Friday, January 8, 2016

Netflix comes to Thailand

I choose GoodFellas as a test and got recommendations based on that.

Netflix, the popular U.S.-based video-on-demand service, made the surprise announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show in the Las Vegas yesterday that it had added 130 countries to its roster overnight, including Thailand.

Plans are 280 baht per month for standard service, which gives you one screen in non-HD format; 350 baht with HD and the ability to stream on two devices and 420 baht for Ultra HD on four devices.

With the Netflix app automatically appearing in my smart TV's menu, I went with the standard plan and it looks fine.

The Netflix Thailand selection appears extremely limited, compared to the U.S. version. For example, there are no Thai films that I can find, presumably because the rights to Thai films are already tied up by other broadcasters in Thailand.

There are also no Thai subtitles, and all the menus are in English, a fact that has to have a lot of expats in Thailand feeling smug.

The popular Netflix series House of Cards is not available yet in Thailand, again likely due to the territorial rights to House of Cards being held by someone else. So no FU for me and you, for now.

There are several other decent series to choose from. For example, the Netflix series Marvel's Jessica Jones is there, as is Daredevil. And Better Call Saul is there. I recommend that. And Gotham.

After staring at the menu for far too long, I picked GoodFellas, and was pleased to find there was none of the type of censorship you see on Thai television, with the blurring of cigarettes, liquor bottles and guns. Also, no bleeping censorship of language. The content. so far as I've seen, appears as it was intended.

Anyway, I took the service for a spin late last night, and live-tweeted the event at both my regular wisekwai twitter and my new TVKwai twitter. Read on for more about my first Netflix experience.






























































1 comment:

  1. They blur out guns, yet it's the unofficial child prostitution capital of the world? Nice to know their priorities are nice and straight.

    ReplyDelete

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