Ignore Canada at your peril
The Hollywood Reporter interviewed Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, who’s up in Canada overseeing the roll-out of their streaming service. An excerpt:
THR: Are you concerned that American Netflix subscribers will look north and ask for the same discount Canadians get at $7.99?
Hastings: How much has it been your experience that Americans follow what happens in the world? It's something we'll monitor, but Americans are somewhat self-absorbed.
It’s a good thing there isn’t some sort of global communications network people can access on their “home terminal units” or “pocket voice devices,” or this sort of comment might get wider distribution. I’m just wondering why they have cheaper Netflix in Canada. It’s possible their government cares more than ours, and has passed laws to rein in the profits of Big Streaming. Who’s up for similar laws down here? Because if I don’t have the right to cheaper rates on streaming Angie Dickinson’s 1974 classic “Big Bad Mama” then Davy Crockett and everyone else at the Alamo died for nothing.
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Jun '10
Re: Ignore Canada at your peril
It's only fair. In more recent American movies, the most common "American" cities on the screen are probably Vancouver and Toronto.
Sep '10
Re: Ignore Canada at your peril
Cheap shot -
"Canada, America's hat!"
Really, though, a company whose lifeblood is dependent on being tech-savy should not have CEO so clueless. I would expect a comment like that to propagate through the Geek-o-sphere pretty quickly. I know I'll be letting their customer service department know I'm paying attention.
May '10
Re: Ignore Canada at your peril
That's peril I can live with.
Jun '10
Re: Ignore Canada at your peril
Canadians have no expectation of paying the same as Americans do for medical innovation, pharmaceutical R&D, national defense and intelligence, border security or countless other investments that the US makes and for which Canada just chips in, so why not movies?
♪ ♫ So, come on and take a free ride, Come on and take it by my side
Edited on Sep 23, 2010 at 11:23amCome on and take a free ride....
Aug '10
Re: Ignore Canada at your peril
It's more likely they have a government subsidy that lets Netflix provide it for lower cost, along with some boilerplate justification about "increasing access".
Jul '10
Re: Ignore Canada at your peril
Oh, stop whining about the buck, Lileks! For years, Canadians have been saddled with media content rules, licensing conditions, and ownership restrictions, all to ensure that films, TV, books present the correct "Canadian attitudes, ideas, and values." Recently, these restrictions have been held not to extend to the internet, although the likes of Google assured the government that, of course, the taxpayers should continue to subsidize production of Canadian culture, just not on the internet. So Netflix is free to stream content to Canada, in English only, quelle horreur, as long as the "Canadian content rule" does not apply to the internet. That one dollar is just a way for us to shut up and continue to subsidize the CBC, the National Film Board, and all the other institutions that protect our national identity and cultural sovereignty.
Edited on Sep 23, 2010 at 11:08amAug '10
Re: Ignore Canada at your peril
You are forgetting that Canadian Netflix will be tied to Canadian communications rules, and therefore 25% of all content viewed by Canadians on Canadian Netflix must be of Canadian Origin.
The number of viewings of Big Bad Mama interrupted by episodes of You Can't Do That On Television will be beyond measure.
Jun '10
Re: Ignore Canada at your peril
Ha, Canadians will have that last laugh when America comes begging for episodes of Little Mosque on the Prairie. After all I have it on good authority that Islam is the new gay.
Edited on Sep 23, 2010 at 11:26amJul '10
Re: Ignore Canada at your peril
Part of the reason it's cheaper in Canada is that their package doesn't include shipped DVDs. He could have pointed this out, but it's hipper to insult Americans in order to cater to other countries' desire to feel superior to us.
Talk about self-absorption.
Jul '10
Re: Ignore Canada at your peril
Let's not forget that Canadians 'enjoy' some of the most restrictive bandwidth caps in the western world so what we save on netflix, we pay to the ISPs to download the content. my $35 a month buys me a full 25 GBs ...
Jul '10
Re: Ignore Canada at your peril
"Canada?"
Oh, gotta go. It's time for my 1/2 birthday party!