Netflix is nearing an Australian launch after appointing creative and social marketing agencies ahead of planned multi-million dollar marketing blitz.
The on-demand streaming service is said to have hired industry giants Droga5 and We Are Social to mount a $20 million marketing campaign before launching in Australia and New Zealand next year, according to a report from mUmbrella.
News of a Nexflix expansion into Australia first broke in June with a late 2015 launch originally predicted at the time. The company has since kept quiet about plans for the Down Under market, but the threat of its dirt cheap prices has seemingly struck fear into competing services such as Foxtel, causing the locally dominant pay television monopoly to release its own on-demand channel while slashing subscription prices.
“We recognise that many Australians feel that Foxtel is too expensive to fit comfortably into their budget,” Foxtel chief executive Richard Freudenstein said in September. “They know that we offer fantastic content but they just don’t feel they can stretch their finances to afford it.”
Netflix launched in France in September and wasted little time before signing distribution deals with three companies and securing exclusive rights to a number of movies, including Bill Murray’s “St. Vincent”.
The online provider, boasting a whopping 50 million paid subscribers across 40 nations, has handled Australian and New Zealand operations with a tight-lipped mentality, however did admit last month to have interest in both markets when chief content officer Ted Sarandos called them “very attractive territories that are English-speaking and love US content”.
An estimated 200,000 Australians already subscribe to Netflix’s US service, accessing content via geoblock-lifting browser extensions.
