Streaming video and content service Netflix has announced that it will launch TV and movie streaming goodness in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland before the end of the year.
It’s worth recalling that its first ever original content — Lillyhammer — was filmed out of Norway. The TV series is set to be released across Europe, having already aired in Norway through a TV network partnership, but this time around the focus on Scandinavia is very much The Full Monty, to use Netflix speak.
The company hasn’t given a specific date for the launch — nor has it furnished details of the content, support devices and pricing — but it advises those in the four Nordic countries to head to its homepage and sign up for an alert once it is live.
We’re excited to announce that Netflix will offer streaming of TV shows and movies in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland before the end of the 2012.
Upon launch, Internet users in the Nordic countries can subscribe to Netflix for one low monthly price and instantly watch a wide array of Hollywood, local and global TV shows and movies; many with high definition video and Dolby Digital Plus surround sound.
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Details about the service, including pricing, content and supported devices, will be announced closer to launch.
The company has been focused on developing its international reach this year and a move into these Nordic markets, where streaming and download services are hugely popular and near-mainstream, makes a lot of sense.
The streaming service arrived in the UK in January, where it is rivalled by Amazon-owned rival LOVEFiLM. Elsewhere the media service was launched in Latin America in September 2011, having first made the relatively short hop over the border into Canada in 2010, in what was its first overseas expansion.
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International growth is no cinch for the service though, particularly in the hugely diverse continent of Latin America. Earlier this week, Netflix admitted that Brazil’s potentially lucrative market has proven “challenging” due to low broadband penetration and the unique taste and preferences of its customers in the country.
As well as adding new countries, the service has been focused on broadening the number of platforms that support it, and it has inked deals to appear on the Xbox 360, Nintendo’s Wii and Vita and others. These deals increase its user touch points and help get the service into living rooms and onto TVs, where multimedia is more traditionally consumed.
To that point, just last week, it introduced its ‘just for kids’ selection of programming for under 12s on the Xbox 360.
US-based Netflix reported solid second quarter earnings in July, posting revenues of $889 million and earnings of $.11 per share. The details were particularly noteworthy as the firm had lost $5 million at $.08 per share in the previous three-month period.
Image via Flickr / Mr.Thomas
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