The news that Netflix has launched in the UAE this week as part of a 130-country expansion was hardly a surprise, but it was very welcome. There is no doubt that the video streaming service will prove popular in many households.
Due to licensing reasons, Netflix UAE won't have the same menu of programming as its US parent, but it will offer content not previously available through legal means – and on an on-demand basis. And by releasing all episodes of some series at the same time, it will allow for "binge-viewing". Hopefully, it will also mean early access to Brad Pitt's War Machine, which was produced for Netflix and partly filmed in Abu Dhabi.
However, the ultimate success of Netflix and other streaming services will rely not just on content, but on their technical reliability. Netflix consumes more than one-third of downstream internet traffic flow in America. Can our internet service providers offer enough bandwidth, or will we need an infrastructure upgrade?
