Netflix To Launch in the UK

[Bob The Skutter]

So Netflix have finally announced their intentions to launch in the UK. Seems they've been at the TV festivals in Europe buying rights to European content ready for their launch.
Though between LoveFilm, BlinkBox, Virgin, BT Vision and the various catch up services, along with the upcoming YouView, I think the UK VoD market is sewn up, but who knows, if they can give exclusive or early access to US content they might have a chance.

From the Guardian

The US online video rental service Netflix is to launch in the UK and Ireland in early 2012.
Netflix confirmed its first move into Europe on Monday, six years after shelving previous plans to launch in the UK.
British and Irish film fans will be able to subscribe to Netflix for a monthly fee – probably about £5 a month – to rent an unlimited number of TV shows and movies to stream online. The company did not reveal exact pricing for subscribers.
Netflix is the most popular film subscription website in the US, with more than 25 million users in its domestic market, Canada and Latin America.
Since it launched in 1997, Netflix has delivered DVDs by post as well as allowing viewers to stream films online. Netflix will offer online streaming only in the UK and Ireland, it is understood.
The UK launch will put Netflix in direct competition with Amazon's LoveFilm, which has more than 1.6 million subscribers in the UK and Europe, and Google-owned YouTube, which launched film rentals for British users earlier this month.
Netflix charges US users $7.99 (£5) a month to stream an unlimited number of films and TV hits, including Mad Men and The Walking Dead. LoveFilm has five different price models, ranging from £4.99 a month to £19.39 a month, based on how many DVDs users want to rent at the same time.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I subscribe to LoveFilm's 3 discs at a time + unlimited online viewing bundle for £16.33 per month. It will be interesting to see what Netflix's bundles contain and how they compete. They're going to have offer some juicy enticement to make me switch, and I'd leave them if they started pulling the same sort of pricing stunts that they've tried in the US. If they support streaming but not disc rental, I'll only be interested if they can offer HD.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

^Trouble with streaming HD is needing the bandwidth and having a reliable service. I mean even with services like Virgin with 50mbps you're screwed watching a film in HD cos your fair use bandwidth will be hit in no time.

 

[Pingfah]

Yep, most of our ISPs are so far behind the curve in terms of fair usage, unless you are prepared to also fork out for an expensive connection, there is little point in these streaming services. I left O2 because even though I was doing all my downloading off peak, between midnight and 6am, they were still whining about fair usage and throttling the bandwidth. I now pay £25 a month to a company that has no fair usage policy, no bandwidth throttling and no traffic shaping, but I only get truly unlimited downloads off-peak for that money. But still I can chew through 250GB in a month and they don't raise an eyebrow.

The next few years are going to be a major wakeup call for ISPs as the entertainment industry is basically going to be accusing them of lying to their customers and choking their ability to operate. People really do need unlimited downloads these days. In a few years time 250GB a month will be a commonplace requirement for a small household.

 

[JoeZhang]

^Trouble with streaming HD is needing the bandwidth and having a reliable service. I mean even with services like Virgin with 50mbps you're screwed watching a film in HD cos your fair use bandwidth will be hit in no time.

This is why I'm with Be*, I have that pipe running full-bore all day.

I with blockbuster and am on their two discs/games per month for £12 - if net-flicks is streaming only I'm not interested. The ability to get brand new PS3 games for next to nothing is not something I'm interested in giving up. Last week I played resistance 3 and this week, I'm playing Arkham City.

You are likely to find that Amazon (via lovefilm) significantly invest in their streaming services to cut netflixs off before they get here.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I suspect ISPs such as Virgin have no problem with bandwidth utilization as long as you're paying for a VoD service that they provide - in the end, it all goes over the same cable.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Yep, most of our ISPs are so far behind the curve in terms of fair usage, unless you are prepared to also fork out for an expensive connection, there is little point in these streaming services. I left O2 because even though I was doing all my downloading off peak, between midnight and 6am, they were still whining about fair usage and throttling the bandwidth. I now pay £25 a month to a company that has no fair usage policy, no bandwidth throttling and no traffic shaping, but I only get truly unlimited downloads off-peak for that money. But still I can chew through 250GB in a month and they don't raise an eyebrow.

The next few years are going to be a major wakeup call for ISPs as the entertainment industry is basically going to be accusing them of lying to their customers and choking their ability to operate. People really do need unlimited downloads these days. In a few years time 250GB a month will be a commonplace requirement for a small household.

Good to have the options. I'm in Hull and we only have Karoo, and a few small wireless providers. Karoo have a top package costing £30 a month with a 150gb limit and unlimited midnight to 8am limit. The provider I'm with is a Fibre over Wireless who offer an "Unlimited" service with a 150gb fair usage and ask you do any serious downloading after midnight.
My connection is terrible though, always dropping out but when it's good I get a 10-20mbps downstream and 5-10mbps up. So can stream some but when it drops out it's annoying, so better to rely on physical discs or downloads for me.

 

[Deckerd]

I don't use any of those things. Our download speed is a bit slower than the dialup we were using 10 years ago.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I suspect ISPs such as Virgin have no problem with bandwidth utilization as long as you're paying for a VoD service that they provide - in the end, it all goes over the same cable.

Well Virgin's VoD is part of their Cable package. BT Vision is part of their package. Sky Go is part of their package. Anything else goes on your bandwidth usage.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I don't use any of those things. Our download speed is a bit slower than the dialup we were using 10 years ago.

Seriously some times this service does go so slow it's like dial up, other times it flies. so annoying.

 

[Pingfah]

Yeah, I get my full line rate of about 16mbps all the time, regardless of the time of day or anything else, and no dropouts. So I am very happy with that.

Also a 1 month contract. It's the 12 month contracts that make me wary of taking a chance on anybody now. I only got out of O2 after 3 months by virtue of the fact their connection was so pathetically slow, and they surprisingly acknowledged the problem in an email to me.

 

[Sean Aaron]

if net-flicks is streaming only I'm not interested.

Agreed. I'd prefer to download to own and if I'm not paying a monthly contract for the odd rental; iTunes seems to work just fine for that purpose.

Given how reticent the studios seem to be to put all their eggs into one online retail basket, why aren't they just selling their wares directly? You'd think if the BBC can be bothered to do iPlayer they'd have a "click to buy a download" option rather than my having to buy a DVD or go to iTunes.

 

[23skidoo]

The way Netflix is collapsing, I wouldn't hold my breath to see this actually happen. Bloomberg just ran a story saying Netflix is putting international expansion on hold - though at the moment the UK/Ireland expansion is still going ahead:

http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LTLILS6K50XV01-5D2HHQ1G6TPRUNHNI821J0704I

Alex

 

[Bob The Skutter]

if net-flicks is streaming only I'm not interested.

Agreed. I'd prefer to download to own and if I'm not paying a monthly contract for the odd rental; iTunes seems to work just fine for that purpose.

Given how reticent the studios seem to be to put all their eggs into one online retail basket, why aren't they just selling their wares directly? You'd think if the BBC can be bothered to do iPlayer they'd have a "click to buy a download" option rather than my having to buy a DVD or go to iTunes.

BBC Can't sell them that way, they have to have the rights sold via Worldwide, but ITV, Channel 4 and 5, Sky, etc could.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Good, yall can join us in bitching about how H O R R I B L E Netflix is.

Just kidding, I'm personally a happy subscriber.

if they can give exclusive or early access to US content they might have a chance.

Hollywood is doing its best to strangle Netflix in its crib (correctly seeing that Netflix streaming is their death warrant, at least of their business as they know it), so I dunno how that's going to work out. It's all very entertaining to watch, though.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

^Well without that I don't see how they'll get any traction. Unless they can offer comparable services for a cheaper subscription I doubt they'll do any good in the UK market with so many other choices.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Is there any market for DVD rentals still in the UK? Netflix can do that.

Streaming is where the problem is. For instance, HBO won't let Netflix stream content in America - too big a threat to subscription revenues. Netflix is getting the most pushback from movie studios and premium TV, who have the most to lose.

By contrast, they're getting plenty of cooperation from the CW and content providers at that level. Why not, since everyone can see CW content for free anyway. They're not giving up much by doing a deal with Netflix.

 

[Sean Aaron]

Not really. There are places that rent (Blockbuster, obviously), but they started selling as well. I think the prices for retail DVDs are getting so cheap though that this market will dry up unless there's real money to be made in renting Blu-Ray.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Is there any market for DVD rentals still in the UK? Netflix can do that.

Streaming is where the problem is. For instance, HBO won't let Netflix stream content in America - too big a threat to subscription revenues. Netflix is getting the most pushback from movie studios and premium TV, who have the most to lose.

By contrast, they're getting plenty of cooperation from the CW and content providers at that level. Why not, since everyone can see CW content for free anyway. They're not giving up much by doing a deal with Netflix.

Well LoveFilm and Tesco (think Wal*Mart) have Rental by post already, so they're kind of entering market that's already served.

 

[Starbreaker]

You know... you people across the pond are going to love Netflix if they have the same content they do here eventually.

And Netflix actually made record profits last quarter. Their loss of subscribers didn't hurt at all.