Netflix Expands To Latin American Countries

¡Hola, Netflix! The movie-streaming service, which to date has been available only in the U.S. and Canada, has launched in Brazil and will be launching in 42 more Latin American and Caribbean countries later in the week.

According to a post announcing the launch on the official Netflix blog:

Over the last few months, our team has spent countless hours in the region learning as much as we can about how Latin Americans think about, and enjoy, movies and TV shows. We’ve licensed thousands and thousands of hours of feature films, classic favorites, gripping telenovelas, documentaries and kids shows we know you’ll enjoy. We’ve been testing and figuring out the right internet architecture to make sure the quality and speed of the Netflix streaming experience is the best it can be. And we’ve been training people locally to deliver the excellent customer support Netflix is known for in the U.S. and Canada.

The subscription service, which will be streaming-only, has already begun in Brazil, where the monthly fee is $BR14.99 or $9.10 American (that's about a dollar more than it costs here in America). Netflix will be rolling out service to other Latin American countries during the week, with launches in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay coming up soon, and Mexico receiving the service on September 12.

Users can set their language preference to English, Spanish or Portuguese and will at the very least be able to enjoy programming from CBS and Showtime, which signed a big deal with Netflix to make their content available in Latin America in late July. Netflix has also announced a deal with Miramax that will make much of its library available for streaming in the new countries as well.

Netflix's expansion outward from America began in September 2010 when it launched its streaming service in Canada and the company announced that it had hit the 1 million member mark in August 2011.

This is some good news for Netflix, which recently had Starz publicly walk out of contract renewal negotiations. This means around a thousand TV show and movie titles will be pulled from Netflix in February 2012 when the contract with Starz expires.

Comments

[Jan S]

08:17 PM on 09/08/2011

I just registered here in Chile and the entire catalog is only available in Spanish dubs. I wonder what genius did the local market research here, as chileans are accustomed to watching their movies in english with subtitles. I guess I'll stick to "other" sources for my HD content.

[Post31]

06:20 PM on 09/08/2011

Yah more countries!!! Oh wait how does that help me out if they still have the same old content.

[JosephTX]

07:52 AM on 09/07/2011

Time to start counting the days until starz comes crawling back to netflix.

[portabello]

08:57 PM on 09/06/2011

Hm, should we pay Starz to offer their 3rd tier movies or should we lock down the streaming business of an entire hemisphere?

I think Netflix made the right choice. They have $300,000,000.00 cash in the bank and I can't wait to see the kind of entertainment they purchase. It would have been a pity to waste a penny of that money on Starz.

[jerryfromcalifornia]

08:43 PM on 09/06/2011

Well they need to expand to other countries, they have blown out half of their customers in the US with doubling their prices.

[Antoinette Anderson]

08:10 PM on 09/06/2011

I love how this comes out the day it is announced that Netflix will restrict the amount of streams on one account at the same time. This means if you want to watch something at the same time your kid/husband/wife/roommate etc... you have to pay extra. Sucks for families.

http://consumerist.com/2011/09/new-netflix-restriction-one-stream-per-customer.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[Mark Macaulay]

03:39 PM on 09/06/2011

who cares

[luckybear]

03:24 PM on 09/06/2011

i love netflix :)

[homer2000]

03:18 PM on 09/06/2011

It is harder and harder to find something in streaming, in spite that it is very convenient,. They should transfer DVD only part to it. And think about subtitles.

[portabello]

09:01 PM on 09/06/2011

Foreign movies have subtitles. They started offering closed captioning a few months ago. The captioning is available on the PS3 platform. I don't know about the others.

[homer2000]

11:11 PM on 09/06/2011

Thanks for the hint. The following devices support subtitles for streaming movies and TV shows:

* PC/Mac
* PS3
* Wii
* Google TV Devices such as Logitech Revue and Sony Internet TV
* Boxee Box by D-Link
* iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch

[RAmen69]

03:05 PM on 09/06/2011

I was hoping they expanded their selection. Oh wel, as of Oct. 1, no more netflix for me.

[StopMakingSense2]

02:12 PM on 09/06/2011

With the price increase and losing Stars content I waved bye bye.. Had potential but the powers that be took the wind out of their sails..

[TheOuroborus]

01:21 PM on 09/06/2011

Uh huh, so? I just downgraded my service to streaming only. Probably dump that soon as well.

[AlexanderFisher]

01:02 PM on 09/06/2011

If the Fox Party allows the Post Office to default, and having a Internet streaming service that only contains "B" movies and cancelled TV shows, may make Netflix need to abandon the U.S.A. for places where the postage is affordable and backed by the government, profit or loss, like it used to be here, before the Fox Party privatized it.
I was an original subscriber with Netflix. My bill went from $30 to $43 overnight. For that amount of money I can pick up all my cable company's movie services. Even subscribing to just the streaming service, I could add HBO, for about the same price. Not much of a choice there. Goodbye Netflix. My wife liked it, I could take it or leave it. My choice: Leave it.

[Hans Meiser]

01:32 PM on 09/06/2011

How did your Netflix bill get to be $30, let alone $43?
Mine was $9 and will now be $18 unless I go to physical media or streaming only.

[whoknew---]

02:54 PM on 09/06/2011

I believe my Netflix bill is $9.00 also. I LOVE Netflix. AlexanderFisher's comment is questionable.

[AlexanderFisher]

11:44 PM on 09/08/2011

Five DVD's at once (Blu-Ray disks.)

[Arn Arn]

12:49 PM on 09/06/2011

They've angered most of their customers here in America, so time to spread the love...LOL

[Hans Meiser]

01:35 PM on 09/06/2011

You need to look at the facts. Fact is that Netflix is experiencing a huge increase in licensing cost from our friends, the big studios. If they don't raise prices they will just falter, or not have any decent content at all.

And I'd actually like to defend Netflix a little here; they have lowered prices since their inception instead of raising them. I have been with them since 2003 and I used to pay $22 a month for just 3 discs at a time, unlimited total.
And now, for a good while I have paid $9 for 1 disc, unlimited, PLUS unlimited streaming. That was a heck of a deal.

They aren't being greedy, they are made to sink or swim. You don't have to support it, but blame the studios, not Netflix.

[portabello]

09:09 PM on 09/06/2011

Netflix had a public relations disaster. There are so many different ways to have introduced the separation of their streaming and DVD services without angering so many people.

If you watch a lot of TV, and a lot of people do, Netflix is still by far the best deal in town. The public anger will fade. The CEO is a visionary.

[Jackalheadedgod]

12:40 PM on 09/06/2011

OK. This is the path for growth. Now, balance that as a bargaining chip with Hollywood providers and I can see they still have a future. Think I'll stand pat for now.

Cheers,
Jack

[Hans Meiser]

01:36 PM on 09/06/2011

Indeed, it's the best move to make and I hope people understand that the prices aren't going up because of greed but because of licensing cost that is inflicted on Netflix.