4 ms·

Netflix launches in Germany, Austria and Switzerland within 3 days

39 points by julianwachholz 12y ago

mmahemoff 12y ago
Also France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Netflix announced in May it would launch in 6 European countries this year and this is the week they are all launching. http://www.wort.lu/en/lifestyle/luxembourg-launch-friday-netflix-goes-live-in-france-as-part-of-europe-expansion-5417c878b9b3988708065bf3 http://www.wort.lu/en/lifestyle/luxembourg-launch-friday-net...
lmedinas 12y ago
Anyone knows if the movies/tvshows have original sound and have additional subtitle languages ?
- manmal 12y ago
  Yes, English is always available, plus localized sound and subtitles where available. E.g. Austria & Germany have English & German tracks, while Netherlands only have English audio and English and Dutch subtitles.
  - lmedinas 12y ago
    Cool! is also possible somehow to had additional subtitles languages ?
    - fs111 12y ago
      Just sign up and try it out. The first month is for free...
  - dagw 12y ago
    Almost always. At least in Sweden I've seen some kids movies that where only available with Swedish dubbing, and I had to do the whole VPN thing to get them with English.
  - newoneyeah 12y ago
    > English is always available Not in the Danish version of Netflix, AFAIK. There you can typically choose between three or four (horribly translated) Nordic languages. If you want English subtitles, one solution could be to use a VPN service such as Unlocator.
- huehue 12y ago
  Sound is both Original Version + German dub while subs unfortunately seem to be German only (Netflix Germany).
  - _s 12y ago
    I've seen English sub options on one or two movies, so fingers crossed it's an ever improving library.
  - Semaphor 12y ago
    I checked Netflix when it was released in Germany (been using it for quite some time via VPN) and there were English subs for Penny Dreadful at least.
- alternize 12y ago
  while there's the original language available, the video stream itself seems to be the localized version, i.e. burnt in screen texts are german.
- tmrmn 12y ago
  So far i've only watched a few shows and one movie. They all had the _original_ audio track and german subtitles as an option, but not necessarily an english audio track.
  - junto 12y ago
    As long as I can watch English movies in English, rather than being forced to watch English movies in dubbed German I'll be a happy camper. Hopefully this gives the German terrestrial channels a kick up the butt. ARD, ZDF, RTL and ProSieben still are too lazy to broadcast both audio tracks (original English and the dubbed German) over cable. I should get a discount on my TV license. In fact everyone should get a discount, just because German TV is so bad. It's like torture. Except for Tatort. They get a free pass.
    - _up 12y ago
      Tatort also seams to get worse every year. I like that we at least also have a german version of Shark Tank now. Although it is not as good at least for now.
manmal 12y ago
Austrian here. We suffer from a severely restricted library on Netflix, but there is a loophole: If you connect via a VPN in another country (e.g. US, Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany,..), you can view the country's respective content. Very clever of them :)
- andreiv 12y ago
  There aren't that many titles though... I don't know how short the list in Austria is, but I wouldn't call the list of shows available in Germany satisfactory. Diverse, yes. I hope they're going to make more shows available.
- theflagbug 12y ago
  Also Austrian. Other way around works too, I had a Netflix account before, that I accessed via a VPN, now I also have access to the Austrian Netflix library while paying less (it's cheaper in the US)
  - andreiv 12y ago
    I personally don't mind paying a couple of euros more, but I find the available selection unsatisfactory.
    - kissickas 12y ago
      I'm not sure how it compares, but this is a common complaint in the US as well. I assume it's huge compared to the Austrian library, but people usually complain that streaming only has the things people don't want to watch - hence the huge uproar when they doubled the price on mail+streaming.
- fringebook 12y ago
  In Germany and Switzerland (not sure about Austria) it's legal to download (not legal to upload): - http://thepiratebay.se/ http://thepiratebay.se/ - Or, if above is blocked: http://194.71.107.80/ http://194.71.107.80/
alternize 12y ago
here's a site with a listing of the currently available content for Germany (and Switzerland): http://www.netflixdeutschland.net/ http://www.netflixdeutschland.net/
ck2 12y ago
How will Europe's ISPs react to the bandwidth increase? Better than the USA? Or will they also pressure netflix for a cut?
- rsynnott 12y ago
  Non-profit peering exchanges are more common in Europe: http://blog.cloudflare.com/the-relative-cost-of-bandwidth-around-the-world/ http://blog.cloudflare.com/the-relative-cost-of-bandwidth-ar... As far as I know, they've had little trouble in the UK (where they peer at LINX) or Ireland (where they peer at INEX); I'd expect similar arrangements in the new countries.
- fs111 12y ago
  Not sure if it is related to the launch, but I see many dropped packets in the evening since the launch in Germany. My provider is Kabel Deutschland. Anybody seeing similar things?
- mrweasel 12y ago
  I haven't seen any sort of reaction here in Denmark. Not all of the ISP have their own streaming service so they aren't really motivated to go against Netflix. If the companies with their own streaming service are trying to push to hard, users could just switch. Prices for ADSL/cabel are pretty much the same for the same speed regardless of provider, so I think the ISP have just found a pricing level that allows them to make a profit and not care about Netflix. If anything Netflix are most likely pushing customers to higher speeds, which costs a bit more. The Danish version of RIAA/MPAA have tried to force the ISP to pay then money for carrying streaming services, but that doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
jre 12y ago
It seems that House of Cards is not available in Switzerland and France (at least French part) because a French TV channel got the rights. Pretty sad. Source : http://www.letemps.ch/Page/Uuid/7d197506-3ef1-11e4-a188-24a047c27404|1 http://www.letemps.ch/Page/Uuid/7d197506-3ef1-11e4-a188-24a0... (in French and paywalled, just change your UA to Googlebot)
- hackerboos 12y ago
  As an EU citizen aren't you allowed to register for the UK netflix service? Pretty sure they need to treat all EU citizens the same.
  - skrause 12y ago
    Not really, they still filter by country IP, so even if you register with the UK version you'll only see the local library without a VPN connection.
    - hackerboos 12y ago
      That's what I mean. Are they allowed to do that?
  - rjtavares 12y ago
    It's tricky. Article 36 allows some restrictions to free trade: > ... the Treaty does not affect the existence of industrial property rights granted pursuant to the legislation of the Member States. Accordingly, national legislation on the acquisition, transfer and extinction of such rights is lawful. So IPR can be restricted nationally. However: > The second principle is that an industrial property right is exhausted when a product has been lawfully distributed in the market of a Member State by the owner of the right or with his or her consent. Thereafter the owner of the right may not oppose the importation of the product into any Member State where it was first marketed. To me, this is clearly the case of VPNs: you are lawfully acquiring access to the content in the country where it is sold, and then consuming it in another country.
  - newoneyeah 12y ago
Artemis2 12y ago
I'm French, and even though Netflix doesn't have as much contents as it does in the US, I really like using it. I feel that I am supporting something that will make media companies rethink their distribution and pricing means.
- thibaut_barrere 12y ago
  I came here to say the same thing (I'm French too). I have used the oft-cited CanalPlay offer, with slightly more hours of shows, and had a hard time finding interesting content, not because it isn't there, but because the recommendation engine is clearly not up to the game. Things I like most about netflix so far: family profiles (not for parental control, but more because each one has their list, can resume a movie etc), I can force the quality to excellent (our satellite link has a big bandwidth but the latency often confuses the streaming services, ending up with big square pixels), current time in the movie is shared across devices, onboarding is good, recommendations so far have been excellent.
davedx 12y ago
Very curious about what's happening to their share price at the moment: http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=NFLX+Interactive#symbol=NFLX;range=5d http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=NFLX+Interactive#symbol=N... Sounds like a big multi-country European launch should be a good thing, but their stock's really nose dived this week. Anyone know why?
- staffan 12y ago
  News got out today that contentowners are pressing Netflix to stop people from using VPN to get other regions content.
  - newoneyeah 12y ago
    Do you have a link to that story?
- FranOntanaya 12y ago
  The default assumption would be "buy the rumor, sell the news."
- cdash 12y ago
  Looks like on Monday all tech stock took a big hit including Amazon, Facebook, Tesla, etc. Then on Thursday Netflix announced it would not make a profit in Europe for 10 years. Really though, it can be anything and if you look at the stock on a longer time period this really isn't all that big of a deal.
erikb 12y ago
I'm using it since the first day and it's the best streaming experience I ever had. Sad that it doesn't work on Linux without some workarounds, though.
fotcorn 12y ago
The easiest way to watch netflix on Linux is using the Chrome Beta version with a spoofed user agent: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/08/netflix-linux-html5-support-plugins http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/08/netflix-linux-html5-suppo...
newoneyeah 12y ago
For those looking for a solution that will allow them to watch e.g. the American version of Netflix (which has the largest selection), check out https://unlocator.com/ https://unlocator.com/ or http://www.unblock-us.com/ http://www.unblock-us.com/. The latter was a bit unreliable for me, whereas the former works well. To save money, create an American Netflix account instead of a Netflix account in your native country. The way to sign up for the American account is to use one of the VPN services above, change your DNS settings as explained on the VPN service's website, and then go to netflix.com. You should then see the American version and be able to create an account there.
- kiliankoe 12y ago
  Using my German account works just fine when accessing netflix.com through a US proxy. I'm logged in just the same and get the US catalog instead of the German one.
  - newoneyeah 12y ago
    Sure, but the German account is more expensive.
MrBuddyCasino 12y ago
German copycat portals for whatever usually suck, so I was pretty psyched to hear Netflix was launching, only to then find out that their selection in Germany is mediocre at best. Here is a comparison (in german): http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/apps/netflix-test-informationen-review-vergleich-der-deutschen-version-a-991844-2.html http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/apps/netflix-test-information... I'm seriously considering a US VPN, guess thats the country with the best catalogue. Any experience regarding potential bandwidth issues?
- alfet 12y ago
  I'd just use something like ProxMate, I use it from Argentina and it works wonders. I'd use a VPN por privacy reasons but for now i just enable the extension when I want to use it.
- neotek 12y ago
  Hola Better Internet is a free extension for Chrome that lets you connect to any site via a proxy, I've used it with Netflix before. It's also handy for getting around YouTube's geoblocking. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hola-better-internet/gkojfkhlekighikafcpjkiklfbnlmeio?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hola-better-intern...
junto 12y ago
Spiegel Online has a comparison of online video providers (In German): http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/apps/netflix-alternative-maxdome-watchever-sky-snap-amazon-im-vergleich-a-991197.html http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/apps/netflix-alternative-maxd... I welcome these video services here in German. I'm extremely happy to get original audio versions (OV), which the terrestrial channels butcher with German dubbing (with no original audio track offered). I'll be voting with my cash and the next time Kabel Deutschland contact me again about their shitty cable TV service I'll tell them again why I don't want it. I really don't want to watch Pulp Fiction in German, however funny it sounds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELLL_qIl80Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELLL_qIl80Q
- jayd77 12y ago
  German speaker here, although not native. I found German dubbing for some movies especially war or action movies better then the original some time. German has this tensity that English don't have. I watched The Matrix in German and liked it better than the Original.

Also France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Netflix announced in May it would launch in 6 European countries this year and this is the week they are all launching. http://www.wort.lu/en/lifestyle/luxembourg-launch-friday-netflix-goes-live-in-france-as-part-of-europe-expansion-5417c878b9b3988708065bf3 http://www.wort.lu/en/lifestyle/luxembourg-launch-friday-net...

lmedinas 12y ago

Anyone knows if the movies/tvshows have original sound and have additional subtitle languages ?

manmal 12y ago
Yes, English is always available, plus localized sound and subtitles where available. E.g. Austria & Germany have English & German tracks, while Netherlands only have English audio and English and Dutch subtitles.
- lmedinas 12y ago
  Cool! is also possible somehow to had additional subtitles languages ?
  - fs111 12y ago
    Just sign up and try it out. The first month is for free...
- dagw 12y ago
  Almost always. At least in Sweden I've seen some kids movies that where only available with Swedish dubbing, and I had to do the whole VPN thing to get them with English.
- newoneyeah 12y ago
  > English is always available Not in the Danish version of Netflix, AFAIK. There you can typically choose between three or four (horribly translated) Nordic languages. If you want English subtitles, one solution could be to use a VPN service such as Unlocator.
huehue 12y ago
Sound is both Original Version + German dub while subs unfortunately seem to be German only (Netflix Germany).
- _s 12y ago
  I've seen English sub options on one or two movies, so fingers crossed it's an ever improving library.
- Semaphor 12y ago
  I checked Netflix when it was released in Germany (been using it for quite some time via VPN) and there were English subs for Penny Dreadful at least.
alternize 12y ago
while there's the original language available, the video stream itself seems to be the localized version, i.e. burnt in screen texts are german.
tmrmn 12y ago
So far i've only watched a few shows and one movie. They all had the _original_ audio track and german subtitles as an option, but not necessarily an english audio track.
- junto 12y ago
  As long as I can watch English movies in English, rather than being forced to watch English movies in dubbed German I'll be a happy camper. Hopefully this gives the German terrestrial channels a kick up the butt. ARD, ZDF, RTL and ProSieben still are too lazy to broadcast both audio tracks (original English and the dubbed German) over cable. I should get a discount on my TV license. In fact everyone should get a discount, just because German TV is so bad. It's like torture. Except for Tatort. They get a free pass.
  - _up 12y ago
    Tatort also seams to get worse every year. I like that we at least also have a german version of Shark Tank now. Although it is not as good at least for now.

manmal 12y ago

Austrian here. We suffer from a severely restricted library on Netflix, but there is a loophole: If you connect via a VPN in another country (e.g. US, Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany,..), you can view the country's respective content. Very clever of them :)

andreiv 12y ago
There aren't that many titles though... I don't know how short the list in Austria is, but I wouldn't call the list of shows available in Germany satisfactory. Diverse, yes. I hope they're going to make more shows available.
theflagbug 12y ago
Also Austrian. Other way around works too, I had a Netflix account before, that I accessed via a VPN, now I also have access to the Austrian Netflix library while paying less (it's cheaper in the US)
- andreiv 12y ago
  I personally don't mind paying a couple of euros more, but I find the available selection unsatisfactory.
  - kissickas 12y ago
    I'm not sure how it compares, but this is a common complaint in the US as well. I assume it's huge compared to the Austrian library, but people usually complain that streaming only has the things people don't want to watch - hence the huge uproar when they doubled the price on mail+streaming.
fringebook 12y ago
In Germany and Switzerland (not sure about Austria) it's legal to download (not legal to upload): - http://thepiratebay.se/ http://thepiratebay.se/ - Or, if above is blocked: http://194.71.107.80/ http://194.71.107.80/

alternize 12y ago

here's a site with a listing of the currently available content for Germany (and Switzerland): http://www.netflixdeutschland.net/ http://www.netflixdeutschland.net/

ck2 12y ago

How will Europe's ISPs react to the bandwidth increase? Better than the USA? Or will they also pressure netflix for a cut?

rsynnott 12y ago
Non-profit peering exchanges are more common in Europe: http://blog.cloudflare.com/the-relative-cost-of-bandwidth-around-the-world/ http://blog.cloudflare.com/the-relative-cost-of-bandwidth-ar... As far as I know, they've had little trouble in the UK (where they peer at LINX) or Ireland (where they peer at INEX); I'd expect similar arrangements in the new countries.
fs111 12y ago
Not sure if it is related to the launch, but I see many dropped packets in the evening since the launch in Germany. My provider is Kabel Deutschland. Anybody seeing similar things?
mrweasel 12y ago
I haven't seen any sort of reaction here in Denmark. Not all of the ISP have their own streaming service so they aren't really motivated to go against Netflix. If the companies with their own streaming service are trying to push to hard, users could just switch. Prices for ADSL/cabel are pretty much the same for the same speed regardless of provider, so I think the ISP have just found a pricing level that allows them to make a profit and not care about Netflix. If anything Netflix are most likely pushing customers to higher speeds, which costs a bit more. The Danish version of RIAA/MPAA have tried to force the ISP to pay then money for carrying streaming services, but that doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

jre 12y ago

It seems that House of Cards is not available in Switzerland and France (at least French part) because a French TV channel got the rights. Pretty sad. Source : http://www.letemps.ch/Page/Uuid/7d197506-3ef1-11e4-a188-24a047c27404|1 http://www.letemps.ch/Page/Uuid/7d197506-3ef1-11e4-a188-24a0... (in French and paywalled, just change your UA to Googlebot)

hackerboos 12y ago
As an EU citizen aren't you allowed to register for the UK netflix service? Pretty sure they need to treat all EU citizens the same.
- skrause 12y ago
  Not really, they still filter by country IP, so even if you register with the UK version you'll only see the local library without a VPN connection.
  - hackerboos 12y ago
    That's what I mean. Are they allowed to do that?
- rjtavares 12y ago
  It's tricky. Article 36 allows some restrictions to free trade: > ... the Treaty does not affect the existence of industrial property rights granted pursuant to the legislation of the Member States. Accordingly, national legislation on the acquisition, transfer and extinction of such rights is lawful. So IPR can be restricted nationally. However: > The second principle is that an industrial property right is exhausted when a product has been lawfully distributed in the market of a Member State by the owner of the right or with his or her consent. Thereafter the owner of the right may not oppose the importation of the product into any Member State where it was first marketed. To me, this is clearly the case of VPNs: you are lawfully acquiring access to the content in the country where it is sold, and then consuming it in another country.
- newoneyeah 12y ago

Artemis2 12y ago

I'm French, and even though Netflix doesn't have as much contents as it does in the US, I really like using it. I feel that I am supporting something that will make media companies rethink their distribution and pricing means.

thibaut_barrere 12y ago
I came here to say the same thing (I'm French too). I have used the oft-cited CanalPlay offer, with slightly more hours of shows, and had a hard time finding interesting content, not because it isn't there, but because the recommendation engine is clearly not up to the game. Things I like most about netflix so far: family profiles (not for parental control, but more because each one has their list, can resume a movie etc), I can force the quality to excellent (our satellite link has a big bandwidth but the latency often confuses the streaming services, ending up with big square pixels), current time in the movie is shared across devices, onboarding is good, recommendations so far have been excellent.

davedx 12y ago

Very curious about what's happening to their share price at the moment: http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=NFLX+Interactive#symbol=NFLX;range=5d http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=NFLX+Interactive#symbol=N... Sounds like a big multi-country European launch should be a good thing, but their stock's really nose dived this week. Anyone know why?

staffan 12y ago
News got out today that contentowners are pressing Netflix to stop people from using VPN to get other regions content.
- newoneyeah 12y ago
  Do you have a link to that story?
FranOntanaya 12y ago
The default assumption would be "buy the rumor, sell the news."
cdash 12y ago
Looks like on Monday all tech stock took a big hit including Amazon, Facebook, Tesla, etc. Then on Thursday Netflix announced it would not make a profit in Europe for 10 years. Really though, it can be anything and if you look at the stock on a longer time period this really isn't all that big of a deal.

erikb 12y ago

I'm using it since the first day and it's the best streaming experience I ever had. Sad that it doesn't work on Linux without some workarounds, though.

fotcorn 12y ago

The easiest way to watch netflix on Linux is using the Chrome Beta version with a spoofed user agent: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/08/netflix-linux-html5-support-plugins http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/08/netflix-linux-html5-suppo...

newoneyeah 12y ago

For those looking for a solution that will allow them to watch e.g. the American version of Netflix (which has the largest selection), check out https://unlocator.com/ https://unlocator.com/ or http://www.unblock-us.com/ http://www.unblock-us.com/. The latter was a bit unreliable for me, whereas the former works well. To save money, create an American Netflix account instead of a Netflix account in your native country. The way to sign up for the American account is to use one of the VPN services above, change your DNS settings as explained on the VPN service's website, and then go to netflix.com. You should then see the American version and be able to create an account there.

kiliankoe 12y ago
Using my German account works just fine when accessing netflix.com through a US proxy. I'm logged in just the same and get the US catalog instead of the German one.
- newoneyeah 12y ago
  Sure, but the German account is more expensive.

MrBuddyCasino 12y ago

German copycat portals for whatever usually suck, so I was pretty psyched to hear Netflix was launching, only to then find out that their selection in Germany is mediocre at best. Here is a comparison (in german): http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/apps/netflix-test-informationen-review-vergleich-der-deutschen-version-a-991844-2.html http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/apps/netflix-test-information... I'm seriously considering a US VPN, guess thats the country with the best catalogue. Any experience regarding potential bandwidth issues?

alfet 12y ago
I'd just use something like ProxMate, I use it from Argentina and it works wonders. I'd use a VPN por privacy reasons but for now i just enable the extension when I want to use it.
neotek 12y ago
Hola Better Internet is a free extension for Chrome that lets you connect to any site via a proxy, I've used it with Netflix before. It's also handy for getting around YouTube's geoblocking. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hola-better-internet/gkojfkhlekighikafcpjkiklfbnlmeio?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hola-better-intern...

junto 12y ago

Spiegel Online has a comparison of online video providers (In German): http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/apps/netflix-alternative-maxdome-watchever-sky-snap-amazon-im-vergleich-a-991197.html http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/apps/netflix-alternative-maxd... I welcome these video services here in German. I'm extremely happy to get original audio versions (OV), which the terrestrial channels butcher with German dubbing (with no original audio track offered). I'll be voting with my cash and the next time Kabel Deutschland contact me again about their shitty cable TV service I'll tell them again why I don't want it. I really don't want to watch Pulp Fiction in German, however funny it sounds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELLL_qIl80Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELLL_qIl80Q

jayd77 12y ago
German speaker here, although not native. I found German dubbing for some movies especially war or action movies better then the original some time. German has this tensity that English don't have. I watched The Matrix in German and liked it better than the Original.