[harkyns_castle]

They'll have to lift their game in Australia then, their offerings are fairly stale and generally B-grade stuff. I've cut the cord, but the old guard are holding onto some of the content at least.

I suspect that is Uncle Rupert's doing though. For the last decade or so Foxtel have been trying to extort Australians by grabbing all the content and charging ridiculous rates, its good to see some competition.

I suspect the corrupt, wizened old greedbag's next move will be in some paragraph of the TPP, where it'll be against the treaty to do what Netflix do and he'll be able to sue the Australian government for anything that restricts his greedy ways.

[curiouscats]

Paying to own content is a big part of Netflix strategy. It takes time to build that up thought. Australia seems like a good example of the challenges trying to pay the owner a fee to show it for some time in some countries.

10 years from now Netflix will have a huge amount of content they own everywhere. It is kind of funny they don't even own the rights to show some of the content they are seen to own in some countries (because they allowed rights to be sold to others in various countries where Netflix didn't operate yet).

It seems like Netflix is either showing restraint about paying to license content in every country or those selling it are not willing to sell it.

And beyond that I do think Uncle Rupert has created extra problems for content in Australia (it seems Australia is the worst Netflix catalogue based on what people say - I haven't actually examined it).

[harkyns_castle]

Its fairly poor comparatively. The way things are going though, I wouldn't be surprised to see VPN's banned, or attempted to.

I'm not against paying for content I must say, there needs to be an incentive to make it after all. Just not one repulsively rich prick doing it. You'd think after your 2nd billion you'd pull back and think, "I've probably got enough now, I can live happily".

[thomasfoster96]

Netflix in Australia has the problem that they're also competing with Presto and Stan, who are owned by the major free-to-air TV networks, and who also have exclusive deals for a lot of American shows/movies and thus Netflix couldn't have a lot of stuff available in Australia.

[harkyns_castle]

True. As a consumer, I'd have to subscribe to three+ different providers, all charging a monthly cost, to get at everything now. Or more specifically, just the things I want to watch.

The 'old' Foxtel model was similar; you want to watch a few things? Well, you'll have to buy all the channels for $100+ per month just to see the bits you want.

It doesn't seem like a sensible situation for the people that want to sell content. Seems very sensible for the people that want to control the content though, in terms of making out like gangbusters.