If your list of New Year’s Resolutions includes the phrase “World Domination,” and it already has a tick of accomplishment next to it, chance are you work for Netflix.
The streaming giant quietly dropped a bombshell on the global media community overnight, revealing that they’d flicked the switch to make the service available worldwide.
Presenting the keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, company chief executive Reed Hastings announced that the service was now available in 130 new countries, including the likes of Azerbaijan, Vietnam, India, Nigeria, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and Turkey.
In fact, only the most disputed of areas remain Netflix-less; China, Syria, North Korea and Crimea are the only countries/regions in the world where Netflix is still unavailable.
Prior to the announcement, the service was available in 60 countries. The move caught just about everyone in the industry well and truly off guard, given Netflix’s previously stated goal of being available in most of the world by the end of this current year.
The unprecedented move was billed as “the birth of a global TV network,” as Hastings proudly bellowed.
What’s more, and this is the real kicker for Australian users, Hastings predicted an end to geoblocking, declaring a company goal of having the same library of content available to every Netflix user, regardless of location.
“As we build our library and renew existing deals we’re getting to the state where over the next five or 10 years everything will be consistent around Netflix and everything will be available globally.”
“We’re moving as quickly as we can. We’re still somewhat a prisoner of the current distribution architecture.”
“We want the citizens of the world to have the same content.”
“It’s going to be a patchwork for a while but all that regional availability is going to narrow over time. The technology is there; it’s the business models that now stand in the way.”
“The constraints of linear television are falling away one by one.”
The announcement comes on the heels of the company announcing a raft of original content for their 2016 slate, including the new season of the widely acclaimed Orange is the New Black, the premiere of Baz Luhrmann‘s hip-hop series The Get Down, as well as the recently announced deal to bring Disney content to the service, which now includes the entire Star Wars franchise.
This is, no hyperbole, absolutely massive.
Photo: Pascal le Segretain/Getty Images.
