Netflix continues European expansion

Netflix, the video streaming service, launched in Sweden today after casting doubts in August about the company’s future in Europe.

It had originally announced plans to launch in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland by the end of 2012 but subsequently stated that making their US venture profitable again was an over-riding priority. This resulted in the company pulling the plug on their launch in to the Spanish market.

Heavy competition in the US from Amazon Instant, HBO and the recently announced venture from Toys R Us, has resulted in the service struggling on home soil.

Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, said “In all our markets we invest for the long term and we don’t plan on breaking even in a new market in two years,” Hastings said. “Typically it will take longer than that because we keep investing in getting more content and building the best service we can.”

Recently Netflix has been investing in original content such as drama House of Cards and resurrected cult favourite Arrested Development for a fourth series in a bid to attract users with their unique offerings.

“We’ve decided to invest heavily,” Hastings said. “We have more content here than we’ve ever had at a launch.

At the Swedish launch there will be TV and movie content from Fox, Sony, Lionsgate, Starz and BBC Worldwide. After an initial free trial the service will cost 79 Swedish kronor (£7.40) a month.The company doesn’t expect any new launch to return profit for at least two years.

Netflix is available on PCs, Macs, all current generation consoles, smart TV and on iOS and Android operating systems.