Telecommunications
28 November 2011No flix for you!
Netflix is an American company that supplies on-demand streaming for television and movies. It's a fairly simple service that acts like an online video store and has all the latest releases. Its plans start at US$7.99 a month and subscribers can download as much content as they want. Netflix is so popular it's often credited with the sudden decline of Blockbuster. Netflix is easy and cheap and is doing what people want.
And Netflix is big. Very big. In March this year Netflix became the largest single source of traffic in the US. That was more traffic than HTTP (most websites) and bit torrent (the most common source of piracy). It is the best example of success through giving the people what they want: choice.
So it's a pretty big kick in the pants to learn that Netflix has no plans to come to New Zealand. The reasons? Terrible internet speeds and media monopolies.
"Generally when we look at potential markets, metered broadband is a deterrent." That's what Brent Ayrey, vice president of product innovation at Netflix said recently. Our soon-to-be-published survey on ISPs (internet service providers) found that speed was a real issue with internet users and a large number had experienced lower than expected speeds.
Netflix does not want a situation where you can access its product but it takes you three hours to watch it because the download speeds are too slow. This may change once the UFB (Ultra-Fast Broadband) rolls out, but until then our current broadband speeds are too slow for a service that is available everywhere in the US.
The other factor basically comes down to Sky. As Computerworld notes:
In New Zealand for example, Netflix would need to compete for distribution rights with Sky Television's iSky streaming media offering, and Fatso (which is majority owned by Sky) for DVD by mail. Sky has been in New Zealand for more than a decade and has formed distribution agreements with the various studios.
Or even more simply, Sky has all the content tied up. It has been doing more to make this content accessible with sites like iSky, but these have their drawbacks too.
Right now New Zealand is not on the map for getting content over the internet. Consumers are being done over by monopolies and sadly there's not a whole lot we can do about it, other than constantly point out that when services like Netflix aren't available, piracy goes up.
Hadyn Green - Technical Writer
Comments
Just another way in which New Zealanders are getting shafted. Great.
Thanks for the confirmation about Sky as part of the problem. That wasn't as clear in yesterday's article on Stuff
Hear hear! Give consumers an effective way to access media, and we will pay for it. Movies, TV shows, eBooks. We download all these things illegally because there is often no legitimate way to get them! Why should we wait many months to view popular shows after they air in the US or UK. Why the hell can't I buy eBooks for my iPad???
I am soooooo frustrated with the plethora of sites & products that aren't available to me in NZ.
Unbelievable that such stupid censorship and restrictions exist in the 21st century.
The only solution would be the whole of NZ to boycott Sky TV, until they come to the party.
We desperately need competition
Provide reasonably priced movies via internet & 'piracy' will be reduced & the studios will make money.
Many years ago, piracy of videos (u may remember the old cassettes) was a huge problem in Taiwan. It stopped being a problem when the price of genuine videos was slashed!
Price your product for the market.
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