Netflix in India: The ifs and buts of on-demand streaming

Dana Christensen | 08 January, 2016, 21:18

Ugandans took to social media to express their thoughts on the news of the availability of Netflix in Uganda, with several excited about the development but some expressing reservations.

The service will largely be in English in the new countries, supported by subtitles. While users are excited about the service, there are some who are highly disappointed. In case you are wondering, the difference between the two could at least partially be explained by content that's available in India but not the US. Currently, there are 373 movies, 213 TV shows and 149 documentaries available for Indian users. The US catalogue has 5,661 entries, so according to Allflicks, the India catalogue stands at roughly 13 percent of the US list, which is obviously higher than 7 percent that Finder.com estimates, but still not a great number.

For instance, TV shows like The Flash is now into its second season. First, Netflix needs to convince investors that it can keep growing. Also, one of the biggest titles in the USA, such as House of Cards, is completely missing from library.

Even though Netflix is open to the world, some of its content was only licensed in various regions. "We'll add more of what people want to see", said Chitavan Patel, Director, Content Acquisition at Netflix India.

The company made the announcement and switched on the global service during a keynote by Co-founder and Chief Executive Reed Hastings at CES 2016.

"There is a limited amount of local content available at launch in some countries".

Netflix is available on virtually any device that has an Internet connection, including personal computers, tablets, smartphones, Smart TVs and game consoles, and automatically provides the best possible streaming quality based on available bandwidth. There are three subscription plans on offer.

Movie and multiplex firms such as PVR and Inox Leisure stand to lose from the arrival of Netflix, as more and more viewers prefer to stay at home and watch the latest releases online on demand.