Quickflix boss tells Netflix to end ‘back door’ access for Aussies

Yeah nah.

Those 200,000 Aussie Netflix subscribers are paying for their online content, instead of just illegally downloading. [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy].

very well said.

I think it’s hard to argue with the position Quickflix have here.

The only point of contention I have is about price. Its likely an AU based Netflix offering will either be more expensive and/or have significantly less content than the US version simply because rights holders wish to collect their treasure island tax.

Yawn…PR stunt letter from the CEO of a company that is one launch away from irrelevance.

Pure garbage. Does Langsford not know how VPNs work?

Netflix abide by the same geo-filtering obligations as all other providers. For all intents and purposes, the “Australian” users appear to be connecting from the US. Netflix can’t see the true source, only the VPN provider.

Quickflix is just as susceptible to ‘geoblock back doors’ as Netflix, or Hulu Plus, or BBC iPlayer, etc — except that no one in their right mind would actually do so due to the poor catalogue, poor video quality, and high price of Australian services.

Netflix could, in theory, identify potential IP ranges that *possibly* indicate proxied users, but they’d still be blocking *American* IPs from their system. This would entail an expensive cat-and-mouse game that would be costly to enforce and eventually fail, particularly when it comes to highly technical users who can set up their own system using a VPS or even Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure. Such users would not be identifiable as ‘belonging’ to a particular unblocking service.

The fact that 200,000 Australian users are willing to jump through hoops and pay not just one but two fees — one for Netflix and one for a VPN or SmartDNS service — is purely the fault of the local industry being unable to come up with a compelling local product.

You have got to be kidding me! This business is dead and buried.

If you want a good laugh check out Quickflix on productreview.com.au they have a 2.1 start rating out of 5, which is beyond bad, and are generally slammed by people. The CEO is saying all the right things, but the people are saying these type of things “Stay away from Quickflix! The customer is never right. Don’t even think about giving your credit card”
http://www.productreview.com.au/p/quickflix.html

That so many people are prepared to pay for Netflix it is evidence that Australians (the world’s number 1 pirate country for Game of Thrones) are prepared to pay for a good service.

As soon as media networks, and content providers stop trying to pillage the Australian consumers and charge exorbitant premiums on the services then we can start talking about fair and square competition.

And you know what, if that happened I don’t see myself becoming a paying Quickflix subscriber. Too little content, and god awful stream quality.

Not only are Quickflix kown for getting people’s credit card details for a supposed ‘free’ deal and then charging them upfront, they also and send out these little plastic cards that say you get one month free access, worth however much, as free extras with various other deals (I got two with a book someone gave me).

The object is to make it look like you’ve been given a free gift card as a promotional offer, but then I noticed both had the exact same “code” to enter on the website. The free deal was open to anyone who went to the website. Any company that goes to such lengths to deceive me into redeeming their free offer is trying to lure me into something, I decided, and threw the cards in the bin.

Open letter? Get a business plan and get over it.

Quickflix is living on borrowed time, because it’s model was borrowed from Netflix’ to begin with. That exploit now looks to be over.

Pro-Australia? When did Quickflix invest in first-run Australian programming? I guess it keeps the Postie busy delivering DVDs.

Pro-consumer? Hardly. I’m offended by the allegation I am breaking the law. Maybe Quickflick should have a go at Apple for the iTunes Store as well, given many people use US prepaid cards to watch their wares. There’s no VPN involved there or indeed geo-filtering.

Pro-competition? As long as that competition is on your terms, not the consumers eh?

This is just ridiculous. He doesn’t have a clue how VPN’s work at all. As well as the fact some people have mentioned that people in Australia are paying dual fee’s to do it. (VPN and Netflix cost).

Quickflix is BAD, and it’s worse in NZ. I’ve tried it once, they have no decent access to anything. The apps are atrocious, and the fee’s aren’t worth it..

I subscribed, then cancelled Quickflix streaming service twice over the past couple years. I cancelled it both times because:

1) its a clunky interface
2) their library is crap.

It feels like the early 2000s all over again, only instead of music services, its movies.

Australia Tax.

All this geo-territory nonsense harks back to the 1800s and publishing deals within the British Empire.
Modern capitalism says that any legal product should be for sale….. globally.
In 2014 Aussies are using technology to insist on fair-go pricing and access to global content. There is no good reason – other than naked exploitation – to justify equal digital access to this US/global content from Oz.
What about our free trade agreements with the US – why are these products price protected? Hmm?

Quickflix can write letters to everyone from Reed Hastings to Obama to Superman, their service is dreadful and they will be lucky to last until 2015. I’d sooner buy shares in Malaysia Airlines.

It would be interesting for Mumbrella to test whether Quickflix geoblocks customers attempting to access their site from outside of Aus/NZ. I suspect you’ll find the results to be very interesting.

Somebody call the whambulance…

Netflix isn’t doing anything wrong. If subscribers are masking their IP, they are the ones knowingly or unknowingly committing a crime.

If I owned a company like Netflix, I’d put up a post or a sign, “Please follow the law” if they chose not to after that. Not my problem.

@Ben W – Yes but they could choose to not accept credit cards with Australian addresses. That would ad an extra layer of protection which would be a pain to work around.

Quickflix? Puhlease, poor service, terrible ancient programs on offer.
When are they ever going to get it through their heads that we don’t want geo blocking or raised prices form local services. Get programs released globally at a fair equal price for all and then you’ll get a massive reduction in piracy.

Maybe if he closes his eyes and holds his breath the big bad internet thing will just go away.

It always surprises me that the readers of this website, whose jobs will in some part depend upon the healthiness of the creative industries, do not believe that they should pay in anyway to support the local industry.

To which I’m sure Reed replies:

Dear Steven,

No.

Every best,

Reed

And he’ll only need a quarter page insertion for that.

Also @Mark’s point is spot on.

He got it a little wrong “offer bad service, at rip off prices the complain and try to get the government to help them” that’s how businesses do it in Australia.

The whole geographic licensing is the crux of the issue, wake up Stephen we don’t care we just want to be equals, until geographic restrictions are abolished people will work around them to get what they want that’s how WE do it in Australia.

Leans back, nodding head and slowly claps his hands.
Well said @ Ben W.

Open letter from a service that will be dead in the water when Netflix truly arrives.

Simple, have the same content for the same price and we won’t have any issues.

Have a product for four times the price with a fifth of the content you won’t need to send open letters to people who are busy running a successful company.

Australian’s get hosed for content, at least that way they are paying for content in my view legally, it shouldn’t matter what your mailing address is. The alternative are nasty torrents, no one wants to go there, focus on those instead.

Finally make your product more attractive, cheaper, and in line with the viewing habits of the modern person then we can talk and send out open letters.

@F0P I think everyone supports that the market realities are we want the content we want at a reasonable price at the same time everyone else gets it. The longer that takes the more VPN Netflix and pirating will go on. It shouldn’t be hard, overly expensive, or matter which country you reside in to get the content you want.

@vick ‘we want the content at a reasonable price at the same time everyone else gets it’ and I will scream and scream until I am sick.

F0P – the local industry shouldn’t look for “support”, it should just be good enough that people want it. Welcome to the global economy buddy.

@Billy C — Netflix *do* require US zip codes for credit card signups. You can’t just say you live in 12 Fake St, 90210.

Due to a quirk in how credit card processors work, some cards work if your 4-digit Australian post code is similar to a (real, valid) 5-digit US post code.

Netflix don’t require a full address, but that doesn’t provide any stronger geoblocks — look at Hulu Plus, which does but still works with many AU credit cards.

And their other payment methods – such as (US retail) Netflix gift cards, iTunes US gift cards, US PayPal — can also be obtained on eBay and/or obtained via Australian payment methods.

Bla bla bla. I’m an American living in Australia and have NO INTENTION of stopping my use of Netflix! Everything here is overpriced anyway so Quickflix can either step up to the plate and be competitive or get stuffed for all I care! Get over it already! Besides, I’m being patriotic to my country by supporting Netflix which I will continue to do.

Didn’t AG McClelland say recently that using Netflix via VPN was not infringing copyright?

i didn’t think it was possible to give yourself a hospital pass……. I stand corrected.

Looking forward to the fall of Quickflix and Foxtel. Overpriced garbage!
If Foxtel didn’t have live sports, it would not exist.
Hats off to Netflix, and bring on more competition.

@Ben W – I’m sure you’re correct but surely there is a way to identify with the credit card processors using IIN numbers. Netflix are only licensing content for the U.S market for the U.S service. If the copyright holders want to sell that access again in other markets they should make sure Netflix only allow U.S customers. I can kind of see Quickflix point however they have trouble getting customers because their service is not very good but they would presumably be able to improve it if they had higher income. I use Quickflix for DVDs and most of the ones I get sent aren’t available for streaming. Quickflix will be dead in a few years but will Australian Quickflix be any better? Have a look at Canadian Netflix.

What people seem to be ignoring is the geofiltering requirement of the content owners.

If these guys got over themselves and realized they live in an interconnected world – not somewhere where you have to transport plastic cassettes physically to remote destinations.

That quickflix has paid money to support this moronic model doesn’t mean the technology should be hobbled to reduce its capability.

How about the model where streaming operators like Australia’s quickflix can stream ts content anywhere in the world at a more competitive rate than Netflix rather than just Australia – or is that jus thinking a little too far out of the box ?

@Vick – as for Quickflix being hosed when Netflix arrives. I wonder about that. I mean it will be more expensive and have much less content due to all the exclusive streaming deals behind the scenes that’s been happening. If they don’t hurry they’ll arrive with nothing but Netflix originals.

Though I guess the arrival of Netflix would mean more competition for Australian streaming rights which will raise those prices which will hurt Quickflix with its shallow pockets.

BTW, shares in Quickflix are currently trading at 1 cent, not 10 cents.

It hasn’t traded at 10 cents a share for years.

But not to worry, its only a decimal point…

Its very very simple. Geo-filtering is not the problem. It is the symptom of the problem. For every action there is a consequence. The consequence of Australian companies price gouging and dictating terms to Australians is piracy and geo-filtering. Quickfix has some problems, but really their target should be Foxtel not Netflix. It’s Foxtel’s acquiring of exclusive rights and then price gouging that’s caused the problem.

Piracy is going to cut into Foxtel’s earnings years – after year – after year. Until one of three things happens – a) Their anti-competetive business model is regulated away (not going to happen with Murdoch’s boy in the Prime Minister’s office) b) Fotxel wises up and realises piracy is costing it more than slashing their prices to something a sane person would be willing to spend would c) Foxtel dies as the marjority of the market moves to piracy (taking down Quickflix with it).

Unsuprising the CEO of Quickflix favors the arrival of Netflix given the above scenario’s are either unrealistic or will kill their company too.

clearly misleading. content owners ARE getting paid. in fact twice because they also get the Foxtel money. they are very happy with this! Only losers in current arrangement are foxtel because their so called exclusives are leaked via netflix hole. This whole territorial rights regime needs to be torn down it is as antiquated as the plastic once used for distribution.

When are these guys going to figure out hat the old business model of using geo territories to impose scarcity and thus create value for intermediaries/distributors is dying fast. People will pay for content, not aggregation and distribution.

the only future for quickflix and foxtel is original programming and curation that goes beyond an EPG.

@Quasar it’s an interesting situation that I guess most of us in the comments are wondering about. I just don’t see them launching here without any sort of strategy to receive exclusive Australian content or announce plans to bring their titles (Like House of Cards) back into the fold once any other details with another local supplier (eg. Foxtel) expire.

Everyone is right to say Quickflix is trying to prop up the old model, and plead “Brand Australia” when it’s always had a terrible design and terrible library of content that Langsford thinks somehow is worthwhile signing up for. It’s great to see through this open letter that they know they are screwed, they can’t even attract more customers then a service that’s not in the market.

[Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy]

200,000 people wouldn’t be signed up for Netflix in Australia if Quickflix was any good.

Sorry mate, but your product sucks. If Netflix launches properly in Australia, Quickflix are done. Good riddance.

He gets a big F-off from me too.

I’m not stealing it or illegally downloading anything and I gladly PAY for a service that no one in this country can or will offer.

Sorry Quickflix – I understand that it’s hard to be in the content business in this country, but there’s no use being a big crybaby in public about it. The government even RECOMMENDS consumers circumvent geoblocking to receive the best price:

http://www.news.com.au/technol.....6687671422

Netflix is not the enemy, it’s your suppliers. Reduce your business costs instead of playing the victim card.

Dear Mr Langsford,

Your ‘Quickflix’ product, service & content is utter rubbish.

An amazing fact for you to ponder whilst you play backgammon with Mr Burns…people (customers & potential customers) are more than happy to pay for a quality content, product or service.

Regards
Citizen Of The Internet

Langsford should save his energy and focus on delivering the product and service that he’s been promising for years.

Stephen, we’re using Netflix because Quickflix is ordinary mate!

@Ben W – 100% agree, freedom of choice all the way.

Really? No-one’s going to do a filching/back door joke?

Geesh I think Australia has a better chance of taking away gazetted public holidays before making any in-roads into tackling piracy.

So many comments here are beyond what a reasonable person would say.

AARRGGH EVERYONE FREAK OUT WE MIGHT HAVE TO PAY FOR CONTENT.
DOWN WITH CAPITALISM AND THAT AWFUL MR MURDOCH HE EATS BABIES AND PUNCHES KITTENS FOR FUN. HE’S NEVER GETTING MY MONEY YEAH LOOK AT ME I’M A CRUSADER LIKE MARTIN LUTHER KING AND ROSA PARKS.

The really funny thing here is that it’s essentially all the same product. The tiny amount of Australian content is negligible. Can’t wait for the day when an entrepreneurial mastermind markets Australian content globally. It might even create the odd job or two. 🙂

Netflix are providing a good model that Australians are going to great lengths to legitimately pay for content.

Suck it up.

Be careful what you wish for, if Netflix comes in the “front door” quickflix will be DESTROYED

I think you are better of now because at least you are getting subs from people who dont know about/cant be bothered to bypass the geoblock

As Netflix US subscriber using an IP Proxy, I’ll probably stay on that model even when Netflix arrive here – it’s actually better than US Netflix, as with the flick of a switch on my Proxy, i can access Netflix UK, Netflix Canada and Netflix US, which have different content (and luckily there are some great sites on the Interweb that tell you what stuff is on which service). Want to watch Suits ? Change to Canada. Want to the Borgen instead of The Bridge ? Change to UK. Via va la Consumer…

Quickflix encourage online signup to their service – but require a phone conversation before cancellation, according to their terms.

Not ‘fair game’ in my book.

I took to online complaint channels including Facebook and LinkedIn when I got tired of waiting on hold to cancel my account. Eventually, I was allowed to cut off my service via email.

I do not have respect for how Quickflix operate: to my mind, who are they to question Netflix?

PS…I am now a happy Netflix customer…via VPN of course.

Hey Mr Langsford,

In 2011 the Australian census reported 8.18 million households in Australia, which still leaves 7.98 million households for you to sell your product even if Netflix has 200,000 Australian subscribers.
Call me crazy but you have the advantage of the larger market…….thats if anyone wants to actually purchase your over priced, under whelming product of course.

Give me a spell.

I am LOVING everyone responding to this thread! So nice to have a break from the competitor agency bashing!

Au Revoir Quickflix!

Netfix is a shocker, showing old movies and shows, many of which were made before I was born. Having ‘trialled’ it recently I was then automatically renewed and charged despite having requested to cancel the service. After numerous phone calls and emails the service was eventually cancelled without refund… Netflix customer service is appalling as is the range of movies included in the streaming package. A bad product and bad service will do nothing but turn away customers. I am one of those now using GETFLIX for $5 a month to access overseas content and loving it, I do this as the local offering is not good enough.

Instead of whinging about NetFlix, Stephen Langsford would do better to address his organisations own short comings!

This comments feed has the makings of another epic response a la the Game of Thrones / Foxtel debate from a few months back.

It clearly shows, once again, that we are fed up with being taken hostage by an antiquated pricing and distribution model and the big boys are just not listening. Mumbrella readers are really passionate and opinionated about this topic.

Question is – are the Executives actually paying any attention to the feedback? I’d really like to know. (Honestly!)

So is Langford going to respond to his critics?

I thought I would be polite and write Mr Langford a reply
Thoughts?
http://novastream.com.au/an-op.....-langford/

wow, that quickflix guy doesn’t have a clue does he. Australians BUYING their content from netflix are NOT breaking copyright law, in fact they are honoring it.

All the are doing is bypassing arbitrary geoblocking put in place to protect commercial interests.

Can’t see anything illegal in that, in fact, as I recall, the ACCC said bypassing region codes on CD;s and the like was LEGAL in Australia.

http://novastream.com.au/an-op.....-langford/

This is a response I found online back to Stephen Langsford good read.

well, not surprised there are so many comments here. Stephen Langsford, where have you gone wrong? Your business is failing and you are accountable for a bad business model. Of course you are trying to justify yourself.

check out Gizmodo AU’s STV market share. you only have less than 10%. Netflix’s 30% would worry me too.

You know how the game is played. If you can’t keep up and that includes keeping ahead of new tech and user trends, you shouldn’t be in the job. Seek.com.au may be a better site for you to invest in….

ref: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014.....quickflix/

The Elephant in the room is once again the fact that the traditional “ad breaks” on free to air and Foxtel are now in their death throes. The public will no longer watch them which is why Netflix and other platforms are becoming so dominant. Like the classifieds in newspapers, these “rivers of gold” have just about dried up.
Some people in the ad industry claim that people still watch “live” TV events like grand finals and talent quests live, but I believe most are now pre-recording and fast forwarding through the ads, or just ignoring them, hopping onto social media while they are on. Interesting times indeed!

Righto a tough audience I see so my team and I have some work to do before we can convince you to support us. We’re not after a free kick— we get that our service has to be really good with great content. We think its good value now for only $9.99 per month and will only get better. Our beef is not with the aussie consumer. why should a big multi billion dollar multi national like Netflix get away without paying its way here…paying for content here in Au like we have to? Every cent Quickflix earns goes back into content and building a better service.

Netflix was pretty patchy in the early days. Australia can produce great companies too if supported.

QFX beef is not with Aussies accessing the service but with Netflix using their market power to disregard their obligations to ensure the rights of content owners are protected

Our business model doesn’t work, so please create artificial barriers to ensure that it does.

Said every business executive trained in the 20th century.

I had Netflix before I moved to Australia and I have it now that I live in Australia and my parents pay for my account as a gift to me using AMERICAN dollars. I’ll continue using it and there’s not one little thing anyone can do about it! Too bad, eh?

Ill conceived rants like this make me want to take up a VPN and a US Netflix subscription.

Yes indeed, Mr Hastings – please cease and desist giving us something that we want at a price we are willing to pay for it. For shame…

Quickflix have some dodgy sign up and hard to get out of practices which is not good for a reputable company to have. Their model shouldn’t be based on people forgetting to use and keep paying. We need to change the law and stop the price gouging here – we have copped it on movies and music for decades. I am sure we’d all support a local company if it was even within 10-20% close on price and quality.

Provide a service the consumer wants, at the price they are willing to pay, Quickflix. If you need protective practices for your business model to work, you don’t really have a business model . Talk to your consumers, not your competitors.

For all those demanding for an Australian service the consumer wants, at a price they are willing to pay, here is a list of every free and paid for service currently available http://digitalcontentguide.com.au/movies-tv/

A total of 36 different models.

Everyone loves complaining about the higher price of goods and services in this country but no one has any problems with the higher salaries – employers pay an ‘Australia Tax’ too.

I’m guessing when all is taken into consideration us Aussies get a fair go overall when compared with those in the US. We might have to pay more for TV and movies, but at least we’re not bankrupted by a visit to the doctor.

Netflix arriving in Australia may very well drive down the cost of local content providers (and limit Free to Air TV advertising revenues). This is not great news for people working in the media industry.

Oh come on – you can’t rely on regulation to make a business profitable. You’ve either got the right model or you haven’t.

Quickflix. Hopeless. Tiny library. As soon as Netflix announces a launch in Australia they are finished. Awful stream quality. Foxtel have lowered the price to compete, but will still be in trouble, sport will keep them in the game. Geo blocking is legal. The open letter is pathetic. Some PA in the USA will file it in the shredder before it is even read by anyone senior at Netflix as they are busy running an extremely successful company.

Yep, not good enough QF. There are plenty of locals willing to pay for a decent product…and i’m one of them. I pay Spotifiy for music streaming rather than stealing it from peer 2 peer sites and i pay Foxtel for a decent tv service. Not all of us run screaming at the prospect of paying for content.
Improve the product and you will improve subscriber numbers.

I’ve never paid for content except for Nintendo or PS3 video games cos they are hard to cough *borrow*