Netflix Heads To Scandinavia, With Plans To Launch In Norway, Denmark, Sweden, And Finland Later This Year

Netflix announced during its second-quarter earnings call that it would continue expanding overseas with a new market in the fourth quarter, and now we know where it’s going: The streaming video company just announcing that it will be launching in four Scandinavian countries by the end of the year. As a result, residents of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland will soon find themselves able to stream local and Hollywood TV and movie content online and on a wide range of connected devices for one low monthly fee.

Netflix has been expanding globally ever since entering Canada, its first international market, in fall 2010. Since then Netflix has introduced services throughout Latin America in 2011, as well as in Ireland and the UK in early 2012. From a financial point of view, it’s followed a trend of putting up a loss during the initial launch period of a new international market, creeping up to profitability, and then making plans to expand elsewhere. So, with the company putting up a profit in the second quarter, it was time to start thinking international expansion again.

The Scandinavian countries represent an interesting market for Netflix to hit up next: The company already has some popular programming there, as Netflix original Lilyhammer actually debuted on Norwegian TV and was rated pretty well, despite being bilingual and receiving mixed reviews in the U.S. And the Swedish movie adaptations of Stieg Larsson’s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo/Millennium Series books have also played well.

That said, it’s not clear what content Netflix will actually have in the Nordic countries at launch, but you can expect that it will be a fairly small number of titles compared to its current library in the U.S. Nor is Netflix announcing which devices will support its streaming services in those countries at launch. Pricing, too, has yet to be announced.

All those mysteries — and more — will no doubt be solved closer to the actual launch date, which Netflix said would be sometime in the fourth quarter. In the meantime, residents of Scandinavian countries can sign up to be alerted when the service is ready at www.netflix.com.