Netflix coming to the UK and Ireland next year!

Finally! The UK has Love Film but Ireland has nothing. Legally, you have to buy a movie to watch it and they're REALLY overpriced. So I've had to become    evil   , after having bought so many DV Ds over the years. They tease me now, stacks of them, basically useless, all the money spent on them...

So, well, yay!

HA HA HA HA HA THIS USA BORN TROPER LAUGHS IN YOUR FACES!!!

-curls up in a corner and feels sad, thinking of everything the UK has we don't

Well I guess I'll curl up too, as I'm not in the UK either. We get BBC on TV though (mainly because Northern Ireland has to, so it's not worth their effort to block it), but not iPlayer access.

It isn't as big a deal for them, as they have Love Film and cheaper prices on things anyway, but they're the bigger market so I suppose they'll be Netflix's prime focus. Still, hopefully they realize what a huge gap in the market there is her and give us some fair attention...and a fair price.

Great, now you too can get all the shows that nobody wants to watch, plus tons of obscure anime, most of which is of the terrible kind.

My Instant queue has about 70 titles in it.

Though the least desirable titles are the ones that are easiest to get the rights to, and you'll probably get those first. But they already have relationships with the bigger studios, so you'll get good content faster than we did. It pays not to be an early adopter.

Oh cool!

Oh, wait, does this mean that more UK and Irish shows will be available on Netflix? That would be so awesome.

I wish Netflix had Father Ted. I don't like watching older shows on Hulu.

Whooo it's here I have it I love it no more expensive DV Ds (Well, much less) wooooo

edited 12th Jan '12 5:06:57 PM by occono

What's your price point there?

I never really got what the fuck Netflix is.

I already tried google but no way. LOL.

You pay a monthly fee to stream any movies/TV shows you want from a rather large selection. There's an app for it that lets you watch it on the go. It's pretty cool.

There are also devices that can let you stream it on your TV, including some internet-capable TVs.

Yup. For example, besides my computer, I can use my iPhone, Wii, and 360 to stream it.

What's your price point there?

€7 a month, which is excellent. You have to pay twice that for one DVD, if you can't rent it. iTunes charges not much less for rentals for one movie for one day. Which is why Piracy's big here.

Some are disappointed with the catalogue, but I think it's fantastic for a start, you just have to know how to use it, it seems limited at the home screen because it's all recommendations there, you have to dig through it. Only thing is I own a lot of the best stuff on DVD already. :( Oh well, there's still a bunch of stuff I haven't....

edited 15th Jan '12 1:15:10 PM by occono

That's just streaming? (I can't remember if you even have disc service available there) Sounds about right if so. As I recall the Euro is worth close to, but more than, the US dollar.

€ 6.99 = 8.854233 US$

But when you factor in VAT and the expense of starting up here, plus things being priced higher in general, the extra 85c is fair.

Yeah, it's streaming only. I'm kind of surprised as the small size of the country would make the mail service more manageable.

At this point, they seem to really not want to be in the DVD business, but we saw what happened when they tried to shed it last summer. I doubt they'll be much inclined to get it started in other countries.

Yeah, comparable but slightly more expensive is about what I thought.

edited 15th Jan '12 1:29:28 PM by TParadox

Netflix. If there was ever an example of Network Decay applying to something other than an actual media network, it would have to be them.

edited 16th Jan '12 4:56:06 PM by UberShyGuy

Why? They were a website providing access to media when they started, and they still are a website providing access to media. The format changed, is all.

They still offer DV Ds in the US and Canada. And that service isn't going away anytime soon.

They haven't really decayed. They almost did, but they reversed it.

As I said, they still offer them where they already offered them, because everyone flipped out about trying to shed DVD service onto Qwikster. But they want out of the business and will not likely be offering DVD access anywhere they weren't already.

I still dispute the idea that trying to get away from DVDs is decay. Moving to online streaming is more of a Distillation. Before: pay a monthly fee, go online, receive movies in mail. Now: pay a monthly fee, go online, watch movies online.

edited 17th Jan '12 1:40:29 PM by TParadox

The problem being that watching online is completely impractical in areas without a decent connection.

Personally, I'm only interested in DVD or blu-ray. I hate watching stuff online.

So, let's see: Online only? Fuck off. Monthly fee? Fuck further off.

edited 18th Jan '12 4:30:04 AM by InverurieJones

*SubWay opens*

I don't like Subway/I'm allergic. Fuck right off, Sub Way!

Bit coarse tone for an optional service :P

edited 18th Jan '12 6:29:15 PM by occono

See, it depends on how you use the service. About a year ago, I looked at other services available because I wanted to rent games by mail too, and Netflix didn't do that (I think they still don't. They promised they'd add it to Qwikster, but I don't know if that was halted when they sobered up and realized Qwikster was a stupid idea).

Blockbuster's online service at the time was "you download what you want to watch and then it evaporates a few days later, and you will pay $2.99 a pop."

I'd go bankrupt at $2.99 a pop. I'd much rather spend $8 for unlimited access and not having to wait for downloads.

Ended up using Netflix for video and Blockbuster for games. Would have used Gamefly, but their price was outrageous.

edited 18th Jan '12 7:53:36 PM by TParadox

I just signed on so A) finally got to see every episode of Firefly and B) just enjoying the free period for the time being. However, easy immediate viewing is the scratch for my itch. I've got the cheap n plentiful broadband for online viewing and a lifestyle that fits into no normal scheduling hours and leaves me often saying "Well, I guess it's just a quiet night in...since I've finished at 2 am". The problem I've always had is "Oh, well cruise TV Tropes for a bit. Oh, reference to [show]. Description of [show] seems interesting. If only there was some way to immediately get my hands on [show]. I'd watch it right now."

Now for me, that's the sort of thing for which I prefer a monthly thing. The rental prices only barely beat tv pay per view and even that now has the "can view for 24/48 hours" rule, the full payments leave me in a fix because I'm the guy who really likes extra DVD commentaries so even though I'm paying half the DVD price, to me I'm getting half the content (well only for some works). But for the price of one DVD, I can watch at any time without any fears of further cost and I can get shows that were on channels I don't have when they first aired. The fact that each individual viewing is not going to cost me anything, encourages me to use it more. I then end up getting even more value out of it.

Same thing happened to me when I got a cinema year pass. My visits doubled. Just don't eat the popcorn.