During a keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2016 Netflix’s co-founder and chief executive Reed Hastings and head of content Ted Sarandos announced the streaming site is now available in 190 countries.
“Today you are witnessing the birth of a new global Internet TV network,” said Hastings. “With this launch, consumers around the world — from Singapore to St. Petersburg, from San Francisco to Sao Paulo — will be able to enjoy TV shows and movies simultaneously — no more waiting. With the help of the Internet, we are putting power in consumers’ hands to watch whenever, wherever and on whatever device.”
New countries being added include Russia, India, Vietnam, Singapore, Poland, Nigeria and Azerbaijan, Hastings said.
Looking ahead, Netflix plans to release 31 new and returning original series, two dozen original feature films and documentaries, a wide range of stand-up comedy specials and 30 original kids series — available at the same time to members everywhere. This content joins the available Netflix original series including Marvel’s Daredevil, House Of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Narcos, Sense8, Grace and Frankie, and Marco Polo.
While largely available in English in most new countries, Netflix has also added Arabic, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese to the 17 languages it already supports.
“From today onwards, we will listen and we will learn, gradually adding more languages, more content and more ways for people to engage with Netflix,” said Hastings. “We’re looking forward to bringing great stories from all over the world to people all over the world.”
The expansion leaves out countries like China (though Netflix continues to explore options), Crimea, North Korea and Syria. Netflix isn’t available in Crimea, North Korea and Syria due to US government restrictions on American companies.
Despite the expansion there are pre-existing restrictions on Netflix’s original programming, for example Netflix in Japan censors the nudity of Marco Polo. Hastings said “We’ll see and we’ll have to learn” when asked if different regions may see different versions of the same original Netflix production.
According to Yahoo Finance tech reporter, who live tweeted the keynote speech, since the announcement Netflix’s shares are up six per cent:
Netflix shares now up 6% after @reedhastings announces 130 country expansion, including India, South Korea, Poland pic.twitter.com/EnGtrcbcTO
— Aaron Pressman (@ampressman) January 6, 2016
The entire keynote speech is available to stream on Netflix, click here to watch.
