The streaming war in the Australian TV landscape is rapidly upon us, as the final big player in the game is gearing up for launch. The highly-anticipated Australian branch of Netflix is soon to debut on our shores, amidst the already-launched competition of Stan and Presto – Channel 9 and Foxtel‘s rival offerings respectively.
While Stan and Presto led the way with their launches in January, Netflix Australia has been biding time carefully on the sidelines, ready to pounce next month with a clever partnership with Optus – it was last rumoured to be dropping on March 31. The fate of its TV lineup, before today, was relatively uncertain – shows like Netflix’s groundbreaking ‘House of Cards’ were up in the air, following on from its Australian broadcast rights being held by Foxtel.
Today, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos has confirmed what we all hoped would be true, announcing that ‘House of Cards’ will lead the Australian Netflix’s premiere. Sarandos confirmed that all three seasons of the show would be launched when Netflix hits the Australian scene – yet to be officially confirmed when.’Bloodline’, ‘Marco Polo’ and ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schimdt’ have also been confirmed for the Australian release.
The trouble with that announcement is, of course, that the third season of ‘House of Cards’ is being released in full on February 27 in the US, making its debut on Netflix at some point in March a li’l less appealing. I’m not saying that Aussies will eat up the third season by *other means* rather than waiting patiently for a service that has been surprisingly lax about its release date, but also that’s exactly what I’m saying. Ya feel.
Over the weekend, Netflix released the longest teaser trailer for House of Cards’ third season yet – it’s two and a half minutes, features no faces, and says absolutely nothing discernible about what to expect. Great! Watch below.
Via SMH.
