Are you listening, Australian free-to-air TV industry? This is the right way to take on Netflix: build something customers want to buy. Two separate consortiums — Virgin and Hoyts — both reportedly want to build their own movie streaming service to take on the platform of the hour, Netflix.
According to the Australian Financial Review, a consortium with links to Richard Branson’s Virgin empire wants to spin off its considerable media assets into a useful streaming platform for customers in markets where Netflix hasn’t already launched.
Good strategy, considering that in the Australian market, customers are doing everything they can to get access to the US’ favourite online streaming service.
The report also mentions super-early negotiations going on between Hoyts and Seven-West Media for a potential local streaming service.
Nobody’s promising that either service will come off into something amazing, but at least a handful of companies recognise that the right way to beat big platforms is to try and compete with them before going cap-in-hand to the government. [AFR]