The US streaming service will hit local shores in March. Will it change the face of Australian TV?

TV AND movie streaming giant Netflix has today confirmed it will be launching in Australia on March 24.

As announced last month, the flagship shows at launch on the service will be the Netflix original series House of Cards and Bloodline.

Other Netflix originals available at launch include Marco Polo and Marvel’s Daredevil, but the critically acclaimed Orange is the New Black is a noticeable missing item due to existing licencing deals in Australia.

The service will be available on a myriad of devices, include Samsung, LG and Sony smart TVs, Fetch TV’s latest set-top box, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Xbox 360/One, PS3/4 and smartphones and tablets.

It will be available in three different price plans like in the USA. The basic single stream standard definition plan, two stream high-definition plan and four-stream 4K ultra-high definition “family” plan. Pricing isn’t yet officially announced but it’s speculated pricing will start at $9.99 a month like local competitors Presto and Stan.

Netflix’s official word on the matter at this stage is: “Information regarding additional content, technology and pricing will be available in the lead up to launch.”

Customers of iiNet will be cheering, with the two companies forming a partnership that sees unmetered Netflix usage for Netflix users on the ISP. Optus has also confirmed that Netflix won’t count towards customers monthly broadband limits, with a spokeswoman telling news.com.au that: “Optus broadband customers will also be able to access as much Netflix content as they want, without metering. Netflix Australian content won’t count towards a customer’s data cap.”

Microsoft and Netflix will also be giving customers who purchase an Xbox One after March 24 three months free subscription to the service.

The full library line-up isn’t available to check out yet. However, with existing licensing deals already set up in Australia with the likes of Foxtel’s Presto and Stan, it’s not expected to be as jam packed as the US version. At least for launch, anyway.

At the moment, with Netflix, Stan and Presto all holding rights to separate shows, the Aussie market will be quite fragmented with users likely to have to subscribe to more than one service to get what they want. But as old licencing agreements end, a clear winner of content will start to emerge, perhaps then we’ll even start to stop pirating?

News Corp Australia, publisher of news.com.au, partially owns Foxtel.