The New York Times

Netflix announced Monday that it is now offering its video streaming service in Britain and Ireland.

On the company’s Web site, Neil Hunt, chief product officer, said the company was offering a one-month free trial of the service to new customers. After the first month, Mr. Hunt said, the service will cost £5.99 in Britain ($9.25) or 6.99 euros in Ireland ($8.92). Customers will be able to stream video to Web-connected televisions, computers, tablets and capable smartphones.

Netflix said its catalog in Britain and Ireland would include popular European television programs like “The Only Way Is Essex,” “Prison Break” and “Damages.”

The new Netflix offering will put the company in direct competition with Amazon, which offers streaming content in Britain with a product called Lovefilm. Netflix will also go up against some features of Apple’s iTunes, which sells and rents video.

Netflix is still trying to rebuild its image after a brutal 2011. The company lost about 800,000 subscribers in the United States from the end of June to the end of  September, when it increased the price of one of its most popular subscription plans 60 percent.

In July, Netflix’s market value hovered around $16 billion, but by October it had fallen to just over $4 billion. The company’s stock has been slowly rising since, so the company now has a market value of $4.8 billion.

Article source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/09/netflix-hops-the-pond-offers-video-streaming-in-u-k/?partner=rss&emc=rss