Concerns that Netflix will find France a difficult market to crack may already be proving to be wide of the mark, with the service attracting more than 100,000 subscribers in its first 15 days in the country.
According to Le Figaro, this is already one fifth of the 520,000 claimed by the Canal+ SVOD service CanalPlay, which has been up and running for three years.
In effect, Netflix’s initial growth is ten times faster than that of CanalPlay.
However, it should be born in mind that Netflix is being offered free of charge for a month, with viewers then being charged between €7.99 and €11.99 monthly to receive the service.
This may significantly slow down its early growth.
Netflix’s stated goal is to be accessed by a third of French homes in the next five to 10 years.
The first steps in this process are to make itself familiar with the public – it is currently using Ogilvy in an advertising campaign – and widely available.
Although it can already be viewed on mobile devices and connected TVs, to secure larger distribution will require reaching more agreements such as the one already in place with Bouygues.
It and other telcos already provide TV services to nearly 16 million TV homes, or two-thirds of France’s total.
