Chill out! Netflix is now available in Qatar (without VPN)

Netflix has announced that it is now available in 130 new countries, including Qatar.

Before today, Netflix was being enjoyed in just 60 countries. Now it's in almost every country on earth.

The announcement came during the opening keynote at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings took the stage at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas to detail the company's massive global reach.

Some of the other countries that will be able to access Netflix include Singapore, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and India.

Countries like China, which holds about 20% of the world’s population, North Korea, Syria and Crimea still don’t have access to Netflix.

The arrival of Netflix in the GCC will mean bigger competition for video content services like OSN, though it's too early to say how it will affect market share.

Medea Nocentini, OSN's vice president of corporate development, had said that the service's Middle Eastern launch would bring positive benefits in the short term.

"We're actually quite excited about them officially launching in the region, because we feel it will help stop the phenomenon of the consumption of content via VPN connections, or at the very least help to contain it," she said.

Consumer research by OSN suggested that Netflix is already the largest provider of subscription web-based video in the Middle East, even though its services are only accessible through VPN connections.

OSN has been at the forefront of the Do the Right Thing campaign, launched earlier this year, aimed at persuading viewers to use legitimate means to watch their favourite shows.

Joris Evers, Netflix's vice president of EMEA communications, told The National that one way to beat online piracy is by having all the best content easily accessible.

"We think that by having high-quality content, and a high-quality stream, we can show people that it's simply easier to watch their favourite shows and movies than it is to go through the process of finding illegal versions, waiting for them to download overnight, finding the quality isn't great."

"If you look at the example of Australia, when we launched there earlier this year, figures showed that traffic through services like Bit Torrent fell by something like 27 per cent overnight.

"I think one way to beat pirates is by having all the best content easily accessible in high quality in one place — and another is to simply be the easiest option."

Will you sign up for a Netflix account? The first month is FREE, but thereafter it costs less than QR30 a month.