Netflix’s impending Australian release just added a little extra firepower as it looks to take on rival SVOD services Presto and Stan by announcing a partnership with Fetch TV.
Fetch TV, an online pay TV service available predominantly to iiNet and Optus customers, will provide Netflix access for 85 percent of its 170,000 customers with a second-generation box, bringing Netflix Australian exclusives Marco Polo, the animated BoJack Horseman and documentaries Virunga and Mission Blue to Fetch TV’s major ISP partners, Singtel-Optus, iiNet and M2- roughly 40 percent of the broadband market.
Netflix has yet to provide a detailed rundown of what content Australian subscribers will have access to, or even announce an official release date, as it prepares to face off against Foxtel’s Presto, released last month, and fellow competitors Quickflix, EzyFlix and Nine’s Stan.
“I’ve got a lot of admiration for what Fetch have done and I think Netflix will be another compelling alternative in a country in which Foxtel has been your only way of getting additional content outside of free-to-air TV,” iiNet chief executive Dave Buckingham said.
Optus isn’t content with just landing Netflix and is on track to add further content via other deals.
“We’re not just going to be with Netflix; we’ll have other partners for the Australian market as well,” chief executive Allen Lew told BRW. “The other people that share the [Fetch] platform don’t have a mobile base the size that we have and the Australian consumer … they are looking not just to have that type of content available in the homes and big screens, they want it available when they’re out and about as well.”
Netflix is expected to launch in Australia on March 31 with subscriptions predicted to cost $9.99 a month.
