Netflix Really Is Destined For Australia, Says Village Roadshow CEO

One day Netflix has plans for Australia, the next… not so much. While there are ways of accessing the US-based streaming service locally, it would be a heck of a lot better if you could just watch it, sans the run-around. Now we have the strongest indication yet that Netflix is on its way to Australia, with Village Roadshow all but confirming its arrival.

Just one small point — we don’t have any sort of date. Speaking with ZDNet’s Josh Taylor, Village Roadshow’s co-CEO Graham Burke was more than happy to acknowledge Netflix’s looming entry into the country, but stopped short of providing hard details on its launch:

“[On] Netflix, they’re talking to our people about supply of products, so they are opening and coming to Australia,” he said.

Also: Village Roadshow CEO: iiNet Is Lying About Piracy

According to the ZDNet piece, organising content deals has been the primary barrier preventing the streaming platform’s debut.

Graham also took the opportunity to take another shot at iiNet — specifically regarding the delay of The Lego Movie in Australia. From the interview:

“The Lego Movie, with iiNet along with all the lies they tell, and they know they’re telling lies, a lot of good decent people out there have a bunch of assumptions they believe to be correct [because of iiNet]. They know that Lego was a rare exception. The reason Lego was delayed because it was an Australian film,” he said.

“We made the decision to hold it off a couple of months until the school holiday break so kids could see it in the holidays which is when they want to see it. That was a one off. It’s not an example of how films are delayed in Australia.”

More: iiNet’s Steve Dalby To Village Roadshow: ‘It’s Not Our Job To Stop Online Infringers’

Not sure how long we’ll be hearing barbs exchanged between the two companies, but it sure keeps things interesting.

[ZDNet]

Next Read: Why Excuses For High Australian Movie Ticket Prices Don’t Cut It


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