Netflix Snags BBC Shows Such as Torchwood for UK Launch

Netflix and the BBC have announced that they've reached a deal to make a number of BBC titles available in the UK and Ireland when the Netflix streaming service launches early next year. A number of older series will be available at launch with more titles coming in later.

Netflix already has a deal with BBC Worldwide, which handles the licensing of BBC content for other countries or commercially, in the US, Canada and in Latin America, all of the places where the streaming service is available.

"BBC shows are a big favourite of our over 20 million streaming members in the U.S., Canada and Latin America," Ted Sarandos, Netflix chief content officer, said.

"Members love watching back-to-back episodes of BBC series where and when they want, at the click of a button. We are incredibly proud to make these high quality programmes available to Netflix members in the UK and Ireland," he added.

Netflix specializes in older content, which is cheaper to acquire, like shows that have ended, or previous seasons of current series. In the US at least, that's what most people use Netflix for, newer content is generally reserved for Hulu and, of course, the cable networks.

When it comes to content from the BBC at least, Netflix seems will take a similar approach. Series such as the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood or Spooks will be available on Netflix. Other titles to be made available at launch include  "Little Britain," "Fawlty Towers," "Miss Marple" and "Inspector Lynley."

Netflix announced its expansion into the UK and Ireland a couple of months ago. However, a European expansion has been rumored for quite a while now. There is also talk of Netflix launching in Spain in 2012, but there hasn't been anything official just yet.