrome OS, Netflix plans to also extend them to all browsers going forward.
Source: Netflix
