Netflix UK arrives.

Raulduke

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Netflix launches in Britain - Telegraph

The highly anticipated launch will see the leading American online film and TV subscription service go head to head with the likes of Lovefilm.

Reed Hastings, the chief executive of Netflix, is in the UK today and will formally announce the launch later on this morning in London and announce the monthly subscription cost of the UK version of the service.

The US company has already signed UK-specific content deals with BBC Worldwide, Lionsgate UK and MGM films.

More content partnerships are expected to be announced by Hastings today.

Netflix’s deal with the commercial arm of the BBC means subscribers will be able watch older series of BBC shows, such as Torchwood and Spooks, via the service.

A couple of months ago Google announced a movie rental service for UK Android users, and Sony announced the launch of its Entertainment Network, offering streaming and downloading services.

In the UK, services such as Lovefilm, which was acquired last year by Amazon, have dominated the film rental market, initially using DVDs and then increasingly focusing on digital delivery; while other platforms such as Sky, BT Vision and Virgin Media, have focused on providing on-demand content to deter people from using web-only service. Apple's iTunes is also a major player in digital film distribution.

Analysts have suggested the UK launch of Netflix could provoke a new price war.

Simon Woodward, of digital TV specialist ANT, claimed: "2012 signifies a tipping point for the connected TV market. Manufacturers and retailers have been talking about the connected TV experience for some time, but in reality, the benefits are yet to be realised by the majority of consumers. 2012 is the year where this is set to change – and we’re expecting a host of services like this one to be launched in the coming twelve months as the market responds to growing consumer demand."

Netflix launched in the USA in 2007, and is now available in more than 40 countries.

In America, the company says it has more than 25 million members, and charges $7.99 a month for unlimited access to content across multiple devices including PCs, TVs, Xbox, Wii and PS3.
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Currently have LoveFilm instant streaming only service which is ok but could be tempted to switch to Netflix if the content is better. Anyone signed up for the free trial yet?
 
The BBC deal makes no sense to me in the UK; just like UKTV, it's a big "feck you" to the licence fee payer. Anything the BBC has produced themselves at the licence fee payer's expense should be readily available through the iPlayer. They shouldn't be selling say "Only fools and horses" in DVD box sets, they should be available for free.
 
According to TechRadar Netflix will allow unlimited streaming for £5.99 a month but Lovefilm has dropped its UK pricing for unlimited streaming to £4.99 a month.

I used to have the streaming package on Lovefilm but the choice of films to stream was quite shit. Do Netflix send out DVDs or do they just offer films via streams?
 
Just streaming as far as I can make out. The price drop from LoveFilm was welcome because I never used the DVD rentals anyway but the streaming content really does need to improve and if Netflix can nail that then I can see plenty LF subscribers making the switch. I would use LoveFilm through the apps on the xbox, iPad & Smart TV which is pretty convenient but the content is even more reduced than on the desktop site. I'd happily pay the exta £1 a month for decent content.
 
Got a Netflix account yesterday. Have been watching shit on it since then, but haven't found anything good, besides possibly Swingers. Any recommendations? and how many films/tv shows are there actually on here?
 
got this set up now.

the lovefilm offering had shit quality, shit content

the netflix content is early days, but promising. And best of all it appears to be in HD on the apple tv. I tried it on the xbox and it was awful.

the Apple TV interface is beautiful, makes £99 seem like a bargain. Once they get all the deals wrapped up, it may signal the end for normal TV in my house.
 
WeasteDevil said:
The BBC deal makes no sense to me in the UK; just like UKTV, it's a big "feck you" to the licence fee payer. Anything the BBC has produced themselves at the licence fee payer's expense should be readily available through the iPlayer. They shouldn't be selling say "Only fools and horses" in DVD box sets, they should be available for free.
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I've been saying the same thing for ages. It's been paid for by the public already.
 
decorativeed said:
I've been saying the same thing for ages. It's been paid for by the public already.
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Surely it's no different to a subscription you pay to any other tv provider?

If I subscribe to Sky, I'm entitled to watch 24 when it's first broadcast and I can record it and watch it again whenever I want.

Don't see why I'm entitled to DVD box-sets for free though. I presume the logic is that they're produced for people who don't subscribe to Sky and didn't record it when it was first broadcast.
 
I was reading that the initial selection is shite in Ireland (fair enough). I might take a gander when it improves.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Surely it's no different to a subscription you pay to any other tv provider?

If I subscribe to Sky, I'm entitled to watch 24 when it's first broadcast and I can record it and watch it again whenever I want.

Don't see why I'm entitled to DVD box-sets for free though. I presume the logic is that they're produced for people who don't subscribe to Sky and didn't record it when it was first broadcast.
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I believe Sky now has an online on-demand thing for subscribers. Why should something broadcast on the BBC only be available on iplayer for 2 weeks? 4OD is a lot better than that.
 
decorativeed said:
I believe Sky now has an online on-demand thing for subscribers. Why should something broadcast on the BBC only be available on iplayer for 2 weeks? 4OD is a lot better than that.
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I didn't realise it was only on iplayer for 2 weeks. That's a shit service. It's free, though.

Anyone who pays a license has the option of recording whatever is broadcast on tv to watch again at their leisure. If they choose not to do so (or forget) they can't really complain about being asked to pay for DVD box sets etc.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I didn't realise it was only on iplayer for 2 weeks. That's a shit service. It's free, though.

Anyone who pays a license has the option of recording whatever is broadcast on tv to watch again at their leisure. If they choose not to do so (or forget) they can't really complain about being asked to pay for DVD box sets etc.
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I think the point is that everything the BBC produce, was paid for by the license fee. They then sell on the back catalogue to UKTV/Gold/Dave.

The reason why stuff is on iPlayer for 2 weeks is so that they can at a later date sell DVDs or sell it to UKTV/Gold/Dave. If it was all availible online, they couldn't sell it.

4OD have a big back-catalogue, and the stuff that goes on 4OD generally stays on there. The reason is that they don't really sell it on, and they get advertising revenue from you re-watching them anyway.

I understand if the BBC had their stuff on for longer, it'd cost more for them to run iPlayer, I just think it's a bit crap, really.

I'd be happy to view advertisements on iPlayer if the money made went in to the iPlayer service, and that meant we could have back-catalogue stuff on there.
 
Watching Doctor Who at the moment. 4 of the new seasons are on it.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I didn't realise it was only on iplayer for 2 weeks. That's a shit service. It's free, though.

Anyone who pays a license has the option of recording whatever is broadcast on tv to watch again at their leisure. If they choose not to do so (or forget) they can't really complain about being asked to pay for DVD box sets etc.
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It is free. But the programming on it has been paid for by the British public. I disagree with your second paragraph. The BBC should upload their programmes to be accessed at any time after they have aired, free to use by all licence holders. Why should there be millions of (obsolete) DVDs and videos in people's homes when the technology is there (and used by others) for the recordings to be accessed remotely?
 
decorativeed said:
It is free. But the programming on it has been paid for by the British public. I disagree with your second paragraph. The BBC should upload their programmes to be accessed at any time after they have aired, free to use by all licence holders. Why should there be millions of (obsolete) DVDs and videos in people's homes when the technology is there (and used by others) for the recordings to be accessed remotely?
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It'll cost a lot of money to do that. I'm with you. But they'd need to either cut costs elsewhere, increase the fee, make it a paid service, of find another way of getting money.

Plus they'd lose DVD and Dave/Gold money.
 
I've been quite impressed by the content so far, it's already far better than LoveFilm which in retrospect wouldn't be hard. Spent last night re-watching The Thick of It and the selection of documentaries is really good. I love the feature that means you can start watching something on one device and pick up where you left off on another. Tried it on the Wii and the interface was predictably terrible but the picture quality wasn't as bad as I was expecting. The Xbox app is much better but it could do with some decent filtering options and maybe a bookmarking facility similar to the Sky Go on demand on the Xbox. I'd say at this stage I'll be keeping it on at the end of the trial and stopping LoveFilm unless they respond with some decent content.
 
steeeb said:
It'll cost a lot of money to do that. I'm with you. But they'd need to either cut costs elsewhere, increase the fee, make it a paid service, of find another way of getting money.

Plus they'd lose DVD and Dave/Gold money.
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TV channels will always pay for stuff, even if it is available elsewhere (as most stuff is). Obviously you'd imagine not as much. Maybe the answer would come by getting rid of BBC3 and not doing daft things like outbidding ITV for Formula 1 coverage. Hosting stuff on Youtube (they already host short clips there) would be cheap enough.
 
Who says we don't?

I like the idea of these services though. Possibly an end to the days of having shelves of DVDs and/or terabytes of hard drives.
 
Biscuit1871 said:
Whats different between the apple TV interface and the xbox one?
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it had really poor picture quality for some reason, whereas the apple tv didnt.
Apple TV interface was very apple TV, integrates fully with the whole experience

apparently the PS3 picture quality is the best though. Shame I have my PS3 in a position where turning it on will force it to overheat within about a minute or I would confirm this.
 
James Parkin said:
it had really poor picture quality for some reason, whereas the apple tv didnt.
Apple TV interface was very apple TV, integrates fully with the whole experience

apparently the PS3 picture quality is the best though. Shame I have my PS3 in a position where turning it on will force it to overheat within about a minute or I would confirm this.
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There's a way of using your Netflix UK account to access Netflix US using this site below.

Unblock-Us | Setting up AppleTV

Once you change your DNS settings you get access to Netflix US content, to go back to Netflix UK just remove them. Might look into this tomorrow as the unblock-us site has a free trial.
 
Just signed up, may as well give it a go and see what its like. The selection appears to be pretty good so far and I am sure they will manage to add more to it sooner rather than later.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
It's free, though.
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It's not free! The licence fee pays for the iPlayer. Your Sky subscription analogy is also wrong. That's not forced on you. The general public pay for everything that the BBC does through what is basically a tax. It's not a commercial product, it's a public service, and therefore everything that it produces should be made available to the general public for free as they have already paid for it.
 
James Parkin said:
it had really poor picture quality for some reason, whereas the apple tv didnt.
Apple TV interface was very apple TV, integrates fully with the whole experience

apparently the PS3 picture quality is the best though. Shame I have my PS3 in a position where turning it on will force it to overheat within about a minute or I would confirm this.
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PS3 picture quality is great!

watching it now, and its as good as telly
 
iPlayer is free. You don't need to have a tv license to use it.
 
Or maybe it's just because other channels in those other countries have bought the rights to BBC shows, so it'd be a kick in the nuts to them if BBC just upped and streamed it for free worldwide. So no, that's not the reason.

But I'm not arguing about the license fee not being part of the payment for it, i was simply saying it's free if you want it to be.
 
So was thinking of perhaps subscribing this month, does anybody that use it have any pros / cons about it?.

Seems a fair deal but how good is the selection, is it mainly old programmes or is it fairly up to date? whats the streaming like is it buffering every few minutes?.

Cheers lads.
 
Had it for the past month and i can say i've been impressed with the video quality while streaming, it has moments when it does buffer but overall i'd say your viewing experience will depend on the speed of your connection.

In terms of choice, there were a few movies/shows i hadnt seen before so its good if they are new to you but overall the selection is rather poor. Half the movies are "B" movies and the other half is filled with old movies with a small selection of blockbusters. Overall its not been bad but i am hoping they start adding new movies/tv shows soon otherwise i will be cancelling my subscription.
 
Use an american VPN and you unlock a massive amount of extra films / tv series etc.

Think I pay about £2 a month extra for an American VPN. Well worth it for the extra content.
 
IrishLegend said:
Use an american VPN and you unlock a massive amount of extra films / tv series etc.

Think I pay about £2 a month extra for an American VPN. Well worth it for the extra content.
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sorry to sound dumb what is a vpn?
 
Is this any good, I'm thinking about getting the free month but I think I'd end up forgetting about it and then paying for netflix for a while until I cancel it.
 
Adam-Utd said:
sorry to sound dumb what is a vpn?
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Basically, it hides your IP address and tricks the webpage you are on to think you are from that country. I use such a website, and from Ireland I can use the bbc iPlayer, the american networks catch-up websites, Netflix US etc. Anywhere where I get the message "sorry, not available in your country" I can bypass it by turning on the software you download an pay €3 for a month.
 
Luminous Lizard said:
Is this any good, I'm thinking about getting the free month but I think I'd end up forgetting about it and then paying for netflix for a while until I cancel it.
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It's alright works very well for me, although I think they are really going to need to increase the content soon.
 
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