The world’s leading Internet television network, Netflix, announced that its service is now available in more than 190 countries. The company made the announcement — and the service went live — during a keynote by Co-founder and Chief Executive Reed Hastings at CES 2016.
Hastings said:
“Today you are witnessing the birth of a new global Internet TV network. With this launch, consumers around the world — from Singapore to St. Petersburg, from San Francisco to Sao Paulo — will be able to enjoy TV shows and movies simultaneously — no more waiting. With the help of the Internet, we are putting power in consumers’ hands to watch whenever, wherever and on whatever device.”
Netflix is available on virtually any device that has an Internet connection, including personal computers, tablets, smartphones, Smart TVs and game consoles, and automatically provides the best possible streaming quality based on available bandwidth.
While largely available in English in most new countries, Netflix today added Arabic, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese to the 17 languages it already supports.
Hastings continued:
“From today onwards, we will listen and we will learn, gradually adding more languages, more content and more ways for people to engage with Netflix. We’re looking forward to bringing great stories from all over the world to people all over the world.”
In 2016, the company plans to release 31 new and returning original series, two dozen original feature films and documentaries, a wide range of stand-up comedy specials and 30 original kids series — available at the same time to members everywhere.
“The Get Down” is an all-new Hip Hop original series marking visionary director Baz Luhrmann’s first music-driven drama since Moulin Rouge! Luhrmann, also director of Romeo + Juliet and The Great Gatsby, will direct the first two episodes and the season finale and serve as executive producer. Academy-Award winner Catherine Martin (The Great Gatsby, Moulin Rouge!), will serve as Costume and Production Designer and executive producer. Paul Watters (Australia); Thomas Kelly (Copper); Stephen Adley Guirgis (Motherf***er With The Hat); Shawn Ryan (The Shield, Terriers); and Marney Hochman (Terriers), will also serve as executive producers.
Cindy Holland, vice president of original content for Netflix said:
“From his very first and magnificently original steps on the world stage with Strictly Ballroom to his most recent with The Great Gatsby, Baz conjures worlds we may not recognize initially, but once there, realize they are infused with the same dreams of every person – to belong, to matter, to live life to its fullest. We are thrilled to support Baz, Catherine and Paul and their team in their quest to illuminate those same dreams through the artists who came of age in the cauldron of the Bronx in the late 1970s.”
Netflix says about “The Get Down”:
The one-hour, 13-episode drama from Sony Pictures Television will focus on 1970s New York City – broken down and beaten up, violent, cash strapped — dying. Consigned to rubble, a rag-tag crew of South Bronx teenagers are nothings and nobodies with no one to shelter them – except each other, armed only with verbal games, improvised dance steps, some magic markers and spray cans. From Bronx tenements, to the SoHo art scene; from CBGBs to Studio 54 and even the glass towers of the just-built World Trade Center, The Get Down is a mythic saga of how New York at the brink of bankruptcy gave birth to hip-hop, punk and disco — told through the lives and music of the South Bronx kids who changed the city, and the world…forever.
Baz Luhrmann said:
“In this golden era of TV, the Netflix culture puts no constraint on creative possibilities. So it is a natural home for The Get Down, a project I have been contemplating and working on now for over 10 years. Throughout, I’ve been obsessed with the idea of how a city in its lowest moment, forgotten and half destroyed could give birth to such creativity and originality in music, art and culture. I’m thrilled to be working with my partners at Sony and collaborating with a team of extraordinary writers and musicians, many of whom grew up with and lived the story we’ve set out to tell.”
Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, presidents of programming and production for Sony Pictures Television said:
“Baz is an artist in the truest sense, whose talent and vision resonate across mediums. There is no better filmmaker and storyteller to draw us into this world of the forgotten and oppressed residents of the Bronx who rose up and fought back to create and define culture and music for decades to come.”
For a full list of countries and territories where Netflix is now available, see here: Where is Netflix available?
