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Indonesia's dominant telco blocks Netflix

Too sexy, no licence and nobody bothered rating the movies

Telkom Indonesia, the nation's dominant telco thanks to its nearly 130 million subscribers, has decided to block Netflix.

The carrier's grounds for the block are that Netflix doesn't have a licence and is showing offensive material.

Indonesia licences digital television broadcasters and there's legislation on its books prohibiting access to pornography, hate speech and other types of online content. A season of Orange is the New Black could easily fall foul of those regulations, if viewed through the often-socially-conservative eyes of Indonesia's elites.

Telkom's announcement of the block also points out that all films shown in the country have to be rated by local regulators. Netflix, it appears, hasn't ticked that box.

Perhaps it didn't feel it needs to, as while Indonesia's population of around 250 million makes it the world's fourth-most-populous nation, it's in 16th place for gross domestic product. That's a reflection of the nation's developing status and the fact that many of its internet users will use mobile devices on anaemic and/or low-download services that aren't exactly conducive to Netflix adoption. The country's also one of few nations on Earth that still buys BlackBerry devices, as the not-dead-yet mobe-maker's messaging service took off across the archipelago.

Indonesia does, however, possess a burgeoning middle class worth targeting with streaming video or any other online service. This block will therefore be an irritant to Netflix, especially as it's just declared its global rollout more-or-less complete (other than in China).

Other Indonesian carriers are yet to follow Telkom's lead, making its actions even more intriguing. ®

 

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