We knew it was coming, but it kinda sneaked under the radar with very little fanfare. Lovefilm have been streaming stuff from the internet for some time of course, as have the BBC with iPlayer and Sky with their awesome Sky Go. However, Netflix (the American behemoth which when they announced they were coming to the UK prompted Lovefilm to slash their prices two months ago) have finally landed.
Early adapters are required to put in their card details but are entitled to get one month free. Interestingly, I wonder if it checks your ip or those with multiple email accounts could keep going for free over several months?
Netflix has launched across several major platforms. It’s available on the go on iPad and iPhone (not sure about Android), Xbox 360 and PS3 in the home, and also for me on Apple TV. It is of course also available on laptops and PCs.
As it’s free I have, of course, signed up – and it asked me a few questions about what I liked before offering me a surprisingly accurate selection of films and TV shows I would actually be interested in watching. Of course, my scepticism of streaming is well known (and will be addressed in a future blog post I am working on at the moment). I certainly think the principle is an excellent one – the convenience of getting home and having a vast, almost unlimited, collection of TV shows and films to watch is awesome. But until the quality of streaming matches Blu-ray I am really not interested.
That said, I am quite keen to try out the service on TV shows which should suffer less with quality issues – so have signed up. Sadly, it is currently not working on my Apple TV. Way to go Netflix! However, I have seen The Inbetweeners on there and have never seen it. I’m also keen on watching Spaced if they have it – I saw the first series on rental from Lovefilm and LOVED it.
So hopefully, if they get the service up and running I shall report back. But at £5.99 a month it is something I may well consider keeping just for the convenience – particularly for the children. They don’t care if it has a 1080P picture and HD surround sound……
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