Netflix, a broadband internet based unlimited film and TV subscription service, has moved to take on the likes of LOVEFiLM by officially launching its service in the UK from just £5.99 per month. A special 1 month free trial offer (cancel at any time) is also being promoted for new subscribers.Netflix's content selection, which includes TV shows (e.g. 'The Only Way is Essex' and 'Prison Break') that can mostly already be found through other Video-on-Demand (VoD) platforms, is initially a bit uninspiring. Film content is dominated by older classics like The English Patient but does range to more recent action flicks, such as Blitz.
Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO of Netflix, said:
"We are starting 2012 in the best possible way: by giving consumers in the UK and Ireland an amazing entertainment experience. Now, you can enjoy as many great films and TV programmes as you want, when you want, where you want, for one low monthly price with no contracts or commitments."
"We are starting 2012 in the best possible way: by giving consumers in the UK and Ireland an amazing entertainment experience. Now, you can enjoy as many great films and TV programmes as you want, when you want, where you want, for one low monthly price with no contracts or commitments."
The "all-you-can-eat" service is available on a raft of different devices from computers (Mac, Windows), to games consoles (Sony PS3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360), mobile phones (Android , iPhone) and related tablets. As usual the video quality will depend upon your broadband speed.
According to Netflix, its films come with three different video quality settings (based on Microsoft Silverlight technology). The lowest quality requires a "minimum speed" of 500Kbps (0.5Mbps) and will consume up to 0.3GB/hour of data. By contrast the High Definition (HD) stream eats up to 2.3GB/hour and will need a stable speed of about 5Mbps.
A number of new IPTV and VoD style internet streaming services are expected to reach the UK in 2012, not least of which will be the YouView ( BT and TalkTalk TV ) platform. As usual customers should check to make sure that their existing package can cope with the heavy demands of video streaming. Many of their films and TV shows are also available with Dolby® Digital Plus 5.1 sound.
At launch, Netflix is offering films and TV programmes from All3Media, the BBC, CBS, Channel 4’s 4oD, Disney UK & Ireland, ITV, Lionsgate UK, MGM, Miramax, Momentum Pictures, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox and Viacom International Media Networks.
UPDATE 12:48pm
Infinera, a firm that aims to provide the world's most economically compelling optical networks, has warned that Netflix represents "a huge challenge" for telecoms providers and is estimated to account for "nearly a third" of all peak downstream internet traffic.
Chris Champion, VP EMEA for Infinera, told ISPreview.co.uk:
"Telecoms providers in the UK have made great strides in terms of meeting the demand for bandwidth hungry services and the likes of BBC iPlayer have put a heavy strain on the network. But if Netflix replicates just a proportion of its US success in the UK, it will mean carriers have to raise the bar again.
The demand for superfast internet access speeds have forced the network to evolve rapidly and 100 GB/s is the new speed of choice. With the growth of video, mobile and cloud based services 500 GB/s fibre optic ‘superchannels’ will be needed to accommodate the capacity needed in the future.
Operators should see this as an opportunity to future proof their network with the innovative technologies available. Photonic integration for example, makes it possible to lower the ‘cost per bit’ of this traffic enabling carriers to capitalise on the resulting margin that demand for premium connections will generate."
"Telecoms providers in the UK have made great strides in terms of meeting the demand for bandwidth hungry services and the likes of BBC iPlayer have put a heavy strain on the network. But if Netflix replicates just a proportion of its US success in the UK, it will mean carriers have to raise the bar again.
The demand for superfast internet access speeds have forced the network to evolve rapidly and 100 GB/s is the new speed of choice. With the growth of video, mobile and cloud based services 500 GB/s fibre optic ‘superchannels’ will be needed to accommodate the capacity needed in the future.
Operators should see this as an opportunity to future proof their network with the innovative technologies available. Photonic integration for example, makes it possible to lower the ‘cost per bit’ of this traffic enabling carriers to capitalise on the resulting margin that demand for premium connections will generate."
At this stage Netflix still has a long way to go. It's an interesting and potentially quite attractive service, one that we plan to use ourselves (at least for the trial period), although much of its content can be found elsewhere for free (note: so long as you have a TV License) and similar services already exist.
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Comments: 19
MarkJPosted: 9 January, 2012 - 10:27 AM
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Since FLASH kicked in the towel and HTML5 doesn't do DRM properly, which a lot of firms need, then a lot of the video streaming services have been left with little choice in the matter. The downside is that Microsoft continues to be coy on Silverlight's future.
cyberdoylePosted: 9 January, 2012 - 10:40 AM
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Not much good for rural areas, but its a welcome start. Its only when streaming films becomes commonplace that people will realise the need for a good connection. Many urban people are stuck on low speeds, but because they are 'adequate' for most things they don't realise what they are missing.
adslmaxPosted: 9 January, 2012 - 11:22 AM
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@MarkJ Flash is still alive and well on non-mobile devices. Adobe has perfectly capable Flash DRM available. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft is paying Netflix a lot of $$$ to use Silverlight. The decision to use Silverlight instead of Flash is commercial suicide when you consider the difference between the size of the install base.
MarkJPosted: 9 January, 2012 - 12:34 PM
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That's true for now adslmax but I keep reading about MS's desire to scrub flash support from Windows 8's (IE10) tablet edition. Desktops might hold all the cards but long-term that could really hit adobe, yet ironically Silverlight seems to be heading in the same direction. IMO both platforms have serious problems with their future feasibility.
VMPosted: 9 January, 2012 - 12:48 PM
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Biggest disappointed is non-subtitles for many million deaf users in UK. Pointless!
MarkJPosted: 9 January, 2012 - 1:00 PM
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A lot of the stuff that you expect to find on modern BlueRay's or even DVD's seems to be missing. Does anybody know if the films come with commentary options or deleted scenes etc? Guess we'll find out ourselves soon enough.
BTPosted: 9 January, 2012 - 1:06 PM
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Lovefilm is far better than Netflix cos it had games, dvds, blu-ray dvds and subtitles including too.
MarkJPosted: 9 January, 2012 - 1:30 PM
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LOVEFiLM also costs £9.99 for the "unlimited" service or £11.99 if you want the games content too.
JonPosted: 9 January, 2012 - 1:59 PM
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Why is the selection so poor?
The great thing about the American service is that they get almost all the new stuff fairly quickly.
If this becomes the case with the British service, and it works on my Sony Blu-Ray player then I will sign up.
But if the selection doesn't improve, and I have to use use Silverlight to watch on my computer then I'll stick with Lovefilm.
DeductionPosted: 9 January, 2012 - 6:42 PM
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The price is right but it needs a selection atleast on par with what they get in the states. Lovefilm is a total rip off with rubbish 2Mb streams. (most of the time its under that and looks horrid on a big screen).
@VM Netflix content does have subtitles (well around half of it which is about the same as any other streaming servic)
@adslmax I believe there is or was a google chrome plugin in the works which would allow you to watch Netflix content in err google chromes browser, not sure if its available yet but that would then allow you to be running Linux and view Netflix content. Flash wouldnt solve the issues as the DRM in that does work on other devices. (Apple stuff, some Standalone players and network streamers and the PS3 doesnt do flash well etc). Isnt there also a silverlight plugin for Firefox??? Ideally it needs to go HTML5
DeductionPosted: 9 January, 2012 - 6:44 PM
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@Cyberdoyle, Netflix allows you to choose several quality streams, as the story indicates, you can watch streams on it (albeit in cack quality) with as little as a 500K connection which i imagine even the rural mob have.
In terms of streaming movie services if this gets the amount of content it has state side and stays at that price or around it, its gonna be the market leader in the UK also. We dont really have anything else at a bargain price with decent content and various quality streams available which works on numerous devices.
DeductionPosted: 9 January, 2012 - 6:48 PM
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@MarkJ Only a small amount of content (this is based on the US service ive used) has multi audio streams, and you have to normally be running the higher quality streams to access it. I dont specifically remember cast commentary etc but have seen a movie that had more than one language selection both for audio and subtitles and also had commentary as a subtitle selection.
Its few and far between though even on the US servicee, maybe at a guess 10% of its content tops.
Bob2002Posted: 9 January, 2012 - 9:36 PM
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Looks like(for the moment?) if you sign up with a British account/card but then login with a US IP address(eg VPN) you get the US selection of films etc.
DTMarkPosted: 10 January, 2012 - 5:12 AM
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Can only echo what's been said. Many moons ago when I had cable I wondered why you couldn't just pick any film or programme ever made and watch it live - why not? Just lots of hard drives needed (OK, I exaggerate)
So, all this time later, a streaming service launches. No fanfare. Site looks crap. You have to be registered on Facebook (WTF? Hello? What does that have to do with it?). The selection is pretty poor.
On the other hand, it does correctly detect our IP (3G) as being in the UK, which is something.
As regards "the rurals" - so far as I know everyone in our village (3km from exchange) can get a half meg connection. Only just, though. Most could not get the 5Mbps connection as few lines perform at that speed. It really needs cable (and if you had that, you probably wouldn't want this) or FTTC.
SimonPosted: 10 January, 2012 - 12:50 PM
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I think the real winners at the moment are services such as Film 40D.
I do not want to subcribe to Films but I do wnat to be able to access a huge library when I want.
DeductionPosted: 10 January, 2012 - 6:27 PM
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I didnt have to be on facebook (and im not and never will) to sign up. I think that was only for a few hours when the service first went live. All i had to give them was an email address, name, payment method etc.
The facebook thing is see your *cough* friends (sad cases with nothing better to do) can look at your facebook page to see what films you have watched, liked etc. It can apparantely be disabled in what is an ether of facebook privacy settings.
@bob2002 You can also alter your PC/Router time zone to match certain regions in the US and watch specific US region based content... Yep theres the odd thing South America gets that North doesnt and vice versa also ;)
How long they allow that though is anyones guess.
DeductionPosted: 12 January, 2012 - 12:26 AM
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Tonight i saw the first of what will no doubt be many Netflix TV adverts :D
Amazon and Lovefilm that sound you hear is competition knocking :D
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