Netflix, the US online streaming video service, launches today in Ireland and the UK, offering a vast library of online movies on demand. This is great news for all you movie aficionados out there.
While our close neighbours in the UK have had the benefit of Amazon’s recently acquired LoveFilm to [provide them with video on demand, we here in the emerald isle have been left waiting. The Volta service which has been available for the last year or more offers some great home-grown and lesser-known fare (and is really worth checking out), but Netflix is a behemoth, offering content 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.
I signed up this morning and am already seriously impressed by the amount of content available at my fingertips. The technologically well-endowed will be able to stream video via their iPhones, iPads, PS3s, XBox 360s, Wiis, Android devices, smart-TVs and more. Everyone else can watch streaming video through their laptops and PCs, basically if it’s web-enabled you should be good to go.
The service is priced at €6.99 (£5.99 for the UK) per month, and to get you hooked Netflix is currently offering one month’s full access for the great price of free! You’ve no excuse not to sign up immediately!