One of the biggest surprise we got after Netflix launched in the Philippines is the report that only 7% of the movie and TV library in Netflix US are available to Philippine subscribers (of course, there are also titles in Netflix PH that are not available in the US). For a starting price of Php370, that seems a bit unfair considering that the US equivalent fee is $7.99.
So why the drastic reduction of title? Well, it’s also about keeping the cost low.
Netflix basically pays license fees for every single movie title and TV series that it adds in its libraries. That license fee is also paid on a per country or region basis which means in the Philippines, the library will have to start small at first. Fees for each title also varies depending on how old or new they are (reason why libraries in iFlix and Hooq are also mostly old ones).
So what does the 7% represent? I guess it’s the baseline cost which allows them to provide new subscribers will a decent set of titles without really spending much on the licensing fees at the start.
Later on, once the paying subscribers pick up, Netflix will eventually add more newer titles into the library. OR, they may swap around the existing library with another set.
At the moment, we’ll just have to settle with the existing ones available and hope that the list will soon grow as the subscribers grow.
What is the use of having Netflix in the PH if we already watched most of the available movies… And some titles that we would like to watch can be search but can not be played due to unavailability.
So I guess, I’ll just unsubscribe after my 1-month free… It’s a big disappointment…
I hope Netflix will solve this gap very soon.
I will Try this. but i think Iflix will win here, ang mahal naman kasi ng netflix. Plus mostly high def sila but most households dont have the bandwith for that.
It said the list will grow as the subscribers grow. Pano mangyare yun eh dami nagbebenta mura netflix subscription sa fb pa inaadvertise. Only in the philippines so they say. So sana magawan netflix ph paraan mawala mga nagnanakaw ng subscription para legit lang lahat maka access then maybe lumaki subscribers dito.