Netflix has wanted a presence in China’s mammoth media landscape for years, but the streaming service today said it will halt any and all launch plans in the country due to a “challenging” regulatory environment. In place of an official Netflix launch, the company now plans “to license content to existing online service providers in China rather than operate our own service,” Netflix said in a shareholder letter published alongside its third-quarter earnings report. Netflix expects only modest revenue from these licensing deals.

China has notoriously strict regulations regarding foreign digital services and media, with many imported television shows and movies requiring some form of censorship to meet the country’s local standards….

Continue reading…