The Netflix streaming movie and TV episode service has only been offered in the US and Canada, yet it"s become highly popular. Beginning today, according to Netflix"s blog site, Netflix goes outside North America. As previously announced, Netflix is beginning to launch its streaming video service to 43 different countries located in Latin America and the Caribbean. Citizens of Brazil are the first in Latin America to gain access; they can also sign up for a free month of service at Netflix" web site. Other countries in the mentioned territories will gain access by September 12.
According to the blog site, "Over the last few months, our team has spent countless hours in the region learning as much as we can about how Latin Americans think about, and enjoy, movies and TV shows. We’ve licensed thousands and thousands of hours of feature films, classic favorites, gripping telenovelas, documentaries and kids shows we know you’ll enjoy." While Netflix currently has over 25 million subscribers for its streaming video and mail order DVD business in the US and Canada, their new entry in Latin America is strictly for the streaming video division.
As we have reported last week, Netflix"s price for its subscription plans in the US have now jumped up by 60 percent for some users. Netflix had another setback this week when the Starz pay cable TV network announced it would not renew its current streaming deal with Netflix. Starz reportedly turned down a $300 million offer from Netflix to continue the current streaming contract but Netflix said it will now use that money to secure other content agreements.