Indonesia’s largest mobile network operator with 163 million subscribers (out of a population of 270 million) is today unblocking Netflix, ending a contentious four-and-a-half-year ban.
Starting today, Netflix is available for all the cool cats and kittens who are Telkomsel subscribers, according to numerous local news reports, and then the firm’s corporate communications vice president Arif Prabowo confirmed the move.
In addition, parent company Telkom has unblocked Netflix in the past few hours on its home broadband service Indihome (7.3 million subscribers), as well as on its public wifi service, Wifi.id.
Netflix has always been available to Indonesians who subscribe to other web service providers.
U-turn
Prabowo said the U-turn on its unilateral ban was due to Netflix’s commitment to comply with Indonesia’s strict media regulations on things like nudity and some forms of violence. “We appreciate Netflix’s change of approach for the Indonesian market. Therefore, we provide the opportunity for Telkom Group users to access a variety of entertainment content provided by Netflix,” the spokesperson said in a statement, according to the Jakarta Post.
The company did not detail specifically what changes Netflix has made.
Here’s a timeline of the drama:
- January 6, 2016: Netflix launched in Indonesia as part of its expansion into 130 new markets
- January 28, 2016: Telkom blocked the streaming service
- April 2016: Drawing suspicion about the true motivations behind the Netflix ban, the state-owned telco partnered with streamer iFlix for its launch into Indonesia
- March 2019: Indonesia’s Business Competition Supervisory Commission mulls an investigation into Telkom’s block, but no action was apparently taken
- June 5, 2020: Telkom CEO Ririek Adiansyah said it’ll unblock Netflix “as soon as possible,” without specifying a date
- June 25, 2020: Chinese tech giant Tencent acquires struggling iFlix
- July 7, 2020: Telkom ends its one-man stand against Netflix