Netflix to enter Spanish market later this year

A Netflix launch in Spain would spell great news for Spanish TV and film fanatics.

Video-on-demand website Netflix is preparing to enter the Spanish market in the summer, according to sources in the USA.

The popular platform – which allows its subscribers to watch as many films and TV shows as they like for a monthly fee – has targeted a greater presence in Europe in 2015, having been first launched in the UK in 2012 and since been rolled out in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and the Scandinavian countries.

Netflix runs a disc rental service, but it is the platform’s online streaming content that has proven most popular, with an increasing number of the most highly-rated TV shows launching only and exclusively on the service.

According to Spanish financial daily Expansion, Netflix is currently negotiating with major Hollywood and independent distributors to launch the service in Spain, and is also in talks with electronic giants LG to roll-out its Netflix-embedded TV in Spain in September.

While there is no official announcement as yet, it would make sense that Spain is next on the US company’s radar. Spain is among the leading countries for streaming internet films, TV and music, with iTunes proving extremely popular among Spaniards.

Netflix previously explored the Spanish market in 2011, but because of Spain’s then world-high piracy levels – loopholes that have since been closed – the company decided against a launch.

Additionally, Spain is now clear of recession, and more and more Spaniards have greater disposable income, making the market ever more attractive for Netflix.

Should the company launch, it will not have the market to itself, however. Just like in the UK where the domestic streaming site Love Film claims a large portion of the market, Spain’s Telefonica has its own ace up its sleeve.

Last year the telecommunications giant paid €1.8 billion to acquire paybox Canal Plus, a deal that brought some 1.2 million new pay TV subcribers to the company. Telefonica’s recently launched Movistar Series has also proven popular, and the company is unlikely to take too kindly to Netflix muscling in on such lucrative territory.

A TV subscription war could be great for Spanish consumers, bringing greater choice, more exclusive content and – best of all – lower prices to film and TV-lovers across the country.