Netflix Hits 1 Million UK Subscribers

By year's end, Netflix intends to launch in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland.

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etflix launched its service in the U.K. and Ireland just seven months ago, but announced today that it had already hit a million users. It's the fastest growth Netflix has experienced in any territory and it has the company looking at ways to improve their service. One way, they say, will be by hopefully outbidding British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSkyB) for Hollywood movie rights.

Netflix boasts that it got to a million users in the U.K. and Ireland faster than other networks did globally, but chalked up the success to the fact that most households in the U.K. have at least one streaming device, usually more.

Netflix says it intends on outbidding BSkyB to attain Hollywood movie rights sooner.

In a statement, Netflix wrote,"To put that in perspective, that's four times faster than it took Twitter to hit one million users globally, and nearly twice as fast as it took Facebook and Foursquare globally."

Netflix's CEO, Reed Hastings, said in a statement, "This membership milestone is evidence that Netflix has rapidly gained popularity in the U.K. and Ireland. Our British and Irish members clearly enjoy the ability to instantly watch a large variety of TV shows and films streaming from Netflix on their favorite devices whenever they want."

Netflix's domestic subscribers hover around the 24 million mark, while its international usership is about 3.6 million. By the year's end, they plan to launch the service in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland.

As for outbidding BSkyB, the British company currently holds premium rights to movies from Hollywood's six biggest studios, and Netflix wants to change that.

Hastings said in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, "We will be really aggressive in our bidding. It may be that we win in the first round. It may be that it takes two or three years, but we're incredibly confident that we will win the bidding for some of Pay 1 [the first window rights]."

It's good to see Netflix doing well, especially with the slipup they faced after launching the ill-fated Qwikster; the company has regained a large percentage of the users it lost after splitting streaming and DVD rental.