Challenging Amazon, Netflix debuts £5.99 video streaming service in UK, Ireland

Netflix has made its debut in the UK and Ireland in early 2012, just like they promised, having worked out video content licensing deals with the likes of BBC Worldwide and MGM.

Users in the UK and Ireland can now subscribe to Netflix to watch available content on their connected TVs, computers, tablets, game consoles and mobile devices. In the UK, Netflix will be bumping heads with Amazon-owned LOVEFiLM, the well-established movie and TV series streaming service.

Already, the competition is heating up. Netflix has priced its service at £5.99 or €6.99 (after a free trial month), prompting LOVEFiLM to undercut the price with a £4.99 streaming offer.

Notably, Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings in October 2011 warned investors that it might take two years before its UK and Ireland operations turn a profit.

Yet expanding internationally is key for Netflix, but it’s also a notoriously difficult move for the company to make, as well as a drain on its time and resources, given that content owners tend to require working out specific distribution deals for each new geographic region.

Aside from BBC and MGM, Netflix has signed deals with Miramax and Lionsgate, and is reportedly close to announcing more deals with the likes of Sony, Disney, Paramount, Channel 4 and ITV.

We’d like to hear from you if Netflix’s available content library is satisfactory or not.

Also read: Netflix: Our 20 Million Members Streamed 2 Billion+ Hours Of Content In Q4 2011