According to Graham Burke, joint head of Village Roadshow, Netflix is set for a 2015 launch into the Australian market.
by Nic Healey
@dr_nic 27 June 2014, 11:25 AM AEST
According to the co-CEO of film distributor and production company Village Roadshow, behind such films as The Matrix trilogy and "The Great Gatsby", US video streaming service Netflix is definitely making a move into the Australian market.
The comments were made to CNET's sister site ZDNet, where Graham Burke told Josh Taylor that Netflix was "talking to our people about supply of products, so they are opening and coming to Australia".
While Burke didn't mention timing of the launch to Taylor, in a separate interview he told CNET's Claire Reilly that it was "pretty widely known that Netflix is opening operation in Australia next year".
Rumours have run rampant about an Australian version of Netflix for years now. Last year, The Australian reported that the number of Aussies getting around geo-block to use the service had swayed Netflix into opening locally.
Netflix has indeed been popular with Australians, who use VPNs to get the service from the US. The practice of getting around geo-blocks on content delivery services exists in a quasi-legal state. Speaking to ZDNet last year, IT lawyer for IDEALAW Matt Phipps said that while the streaming of the content would not be in violation of copyright law in Australia, breaching the terms of use to access a streaming site could be considered a crime.
The practice has also been compared to piracy, with the Australian film group ScreenLaunch saying that "viewing international video sites is no more right than bittorrent films". However, consumer watchdog Choice has recommend the use of VPNs, even offering advice on setting them up.
If Netflix does launch into Australia next year, as Burke suggests, Aussies who are already subscribers may find themselves disappointed. It's seems highly unlikely that the service will keep a monthly fee as low its current US$7.99. Distribution deals will also alter, meaning that the content offering could be significantly different locally than to the US.
No matter what happens, with the video streaming market on the rise in Australia, it will be interesting to see what the arrival of such a large player does for the local market.
As I expected. If it does arrive next year, we'll be paying more than the US and possibly have lesser titles to watch.
Using a VPN service plus US Netflix will be a better option.
Hopefully once it has launched here, Netflix will continue to not give a shit about breaches of the terms of use necessary to access the US version. It wouldn't make any sense to shut down paying customers at the moment, but when there's a local alternative (that will likely have a higher subscription fee), things might change. It'll be interesting to see how they handle it.
Also, granted this Phipps bloke is a lawyer and I'm very much not, but it's hard to believe breaching the terms of use (which are obviously set by Netflix) could ever be a crime in itself. Grounds for Netflix to terminate your account, sure, but a crime? Nah.
Will believe it when I see it. Hopefully it has similar content to the US with some good local content too. Otherwise why change if you're already getting the US version?
As a professional cocksucker, I can assure you that just because a man is tall - doesn't mean he has a large penis. In my experience, penis length is not determined by one's height.
General Cyber-Spunk-In-The-Junk, as a fellow professional cocksucker - your thoughts concerning this pivotal matter would be greatly appreciated.
Jasper wrote:As a professional cocksucker, I can assure you that just because a man is tall - doesn't mean he has a large penis. In my experience, penis length is not determined by one's height.
General Cyber-Spunk-In-The-Junk, as a fellow professional cocksucker - your thoughts concerning this pivotal matter would be greatly appreciated.
Why yes.. I have plenty of spunk in my junk. How nice of you to compliment me on my sperm production...
You're right though. Tall man doesn't always been huge dong.
What I find amusing is how you insist on bringing my partner into this. You have no decent material so you stretch the same shit out as much as you can... kinda like the Wii U really.
Optus also have a deal with Netflix on the above link. It's also unmetered.
Netflix is launching in Australia in a couple of weeks, so it’s good timing for Optus to get on board with streaming video. If you’re a new or re-contracting Optus customer — whether it’s for home broadband, or for postpaid or prepaid mobile or mobile broadband — you can pick yourself up a free Netflix subscription.
On the face of it, the deal looks pretty sweet. Starting on the Netflix Australia launch date of March 24, if you sign up to Optus, you’ll get yourself a six-month free subscription to Netflix. There are caveats, of course; the plan you sign up to has to be worth $60 or above on a 24 month contract.
If you sign on the dotted line for a prepaid mobile phone or mobile broadband service with Optus — which necessarily means there’s no ongoing contract — you’ll score yourself a three-month subscription to Netflix. The deal that Optus is struck means that it’s not exactly a middleman, but when you sign up for a new Optus plan you’ll get a coupon code that gives you three or six months when you sign up to the Aussie version of Netflix.
Optus is setting itself up as one of the premier ISPs for Netflix addicts in Australia, since it’ll let you stream that Netflix goodness without impacting your (home broadband) data quota in the slightest. That deal starts from 17 April, a couple of weeks after the initial launch, because there’s a bit of technical behind-the-scenes work that still has to be done. Similarly, you’ll be able to access Netflix on Optus’ Fetch TV service, and even on mobile the automatic data top-up bumps you up to the next data tier (adding 1GB at a time for $10 at a time) if you hit your cap with a sneaky bit of Netflix streaming on the bus into work.
Optus doesn’t have any more information to share right now on the exact details of the unmetered data partnership, but going on what Netflix has told Gizmodo previously, it could involve access to a locally hosted server with Netflix content on it. We’re still checking in with Optus on the finer points of the Netflix deal — whether you’ll be able to watch unmetered on any device, for example. We’ll let you know as soon as they get back in touch. [Optus]
