Quickflix: Heading over the ditch

Moving streaming service launches in New Zealand

Mike King

Mike King is a Fool.com.au Investment Analyst and Writer. He caught the investing bug more than a decade ago, at a time when the U.S. had invaded Iraq and fear reigned in the markets. His initial success as the markets took off encouraged his passion and thirst for knowledge. With 13 years behind him at one of Australia's largest domestic banks, Mike's passion for stocks led him to join a boutique funds management firm, where he stayed for four years. A seven-year stint in equity research at one of the largest investment banks in the world followed that, giving Mike a thirst to pursue his passion further. Mike holds a Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment and a Graduate Certificate in Financial Planning. His passion is to help retail investors invest better, and that passion was one of his primary reasons for joining The Motley Fool Australia in late 2011. Mike has written thousands of articles since joining, including for Fairfax Media, Yahoo!7, Ninemsn and has also appeared on ABC's The Business. You can see all of Mikes' holdings here

Published March 29, 2012 3:28 pm AEDT

Quickflix Ltd (ASX: QFX) today announced that it has launched its movie streaming subscription service in New Zealand.

Quickflix will become the first home entertainment company to offer unlimited viewing of Hollywood movies and TV series streamed on-demand over the internet, in that country.

Subscribers in New Zealand will have access to movies over a growing range of web connected devices, including smart TVs, Blu-ray players, gaming consoles, PCs, Apple Macs, tablets and mobile phones.

Quickflix launched the same service in Australia in December 2011, which will soon be available through Samsung smart TVs, Galaxy tablets and smartphones in both countries, as well as Apple iPhones and iPads.

As I mentioned in this article this morning, the death of DVDs is coming. Quickflix is aiming to speed that process up.

Licencing agreements

Feature films have been licenced from major Hollywood studios including MGM, Warner Bros, Sony Pictures and NBCUniversal, as well as TV series content from HBO, USA's largest premium television company. HBO has also invested $10m in the company in exchange for 83.3m preference shares, which equates to a fully diluted interest of 15.7% on conversion.

The company also announced a content licencing arrangement with BBC Worldwide on the 7^th March, to provide high quality TV series from the BBC Worldwide's catalogue of British drama and comedy.

Subscribers growing

Subscriber numbers are growing rapidly. During the December quarter, total subscribers grew by 24%. With the closure of Telstra Corporation Limited's (ASX: TLS) BigPond Movies DVD rental service on 30^th September 2011 (and the transfer of its content library Quickflix), Quickflix how has a market leading position in Australia.

The Foolish bottom line

Revenues have grown by an average of more than 20%, over the last three six month periods. While the company has yet to report a profit, its unlikely to be much longer before it does. If these trends continue, and the company can capitalise, Quickflix could be one to watch.

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Motley Fool contributor Mike King doesn't own shares in Quickflix. The Motley Fool's purpose is to educate, amuse and enrich investors. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson. Click here to be enlightened by The Motley Fool's disclosure policy.

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