ISLANDERS, get your snacks and be ready for some “wonderful” sleepless nights! Legal streaming media Netflix announced during the Consumer Electronics Show at Las Vegas that it would be launched in 130 new countries — a list on which Mauritius features. Netflix is THE platform for tv shows, movies and other multimedia content. Mauritian subscribers will have access to all the Netflix services free of charge for a month.
Otherwise, the monthly costs of the different packages are Rs 280 and Rs 385; What else to ask for!
Lots of us have been waiting for this; adding Netflix to our daily checklist… who can say that we are boring, huh?
However, Netflix is more than just an entertainment partner. Here’s why and how:
This is where the value gets created
It’s not too difficult to buy a web domain, license some movies or TV shows — or even create some new ones — and roll them out into a subscription video-on-demand package.
What sets Netflix apart is its deep understanding of how much each piece of content is worth, its ability to spread content costs over tens of millions of subscribers, and its ability to find audiences for niche programming. These are the advantages that could make Netflix worthy of its massive valuation.
Superior information service.
One of the pillars leading to Netflix’s success is its massive trove of user data. Netflix big data provides it with accurate information on what its tens of millions of users watch (and when they watch it). This allows Netflix to predict whether new content will be successful. They call it the ‘CHANNELING GURU’.
Not only does Netflix’s data tell it what types of movies and TV shows to add to the service, it also gives the company a very good sense of what each one is worth. Since Netflix doesn’t provide “ratings,” and there are no third-party companies providing ratings for streaming video, the content owners have a much cruder sense of what a particular movie or TV series is worth to Netflix. This helps Netflix get pretty favorable content deals most of the time.
Massive scale
Another key competitive advantage is Netflix’s massive scale, both in the U.S. and globally. The marginal cost of distributing video content to more users is fairly negligible. As a result, Netflix’s growth allows it to spread its content costs over an ever-larger audience. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has called this a ‘’virtuous cycle’’ of higher subscriber numbers and higher content spending.
Yet, what is often forgotten among Netflix’s many assets is its leadership. After all, this is a company that has successfully disrupted the greater video entertainment industry twice, if not three times. So are you ready to welcome this major blockbuster to your favourite links?
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