Tech Blog

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It’s not always the case that Canada gets some sort of technology offering before our friends south of the border, but the impending courtship between Netflix and Facebook in the fall should be interesting — provided Netflix makes some improvements.

I’ve had Netflix since it launched in Canada, and what I’ve liked most about it is how ubiquitous it is. I have no less than five devices I can use to play it. It would be six if my TV wasn’t stuck with the U.S. version of the software.  

Canada and Latin America will be the first two markets to make use of the Facebook/Netflix integration, with the U.S. to follow eventually when Congress isn’t too busy trying to keep the country from becoming a deadbeat debtor.

But the integration with Facebook would change a key thing — the idea of sharing and viewing content with Facebook friends. No major details have been outlined on how the integration will actually work, but since Facebook is a social media platform, one would think that viewing content with friends, no matter where they are, might be in the road map.

Netflix has almost hit 1 million subscribers as of this month, though the numbers don’t indicate how many of those might be thinking of cutting their subscription. The factor that dominates Netflix’s presence up here is content. When compared to the U.S. version, it’s a really stark contrast that’s hard to take lightly.

Netflix has at least made moves to counter the bandwidth issues Canadians have with their ISPs, and just recently launched the French version of its site for Quebec. The CRTC also recently announced that Netflix isn’t an online broadcaster, a move Rogers and Bell hoped would knock their new competitor down a peg.

At this point, little is known about the Netflix and Facebook pairing other than that it’s happening here first. Will there be an expansion in content by then? Will sharing change the experience of watching a film with someone half a world away?