Netflix Lands in Cuba

don't build ANY cabletv systems in your country.

go with ISP infrastructure to stream everything.

if a cabletv exec comes to visit,
tie him up, then drop him in a raft,
and push him out to the open ocean.

ROFL.

But in all seriousness Cuba is a gorgeous country. With the lifting of restrictions I hope people get to visit safely. Cubans have a ready made tourism.industry if they choose to use it. I have to disagree with Karl on the bit about their wages not increasing in the forseable future. If Cuba takes advantage of what their country has to offer that wage could go way up in a couple year. Say 500 plus's a month. While to us that is low to them that is a small fortune. I'm sure our friends to our north can attest to the countries beauty. That we.do miss out on. We get to see part cture only.

So come on Fidel get with the program and get those tourism dolors flooding your country.....

Cuba would be a boon for local range tourism(only 90mi from Miami). IF they loosen up some of their laws on their own people they could use the tourism dollars and classic car collectors in the US could go an offer money for all those 1950s cars they are still driving. Sure most need a lot of work but they are still classics.

actually not - as most were rebuild several times over using locally fabricated parts and actually driven constantly, so while they appear classic, they are no longer preserved original vehicles comprised of original parts. their value would be similar to an old hobby car kit.

True but parts for those cars are lacking here. A replacement part may cost 1000s for some ccars and they also are not original.

Oh yeh the cars. They are making their own part engine tranny and body to keep them going. I watched a video about them and seen a local news piece. Some of the cars being driven by the locals are show quality cars. High millage but when parts have been replaced as often as they have had to do they are pros at it. There is a local collector here who wants to get some of their parts for his cars. Cuban citizens are sitting on a few gold mines just waiting for a market. Hopefully their government let's them exploit that gold mine.

I think you mean Raul?

I hope so... Fidel Castro has been gone for some time now

Fidel still wields some influence there.

"Fifty different countries nationwide?"

Glad I wasnt the only one that did a double take at that

Just shows you what passes off as journalism these days!!
Country and nation are synonyms. If Karl proofread what he wrote then he would have stated...
"After a slow start, Netflix now offers streaming video service in roughly fifty different countries worldwide."

Pricing is country-specific and based on national income and the cost of general goods, among other things, so it should cost significantly less than their U.S. pricing.

What makes their money so much more valuable than ours that you can live off $20 a month?! Holy hell

They can barely get by. It is why so many come here. The us has always had a dry feet policy where if you are Cuban and get on dry land you chances of deportation goes way down.

Yes but still they can still get by on $20 a month, even if it's like working on minimum wage here in the states, you show me 1 American that can live off $20 a month? You can't, unless we're talking about over 100 years ago.....

Define living

In poor societies like that, a very active barter market exists, and most people learn a skill or two from their parents. I have a field, and I grow some potatoes. But my boots are leaking and need patching. You are a shoemaker. I will trade you 20 potatoes to fix my boots. You in turn go to someone that makes leather, and trade him HIS fixed shoes for a sheet of prepared and dried leather, so you can fix MY shoes AND the shoes of 5 other people. Now you have 20 potatoes and leather to fix more shoes.

And so on, and so on. The larger cities of course have shops where items are exchanged for money, but the basic living necessities are often done by bartering the basics. 5 eggs for 7 potatoes. 3 potatoes for 2 beets. And after everyone in a village has traded with each other, everyone has a diverse meal. Also, people don't throw anything out. The boots I was mentioning might be 30 years old, and have been fixed up with fresh leather in a number of spots at least 7 times. Here in the USA, we throw out our 3 year old shoes and buy new ones, made in China somewhere, and shipped to us for cheap.

Over there they don't do that. If they actually buy anything, it will be something they will keep for 20 years and repair when needed, redneck style. You don't worry about things like internet and certainly not about things like Netflix.

Everything is subsidized and rationed- food, housing, heath care, education. While it largely does keep their population from mass homelessness/starvation (and the health system is remarkably effective) most remain at subsistence level.

Not sure if Netflix is just looking to plant a 'first-mover' flag, because it will be a market failure by any measure unless they have zero expectations.

"95% of the country doesn't have a fixed-line broadband connection at home (only around 5,400 homes do). Meanwhile, the average Cuban salary is around $20 a month, putting an $8 monthly fee well beyond the reach of most Cubans for the forseeable future."

Well, it appears the average Cuban cannot get basic Netflix service simply because the infrastructure and the wages are not there yet. How is Cuba even profitable for Netflix right now? We may see T-Mobile expand their 3G/4G footprint on the island, but that could take years.

I see no profit in this.

B&W TVs with rabbit ears don't exactly cut it.

Some families have more than what you think

You guys need to watch the news sometimes. Most of cuba lives in poverty. Netflix wont make any money in cuba. Hell its illegal to own a tv over 24inch. Before 2008 it was illegal for them to own a computer. Many cubans dont even have electricity. Nothing pretty over there at all »www.miamiherald.com/news ··· 846.html

Six year old story. Way out of date

Not really. Those people are oppressed, you should know understand the facts.

This is just a good-feelings move by Netflix thats only pop-culture politics.

This just in, favorite Cuban movie so far, Hope Floats....

My father makes $9 dollars a month and a doctor makes not more than $25.

There less than 6,000 broadband connections in a country with 11 million people

How fast are their Broadband connections? 25Mb/s Down, 3Mb/s Up?

25/3 would probably serve the entire city of Havana.

Up until 2013, the bandwidth of the ENTIRE COUNTRY went through a satellite uplink in Havana, offering around 360 Mbps down, 210 Mbps up. Yes, the ENTIRE COUNTRY. It wasn't until 2013 that they began making a switch to a new laid fiber optic cable that connected them to Venezuela (socialist friends of course, they financed the cable) and to Jamaica.

There is NO direct connection to the US mainland because of the embargo, but Obama's proclamation might change that. Right now, internet traffic to/from Cuba is going either via Jamaica (more likely for US traffic) or via Venezuela.

The Netflix launch in Cuba is a stunt imho, it's easy to "launch" in Cuba for Netflix as they operate out of the same US datacenters for all countries, and it's not that hard to add Netflix for another country.

I wonder how long it will take before a direct fiber link between Cuba and the USA exists.... I am guessing it will be a FAT one, preparing for a Cuban mobile phone explosion.

There is already a fiber cable being laid from Key West to Cuba....

»www.wsj.com/articles/u-s ··· 21792275
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