Netflix eyes 2015 Spain launch

Netflix is due to launch in Spain in the last quarter of 2015, according to a report this week by Spanish news agency, Europa Press.

The report, which cites sources close to Netflix, said that the movie and TV streaming business is planning a second wave of major expansions in Europe in Q4 next year.

This will follow Netflix’s next set of launches – in Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg – in September of this year.

Announcing its second quarter results earlier this month, Netflix said that its international user base now stands at 13.8 million, and its total number of users – including the US – was 50.05 million. It also outlined unspecified plans to “further invest aggressively in global expansion.”

“Even after our upcoming expansion in Europe, we’ll only address about one-third [271 million of 728 million] of current global broadband households, providing a great opportunity to build on our international success beyond 2014,” said CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells in a letter to shareholders.

“Our broad success from Argentina to Finland has convinced us to further invest aggressively in global expansion.”
Netflix already runs a Spanish language version of its service in a number of international markets, after rolling out across Latin America in 2011.

Europa Press speculated that the reason Netflix will delay its launch in Spain until next year is likely down to difficulty getting rights to content, high piracy rates and existing competition in the market.