Netflix goes TITSUP worldwide (Total Inability To Support Usual Programming)

Those waiting for their next installment of Friends, or whatever, may have a bit of a wait – large numbers of people have complained the popular streaming service fell offline globally more than an hour ago.

According to some, the site is now struggling back to its feet. Netflix has more than 50 million subscribers on Earth.

We're aware some members are experiencing technical difficulties on the web site in all regions. We hope to resolve this asap.

— Netflix CS (@Netflixhelps) February 3, 2015

Earlier this afternoon, the Netflix support site reported the streaming giant was experiencing "technical difficulties" across the internet for all browsers and devices. From Mississippi, US to The Reg offices in San Francisco, to São Paulo, Brazil, viewers complained they were unable to watch stuff or even login.

Downdetector.com says more than 20,000 people across North America and Europe reported the web TV service had fallen over; the numbers rocketed shortly after 3.30pm Pacific Time (23.30 UTC).

Some on Twitter said they could eventually access Netflix on some gadgets, but not on others.

Netflix is generally pretty good about avoiding outages, although the biz has had some problems in the past. The streaming service took a dive in October last year for European users and failed in the US on Christmas Eve 2012 thanks to an Amazon failure – Netflix uses AWS for hosting.

The Amazon public cloud reported no problems this afternoon in California. Netflix's PR team is checking on the cause of the outage, and will hopefully be back to us with details. ®

Updated to add

Netflix gave this statement after publication:

An outage that affected many of the devices that stream Netflix in North America and South America started at about 3:40 pm Pacific on Tuesday, February 3, with a lesser effect on devices in Europe. Service was restored to most Netflix members in under an hour. Our engineers are still investigating the cause.