Popular US video-streaming service Netflix reportedly is pursuing opportunities to enter the Chinese market, but if it's successful it will face competition from local content providers and might have to adjust its pricing because Chinese consumers aren't used to paying for media content, industry observers said on Friday.

Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Netflix has held discussions with the Jack Ma-backed media company Wasu Media Holdings Co about a potential partnership that would license its content across multiple electronic devices. The Journal said talks also were being held with BesTV New Media.

"We would love to cooperate with Netflix considering its global influence," Xu Feng, the company's vice-president, told the Journal on Friday. "But we need to take note of the obstacles, including policy restrictions on foreign online content." BesTV previously signed a deal with Walt Disney China to form a digital joint venture to tap into China's market.

Netflix company spokesman Jonathan Friedland told China Daily on Friday that the company intends to be "nearly global" by the end of next year and declined to comment further.

"You've got two very formidable partners (Netflix and Ma's backed company), but they've got a challenge that Netflix didn't have when it started in the US, which are the competitors," said Rob Cain, founder of Pacific Bridge Pictures and a Chinese media consultant. "And nobody's really making any profit in the business."

Cain said that Netflix will likely need to charge less in China than in other places, and whether they can justify that "they don't really know."

"There is kind of an oversaturated market in terms of streaming where the sites are free or they're going around the corner where copyrights are concerned," said Michael Berry, professor of contemporary Chinese cultural studies at the University of California Santa Barbara.

"It depends whether they're willing to revise their current business model, whether or not they're going to use the exact same model that's been successful internationally and present that to the Chinese market," Berry told China Daily. "That model might not work, so they might present initially a free service, get people hooked, and then they start charging. That's one way they possibly could change their business strategy."