Netflix coming to Latin America - Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer

Forbidden fruit a flavor has

That lawful orchards mocks;

How luscious lies the pea within

The pod that Duty locks!

Emily Dickinson, Poems,1

Today Tuesday July 5^th 2011AD marks a turning point in the history of Streaming IPTV Platform Netflix!

Plain and simple folks, Netflix is coming to the Latin America, which of course is the Caribbean and South America as spoken on Netflix’s official company blog post entitled “Netflix is coming to Latin America”, published Tuesday July 5 2011, The Netflix Blog.

The articles “Netflix to launch service in Latin America”, published July 5, 2011, 6:04am PT By Om Malik, GigaOM and the article “Netflix Streaming gets major overseas expansion”, published JULY 5, 2011 6:10 AM PDT by Greg Sandoval, CNET News - Media Maverick provide the backup to what may be the biggest decision to affect Broadcasting in Latin America a long time!

Score one for Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who by the way, does look a lot like Dr. Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic from Fantastic Four (2005)!

More details, mon ami: Netflix will be in Portuguese, Spanish and yes for Jamaicans, in English (sorry no Jamaican English!). The world of Broadcasting in Latin America, where Broadband Internet is spreading or on its way as stated in my blog article entitled “LIME and American Tourist Data Avalanche - The US$80 Million Dollar CannonBall Run”, be it Pay-per-view or Free-To-Air will never be the same again.

I first saw this piece of News in an article written by Kelroy on the Geezam Blog entitled “Netflix service coming to the Caribbean and Latin America”. Granted, there is no list that confirms that Jamaica will be one of the countries to get the ability for local Jamaicans to sign up and subscribe to Netflix Streaming via a Credit Card or Virtual VISA Debit Card via a Paypal Account.

The blog post says that Netflix Streaming will be coming to Latin America, specifically “Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean”. The service will be available “later this year”, most likely in the Fourth Quarter of 2011.

Also there is no mention of price but you will most likely have a single account for you multiple steaming options, as the blog mentions Streaming to “a range of consumer electronics devices” inclusive of “PCs, Macs and mobile devices”.

For the uninitiated, that includes the Microsoft XBox 360, the Sony Playstation 3, the Nintendo Wii and even the Apple iPad and the Apple iPhone. Good to note that the Sony Playstation 3 is an excellent Blu-Ray Player.

I mention this as Jamaicans, despite Netflix coming to Latin America, may still cling to their old stored Media formats such as Blu-Ray and DVD, easily purchased off the streets or JA$100 as stated in my blog article entitled “Netflix & the Death of Blu-Ray - Rise of the Machines meets Chicken Run”. Ditto too for video game titles as stated in my Geezam Blog article entitled “Console Gaming’s Downfall – Future is up in the Clouds”.

Dear reader, if you are interested to know when Netflix Streaming is coming to Latin America and by extension the Caribbean, just click here: Netflix!

But if their Netflix website, which as of today is inaccessible outside of the US (like duh! Always been that way!) was anything to go by, that price may be about US$7.99 or approximately JA$780 for a thirty (30) day subscription to unlimited movie Streaming.

This inaccessibility was a complaint of mine in my blog article entitled “Spotify and Freemium in the Cloud - Shake, Rattle and Roll love for Internationals”. This of course is based on their latest advertisement, which is sure to get many Jamaicans off the fence as it relates to Streaming vs Local Pay-Per-View:

Good to note here too, briefly that Music Streaming Service Spotify, part of the panoply of Cloud-Based Music Streaming Services may be coming to the FaceBook as stated in the article “Spotify, FaceBook in talks on music service”, published JULY 1, 2011 9:21 AM PDT by Greg Sandoval, CNET News - Media Maverick.

Thus this surprise announcement today Tuesday July 5^th 2011AD was long ago heralded on several news websites, including my blog. CNET News Don Reisinger reported that Netflix might be expanding beyond the United States of America as stated in the article entitled “Netflix service might expand beyond Canada”, published SEPTEMBER 23, 2010 4:24 PM PDT by Don Reisinger, CNET News - The Digital Home.

CNET News Don Reisinger then made the implied more solid with another article pointing to the coming of Netflix to Latin America in his article entitled “Netflix said to be planning 2011 International push”, published December 28, 2010 3:09 PM PST by Don Reisinger, CNET News - The Digital Home.

Not only that but the Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who techies and Telecom Engineers all by now know is really Dr. Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four (2005), proclaimed the coming of On-Demand Television some time ago in an interview with GigaOM’s Om Malik.

In that interview, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings makes several predictions with regards to the future of Television, most notable being that is television will be mostly Streaming over Broadband, On-Demand Television driven, apps watchable and viewable on multiple devices, including the Apple iPad as stated in the article “Future of TV According to Netflix’s Reed Hastings”, published May 31, 2011, 1:45pm PT By Om Malik, GigaOM.

That was September 2010AD and December 2010AD respectively, folks. Since then Netflix subscriber base has moved from fourteen million (14,000,000) to twenty two million (22,000,000) in the United States of America.

Netflix coming to Latin America was therefore not a far fetched idea, as it would have also followed on the trend of International companies going abroad to increase their revenues as the American Economy slow recovery was not conducive to business as prognosticated in an earlier  blog article entitled “American Economy and Immigration - A Day Without A Mexican”.

The prime example of that which is quite “in your face” in Jamaica is PayLess Shoesource as noted in my blog article entitled “JDX and PayLess - First Dove of a Coming Recovery”. PayLess Shoesource is here in Jamaica doing roaring business, having opened ten (10) stores across the island thus far as stated in the article “Payless To Set Up 10 Stores, Three Already Open”, published Friday February 18, 2011, Dionne Rose, The Jamaica Gleaner.

I guess the “Vybz Kartel featuring Russian ‘Jeans and Fitted’” song and his prior hit song “Vybz Kartel ft. Popcaan and Gaza Slim - Clarks” are truly the reason why PayLess Shoesource is in Jamaica, re-energizing the sale of shoes as stated in the article “Payless Re-Energises Shoe Shoppers”, published Wednesday March 2, 2011 by Avia Collinder, Business Reporter, The Jamaica Gleaner.

Possibly PayLess Shoesource may already be scouting out more islands in the Caribbean to expand their business by the Fourth Quarter of 2011AD. So Netflix is just following the crowd and going abroad, where the money is still strong! Simple!

But what of the Fate of the Local Jamaica Broadcasters, be they Pay-per-View or Free-To-Air?

Despite the lack of Credit Card, the US$7.99 or approximately JA$780 for a thirty (30) day subscription to unlimited movie Streaming would be attraction enough for Jamaicans interested in getting a Credit Card from one of the Big Three (3) Banks in Jamaica, namely BNS (Bank of Nova Scotia), NCB (National Commercial Bank) and RBTT (Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago) in Jamaica or Virtual VISA Debit Card via a Paypal Account.

Such prices would be hard to beat in the case of Pay-per-View services such as Triple Play Provider FLOW, already possibly getting its fare share of competition in the IPTV Streaming space from Net2Vu as stated in my blog article entitled “FLOW, IPTV and the coming of Net2Vu - Johnny Mnemonic”.

LIME TV might fare a little better, being as they are on the same level as Netflix as stated in my blog article entitled “LIME TV vs Netflix - 101 Dalmations”. Possibly too, LIME TV may even make a deal with Netflix to have the service ported over their DVB-H (Digital video Broadcast – Handheld) Platform.

As for Free-to-Air broadcasters, they already have their Battle Plan as I had suggested in my blog article entitled “Traditional News Media vs Broadband Telecoms - GigaOM's Avoiding ELE After Deep Impact” as Netflix carries an awful lot of News Channels. All for a decent US$7.99 or JA$780!

Add to that list the Samsung Galaxy P1000 Tablet as suggested in my blog article entitled “LIME TV vs Digicel's Samsung Galaxy Tablet - Call of Duty Black Ops” and a Netflix partnership with Telecom Provider may also be in the works when Netflix comes later in the Fall of 2011AD.

Good to note that torrenting, despite being free and pirated Movie, Audio and e-book content, has thoroughly been beaten in terms of traffic in the US of A. This as Netflix accounts for 29.7% of all Streaming and downloading in the US of A as stated in the article “Netflix Traffic Now Bigger Than BitTorrent. Has Hollywood Won?”, published May 17, 2011, 8:58am PT by Ryan Lawler, GigaOM.

Netflix offers Streaming of exclusive content easily categorized, something which Techie-centric downloading cannot quite match. You pay a decent price for rental and get a great service.

Torrenting is a no-frills service that guarantees you nothing. And at such a low price for monthly Streaming, you would have to be really cheap not to be able to afford Netflix on your IPTV Streaming capable device!

So stay tuned to this blog as well as the Geezam Blog for more on this development as information become available. This as the empire of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings otherwise known as Dr. Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) stretches into Latin America!