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Australia tipped as ‘next target’ for Netflix

It launched in 6 Euro territories last week, leaving observers to ask "where next?"

2014-02-05_1053Another sign that Netflix is on the local horizon…

Having launched in Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg last week, observers are now speculating which territory it may next target.

Australia tops the list according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Australia could provide “a foothold into the broader Asia-Pacific region,” where “a significantly bigger opportunity awaits,” US analyst Tony Wible said.

The trade mag notes:

Similar to Canada and Western Europe, Australia has a high percentage of broadband homes (about 6.4 million of a population of 23 million). Its viewers also like U.S. TV shows and films — the bulk of Netflix offerings. Perhaps most important: There’s little competition, other than smallish DVD rental and streaming service Quickflix and online offerings from 21st Century Fox’s Australian pay TV group Foxtel.

This follows recent reports that Netflix had acquired streaming rights for Gotham, after the linear broadcast of each season on Nine.

Meanwhile Asia could be much harder for Netflix to crack despite big audiences in countries like China and India.

“We dismiss their potential [for Netflix] given Chinese attitude around U.S. media and India’s low purchasing power,” adds Wible.

Quickflix recently lashed out at Netflix, suggesting it set up shop in Australia or close its “back-door” service which enables Australians to hide their IP address. It may just get its wish.

One thing is clear, Netflix has unbelievable brand recognition in a country it is yet to even step foot into.

 

7 Responses

  1. I have heard from two reliable sources that Netflix Australia has again pushed back the launch until June 2015. They better get moving because StreamCo and Presto will be buying all the SVOD rights they can get their hands on.

  2. Netflix have been happy to let 200+k Australians sign up the US service via VPNs and avoiding buying the copyright for SVOD in this region.

    Now they will have trouble finding content for an Australian launch. Their rights for Gotham start 12 months after Nine starts showing it, so late 2015 at the earliest. In the US use Pay TV movie rights and back catalogues of TV shows from the major US producers which are of less value in Australia.

    They asked a lot for House of Cards, Arrested Development and Orange Is The New Black. Seven was interested in AD but wouldn’t pay the asking price. They ended up on Foxtel via the route mentioned. So the first run is on Showcase and the repeats will run on Soho for a decade. .

    Everybody will be starting an SVOD service which will be a disaster until half of them go bust and things settle down.

  3. Whether Netflix has enough content or not hopefully it forces Foxtel to have a further look at how they sell their services (and their packages etc.).

    The extra choice of having Netflix can’t hurt anyway.

  4. @Stan – HBO and Netflix are not friends it won’t just be Australia that can not gain access to HBO content no Netflix region has HBO Content.
    I don’t think it is fair to say that the Australian arm of Netflix will be a mere shadow of the US version – each region has their own gems. If you browse through moreflicks.com you will see that some brilliant content exists in some of the European regions that the US don’t have access to, including recent films like 12 years a slave, Wolf of Wall St, Gravity etc.

    @DanR – just because Netflix launches here in Australia doesn’t mean you won’t be able to use the US Service by using a DNS you can easily change netflix regions – there won’t be much Netflix can do about that.

  5. It’s funny that there’s a picture of House Of Cards attached to an Australian Netflix article. Was reading Monday’s Fin Review & they reported that Netflix sold most of their worldwide distribution to HBO International (including HoC) before they thought of building an empire. Of course here, Foxtel hold exclusive rights to all HBO content. Seems like Netflix Australia will be a mere shadow of its US operations. All this might be a lot of hype for not much?

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