Netflix Heads to U.K. to Take on Amazon

Netflix says it will bring its streaming video service — but not its DVDs — to the United Kingdom and Ireland in “early 2012.” The announcement confirms earlier reports and speculation that the company would target the U.K. after a Latin American expansion in 2011; other reports have the company moving into Spain as well. Unlike other Netflix expansion moves, in the U.K. the company will run up against its first entrenched digital competitor: Amazon’s LoveFilm, most often known as “the Netflix of Europe.” Netflix reports Q3 earnings this afternoon.