Netflix to Launch in Spain, Possibly Other European Countries in January 2012

Netflix, which has only made a shy move outside of its native US to Canada last year, has recently announced a massive expansion across the two Americas, 43 new countries in total.

But this is clearly just the beginning, the first more concrete evidence that Netflix is eyeing Europe next has surfaced, with the latest rumors saying that the streaming service will be going live in Spain first thing in 2012.

According to several local newspapers, the company will start offering its service in Spain in January 2012 and will give its subscribers access to 3,500 titles, movies and TV shows.

La Información is one of the newspapers quoting Pedro Pérez, the president of the Federation of Spanish Audiovisual Producer Associations, who announced the Netflix expansion.

Most likely, Netflix is eyeing an Europe-wide expansion, Western Europe anyway, so users in the UK, Germany, Italy, France and the rest of the major markets can expect Netflix to land about the same time.

Netflix has been doing great lately, subscriber numbers in the US and Canada have been surging and, despite some growing resistance, from the cable operators in particular, it has been able to secure the content it's been relying on.

It has also started financing its own productions, like the paid cable channels do, in an effort to become more independent and secure more great content.

But it is still facing some incertitude, more and more ISPs are trying to get a piece of the pie by forcing Netflix to pay for the bandwidth their subscribers and Netflix itself is already paying.

Netflix is expanding in Latin America first since it was probably easier to secure rights for the content. It also got rights to some local content which will appeal to the audience.

Rights for Europe may be harder to secure, if only because of the fragmented markets, but broadband adoption is higher in Europe than in the US or Latin America, ensuring potential bigger revenues.