Comments on: Netflix could beat cable TV in Latin America

By: Raphael Negrão

Raphael Negrão — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:16:57 +0000

In Brazil, cable TV companies own most broadband services as well. They’ll probably stick to low caps as a barrier to Netflix competition. A shame, since Brazilian cable is overpriced, unavailable in many regions and known for its lame customer support.

By: Orville

Orville — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 23:47:18 +0000

One thing your post might have missed is that in the rural areas of many Latin American coverage where pay TV is available, cable service in offputtingly spotty while broadband service through the telephone company is far more regular. Also, satellite service from the U.S. is often unavailable legally. I live in the Caribbean and will ditch my cable subscription in favor of Netflix if the programming is reasonably relevant.

By: DJ PROBERT

DJ PROBERT — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:16:51 +0000

Several other obstacles: 1) piracy, in most of Latin America, unfortunately, you can get movies still at theatres – not in HD, but in regular quality, for about $5 bucks virutally at any Pulga. (and then it circulates between friends and family to an average 5 views). 2) language barrier and captioning – Netflix will need to revise its dubbing and captioning options, as at least 3 scenarios will be required – portuguese, North/Central America Spanish and South America Spanish (there are many accent inflections and diverse use of words that would cause the opposite region to avoid netflix for its own local video rental stores – similar to asking a Jamaican to listen to Australian voiceactors dubbing) and 3) maybe the biggest of them all, credit card use. Most employers in latin america are turning to salary payments through debit cards, but that has not resulted in a higher rate of automatic payments being used by the debit card carriers. 4) Intellectual property rights, many studios have national presence and NetFlix will compete with their licensing rights and according costs – or will it negotiate by territories?

Interesting to see what will happen, as I work for a local CableTV carrier in Northern Nuevo Leon. Don´t base your decision to forecast future stock price on these “promo” pieces.