Ahead of its launch in the UK and Ireland Netflix has signed a multi-year licensing agreement with Lionsgate UK, the company has announced.

Netflix users in the UK and Ireland, where the streaming movie service will launch in "early 2012," will be able to watch Lionsgate UK titles instantly on their TV sets, tablets, game consoles and smartphones, for a "low" monthly fee.

Available titles will include older movies such as Reservoir Dogs, Good Night and Good Luck and Blair Witch Project, as well as new hits such as the Expendables 2 and The Hunger Games.

Netflix's European expansion has been rumored for many months, and the company finally officially announced it will first be coming to UK and Ireland back in October. There, it will compete with movie rental service Lovefilm, acquired by Amazon in January 2011.

With the move to UK and Ireland, Netflix hopes to look past its recent problems. After it separated its DVD service in the U.S. under the name Qwikster, Netflix experienced a huge backlash from users, which forced it to abandon the plan entirely and apologize to users. Its financial report for Q3 2011 was bleak: a loss of 805,000 subscribers resulted in a sharp stock price drop.