Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2011. Netflix launched in Latin America in September 2011 but reached Spain only in October 2015, so the forecast that Spain would be its European entry point in 2012 did not come true. The $8 price and Spain’s private-copying levy also reflect 2011.
The TV series and movie rental business has a name: Netflix. The platform is already the undisputed, absolute leader in digital content distribution in the United States, ahead even of file-sharing platforms such as BitTorrent.
Netflix’s business model is simple. Users pay a low fee, a kind of flat rate, that lets them watch as many series and movies online as they like. In the United States the fee is 8 dollars. In Spain the price for users hasn’t been set yet, although there is some concern about our canon digital (Spain’s private-copying levy on devices and media), whose “fee” is higher than in the rest of Europe.
With Netflix, users never download the movie or series or store it on any physical medium. Viewing is always by streaming.
The platform says that in less than 3 years it will become the biggest video store in the world. The virtual video stores that exist so far charge per title, so Netflix should have no trouble breaking into the market thanks to its flat rate.
Netflix will enter Latin America this very year, and its gateway to Europe will come in 2012, starting with Spain, one of the countries that “consumes” the most movies and series.
Further reading
- Walt Disney and Paramount Pictures to lay off workers as the film business struggles
- Google negotiates with the film industry to ease its crisis
Featured image: Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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