Friday, July 26, 2013

The triumph of Netflix

Is Netflix about to kill the ordinary broadcasters? A recent article in the New York Times answers: yes, maybe. This highly successful distribution system which has more than 20 millions subscribers in the US is beginning to be a successful producer. Its first serie "House of Cards" is considered one of the best in recent years. It seems that after this successful attempt, Nestflix intends to work more and more with Hollywood and spread its programs all over the world.

And why not? The subscription to Netflix is rather cheap, around 10 dollars a month as compared to the high cost of cable subscriptions that can go up to 100 dollars.  The offer is attractive and varied. For the moment, Netflix is far ahead of Google, apple and Amazon who try to launch universal TV programs delivered through the Web but lag far behind.

What about France? For the moment Canal Plus has a kind of monopoly on pay TV and Netflix is still absent, a bit scared by French regulations. However, this is not going to last. The future of television relies upon video on information websites and fiction on low cost channels that can be watched on every support, computers, tablets or smartphones. A lot of food for thought for the big three: TF1, M6 and Canal Plus.