Online movie and television series streaming service Netflix has officially gone live in 130 countries including South Africa on Wednesday night.
Co-founder and CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings, made the announcement at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in the US.
Amid the announcement, the South African Netflix website was switched on at www.netflix.com/za on Wednesday and advertised a price of US$7,99 (R126) per month with a free month’s trial for use on a single screen. An high-definition service costs $9,99/month (R158), viewable through two screens simultaneously, while an ulta-HD premium service fetches $11,99/month (R190) and offering 4K content and simultaneous viewing on up to four screens.
Other additional countries to get the service included Russia, India and South Korea, according to the announcement from Netflix. China, though, is not on Netflix’s new countries ,while other countries excluded from the launch are Crimea, North Korea and Syria because of US government restrictions on American companies.
“Today, I am delighted to announce that while we have been here on stage at CES, we switched Netflix in Azerbaijan, in Vietnam, in India, in Nigeria, in Poland, in Russia, in Saudi Arabia, in Singapore, in South Korea, in Turkey, in Indonesia, and in 130 new countries,” said Hastings.
Popular US TV shows that South Africans can watch on Netflix include hits such as Suits, Dexter and Weeds. Meanwhile original Netflix content like Narcos and Marco Polo are also available in South Africa.
Netflix, which started its streaming service in the US in 2007, last year expressed a goal to expand to an extra 150 countries across the globe.
As part of its wider launch on Wednesday, Netflix also said that it’s also bolted on more language support for the likes of Arabic and Korean speakers. — Fin24