Netflix is the new black

The arrival of Netflix in Australia is just a “matter of timing” according to Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos. Speaking at the Mipcom conference in Cannes last week, Sarandos was asked directly about when the company would be launching into new markets including Japan, Australia and New Zealand. While careful not to confirm launch time frames he said of Australia and New Zealand that they were “very attractive territories, English speaking and obviously love U.S. content.”

Sarandos said that Netflix, which is now in 50 countries, was in a “serious investment stage” and that the ultimate goal was that it would be a global content company. All new market territory entries would simply be a matter of timing.

The company has aggressively launched through Europe, including the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Sarandos said that the Netflix new market launch approach was to open with a focused catalogue which is then rapidly expanded based on what people are viewing in each local market. “When we launch, we launch with about half the programming that that territory will have in about 12 months,” said Sarandos.

Netflix is shifting from being a distributor to a programmer and from an online store to a TV channel. “It’s a destination for your ability to choose, and for your ability to enjoy it on your own timetable… we’re not a very narrow-demographic programmer… we are programming for the world,” Sarandos said.

Netflix has also moved into film production commissioned its first five films, including the sequel to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and a slate of Adam Sandler movies. “We do want to be more active in this. The current distribution model for movies in the US particularly, but also around the world, is pretty antiquated compared to the on-demand generation we’re trying to serve,” he said.

The company is also investing in 4K growing its own library significantly. “The advancements in compression will be able to deliver 4K just fine with current broadband speeds. We have House of Cards, we have Breaking Bad, we have Blacklist. The 4K library has grown dramatically. All of our original series are being shot in 4K, and certainly our original features. It will completely invert people’s expectations of quality of content on the internet,” Sarandos said.