What are the chances of Netflix launching in Central and Eastern Europe?
Although the company revealed little about future expansion plans in its latest set of results and accompanying conference call, it made clear that its profits are now all going into the international business.
Having already established a presence outside the US in Canada, Latin America, Brazil, the Nordics, UK and Ireland, it seems highly likely that Netflix will move into more European markets in the near future.
Indeed, next on its list is officially the Netherlands, where the service will launch in this quarter. In due course, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and quite possibly even some territories in the CEE region may follow.
In CEE, the most likely candidates for Netflix would be more mature markets such as Poland and maybe Russia. Other less developed ones are probably not even on the agenda but would arguably – at least in some cases – benefit from Netflix, or a Netflix-type service, operating in them.
Take Bulgaria, for instance. If priced accordingly it could have a major impact on a market that, despite being dogged by piracy, is very much in the vanguard of high-speed (30 Mbps+) internet availability and take-up.
Significantly, Netflix has identified HBO as its biggest long-term competitor for content and said that it will bid against it for future rights.
Netflix would also find itself going head-to-head with HBO in CEE should it decide to enter the region. HBO has already operated there for two decades – its first foray outside the US was to Hungary in the early 1990s – and its HBO Go service is now enjoying considerable success.
The next market Netflix targets will in all likelihood be a large territory in Western Europe in 2014. Others will follow, perhaps in quick succession, soon afterwards and an expansion into CEE certainly cannot be ruled out.
