Netflix Now Available In Cuba

aBaldrich writes Streaming video service Netflix will be available to Cuban customers starting today, at the $7.99 U.S. per month rate that it offers in the U.S., the company announced today. It'll still require an international payment method for now, as well as Internet access (which still isn't ubiquitous in [Cuba]), but it's an early start that Netflix says it wanted to offer in order to have it available as Cuban Internet access expands, and debit and credit cards become more available to Cuban citizens. Until now, Cubans have had little access to this kind of American entertainment. The U.S. government maintains a floating balloon tethered to an island in the Florida Keys that broadcasts the pro-democracy TV Marti network. The Cuban government constantly jams the signal. "Cuba has great filmmakers and a robust arts culture, and one day we hope to be able to bring their work to our global audience," Reed Hastings, the company's co-founder and chief executive officer, said in the statement.

Comments

Hmmm ....

[gstoddart]

Available to Cubans with access to broadband, and international payment methods.

So, Raul and Fidel?

Do you have any idea how much $7.99/month is to an average Cuban? More than what they make.

I'm afraid the douchiness of NetFlix making this announcement is mind-boggling as it seems so disconnected from reality as to be absurd.

I fear Cuba isn't ready for the influx of crap this kind of thing is going to do to its society. And no matter what the idealists say, you can't magically turn their economy into a modern thing without causing more damage than you fix.

The "free market" as they'll see it will eat them alive, I'm afraid.

Re:Hmmm ....

[gstoddart]

Weird you'd call the free market a rigged game, then ask for it to be rigged by adding in restrictions.

No, what's weird is people continue to believe "free market" isn't a lie no matter where you are in the world, and continue to ascribe magical outcomes to what is essentially every greedy bastard optimizing his own greed, and has NOTHING to do with reality.

The "free market" is an abstraction. And it's a complete fucking lie.

Let's stop letting the game be rigged in favor of corporations so they can keep lying to us and stacking the odds in their favor -- let's finally realize the corporations are precisely WHY it's a rigged game.

SubjectsInCommentsAreStupid

[lesincompetent]

As a non-american still not reached by netflix despite living in a very first world country my reaction can only be ohfo'ffuck'ssake!
I hope you understand my frustration.

Re:Sigh.

[Major Blud]

If the US embargoes Cuba, they're being imperialistic. If the US decides to do business with them, they are going to ruin their culture and make it another satellite. Talk about "damned if you do, damned if you don't".