Despite being a hotbed of several Video-on-Demand (VoD) related announcements, Kenya has little to show for the publicised efforts. From Zuku to Liquid Telecom's Ipidi, few actual VoD prospects have solidified themselves in the market.

Even the announcement by Netflix that it has launched in Kenya could not be sustained because of the realisation that bandwidth and payment issues will hinder the new experience.

"Netflix's Achilles heel is latency. Majority of Americans experience sub 10 milliseconds to the nearest Netflix POP, if Netflix in Kenya has to offer a reliable service then they will need a local POP where popular content is served from especially if demand increases," Tom Makau, a local ICT consultant told ITWeb Africa.

Makau added that, "The amount of bandwidth is also a factor, to stream acceptable quality Netflix at say 720p, you need just about 4Mbps of stable connection ... if customer complaints by most of the home internet users is anything to go by, the ISPs will need to up their game in offering reliable internet to the home segment."

Netflix recommends that ISPs have a 2Gbps pipe dedicated to their nearest POP to enable their users to access good quality streaming. "Will ISPs afford this and will this cost be passed to customers?" Makau questioned.

He also pointed out to the lack of relevant local content for VOD services. Even though Netflix has deep pockets to acquire good international content, some of it may not be screened in the country due to territorial licenses.

Most Kenyans would aspire to have M-Pesa payment for online services which Netflix does not offer. Companies like Uber had to change their payment structure from credit cards to allow cash and mobile money payments to capture the majority of the market. This might apply to Netflix.

So for Makau, the traditional content providers need not worry. "Netflix target audience is not the typical Kenyan TV viewer. The GoTV, Startimes, Bamba and most of the Dstv market share is safe from Netflix foray into Kenya due to lack of relevant content and good internet outside of the capital city."