There's good news for the nation's TV fans. Not only is Netflix coming to Denmark, but the news of the popular streaming service's arrival has caused additional changes to the Danish TV market.
Although it has not yet been announced when it will be released, the communications manager at Netflix, Joris Evers, confirmed that the service will hit Denmark before the end of 2012.
“When the dark months come to Denmark, then it will be possible to see Netflix,” he told DR News.
Similar to the online streaming provider Spotify, which provides music for a small monthly fee, Netflix streams TV series and movies that can be watched on demand.
A monthly subscription in America costs about 60kr, but it is not certain how much it will cost to access Netflix in Denmark.
Netflix has streamed to millions of members in the USA since 2007, and is the world’s leading subscription-based internet service for TV series and movies, with 27 million customers worldwide.
It was launched in Canada in 2010, Latin America in 2011 and Britain and Ireland in the beginning of this year. When it comes to Denmark, it will also be available in Sweden, Norway and Finland.
But Netflix can expect some potential competition from other media providers. DVD rental service Blockbuster has responded with their own changes, offering customers a subscription where they can access all the store movie titles for a fixed price.
However Søren Heilmann, the managing director of Blockbuster Denmark, acknowledges that his company will be facing stiff competition from Netflix.
“We expect that more will choose digital rentals. We sawa decline in physical rentals for the first time last year, and expect that it will continue,” Heilmann said. “The physical product that we offer is currently audibly and visually superior to that offered digitally. It will of course change with time, but right now the physical market for rental is still by far the largest," Heilmann added.
Yet even more competition is looming in the media market, as the domestic multimedia provider YouSee also plans on launching an online streaming service in the autumn.
