by Thinus Ferreira
Five years after Netflix launched in South Africa the global video streaming service this week started adding local South Africa age restrictions to the content that it is making available in the country and with its content ratings that now includes those of the Film & Publications Board (FPB) as well.
FPB age restrictions and parental advisories now form part of Netflix SA content in the form of FPB triangle symbols denoting an age restriction in numbers, as well as content labels in the form of "S" for sex, "V" for violence", "N" for nudity", "L" for language" and several more.
Netflix's biggest rival in Africa, MultiChoice's Showmax, already incorporated the FPB classification system years ago.
When Netflix launched across Africa in January 2016 the global subscription video-on-demand service (SVOD) initially did so on the continent without adhering to individual countries' content classification systems like what exists in South Africa.
Netflix pushed back against calls to have its available content catalogue locally classified. This had not so much to do with the actual classification process but with the fact that video content operators have to pay hundreds of thousands of rand per year for local classification to local classification bodies, like for instance the FPB.
In October 2017 Netflix EMEA told TVwithThinus that Netflix won't submit to local classification of its content which it does itself and "doesn't have to pay those fees".
At the time Netflix said that "We do believe that we do not have to do that. And that's the same case in many countries in the world where they have content regulation and there's questions about ratings, or censorship."
"There's always a wish from a regulator to try to get power from things like video streaming services, and we're trying to move away from that because we do think that the content matters and we try not to censor content in general."
Netflix said "We want the freedom to regulate ourselves. When there are layers of complexities it's never good; it's just slowing the technology; everything."
In early-2020 Netflix bowed under pressure from the FPB and agreed to South Africa's local content classification rules and pay the classification body. Netflix won't make back-payments for anything for the period between 2016 and 2020 where its service was available in South Africa without content classification.
Now that change has become visible. On Netflix's help page for maturity ratings and classifications for South Africa specifically, Netflix now lists, explains and shows the FPB maturity ratings and classifications.
Netflix SA subscribers now see an FPB icon appearing, along with the appropriate age number.
Netflix SA subscribers will now also see updated content advisories on titles and Netflix confirmed that it will be using the themes identified in the FPB guidelines, as well as the added-context advisories currently available on Netflix.
A Netflix spokesperson in response to a media enquiry told TVwithThinus that "Our work with the Film and Publications
Board is part of our wider efforts to give our members more control and choice".
"We want our members in South Africa to have the information they need to make
informed entertainment choices for themselves and their families."
