The positions of Netflix in Africa are not as strong as in Europe, and even more so in the US. But this prevents Netflix from frankly mocking its African rivals.
Leadership on the television market in South Africa now belongs to the company MultiChoice, tells Quartz. The television network of this operator connected 6.6 million homes in South Africa and other South African countries. For comparison, the number of Netflix users in the region does not exceed 400 thousand.
But the American company unconditionally wins advertising war. It all started with the helicopter flying over the headquarters of MultiChoice in Johannesburg with the ad banner Netflix attached to it. The leadership of the African cameraman did not appreciate the joke. At a press conference in May this year, the head of the company accused Netflix of intentional attacks, which only provoked further trolling.
Soon on the streets of Johannesburg began to appear advertising boards Netflix, and, by a strange coincidence, most of them were located not far from the office MultiChoice. At the same time, all the jokes advertisers Netflix made with a serious expression - representatives of the company did not comment on either their actions or the statements of competitors.
And just the other day Netflix once again brought the leaders of MultiChoice to a nervous tic. This time the object of trolling was the subsidiary company MultiChoice called DStv, which offers satellite TV services. The character of the new commercials Netflix became Man with A Van, whose role is played by the popular South African comedian Jason Goliath. In these videos, the person with the van comes to people who want to become subscribers of Netflix and parodies installers DStv - walks with an empty box labeled Premium HD, mounts useless equipment on the roof, delivers to him the same useless wires and fusses around the TV for a long time.
According to the representatives of MultiChoice, Netflix advertised more than 100 thousand subscribers in the last financial year, and from the beginning of this fiscal year - another 40 thousand. However, do not forget that the services of Netflix are much cheaper - the American company charges $ 11 , 99 per month, and the subscription fee for the premium package DStv is $ 60. So the outflow of subscribers from MultiChoice to Netflix could be even greater if there were not problems with the Internet - the high-speed connection required for Netflix operation costs very much in South Africa and is not available to everyone.