Netflix working with MDA on ways to navigate local broadcast regulations
SINGAPORE – With a view to its local debut early next year, Netflix is busy preparing to enter the Singapore market, including exploring ways to navigate the regulatory regime here.
In a telephone interview from Los Angeles today (Dec 18), Mr Jonathan Friedland, Netflix’s chief communications officer, said broadcast regulations are among the issues to be sorted out before the planned roll-out of its services in the first quarter of 2016. The American on-demand streaming media provider has been working with the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) on this.
Mr Friedland said: “We will have an office in Singapore, so we’ve been trying to understand what the attitude of the Singaporean consumer is .... We’re going to have the Singaporean rating system, so we’re trying to understand exactly what the difference is, if any, between the way we handle content under our own global rating system and theirs.”
An MDA spokesperson said today: “MDA is working with Netflix to familiarise them with Singapore’s regulations and media capabilities ahead of their arrival.”
Welcoming Netflix’s expansion into Singapore, the MDA spokesperson added: “It will inject greater vibrancy into our media sector and provide viewers with more choices.”
Mr Friedland is optimistic that Singapore’s broadcast regulations will not affect viewers’ enjoyment.
“What we’re hoping is that in an on-demand world, where people have to actively go and get the content, governments will treat that in a somewhat different light from how they treat traditional broadcasting,” he said.
Netflix, known not only for its extensive library of movies and TV shows but also for producing its own hit series such as House Of Cards and Orange Is The New Black, made its foray into Japan in September.
The company, which currently operates in more than 60 countries, also plans to launch in Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan next year .
By entering Singapore, Mr Friedland said, Netflix aims “to provide consumers with a lot of great stories all over the world through a personalised system”.
These include all of the Netflix Originals that have come out in the last year-and-a-half, including Master Of None and Marvel’s Jessica Jones.
Interestingly, despite the prevalence of piracy through unsanctioned virtual private-network services,
Mr Friedland said the piracy problem has gone down in most of the countries Netflix has entered.
“If you give people the ability to watch stuff they want to watch .... at a very reasonable price, they tend to want that,” he explained. “They don’t really want to go through the hassle of bit-torrenting and doing peer-to-peer stuff if they can avoid it.”
Netflix is confident it can offer user-friendly services to Singaporeans. “... It works on your iPad, your Samsung TV, on mobile (phones) — it works seamlessly without any hassle ... What we offer people is a really simple, easy and effective on-demand viewing experience at a very reasonable price,” Mr Friedland.
On the prospects of producing exclusive Singaporean original content, such as it did in Japan, he said Netflix hopes to produce content “where we find good stories”.
He added that the Netflix series Marco Polo was shot in Johor and “employed a lot of Singaporean talent — behind-the-scenes talent and some actors”. “We’re committed to making really good television and if we find great creators with stories that are universally resonant, then we probably will do some,” he said.
For now, Netflix will spend its first year in Singapore sussing out the market and making adjustments accordingly. “Netflix on Day 10 will be totally different from Netflix on Day One. And Netflix six months later will be even more different,” Mr Friedland said.
