Netflix's ambition to stream video all over the world gained a little more legitimacy on Friday with news that the company had joined forces with an entrenched Chinese video-streaming company. A Bloomberg report citing multiple unnamed sources said that Netflix was in talks with Chinese media company Wasu Media Holding Co., along with other firms.
Wasu is a significant part of the story because airing any content in China is a regulatory pain. Chinese regulations require a company to obtain a number of licenses to air or stream media content; one of those is a root-level license for the company (which must be a Chinese one) to do so at all, let alone the licenses required on a per-video basis that were instituted in April of this year. Wasu has that root-level license, as do six other Chinese media companies.
Rather than dampen excitement over the report, Netflix CCO Ted Sarandos spoke directly about his China-streaming aspirations during a Cannes Film Festival interview on Friday. "China is too big to have an asterisk next to it," Sarandos said, according to the Bloomberg report. He also admitted that his company had no experience akin to working with a Chinese media company and hinted at the regulatory and business-alliance hurdles he may face. “If that’s the cost of doing business in China, we will figure that out," he said.
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