Netflix South Africa has consistently ranked as one of the top 10 countries globally for the most cost-effective Netflix subscription. A recent analysis from Comparitech shows that the online streaming platforms subscription in South Africa is at a good buy compared to other countries.
This will likely change due to the South African government’s proposed regulations on online content to impose a strict 30% local content quota on video streaming services in the country. The restrictions reflected in a draft white paper produced in 2020 will have on-demand content providers releasing large quantities of low budget content for the sole purpose of making local quota.
The director of public policy for Sub-Saharan Africa at Netflix, Shola Sanni, said, “the strictly 30% quota would likely result in the video streaming service reducing its content catalogue in South Africa. Which has substantially expanded since its official launch; on 6 January 2016.”
Sanni has explained the Netflix business model would always be to choose quality over quantity, making the implementation of the quota rather tricky for the organisation to adhere to consistently. She adds that they would instead prefer to reduce the size of the library in South Africa as they cannot justify pumping out low-quality local productions because it was produced in a particular country.
