Spain Gets Its Own Netflix Today With Youzee’s Public Launch

Spain is getting its own version of Netflix, thanks to a company called Youzee, which exits its private beta period today. Like Netflix, Youzee offers streaming movies and TV on-demand, but it also features titles for rent, too. The company has agreements with a number of distributors, including BBC, Sony, Disney, Fox International Channels, TVE, Telemundo and more.

To kick off its launch, Youzee is offering new users to try out the service for free.

New users can watch up to 10 hours from Youzee’s catalog for free, without entering in their credit card information. Another option invites users to try out Youzee for 30 days for free, if they’re willing to hand over their payment data in advance. Both offers provide access to the entire catalog, and will include the ability to stream from desktop, tablet or mobile.

After the free trial ends, Youzee’s subscription service is 6.99 euros monthly to continue watching, plus the option to rent out of catalog content for 2.99 or 4.99 (HD). In terms of content, while the company may have deals in place with several distributors, clicking on them from the drop-down box provided sometimes leads you to an empty section – so, clearly access to content is not on par with U.S.-based Netflix, for example.

The service also includes social sharing options built-in, which let its users post to Facebook and Twitter. Also revealed today is the Youzee iPhone application, which will become available in the App Store in a couple of weeks and will feature a remote control. Youzee’s Paula Pérez-Gándaras also tells us that an app for Samsung’s Smart TV’s has also been developed has launched.

Youzee was founded by Carlos Cruz and Fernando Évole. It’s backed by Spanish venture capital and employs a team of 54. Based in Madrid, Youzee describes itself as a startup with “an international outlook,” and the company previously told us that it plans to develop the model in other European countries in the future. The service launched into private beta in December 2011, and now counts nearly 50,000 users, according to the ticker on its website.

Update: The Samsung TV app has actually gone live – Paula originally gave us different info.