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FILE - In this July 20, 2010 file photo, a person uses Netflix in Palo Alto, Calif. Netflix is tapping into six new markets on Monday hoping to gain hundred thousand new subscribers and balance out the billions spent on entertainment content each year. Their presence is welcome in most European countries, but in France Netflix is facing government-imposed regulatory hurdles and pressure from established local competitors. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

Video-streaming giant Netflix launches in France as part of push to tap new markets

PARIS – Video-streaming giant Netflix has launched in France as part of a push to tap six new European markets.

Founder and CEO Reed Hastings formally inaugurated the Gallic wing Monday with a red carpet event in Paris. He said he was proud that Netflix was in France because filmmaking was an “integral part of French culture.”

Netflix hopes to reach a third of French homes in the next five to 10 years. It is already producing a French-language drama called “Marseille” to be aired in 2015.

Hastings hopes the show, which deals with political intrigue and violence in France’s crime-ridden southern city, will mirror the success of Netflix’s Emmy award-winning “House of Cards” drama about Washington that stars Kevin Spacey.

Netflix already has more than 50 million subscribers in 40 countries.

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