Just how well is Netflix really doing in Poland, Central and Eastern Europe’s most competitive on demand market?
It is certainly making its presence felt, boosted by the decision to localise in the country late last year and the huge popularity of some of its own productions. Significantly, the latter will be joined in 2018 by the first series made by the company in Poland.
Netflix is also increasingly easy to receive, with Poland’s leading print distributor Kolporter having made Netflix gift cards available on its news stands this October. Available in denominations of PLN60 (€14.2) and PLN120, they allow customers to take out one of three plans and extend the period they receive the service.
This will no doubt all help Netflix continue growing. However, whether it will be able to maintain the pace it set in the year to October, when it tripled the number of real users to 1.2 million, remains to be seen.
While it is now the most viewed fully paid-for VOD service in Poland in terms of real users, it is in seventh place overall. What is more, the subscription service ShowMax, which is owned by Naspers and made its European debut in Poland in February this year, is breathing down its neck. As of October, it already had almost 970,000 real users.
At the same time, Polish services such as VoD.pl, Player.pl and Ipla.tv go from strength to strength. Just this week we heard about the launch of Player+, a new premium product from TVN’s Player.pl that includes leading channels from Canal+ and HBO in its offer.
While perhaps not the game changer some have made it out to be, Player+ will help consolidate TVN as one of the top providers of on demand services in Poland.
Netflix is now clearly an established player in the Polish on demand market, but it is unlikely to be a dominant one for the forseeable future.
