Stream giant of the States, Netflix has finally brought its services to the UK this week. While only offering streaming services (direct to home DVD rental is not an option) it still provides a tantalising alternative to what is becoming a now crowded market. With alternatives such as Amazon owned LoveFilm and Sky’s Sky Go services already established, is there room for Netflix to slot into the market? Having lived with it for a few days now, I’m inclined to say yes!

Perhaps what is most striking about using Netflix is it’s gorgeous, clean set up. Having felt that other services are often a little too cluttered when trying to chose what you would like to watch, Netflix does away with this, simply showing the genre and the appropriate cover art for titles. Where this again succeeds is that this implementation is used across the board, regardless of the platform you’re viewing from.

This leads to another strength, Netflix is accessible anywhere. With full support for the 3 major consoles, internet TV,  iOS and Android and of course PC and Mac – Viewable on up to 2 devices at a time, Netflix’s library is truly available to you wherever you may be. The library, however is sadly not as strong as it might be.

Sky has exclusivity to the newest films in the UK and this probably won’t change anytime soon. Sadly though, Netflix does seem to suffer beyond this limitation with the majority of it’s titles being from 2006 or prior (at least this is what I have seen over the few days I have been using the service). On the plus side, Netflix have managed to land themselves some great TV show titles which are bound to prove a popular selling point. The film library, whilst not the most up to date, does have some stellar titles among it. A step above the competition is that a healthy chunk of these titles are available in HD. Having tested the service on a fairly modest internet connection I can say that movies do look great, perhaps not Full HD, but certainly a step above SD. Deciding what to watch is handled brilliantly thanks to a well conceived rating system.

quick, simple rating system helps find the best of the library for your needs

When you first sign up to use the service, you’re prompted to take a couple of seconds to suggest a few genres you are interested in viewing. This is worth doing as it allows Netflix to begin instantly tailoring it’s library to you. By taking a few seconds after viewing material to review it on a simple 5 star system, it allows for the library to be further adjusted to your needs; suggesting similar films, films by the same director and so forth. It works brilliantly and what’s more with full Facebook integration you can see what films your friends have been watching also. Don’t worry you don’t have to share this information should you happen to watch material perhaps a little “questionable” to be displayed to your friends *cough*

Right now, Netflix is available on a one month free trial at www.netflix.com/uk after such time the service will come in at £5.99/month on a cancel any time contract for unlimited, ad free viewing. Netflix dominate the US market in this field and you can bet they look set to do the same in the UK. This will undoubtedly mean that they expand upon the library to match if not surpass that of the competition making it a very appeal service indeed. While it’s free with no obligations to continue to use the service at the end of your trial, I thoroughly recommend taking a look for your self.