Netflix invades Scandinavia

As promised earlier this year, Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) has taken its online video streaming business into Scandinavia.

Swedish viewers will be the first in the region to taste what Netflix has to offer—and they'll get to do it for free for a month. After the trial period, the cost will go up to 79 Swedish kronor which, if you're paying with American dollars, comes to about $11.79 a month. Even though time is running out, Netflix also still plans to launch the service in Norway, Denmark and Finland before the end of the year.

As part of the launch, Netflix will partner with music streaming company Spotify and offer free-of-charge trial access to Spotify subscribers until the end of the year. The Netflix content will come from Warner Bros., Twentieth Century Fox, Disney (NYSE: DIS), Sony Pictures Entertainment, BBC Worldwide and CBS (NYSE: CBS) as well as from local distribution deals with film studios Nordisk Film Distribution, AB Svensk Filmindustri and Scanbox Entertainment.

Netflix won't be alone in the market by any means. Local on-demand streaming services already up, running, and unwilling to concede ground to a foreign newcomer include ViaPlay and Vlodder, along with Amazon.com's (Nasdaq: AMZN) LoveFilm. Also on tap in the region is Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) HBO Go, which, at least to the Hollywood Reporter adds a little spice to the fact that Netflix plans to offer Warner Bros. films "in the earliest window, a first for the company."

As if things aren't busy enough, incidentally, European VoD operator Acetrax, which lists News Corp. (Nasdaq: NWSA) among its owners, is also looking seriously at Scandinavia.

For more:
- see this story
- and this story in the Hollywood Reporter

Related articles:
HBO pushes into Northern Europe ahead of Netflix; sparks fly
Netflix plots Scandinavian invasion by year-end