10 ms·
I guess there is another, very big reason: The Non-US markets. The US is surely important, but Netflix has launched in Europe and faces a huge obstacle that ve
by pinaceae 11y ago
I guess there is another, very big reason:
The Non-US markets.
The US is surely important, but Netflix has launched in Europe and faces a huge obstacle that very few US Americans know about - rights licensing is far worse.
Selling content overseas is a huge business, which means a giant time delay until something makes it to, say, Germany (even if not dubbed). Which worked in the past, but the Internet is forcing real time usage, see the piracy numbers worldwide for something like Game of Thrones (HBO, I know). There is practically no legal way to easily consume something like GoT the same time as it is aired in the US.
Not so for Netflix' own content.
House of Cards, Daredevil - all already available globally.
The world is a big place and Netflix is going after it, the US is just one market.
That HBO/Apple TV deal better be global soon.
- anigbrowl 11y agoGood point and this is a core art of Netflix's strategy for its own content. It's not going to happen any time soon with content from studios and other distributors though, because international distributors usually buy the rights to a film for a 10 year period. Except for the biggest 6, most film distributors don't have multinational operations and even the big 6 don't have offices in every territory, so they can't just wave magic wands and abrogate existing international distribution contracts.
- mattchamb 11y agoJust to note, that even Netflix makes mistakes with global content licencing. In New Zealand (where netflix has recently launched) they have sold the rights to House of Cards so even though they own the content, they cannot stream House of Cards.
- lostfocus 11y agoSame here in Germany.
- bjrnjs 11y agoHBO is global (to some degree). I live in Sweden and (if I didn't have to go to work) I can enjoy the latest episode of Game of Thrones only hours after it's aired in the US. Although we don't have HBO Go here -- we have a similar service called HBO Nordic. I'm almost certain that it's a HBO owned company, available only in nothern Europe though.
- danmaz74 11y agoHere in Italy Game of Thrones is distributed by Sky, and for this season they went as far as airing it in English at the same time (ie in the middle of the night) as it was aired in the US. Later the same day, at prime time, they aired it in Italian.
- _ZeD_ 11y agoBy the way, they are also online: you can find them both on skygo[0,1] and on skyonline[2] websites (why sky italy has two websites is a story for another day...) [0] http://skygo.sky.it/ondemand/categorie/serie-tv/serie-in-onda/il-trono-di-spade--stagione-5/30855.shtml http://skygo.sky.it/ondemand/categorie/serie-tv/serie-in-ond... (in italian) [1] http://skygo.sky.it/ondemand/categorie/serie-tv/serie-in-onda/il-trono-di-spade-v.o.--stagione-5/30769.shtml http://skygo.sky.it/ondemand/categorie/serie-tv/serie-in-ond... (in english) [2] http://www.skyonline.it/intrattenimento/serie-in-onda/il-trono-di-spade/1334/ http://www.skyonline.it/intrattenimento/serie-in-onda/il-tro... (both italian and english versions)
- hsivonen 11y agoIt does HBO Nordic injustice to say it is similar to HBO Go. HBO Go requires a subscription to the linear HBO TV channel. HBO Nordic is free of user-hostile tying to cable TV. And unlike HBO Now, HBO Nordic isn't Apple TV exclusive. In other words the Nordic offering is better than either of the over-IP HBO offerings in the U.S. Says a lot of how dysfuntional the HBO situation in the U.S. is when they don't offer their best service domestically.
- sschueller 11y agoNetflix is making the same mistakes. They sold the rights of "House of Cards" to Sky Television preventing anyone from watching season 3 in most of Europe.
- mattlutze 11y agoThis is true. Incredibly frustrating, but, Netflix is a media company that needs to make money. It's too bad what we want (the future of video media) doesn't today jive with the avenues available for Netflix to increase revenues.
- panglott 11y agoDoes House of Cards licensing have anything to do with the fact that it was originally a UK show?
- tobylane 11y agoProbably not. BBC made the UK series, GP says Sky licenced the US series.
- dennisgorelik 11y agoThe viewers are better off without watching House of Cards season 3 - the show deteriorated quite significantly by now.
- mrfijal 11y agoplease stop saying global when you mean developed world. global means available everywhere, netflix is in 50 countries. in south africa for example a lot of movies are plain impossible to get legally in any format. maybe internationally is a better word?
- pinaceae 11y agotheir strategy is to global for sure. right now, they're international. happy?