NZ gets less Netflix bang for buck
Prices per title
New Zealanders pay more per title for Netflix shows than Americans, Britons, Australians and people living in India, Pakistan and Nepal, a global study says.
By the same benchmark New Zealand is also getting so-so ‘‘value for money’’ from Amazon Prime Video by comparison to major English-speaking nations.
However, Kiwis are better off than their counterparts in many other countries when the prices of internet television services and the number of shows on offer are compared, with continental European and African countries generally coming off worst.
British researcher Comparitech found Netflix offered a catalogue of 1422 television shows and 3126 movies in New Zealand, at a price that worked out at a monthly subscription cost of US0.17 cents (NZ0.25c) per title.
Australians, Americans and Britons pay about US0.14c per title for a larger Netflix catalogue, with Canadians getting the best deal and Danes the worst.
Overall, New Zealand came out 16th out of 78 countries for Netflix ‘‘value’’ and sixth out of 28 countries when the average cost of Amazon Prime Video titles was compared.
Amazon Prime Video offers 416 TV shows and 4321 movies in New Zealand at an average price of just under US0.13c per title, again putting New Zealand behind the US, Britain, Australia, Canada and India – but, in this case, ahead of all other countries.
Britons and Americans get the best deal from Amazon by Comparitech’s yardstick, with a price of just over US0.07c per title, and Singaporeans the worst at US0.9c per title.
Comparitech noted that Americans, Australians and Canadians would be getting better value from Amazon Prime Video than its comparison might suggest, as in those countries the internet TV service always comes bundled with other perks from Amazon Prime such as free delivery on Amazon orders and access to its music library. Netflix Amazon Prime
However, the research doesn’t take into account the fact that some Netflix and Amazon shows will be more popular than others.
Assuming the most popular titles are also the ones that are more widely available, that may mean that countries with smaller national catalogues are getting better value than the simple ‘‘cost per title’’ comparison suggests.
The value calculation may have more than curiosity value for some Kiwis.
It can be possible to access the foreign libraries of internet television services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video by using a ‘‘virtual private network’’ to disguise the viewer’s location. However, this is likely to be a breach of their terms and conditions.