How will Croatia react to the arrival of Netflix?
During the largest consumer electronics fair CES held in Las Vegas, Netflix, the popular streaming service for movies, TV series and other video content, on Wednesday announced that their services have been extended to 130 new countries, including Croatia, reports Poslovni.hr on January 8, 2016.
The Croatian Regulatory Authority for Network Industries (HAKOM) said that it considers the arrival of Netflix as another step in the development of the Croatian market of electronic communications. They claim that it will encourage a greater demand for broadband internet access at high speeds. “Croatian market will therefore become more interesting for other providers of Internet content as well, which opens up space for other services”, announced HAKOM.
Terrakom, a provider of telecommunications services which also offers TV content, welcomes the arrival of Netflix. They say it was inevitable to happen and that they will be ready to respond by improving infrastructure and internet connection speeds, as well as offering localized content which Netflix is currently lacking.
Croatian Telekom (HT) also does not see Netflix as a threat because, in addition to their MaxTV IPTV service, they can compete with the new Pickbox service which is available to users for 38 kuna (5 euros) per month and does offer localized content. By comparison, Netflix offers its content for between 7.99 and 11.99 euros, depending on the image resolution and the number of devices which can connect to the service.
Gordan Glušac, director of strategy and business development at Iskon, says that Netflix came suddenly, but not unexpectedly. He does not fear they might lose customers since Netflix needs a stable Internet connection, which is actually the core business of Iskon. “We see Netflix partly as competition, and partly as a complementary service”, explains Glušac.
The biggest advantage of Netflix is the possibility to watch all content in its entirety, so the users do not have to wait for the next episode of their favourite TV show, but can watch them immediately and on-demand. Analysts believe that the expansion of Netflix is partly an effort to compensate for the fall of popularity of the service on US market. After the announcement, the value of Netflix shares rose by 9.3 percent.
