While it was reported last week that film distributor Village Roadshow was in talks with the US streaming service Netflix for a local launch, insiders say the video-on-demand giant’s plans to move into the Australian market have been delayed as it focuses on Europe.
Media industry insiders have told The Australian Financial Review they don’t expect the company to begin officially operating in Australia until at least the latter half of 2015. Netflix chief financial officer David Wells recently told analysts the company wanted to prove its “existing performance in the markets we have today”.
Last month Netflix announced a push into six new European markets, bringing the service to 47 other countries before an expansion into Australia is further pursued. In the meantime, talk of Netflix’s eventual presence in the Australian market has forced Foxtel into launching its own video-on-demand service Presto, while Nine Entertainment Co is expected to launch its StreamCo service later this year.
It has been estimated that Netflix has already attracted up to 200,000 Australian subscribers who access the US site simply by installing a browser extension that tricks the Netflix servers into believing a user is US-based. Netflix has so far allowed Australian users breaking its own terms and conditions to use the site. Simply by fudging a few figures on their postcode and paying the reasonable subscription fee of US$7.99 per month, users get access to Netflix’s vast library of TV shows and movies many of which are not available in Australia.
According to ZDNet, Netflix will need to sign up brand new content deals in Australia before it can offer anywhere near the amount of content currently available on the US service. Existing local exclusivity deals with local networks like Foxtel likely means that Netflix Australia will look very different to Netflix US.
Even Netflix original shows such as “House of Cards” or “Orange is the New Black” may be left out of Netflix’s launch in Europe as the rights to those shows are currently locked up with local networks. In Australia, Foxtel has had the rights to those Netflix-original TV shows.
Netflix have yet to comment on their Australian launch plans.
