
Netflix Is Now Available Around the World - devhxinc
https://media.netflix.com/en/press-releases/netflix-is-now-available-around-the-world
======
sailfast
What is missing in a lot of these comments is acknowledging that Netflix may
become the largest global "television" network in the world as adoption
increases. They have original content lined up and control those rights, and
they will continue to expand their reach with that content. Whether they add
the "same" streaming content as they have purchased from other providers in
the US is not the point here - the big impact is the expansion of their
original content to such a massive global audience. Interesting to see this
finally come to fruition now that they have enough content to justify a
subscription on its own.

It will also be interesting to see how other content providers (Amazon, but
also CNN, HBO, and more conventional TV Providers) follow suit in the pursuit
of eyeballs and expanding global markets.

Netflix is based on subscription, but it would be interesting to know if there
is a company or network of companies equipped to sell digital advertising
localized, at global scale to support a "free" model often seen on US network
applications.

~~~
fudged71
Maybe a stupid questions but what if they disrupted not just TV but also
cinema?

I assume that the distribution of films around the world is more limited than
we think. At some point when Netflix has a much larger subscriber base, it may
make more sense for films to be released directly to Netflix for global
consumption. They could even be clever about it and have it only open for
"live showings" at specific hours or something like that. What do you think?

At some point I assume they will also become the channel that VR content could
be sent through as well, maybe in partnership with Facebook?

~~~
macspoofing
>Maybe a stupid questions but what if they disrupted not just TV but also
cinema?

They are trying. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2 is being released
simultaneously in theaters and on Netflix. Some chains complained and are
refusing to show it.

But honestly, I don't see it. Cinema is $10-15/person/visit, and Netflix is
$10/mo for an entire library of content. Profit margins for Hollywood aren't
that great - so how do you bridge that price gap? How do you justify spending
$200 million on Force Awakens and hope to recoup that from Netflix fees? You
can't.

~~~
jsmeaton
Maybe it'll force Hollywood to pay actors far far less. Harrison Ford was paid
somewhere between 10 and 25 million (probably towards the lower end of that
scale). Flipping the question a little bit, how do you justify paying actors
40 million for a movie if they're being streamed online for $5 a pop? I'm of
the belief that the better actors are paid far too much and that releasing
cinema to streaming services will correctly adjust the price of new release
films.

For context I watched the force awakens last night at iMax (premium recliner
chairs which was nice!) for $43. But you can't see a movie in Australia for
less than about $23 these days. We're directly funding hollywood's lifestyle.

~~~
munificent
> Flipping the question a little bit, how do you justify paying actors 40
> million for a movie if they're being streamed online for $5 a pop?

This is basic supply and demand. Harrison Ford has a monopoly on Harrison
Ford, so if you want Harrison Ford, you have to pay what Harrison Ford wants
for it.

~~~
losteric
Maybe this will give all the not-Harrison Fords a better chance. A lot of the
A list is about hiring tried and true great actors... but you can get 80% of
Harrison Ford for much less than 80% of his current asking price.

Much like making music, filming technology is already commoditized at the
entry level... it's distribution costs that remain high (hard to reach a large
audience without massive ad $$, known actors, and an established publisher).
Netflix would seriously disrupt that, boosting "indie" film making in the same
way that Spotify / youtube / myspace / etc seriously boosted non-mainstream
music. We still have A-list musicians but the long tail is seeing far more
success than before.

~~~
frandroid
Netflix has paid Kevin Spacey his price, anyway, so the point is kind of moot.

------
LoSboccacc
In europe we just get netflix lite, with old and uninteresting stuff sparkled
with some original content and random rares. I hope someday we'll get this
netflix you all talk about.

~~~
rconti
Netflix's catalog(ue) is a shadow of its former self. I'm a Netflix
subscriber, and can pretty much guarantee that any movie I attempt to watch
will NOT be available on Netflix streaming.

I have somewhat better luck with the previous episodes of American TV shows.

~~~
geoelectric
I don't approach Netflix as "I want to see this movie so I go here," so much
as "I want to watch something, so I'll pick from here." I'm never lacking a
choice to watch, even with fairly specific criteria in mind.

If I know exactly what I want to watch (and don't get lucky enough to find it
on Amazon/Netflix/Hulu) I pay for PPV. I don't expect magic for <$10/mo,
especially when the going rate for a one-off viewing is nearly half that.

~~~
ansible
_I don 't approach Netflix as "I want to see this movie so I go here," so much
as "I want to watch something, so I'll pick from here." I'm never lacking a
choice to watch, even with fairly specific criteria in mind._

Yeah. My main beef with Netflix is that I'd like to just sort content based on
the 5-star rating. I'll rarely want to watch something that is less than a
2.0. And I'll consider just about anything that is 4.5 and above.

~~~
fastball
But you _can_ filter Netflix content by rating, at least on desktop. Just
select a genre from the top left, and then select "HIGHEST RATED" from the
"Sort by" dropdown on the right.

Or is that not what you are looking for?

~~~
ansible
I can indeed get more information from the website. I just want more of that
from the Android client, which is where I spend most of my time. I'd also like
to read the text reviews sometimes, so it would be nice to at least have a
website link from inside the app, even if they don't want to put that directly
in the Android client.

I do have a Windows laptop, but I rarely consume content on that these days.
Mostly I am watching from my tablet, sometimes from my phone, and just very
occasionally from my Blueray player (because the UI is terrible, slow, and
buggy).

~~~
andybak
So many apps seem to lack the basic: Filter by x and Sort by x for all of the
obvious criteria. What bastardized yearning for simplicity has led to removing
such a simple clear piece of functionality? It's familiar, doesn't add
excessive clutter and scales well between power-users and lesser mortals. Why
is it increasingly rare?

~~~
91bananas
Only guess I have for Netflix specifically is the fact that they have built
clients for every device under the sun. This was and still is part of their
M.O. It is just time consuming and difficult to write a heavier feature set in
to all of your clients when theyre on every smart tv ever, Xbox, probably
toasters, God knows what else

~~~
fastball
Content filters are ridiculously easy to implement though. As long as you
already have the browsing view, all you need to add is a picker that changes
whatever DB query you are using to select the data.

Like in SQL all you would need to do is change this:

    
    
      SELECT * FROM movies
    

to this:

    
    
      SELECT * FROM movies ORDER BY rating ASC
    

When I built a web app for film management, that was by far the easiest thing
to implement.

------
Tunecrew
In my experience, Netflix is horrid outside the US - a much more limited
catalogue and a lot of mismatched foreign language content.

I live in Jamaica and had subscribed to the version that was legitimately
available to us w/o using a VPN or proxy or similar service.

The result was twofold:

\- less content than on the US version (but the same price)

\- a whole lot of content available in overdubbed Spanish only or with baked-
on subtitles.

Guess they don't realize that south of the border there are countries that
speak English (as well as French, Dutch and Portuguese).

Our cable companies have the same problem trying to legitimately license
content from US broadcast and cable networks - they want to dump the "Latin
American" feed on us...

~~~
lucaspiller
> Guess they don't realize that south of the border there are countries that
> speak English (as well as French, Dutch and Portuguese).

I was working in Italy for a bit although they had audio in English for most
programs I wanted to watch, subtitles were only available in Italian. Again,
it's all because of licensing...

~~~
Tunecrew
it is about two things - licensing as well as market size.

in the case of the latter, big media companies just don't care about small
markets, as the cost of operating them is greater than the potential profits
realized.

in the case of the former, i work in media and you are absolutely right -
media licensing is stuck in a 1985 model, which only serves to sustain a few
middlemen kind of players, but in the bigger picture sucks for both consumers
and the companies that own the content.

one particular result of this is that many people who can't legitimately get
what the want (in terms of downloads, streams, etc.) will just pirate it,
having tried unsuccessfully to do things the right way and been frustrated.

------
konschubert
Netflix is transforming into an on-demand cable channel. I want to pay a
monthly fee and get a Spotify for movies. I don't want to pay 10 Euro a month
for netflix originals plus a handful of old movies.

~~~
jedberg
> I want to pay a monthly fee and get a Spotify for movies

Unfortunately that would cost you about the same as a cable subscription due
to the licensing costs.

~~~
konschubert
I am fine paying this much. Potentially. Maybe they could also sell subsets
for a lower price?

~~~
toomuchtodo
You're most likely in the minority. Spotify and Hulu can barely get people to
pay ~$10-12/month.

Lots of content = its all worth a whole lot less to people.

~~~
BHSPitMonkey
How does that explain the cable industry?

~~~
shortstuffsushi
IMO, that's the same problem as paying $50 plus for a console or pc game, but
refusing to pay for apps on your phone.

------
jedberg
To everyone freaking out about the map not showing all the countries, it
doesn't appear to be updated.

If you read the press release it is available in every country in the world
except Syria, Crimea, North Korea and China.

~~~
smackfu
I'm surprised someone considers Crimea a country. I thought it was part of
Ukraine, and now is part of Russia. Or if you dispute that, it is still a part
of Ukraine.

~~~
AJ007
First another country takes control over the place you live, then the US
government bans everyone from letting you participate in global trade. I guess
the same thing happened in Cuba.

~~~
dfkf
And why would the US do such a thing? Denying poor crimeans who suffer under
brutal Russian occupation these small pleasures of life...

------
donretag
Now you can cancel your account worldwide!

Previously, the Netflix website did not work at all from outside of their
regions. Want to cancel online? You cannot. Call them? Only if you are willing
to pay for a overseas call. No email support, nothing.

I took these steps to cancel my account: 1) Open a Twitter account 2) Tweet
about canceling my account 3) Send friend request (or whatever it is called)
4) Accept friend request 5) Send direct message 6) Receive a direct message
with an email account 7) Send an email about cancelling my account

Cancel a Netflix account from overseas, all in 7 easy steps.

~~~
reustle
Or you could just make a voip call via any of the free options (ie Google
hangouts)

~~~
donretag
With Hangouts and Skype, you had to buy at least $10 worth of credit. I used
Skype to call home. Point is, their website should have worked for account
issues. The interesting part is that you are able to sign up for services from
overseas (that part worked), just not cancel them.

~~~
yincrash
You had to buy credit to make hangouts calls to US numbers? As far as I know,
calls to the US should be free via hangouts.

[https://www.google.com/voice/b/0/rates?p=hangout](https://www.google.com/voice/b/0/rates?p=hangout)

------
flixic

        enjoy Netflix original series including Marvel’s Daredevil 
        and Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Narcos, Sense8, Grace and 
        Frankie, and Marco Polo
    

House of Cards notably missing. Lithuanian here, great that we have it now,
but have no idea why House of Cards is not available.

~~~
dirkdk
ha yah, and that is a great series. Too american?

~~~
dagw
Netflix sold the overseas distribution rights to House of Cards back before
they decided to bet on international expansion, so they don't own the rights
to that show in all countries any more.

------
e28eta
I think we'll get to see just how compelling the Netflix original catalog is
when we see global customer numbers.

My understanding is that Netflix doesn't have streaming rights for most of the
content that isn't theirs internationally, and that was the biggest barrier
before.

My guess is that uptake will be slow, but the great thing is they just keep
creating more content, so it'll be more compelling every year.

~~~
DasIch
Netflix doesn't have the streaming rights for their own content in some
countries because they have sold that to others in the past at least
temporarily.

------
atonse
This is awesome news.

Now if only BBC's iPlayer would become global and allow us non-brits to pay
for it (effectively subsidizing the TV license maybe?), that would be heaven.

~~~
matthewrudy
Until recently I could watch it using my VPN from Hong Kong, but recently
they've been blocking access from VPNs.

I should set up my own VPN again, instead of using paid for services.

Edit: I can't decide if that's a good or bad thing, given I've never paid for
a UK TV licence, but for official purposes I still live at my parents' house,
who do pay.

~~~
lorenzhs
You could spin up a DigitalOcean droplet in the London region around once a
week and use youtube-dl to download the bits you're interested in. Cost would
be like $0.10 per month. You could even make a script that sets up an OpenVPN
droplet and automatically tears it down, would still be very very cheap.

~~~
matthewrudy
I ran openvpn on digital ocean before.

But then I wanted one in the UK sometimes, and in the US sometimes.

And then I tried to watch HKTV from Taiwan, so needed one in HK.

So I ended up with ExpressVPN.

But... let's see what happens this year. Especially with netflix!

~~~
lorenzhs
If you set it up manually each time, sure, that won't work very well. But you
should be able to automate that - create the config (CA and everything) once
and then just spin up a droplet via the API, install the packages, copy and
unpack the config. I don't think you'd need to customize more than the sever's
IP address in the config.

I built something similar with sshuttle (way easier than OpenVPN) two years
ago, it's at
[https://github.com/lorenzhs/instavpn](https://github.com/lorenzhs/instavpn)
but it uses the old DO API and is rather hacky. sshuttle also isn't very good
for streaming.

~~~
matthewrudy
I'll have a go! Thanks for the suggestion.

------
YogeeKnows
Most people relate Netflix to 'movies'. I have been an on - off customer of
Netflix and thoughts of leaving it often crosses my mind.

But the only thing which keeps me on it are the TV shows, seasons and seasons
of it. I'm currently watching Mad Men , that's 6+ seasons I want to watch. I
love the luxury of just catching up on a 30-45 min TV show while I'm
multitasking, eating, playing PS4 etc.

I think Netflix or competitors who want loyal customers ,expanding library of
TV shows should be their prominent strategy. I would suggest - giving out free
episodes for every season, atleast 2 and see the signups go up.

~~~
wjoe
It depends where you are. In the UK, their selection of TV is much more
limited than the US - for example we don't have your example of Mad Men. Their
original shows are very good though, and they have a decent selection of
British TV (ironically they have more BBC shows than BBC's own streaming
service).

Their selection of popular/well known movies has been decreasing over time
though, as they've been losing some of those licences. But there's enough of
them that it's good enough for "I want to watch some movie, let's see what's
on Netflix".

~~~
Brakenshire
> they have a decent selection of British TV (ironically they have more BBC
> shows than BBC's own streaming service).

> Their selection of popular/well known movies has been decreasing over time
> though, as they've been losing some of those licences. But there's enough of
> them that it's good enough for "I want to watch some movie, let's see what's
> on Netflix".

Not sure I agree with either. They have some old UK TV, but not that much. BBC
offers almost no archive tv on iPlayer, so that's not much of a comparison!
And I had to spend a significant amount of time trying to find any film I
wanted to watch. My impression of the services was a bit like renting access
to 10-15 box sets (Mad Men, Breaking Bad, some BBC Dickens adaptations, etc),
and about 50 randomly selected, vaguely entertaining films. I had it for about
4 months before running out of anything I wanted to watch.

------
fredliu
Aws and Amazon Instant Video probably are very separate businesses. And right
now, aws is obviously much more successful than Amazon Video. But is that
enough reason for Netlfix to be not scared of being a full aws shop and not
worrying the fact that their biggest - probably the only - competitor (Amazon
Video) also shares the same parent company as Netflix's main tech provider
(aws)?

~~~
worried_citizen
Along the same line of questioning what's to stop Netflix from packing up bags
and moving to GCE/Azure?

~~~
djloche
Cost. Switching would cost a ton of time and money, which is probably better
spent in securing streaming rights for popular shows, creating their own
shows, and marketing to increase their subscriber base.

~~~
atonse
Netflix is a high profile enough customer that I think they would get amazing
discounts from MS or Google if they moved, just so those providers can parade
around talking about this massive high-profile defection.

------
runn1ng
It doesn't have a lot of contents in here (Czech Republic).

But! It has complete history of Power Rangers franchise. I think every Power
Rangers episode in history is there. So there is that.

~~~
herbst
Same here in Switzerland. For a moment it hyped and everybody had it, now i
dont know a single person where i know he still uses it as the content barely
did expand, and really is not much. Next to that we have hundreds of really
good gray streaming sites (its legal to pirate here in switzerland) in the
german room, which each has more movies and series available.

------
PeterStuer
I apologize if this is something that I overlooked in the announcement, but
does this mean Netflix will now have the same catalog available everywhere? In
the press release they only seem to refer to Netflix original series. Last
time I looked the Netflix content that was available to subscribers here
(Belgium) was extremely poor and not comparable at all to what US Netflix
subscribers are used to.

~~~
kagamine
Same experience here in Norway. Subscribed, unsubscribed after a month as the
content compared to the US/UK catalog was severely lacking. On reddit around
that time there were a few 'top 10' lists, things like '10 documentaries on
netflix you must see', that sort of thing, there were only ever about 3 of 10
available here. The service is by no means cheaper here either.

------
erikb
Everybody talks mostly about the content. I started using Netflix (Germany +
US), because of the technology. I don't want to move to my next apartment with
thousands of discs, and when I want to watch something I don't want to search
for days before i find the disc. Streaming is the way to go and at least in
Europe Netflix is the only one who does it right. (Youtube of course as well,
but youtube has no interesting movies/tv shows with licenses and high quality)

What I'm really missing is the option to pay for single premium movies like
the newest Avengers movie like I could on Amazon or Google. I don't understand
why they don't offer the content that may be too expensive to them for general
access at least for extra pay.

------
_mikz
The linked full list of countries and territories where Netflix is now
available
[https://help.netflix.com/en/node/14164](https://help.netflix.com/en/node/14164)
does not show all the 130 countries.

~~~
scott_hardy
Good catch! If anyone is wondering, the map shows 87 countries.

~~~
tequila_shot
It doesn't include India. Edit: For Indians
[http://mashable.com/2016/01/06/netflix-ces-
keynote/?utm_cid=...](http://mashable.com/2016/01/06/netflix-ces-
keynote/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-link#R.74.ZJ_0iqI)

~~~
bosky101
I does include India. I just signed up, and started streaming my first flick.

starting at $7.5/month (500 INR) with a first month free trial.

~~~
iokanuon
The parent said that the outdated map doesn't include India, not that Netflix
isn't available in India now.

------
Strom
Apparently playback is limited to 720p on Chrome/Firefox. [1] Also the
selection seems rather limited in Estonia, not even House of Cards season 1 is
available! Very disappointing.

[1]
[https://help.netflix.com/en/node/23742?ba=GSButtonClick&q=](https://help.netflix.com/en/node/23742?ba=GSButtonClick&q=)

------
r3bl
Aaaand... they don't accept my credit card. I swear to god, I see this over
and over again: services becoming available in my country (in Europe), but
refusing credit cards that are pretty popular in Europe (like Maestro and Visa
Electron).

~~~
pilsetnieks
It's not Netflix's fault that your Maestro and Visa Electron aren't usable on
the internet. Also, they are debit cards, not credit.

~~~
r3bl
I believe that this is mostly because neither of them are available in the
U.S. (as far as I know). Every single European service that I tried to use
them with (note: I haven't used plenty of them) accepted them without any
issues.

As an example, while Amazon.com does not provide the support for them,
Amazon.co.uk accepts my Visa Electron card without any issues and I bought a
Raspberry Pi using Maestro.

------
deepuj
Netflix will have a positive effect in countries like India. Their entry will
help force ISPs to upgrade their infrastructure and increase average speeds.
The benefits will hopefully trickle down to all internet users!

~~~
geodel
Thats like saying entry of BMW in India will force upgrade of road
infrastructure. I do not see how or why entry of Netflix will force ISPs in
anyway. ARPU for Cable TV in India is ~Rs 300 so Netflix is twice as expensive
there. In sharp contrast to US where Netflix will probably will be the
cheapest streaming service.

~~~
jrmcauliffe
There is usually only one provider of roads..

------
satyajeet23
A worldwide VPN just became the best Netflix accessory ever \-
[http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/6/10724378/netflix-
everywhere...](http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/6/10724378/netflix-everywhere-
ces-2016-vpn-best-accessory)

------
maguay
Exciting to now have Netflix officially in Asia (Thailand for me), though its
catalogue is decidedly sparse. There's no BBC shows (so no Sherlock or Dr.
Who), no AMC (so no Breaking Bad or Walking Dead), no CBS/ABC shows (so no How
I Met Your Mother or The Office), and oddly enough no House of Cards (though
that's the only original series that seems to be missing here—and presumably
that's missing because they sold international rights).

If Netflix launched internationally with this sparse of a catalogue a year
ago, it'd be a much more major problem. Today, though, Netflix has enough of
their own series that there's a decent amount of new/interesting stuff to
watch. Perk of owning their own content is that they already have the
rights—nothing to negotiate for each new country.

Still, for now, the catalogue is sparse enough, you'll want a VPN to get your
money's worth from a Netflix subscription outside the States.

Another interesting little thing. Better Call Saul is AMC in the States, but
it's called a Netflix Original in most other countries—even Thailand where
Netflix doesn't have any other AMC shows.

Also: HBO, time to get HBO Now in Asia.

~~~
grillvogel
too be fair the US catalog is pretty sparse these days as well

------
drdaeman
Now, I'm curious - is there any way I check what would be available in my
specific country _without_ signing up and starting a trial?

I want to be able to at least just do a few search queries to check if what I
had watched recently is there or I shouldn't even bother and save that "free
month" offer for later (because if there's nothing to watch it'd be wasted).

~~~
donarb
instantwatcher.com shows what titles are available and let's you queue them up
on Netflix if you have an account. Not sure if they have a regional filter
yet.

~~~
drdaeman
Thanks!

I've just ran through what I had watched any recently. _No single title_ was
found. Not even on US Netflix.

And I wasn't watching any obscure stuff - I practically visited popular
directory sites (like IMDB), set some basic genre filters and considered
watching whatever had >=7.0 and some interesting description. Then, if I liked
what I saw, checked some more by a same director.

Guess, I'll have to stay with my parrot and wooden leg.

------
shmerl
Reducing geoblocking is a step forward. Another step should be dropping it
altogether, and DRM too.

So far DRM-free video didn't manage to break through on big scale.

------
bluelu
I don't know if a netflix engineer reads this:

I still have an issue that I can only watch some series/movies (e.g. sherlock
holmes series) only in french + english, while my friends can watch them in
english + german. All in same country (Luxembourg).

Changing the language on the tv and resetting netflix (konami code) changed to
the "german" version. But now it's back to english + french.

Best thing would be to have access to all 3 languages here and not make any
choice/guess based on tv language or browser environment

~~~
stephen-mw
If you email me at swood@netflix.com I can forward it to somebody who may be
able to help.

~~~
hotgoldminer
Has anyone considered skipping the opening credits of a tv shows? With all the
user data you have, it would seem easy enough to detect a pattern. Button
click goes to most common skipped-forward point.

~~~
orbitur
I'd like 30-second skip forward & back. Too often I want to catch something
again or skip a part I know is boring, and if it's a really long movie I have
to guess where to click in the timeline.

------
awqrre
But you probably can't tell your friend that is from another country to watch
what you watched last night because it is more then likely not available in
their country.

------
vinceyuan
What can I watch on Netflix? I am in Asia and did not use Netflix before. I
visited netflix.com but still don't have a clear view of it. The website says
"Watch TV shows & movie anytime, anywhere. Plans from $X a month", but does
not provide a complete list.

I watched HBO on TV which continuously shows (old) movies. I know Netflix is
not like HBO. It is a VOD system, like a video version of Apple Music. Is it
correct?

~~~
throwaway049
Different films and shows are available in different countries and regions
depending on Netflix's ability to licence, and what they anticipate customers
will want. Which country are you in?

~~~
vinceyuan
Hong Kong

------
devhxinc
I wonder what the user experience will be since a good experience relies on
content loading quickly through CDNs. Netflix mainly uses AWS, Akamai,
Limelight and Level 3 along with its own CDN to deliver content. The majority
of the new countries do not have local CDN edge nodes. (This is super
frustrating when developing for African and some Asian countries)

It seems Netflix has an uphill battle ahead with regards to content licensing
and content delivery.

~~~
virtuallynathan
Netflix mostly uses their own CDN now (AS2906) with PoPs all over the world.
AWS runs the non-CDN infrastructure. I'd guess they may use the "local" CDN in
some markets while they find interconnection hubs and build out their PoPs.

------
JohnK87
Good news for people that don't have local Netflix because streaming content
online is much more convenient than watching DVDs etc. However, the new
regions of Netflix will have a maximum number of 500 unique titles which is
very low compared to US Netflix (5000 titles). If you want to get a good value
for your money, you can use services like Unotelly and access all regions of
Netflix. You get about 1000% more content with a minimum cost.

------
jakozaur
Oh, yeah! I just wonder if movie selection is the same, or if in some
countries there are more titles. Anyone got information on that?

~~~
dikaiosune
"For one monthly price, members around the world will be able to enjoy Netflix
original series including Marvel’s Daredevil and Marvel’s Jessica Jones,
Narcos, Sense8, Grace and Frankie, and Marco Polo, as well as a catalog of
licensed TV shows and movies. In 2016, the company plans to release 31 new and
returning original series, two dozen original feature films and documentaries,
a wide range of stand-up comedy specials and 30 original kids series --
available at the same time to members everywhere."

This implies to me that their original content is globally available, while
licensed content will still be regionally restricted (and I don't see a way
they could do anything else). Unless I'm missing something in the
announcement?

~~~
curun1r
The other interesting thing about your quote is what's notably absent. It
makes you wonder whether they'll be holding back House of Cards and Orange is
the New Black.

~~~
phantom784
They probably can't show those globally because they've already licensed them
in certain countries.

~~~
rhino369
Iirc, Netflix never owned exclusive rights to House of cards. For example, the
first season was on Comcast streaming as of a year ago.

------
ferongr
Finally, I get to try Netflix, I thought. I signed up for the HD plan, I went
to my playback settings, changed quality to high and decided to watch Pacific
Rim.

[http://i.imgur.com/LKEcMDo.png](http://i.imgur.com/LKEcMDo.png)

Let's just say, it doesn't look like Netflix will be successful to convert me
to streaming.

~~~
jml7c5
I would suspect that that has more to do with your ISP than anything. While
viewing a movie press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+S to select bitrate manually,
Ctrl+Shift+Alt+I (?) for stream info.

------
forcer
Can someone confirm whether signing up to e.g. Netflix in UK and using VPN
with USA ip will give US selection of the movies? I signed up in USA and
regularly switching to UK netflix for some EU tv-series which are not
available in USA. If that works, it would make the subscription quite
interesting even for the new countries which just got released.

~~~
Pxtl
Yes. I used to use unblock-us to access American Netflix content in Canada.

They don't care where you pay your bill, they care where your IP address is.

------
tibbydude
So I signed up for free trail in South Africa.

All of Netflix's own stuff is there but the rest of the catalogue is rather
dire.

------
aritraghosh007
I have always wondered why couldn't YouTube dominate over Netflix's territory?
Mostly what NFLX has is content which makes the barrier to entry not that hard
but YouTube has more publishers/creators and with a wider reach it can easily
reign over this market but quite surprisingly it doesn't.

------
listic
What was stopping them?

Living in Russia (St.-Petersburg), [1] I'm experiencing firsthand the
territorial restrictions that transnational companies impose on us. E.g.
Amazon doesn't offer _any_ books in Russian and for a long time there wasn't
anything of substance to read in App Store nor Google Play, either.

I assumed it's because copyright law works different in every country: to be
able to offer all the property they already have rights to in the USA, in the
new country (e.g. Russia), they have to strike deal(s) with the copyright
holders in that country, perhaps a lengthy and/or impossible task. Yet it
doesn't look like it in case of Netflix: they started working in 130+
countries overnight.

[1] I wonder if it the Russian St.-Petersburg mentioned in the press release?
Works either way: Singapore is far from both.

------
jakozaur
Oh, yeah! I just wonder if movie selection is the same, or if in some
countries there are more titles. Anyone got information on that?

I pay for proxy service just to "pretend" to be in USA and than pay the Neflix
regular price. I believe a lot of ppl will subscribe to Netflix once no
additional tricks are required.

~~~
morgante
The selection is not the same. I just checked and a number of my favorite US
TV shows are not available here in the UAE. Looks like I'll have to continue
using a proxy.

------
tim333
I'm surprised it took so long for some video content company to go global. The
USA is only 16% of global GDP. By just monetizing that and leaving the rest of
the world to torrent shows if they want to keep up there's a lot of money
being left on the table.

------
hosh
I can't tell if we just saw a tipping point here. Maybe I'm just elevating
this. It has the feel of when Apple inverted the negotiating positions between
device makers and wireless providers.

Now I see why Netflix produced their own content. Negotiating for world-wide
streaming rights can be tricky. Having a small set of content that they
control, which gets turned into a guaranteed set of content that can be
delivered for a global network gives them a lot of leverage for negotiating
other content. Well played.

On the other hand, I remember Crunchyroll being available in many countries
(not sure if that is world-wide), though they don't have the clout that
Netflix has, and their content is very specific.

------
nwmcsween
The sad thing is you have to sort of 'cheat' netflix if you want content that
isn't just seemingly random B level shows by using a US proxy. I'm in Canada
and honestly had no idea just how much better the US version of netflix was.

------
nitin88g
Atleast in India, it will not take off. Present internet facilities in India
will not be able to serve this. At an avg HD streaming of a movie in netflix
for 2hrs takes around 3GB bandwidth. In India, except Hyderabad, any major
city the internrt charges are so high that no one adopts it.

For ex: in Bangalore, for 2000rs, you get 20mbps connection capped at 50Gb and
after that its 8mbps only. If I take BSNL, for 2000rs, you get 10mbps capped
at 30Gb and so on. However it might be good for Hyderabad people, where
2000rs, you get 50mbps connection capped at 350Gb.

My point is Indian internet cant simply scale to serve Netflix presently. They
should tie up with ISPs to something magic

~~~
wtmt
Are you living in an area with bad connectivity and very few providers or just
a single provider? Even 8Mbps is a great speed for streaming HD videos. If the
high speed data cap is your limitation, then you should consider airtel or
ACT. For the last few years, they have had plans that provide a whole lot more
for the amount you quote and at speeds ranging from 16Mbps to 100Mbps.

Also, the basic Netflix subscription is only for SD quality, which can easily
take off (heck, people have been watching crappy quality videos on 2G for many
years). As others have pointed out, Netflix does not need a lot of bandwidth.
Of course, the quality will vary, but you definitely don't need a 40Mbps or
100Mbps connection.

Pricing, however, is a huge factor. Having people put in 500 or more a month
for a limited set of content is going to be a challenge for Netflix.

------
alainchabat
I'm failing at finding TV shows outside China for my parents.

I tried lot of IPTV boxes (tvpad, xiaomi box ...) but they all end up super
tricky to use outside China.

Hope Netflix will figure out something great to provide Chinese content! If
anyone here has any recommendation :)

~~~
matthewrudy
If you're into Dramas or Soap Operas, I mostly watch them on Viki.

The majority are Korean, but there's also a good selection of Taiwanese and
Chinese dramas too.

(the content varies depending which country you're in. The selection in the UK
is very big, but in HK there's very little)

[https://www.viki.com/](https://www.viki.com/)

------
mrfusion
Do you think Netflix will ever offer offline viewing? That would be awesome
for traveling.

------
dendory
Too bad that content outside the US is a fraction of what's available in the
US.

------
_mikz
The announcement [https://media.netflix.com/en/press-releases/netflix-is-
now-a...](https://media.netflix.com/en/press-releases/netflix-is-now-
available-around-the-world) links to the full list of countries and
territories where Netflix is now available
[https://help.netflix.com/en/node/14164](https://help.netflix.com/en/node/14164).
But that is not 130 countries. India and Russia are not there for example.

~~~
scriptdevil
India is there now.

------
64bitbrain
This is really great! I remember not while back my parents visited me and I
introduced them to Netflix. While I am at work, they were happy browsing the
shows, thanks for the quality content. However, my parents doesn't have that
much bandwidth to stream 720p at their home. Moreover, the ISP has a data cap
as well. So, its good to see that they will be able to watch the shows they
liked, but limited internet access will be annoying. Cant say if the ISPs will
flow and adopt accordingly.

------
thom
This is good news. Netflix is only remotely usable when you can hop between
different territories after you've watched the three new titles that get added
each couple of months.

------
ilostmykeys
And Google could one day build a video store where anyone can monetize their
video content, which would probably include both big and small content owners,
like TV studios and individuals like me and you. Not sure how copyright would
be managed. Youtube basically does this but the only way to monetize on
youtube right now is via ads. I don't see why Google wouldn't want to add the
ability for youtube content creators to monetize directly via rent/purchase
options.

~~~
timothya
> _the only way to monetize on youtube right now is via ads_

That's not true, you can also set up a channel where users have to pay to
purchase or rent your videos (or pay a subscription to see all of your
videos). More information is here:
[https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/3249127?hl=en](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/3249127?hl=en)

------
vilius
After hearing the news clicked on the notification centre and saw this:
[http://cl.ly/2O26070b3z0S](http://cl.ly/2O26070b3z0S) \-- NFLX +9,31%

It got me thinking how does this work? Surely people working at Netflix knew
that this was coming. Are they allowed to buy stocks with such insider
knowledge? Are they buying?

Even someone like me with zero knowledge in stock markets would assume this
will have a positive impact on the stock price.

~~~
jedberg
Netflix employees are currently locked out, and their internal ethics policy
would prevent them from buying anyway.

I'm a former employee and knew this was coming, but it would still be
ethically and morally wrong for me to trade on this info (and probably illegal
too).

The reason it popped right after is because there are a bunch of computers
that watch twitter for news and trade on it split seconds after it breaks.

------
jug
Netflix is seriously disrupting the cable TV business model, no the least for
example here in Sweden where channels often air TV shows months or even a year
after they've aired in the US. Why would I want to watch something both with
ads and also months late? It's like choosing to suffer for being late. It
doesn't even make sense anymore.

------
d33d33
is it just me who is wondering why i can't see netflix' complete movie/series
list before i register with my credit card ? Don't tell me,
[https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-
netflix#/all?page=1](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix#/all?page=1)
is all they offer?

~~~
donkeyd
That is the "only on Netflix" list. They offer way more. It differs a lot per
country though, so they're not offering the lists per country publicly.

There are some websites that compile lists of what's available on Netflix in
different countries, but they're not always correct.

------
juanmnl
`this comment is not available in your region`

------
audi100quattro
Still not it India or China, all of Asia (except for Japan) and Africa, isn't
what I would call around the world...

~~~
scriptdevil
It is there in India! :D I just signed up. Rs. 500, 650 and 800. Even the
costliest pack is still cheap IMHO

~~~
wtmt
Can you check if the content served is uncensored or if scenes with any kind
of nudity are blurred or cut outright? Check a few episodes of Orange Is The
New Black or Dexter or Marco Polo, maybe? I also wonder if the movies are cuts
or the originals as available in the U.S. Sometimes the shows become
unwatchable when cuts are done wholesale.

------
hotgoldminer
Here's what's gonna happen. They're already doing this. Charge a premium for
streaming bandwidth. Sell a separate 'streaming' package. Bundle. HBO,
Netflix, NFL, Hulu, PBS. They all come standard on the streaming package. A
mere $25 a month on top of your basic $60 100mbps connection.

~~~
alessioalex
Unless you're in Romania and paying 25$ for 1Gb/s internet, cable and phone
altogether :p

------
andyron
"China's not one of them"

~~~
waitingkuo
As always! It need a [http://www.netflix.cn/](http://www.netflix.cn/) first

------
usaphp
I want netflix partner with local translators who already have a lot of tv
series translated in a local language, I live in US but sometimes I like
watching tv series/movies in russian translation, I really want netflix to
have their content available in more languages.

~~~
distances
Netflix has the translations, they are just not provided for you. For example,
Germany has usually both English and German subtitles available for all
content.

My best theory is that Netflix pays for certain regions, and worldwide
subtitle distribution would cost more. That sounds ridiculous though when
comparing to the content itself, but what other reason could there be? The
simplicity of the user interface?

------
dopu
This headline reminded me of Smartflix [0] -- lets you access the entire
Netflix catalogue, regardless of your location. Surprised that Netflix lets
something like this exist.

[0]: [https://www.smartflix.io](https://www.smartflix.io)

~~~
thesimon
>Netflix lets something like this exist

It's not like they can ban Chrome or VPNs

------
sabelo
As a South African, I hope the demand will force ISP's to lower data prices
and improve speeds.

~~~
rconti
As an American, I can guarantee you, demand means nothing to monopoly ISPs. If
you have competition you might have better luck -- but should have had better
luck already.

~~~
sabelo
I hope things will be different in our case. We always get everything last.
Funny enough, South Africa has the best internet infrastructure compared to
the other Southern African Countries. I have been to Zimbabwe and Botswana.
The speeds are decent but it costs an arm and a leg to get a gig of data
there. :/

------
vinothgopi
I'm a little confused.

Map shows very few countries - no Singapore as mentioned in the article

Also the article mentioned 190 countries at one point and 130 at other places.
Moreover, Netflix claims it has 70M subscribers across 130 countries. How is
that possible if they just launched it?

~~~
netvarun
OT: but it works in India now - no more silly vpns needed. There goes my
hidemyass subscription.

~~~
pyvek
But the library isn't as big in India as it is in the US so you might want to
keep your VPN subscription after all.

------
sireat
Will there be Netflix servers/CDNs in each country? I wonder what impact this
will have on cross country traffic. My country has excellent internal network
but outside pipes get clogged at times..

------
natch
Netflix managed to snag Lee Collins (one of the original creators of Unicode)
from Apple recently, which helps explain how they could accomplish the i18n
aspects of this with such a broad range of countries.

~~~
mahouse
You need one of the original creators of Unicode to translate an app?

~~~
natch
Nah. What I mean is it was very sudden and broad, which is a feat. Usually
companies roll this stuff out slowly, market by market.

------
mschuster91
Hmm. Signed up, but not sure if I'll follow through the one free month.

Seriously, all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but The Avengers and Avengers
Assemble missing? What a joke is this? (I'm in Germany)

------
MitjaBezensek
My Samsung TV still doesn't show me the Netflix app. As far as I understand
they didn't show it in the countries where Netflix was not available. I hope
that they will enable it now that it is.

~~~
worried_citizen
AFAIK all of the smart TV apps worked but wouldn't let you sign-up or stream.

------
guytv
This is a new definition of the term "around the world "

------
gremlinsinc
Netflix needs to add live streaming of local channels, and sports to their
package (maybe as addon costs) -- thus giving people no reason at all to keep
cable.

------
everglows
The Carver Media Group Network (CMGN) is a large multi-national news and
entertainment company operated and owned by media mogul, Elliot Carver.

------
l8again
I am curious to know how it plans to charge the masses in countries where
credit cards are not as ubiquitous. That includes countries like India.

------
darklajid
A quick google searches and it seems that I cannot play this content on my TV
in any reasonable way (right now the only thing connected to it is a Kodi
setup. There are addons to play Netflix content, but they are unofficial and I
found a couple different ones, some being forks of others: A mess).

Just like Amazon Prime this is something I'd be generally interested in. But I
cannot consume the content, at least not as easily as local media or random
grey (or plain illegal) sources. All hail DRM.

~~~
unprepare
"a kodi setup" means what?

Do you have an HDMI input on your television?

Is there a reason you can not use a chromecast? Apple TV? Roku? Linux PC?
Windows PC? Mac PC? chromebook? Amazon Prime HD Stick? Intel Compute stick? an
old laptop? a ps4? a ps3? an xbox 360? an xbox one? a wii? a wii u? Many
bluray players?

I'm genuinely curious what you're running kodi on that can't run netflix.

~~~
darklajid
The sibling is right: For me it's a Pi(2) right now. I'm fine with any box,
but expect to have just _one_ box and want a generic thing. Runs Linux, I have
full access & control? Fine.

I don't own a console. I don't buy ~special~ hardware (Apple TV, Fire TV etc.)
and don't use Chrome at all/see no value in a Chromecast.

So, given a Linux machine connected via HDMI trying to play Netflix seems to
be .. gambling. Might work with unofficial clients, probably using Flash?
Maybe?

It might be worth trying Netflix, since that's billed monthly, I can use the
free first month to fiddle around aimlessly until it might work somehow and
when it breaks I'll just cancel. Amazon bills for a year, and since there's no
officially supported way for me to use the service I .. won't even try to use
that.

Too much effort.

------
11thEarlOfMar
Here is a chart of subscriber growth since 2012:

[http://www.statista.com/statistics/250934/quarterly-
number-o...](http://www.statista.com/statistics/250934/quarterly-number-of-
netflix-streaming-subscribers-worldwide/)

Does anyone have an idea of the total population of coverage added today? I'm
wondering if the growth accelerates from here. Seems like it would, but then
Netflix has likely already initiated service in the most lucrative markets.

~~~
jypepin
your link requires people to pay to see the chart.

~~~
11thEarlOfMar
That's odd... It came up for me, no questions asked. And I don't pay for
anything ;-)

------
Scarbutt
Netflix in my country is like living in the 90s.

------
satyajeet23
Reed Hastings announced that Netflix service has gone live in nearly every
country of the world but China

------
edpichler
Meanwhile, Brazilian Government is discussing how to tax Netflix (more than it
already does indirectly).

------
Dirlewanger
And yet they STILL don't have a way to filter to show only Netflix-only
content...

------
odiroot
It seems Iron Curtain is still alive. Still no love for Poland (nearly a 40M
market).

~~~
runn1ng
From what people say, the map is not complete and it should work in Poland
too. It definitely works here (Czech Republic).

~~~
odiroot
Thanks, I got confused by this map.

------
Keyframe
"Around the World"

edit: they've updated their info.. it really is around the world.

------
facepalm
Are they saying the same content will be available everywhere in the world?

~~~
c3o
Nope

------
thegreatpeter
I can't wait for Netflix to provide their own News channel :)

~~~
theklub
I was thinking they should add video podcasters.

------
benyami
Where is Netflix available?
[https://help.netflix.com/en/node/14164](https://help.netflix.com/en/node/14164)

(from the article)

------
jggonz
Disclaimer: Cuban here (living in US)

Available in Cuba? Try to find the bandwidth... Seriously, why include Cuba in
the list? That makes their statement a bit of a joke in my opinion.

~~~
jedberg
It was actually in Cuba a few months ago when the embargo lifted. :)

------
neximo4
Not a single African country is listed. If was to be available worldwide the
least that could be done is at least one country could be added from the
entire continent.

~~~
city41
That was a blunder. Netflix is now in 190 out of the 196 countries in the
world.

~~~
smackfu
They only call out four exclusions, China, Crimea, North Korea, and Syria. So
it's probably not really 190, it's (# of countries in the world) - 4.

------
GeorgeMatthews
That's nice finally the time has come

------
gbraad
Except China

------
ngneer
Then why did I move to the states?

------
neo11235
not available in China...

------
neo11235
not available in China

------
swagv
F* Netflix, really.

------
kipdotcom
Too bad Netflix isn't available in any African country.

------
grabcocque
The sudden spike in babies caused by "...and chilling" is going to put a
serious strain on the world's resources. :(

------
rsync
Very sad and lame that this is "news".

Did we forget how all of this works ?

Netflix is a web site. Currently, there is only one global Internet. Therefore
netflix is available everywhere there is Internet connectivity.

Anything other than that simple scenario is an embarrassing (and epic) fail.

~~~
wnevets
welcome to international content licensing and copyright laws.

~~~
rsync
No, it is I who welcome you to being a viewer of the "web" rather than being a
peer on the Internet.

It could have been different.

~~~
jsmeaton
I see the point you're trying to make, but there are still "traditional" laws
that need to change for the global internet to support all kinds of media. To
be fair, Netflix are trying to drive the change that will lead to this
idealistic global internet, no?

------
antman
Somebody should tell Netflix that the EU is a unified market by law that does
not exempt any digital service. So they had to sell to all EU countries right
from the start.

At least the whole story with the vpns can stop. (Unless you live in
Greece...)

[http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/buyi...](http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/buying-
services/index_en.htm)

    
    
      ""For these types of services, and others, you have the 
      right to buy from a service provider located
      in another EU country without:
        -price discrimination
        -having the seller refuse to sell to you simply 
        because you live in a different EU country.""
    

edit: You cannot deny services to the whole European Economic Area (wikipedia
has a map so you can compare and see the excluded countries)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Economic_Area](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Economic_Area)

edit:formatting

~~~
avar
If you're right why do you think Netflix's CEO is saying the EEA isn't there
yet due to the lack of a digital single market[1] and why is the European
commission proposing a "digital single market" as part of its Europe 2020
plans[2]?

1\. [http://www.euractiv.com/sections/infosociety/netflix-ceo-
eur...](http://www.euractiv.com/sections/infosociety/netflix-ceo-europe-needs-
strong-net-neutrality-rules-314368)

2\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe_2020](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe_2020)

