The launch of Netflix in Indonesia (and almost everywhere else on Earth) near the start of the year made many people ecstatic that they could finally join the rest of the world in “Netflix and chilling” (yes, we know what that actually means). Among the few who weren’t chill about it: the Indonesian government, who threatened to block or censor the streaming service (fortunately looks like they’re holding off on that for now) and telecom giant Telkom, which unilaterally blocked it.
Telkom claimed they blocked the US-based streaming giant to protect their users from “objectionable content” but many suspected that they were actually just trying to protect their own business interests.
We may never know for sure. What we do know is that another major player in the streaming service market, iFlix, has just launched in Indonesia with Telkom’s full blessing and support. In fact, users of Telkom’s Indihome service get access to iFlix content for free.
To be honest, their connection to Telkom already made us skeptical of the Malaysia-based streaming service. But after taking a quick spin around iFlix’s content library using its free-to-all one-month trial, we have to say that it poses some serious competition to Netflix, at least here in Indonesia.
Based purely on price, iFlix definitely beats Netflix. Currently non-Indihome iFlix subscribers only have to pay Rp 39,000 per month. Netflix’s lowest priced monthly plan in Indonesia is Rp 109,000.
But a lower price doesn’t mean much if the content isn’t good. But, at first glance at least, iFlix’s content library seems comparable to Netflix’s Indonesian selection. For example, they both have a large number of American TV shows, but iFlix has a number of popular series not available on Netflix here, such as “The Big Bang Theory”, “The Flash”, “Modern Family” and “Mr. Robot” (if you haven’t watched that last one it’s amazing and totally worth signing up for the free trial at least!).
It also has a significant selection of Indonesian content, as well as more content from other Asian countries than Netflix.
Of course the big thing that iFlix is missing is Netflix’s awesome original programming like “Orange is the New Black”, “House of Cards” and “Daredevil”, although the company is supposedly working on its own original content.
In another bid to make their service more attractive to Asian users, iFlix allows its subscribers to download 10 of their titles for offline viewing, an option that would certainly be appreciated by those with slower or unstable connections.
The best way to find out if iFlix is worthwhile is by signing up for their free one-month trial, which is super easy to do. Unlike Netflix, you don’t need to use a credit card to sign up for the trial so you should be able to start streaming within a few minutes of visiting their site.
We’re still not sure if we’re going to give up our Netflix accounts for iFlix, but we’re certainly happy to have more streaming services competing for our eyeballs. Hopefully it’ll force Netflix to up its game and get more content into its Asian libraries as well.
