Phase 1 of the movies consists of Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avengers, and the team-up adventure that was The Avengers between 2008-2012.
Finn Jones’ comments to Digital Spy indicate that just as the Avengers were changed by the events of The Avengers, the Defenders will be changed by the events of The Defenders.
The timeframe from the Netflix series is significantly smaller, as Daredevil debuted in April 2015 and The Defenders is set to hit the web on August 2017.
It sounds like the Marvel Netflix shows are following the model of the larger MCU, which has been releasing movies in phases since way back in 2008.