ONLINE FILM and television rental company Netflix launched in the Republic yesterday.
The US-based company’s Irish site offers films and TV programmes from a range of stations, including the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV and from film-makers Disney, Paramount, and Twentieth Century Fox.
It charges subscribers a monthly fee of €6.99 to access its film and television content. The fee includes a free month’s trial.
The Irish site, launched alongside a similar service being made available in the UK, is Netflix’s first expansion outside North and South America and the company plans to challenge BSkyB’s dominance in the premium film channel market in Ireland and Britain.
“When you talk about big entertainment businesses, Sky Atlantic and Sky Movies are huge. Our advantage is we are much lower priced than the Sky packages and it is all on demand, click and watch,” Netflix chief executive and co-founder Reed Hastings said.
While the company is promising subscribers “tens of thousands of hours of great film and television”, the initial content on the site appears limited, with few new releases available to Irish customers. Yesterday afternoon, not one of the top-10 rental films was available on the Irish site. The children’s section also appeared to be restricted with none of the big Disney films, Dreamworks or Pixar films being accessible, to name just three film studios.
Potential users who contacted The Irish Timeswere not impressed by what was available on day one. Eoin Ó Súilleabháin said he had registered straight away but was disappointed. He said the "movie content seems old at best but TV and documentary content might swing it". Eoin Maguire also had a look at what was on offer and was less impressed. "It looks terrible. Very poor selection," he said.
Among the films available today are Once, The Expendablesand Paul Blart: Mall Copwhile television programmes Breaking Bad, 24and 90210are available, as are older seasons of The Only Way is Essex, Top Gearand The Inbetweeners. The company has said it will be releasing fresh content in the days ahead.
Netflix was founded in 1997 and established a US market for DVD rental by post. Over the last two years it has shifted its focus to online delivery. The company is loss-making but its chief executive said it had little choice but to offer online delivery as its primary focus.
“In the long term, internet TV – the idea that you can click and watch anything you want – is such a powerful concept that we are investing heavily,” Mr Hastings said.