Netflix is Coming to Canada

Netflix, the streaming and mail-order video rental service, is finally coming to Canada – minus the mail-order part.

A big frustration for a great many Canadians is living as close as we do to the U.S. and yet not being able to indulge in many of the cool online services our American cousins take for granted. But now we can strike at least one of those annoyances off the list: The video-on-demand service Netflix, or at least part of it, is finally coming to Canada.

Launching later this year, the Canadian service will mark Netflix’s first foray outside U.S. borders. The new (to us) service will bring a “broad array of movies and TV episodes” to audiences across Canada through “a range of consumer electronics capable of streaming from Netflix,” which I assume means game consoles, and of course PCs and Macs.

There will be a couple of restrictions, however. The Canadian Netflix service will only be available in English at launch, although the company has plans to introduce support for French “over time,” and more importantly the mail order option that U.S. customers enjoy won’t be available here: Netflix in Canada will be offered exclusively as a streaming video service.

The inability to order up a disc and watch it whenever is definitely a downside but for those with a taste for convenience and a connection that can support it, the Netflix expansion into Canada is good news indeed. To sign up for notification when the service goes live, drop off your email address at netflix.ca.