Netflix's U.K. bow beats anticipation

LONDON -- As Netflix reported buoyant quarterly earnings on Wednesday, the organization also says its Jan. 9 launch in Blighty and Ireland choose to go much better than expected. Inside a letter to investors, chief professional Reed Hastings stated that in Blighty, Netflix was "seeing faster member growth than we did whenever we released in Canada." Hastings noted that as membership elevated, the organization would have the ability to purchase more content. Netflix, whose major rivals within the U.K. are Amazon . com-possessed Lovefilm and BSkyB, has guaranteed a raft of handles content companies, including exclusive handles Lionsgate U.K. and Momentum Pictures, that will see photos for example "The Hunger Games" and "Shame" streamed around the service. Hastings noted that lengthy-term competition "will probably be Sky Go offering Sky Movies and Sky Atlantic on-demand." "We feel we'll compete effectively against Sky Go given our benefits of becoming an unbundled, low-listed offering with broad content that's purely on-demand and personalized," Hastings stated. "Over in the future, hopefully to have the ability to grow big enough to outbid Sky for a number of from the major studio output deals, once we did this season for MGM." Netflix's worldwide revenue for 2011's 4th quarter was $29 million, that they stated was consistent with anticipation. Within the first quarter of 2012, Hastings added, "Combined opportunities in South America and also the U.K. and Ireland can lead to an overall total worldwide lack of between $108 million and $118 million." "Later on quarters, we plan to increase our purchase of this content libraries in each market, just like we've completed in Canada since launch," he added. Contact Diana Lodderhose at diana.lodderhose@variety.com