Word on the street is that Australia and New Zealand are finally getting Netflix on March 24th, 2015. Is that Netflix-free life before March 24th one of reason Australians have always been so quintessentially outdoorsy? On Twitter, the hashtag “#NetflixDownUnder” is most commonly accompanied by “#finally” with irresistibly satirical Bojackaroo Kanguruman fan art–a spin-off of Netflix original series, Bojack Horseman (its main character is an anthropomorphic horse).
Striking a deal with Optus, Australia’s second largest telecommunications company was a good method to help streaming companies, like Netflix, grow their market share. The deal gives Australian Netflix subscribers un-metering for all its home broadband customers from April 17, including a free six-month subscription to new and renewing Optus customers on certain broadband and mobile plans. The deal is available from March 24-July 5.
Netflix has also struck an un-metering deal to tap into the customer base of Australia’s second largest internet service provider, iiNet. Netflix will be available on all major Australia broadband operators. Customers of iiNet, the nation’s second-largest DSL Internet provider, will be able to enjoy hours of entertainment… with no fear of the usage counting against home data caps, under the first un-metering agreement announced with a major broadband provider in Australia,” says Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings.
Netflix says it hopes to be in 200 countries by 2017, most recently making headlines by moving into Cuba. Just in the last year itself, Netflix launched in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Belgium.
In terms of content, there were some confirmed original Netflix shows listed on cnet earlier this month. Netflix, like all content providers, is bound by licensing agreements. That means content is dependent on deals with content providers so it will not necessarily have the same offering in Australia as it does in the US or Europe.
The likely monthly price for Netflix will be something around $10. For some, there’s the worry that this means a lesser Netflix experience. What most people don’t realize is that Australia will get some shows that the US doesn’t because of associated broadcast rights. So it’s not necessarily true because there isn’t a US catalog of shows and then lesser subsets of that catalog for other countries. It will just be different Netflix experience down under rather than a lesser one.
