Last checked at 
* Additional countries will wait
* Service costs 7.99 - 11.99 euro per month in Europe
* Netflix moves fast in France on content, data centre
* CEO Reed Hastings calls for EU to pass net neutrality law (Adds CEO interview, background)
By Leila Abboud and Gwénaëlle Barzic
PARIS, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Netflix will focus onramping up in six new European markets in the next year,including France and Germany, before taking the video streamingservice to additional countries, its chief executive said in aninterview.
Reed Hastings, who heads the California-based company thathas become emblematic of the changes the Internet has wrought ontelevision, listed Spain, Korea and Japan as promising markets.But he emphasized that getting the new European countries rightwas his priority.
"After launch is when the real work begins: improving thecontent being offered and getting on set-top boxes," he said.That means deals with broadband and cable groups that allowpeople to subscribe to Netflix on their TVs instead of over theInternet.
Netflix said on Monday that its French service would costfrom 7.99 euros to 11.99 a month and give access to films,series and documentaries on television, computers, tablets,smartphones and game consoles. Prices will be the same elsewherein Europe, the company added.
Netflix's future growth and profitability hinges on the nextchapter of its four-year-old international expansion in which itis set to enter the six European countries. Besides France andGermany, those markets are Switzerland, Austria, Belgium andLuxembourg.
The company walks a tightrope when it enters new countries,said analyst Toby Syfret of Enders Analysis. It need to absorbsignificant content and other investment costs to build up ineach market before it starts making a profit.
The company appears to be getting off to a faster start inFrance and Germany than in other areas where it has expanded,such as Latin America.
It has built a massive data centre in eastern Paris toimprove the service offered to French consumers by housing acopy of the catalogue there and allowing broadband and cablecompanies to connect directly. "We have provisioned capacity formany months of growth and reached for the high end of what wethink is possible," said Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt.
Netflix also signed a distribution deal with thethird-largest telecom operator, Bouygues Telecom,which includes interconnection fees to carry its traffic tocustomers. In Germany, press reports said it would sign withVodafone and Deutsche Telekom at launch on Tuesday.
The company has already backed the creation of an originalseries called "Marseille", a political thriller set in thesouthern port city, to attract French customers, something itdid much later in its U.S. with exclusive shows like the prisoncomedy "Orange is the New Black".
Ted Sarandos, chief content officer, said Netflix wasexploring creating new shows in Germany but had not made adecision yet. "Our original shows are not supposed to be aone-off in Europe," he said.
In both France and Germany, Netflix will have to contendwith local rivals that have offer similar services and havestronger brands, including pay-TV operators Sky Deutschland and Canal Plus.
The French and Germans also prefer content dubbed in theirlocal language. Hunt said about 90 percent of the content inFrance and Germany would be dubbed and subtitled. Netflix'smethods can speed up dubbing so it takes as little as a week,compared with six weeks for most TV shows.
Another feature that drove Netflix's success in the U.S.that will have to be adapted to new territories is theanalytical software that examines viewing habits and suggestsmovies and series to users.
Netflix has roughly 250 people on its 800-strong productteam working on the algorithm that powers the recommendationengine. Through their efforts, the service becomes more tailoredas the users log on to watch. "We want to figure out what Frenchpeople want to watch most and then tweak the catalogue to fitthat," Sarandos said.
With Netflix's expansion in Europe, the debate around "netneutrality", or the practice of treating all traffic flowingover broadband networks equally regardless of its sources, willget a powerful new lobbyist.
The European Union is now debating a package of telecomreforms that would embed net neutrality into law, barring cableand telecom groups from charging web companies like Netflix andGoogle for carrying their traffic.
Hastings, who has long fought with U.S. telco and cablecompanies over such fees, said he planned to speak about theissue in a upcoming speech in Brussels. "The advantage of netneutrality is that it allows new Internet services to growwithout needing the permission of network operators," saidHastings. "I think it needs to be inscribed in European law."
(1 US dollar = 0.7720 euro) (Additional reporting by Natalie Huet; Editing by AndrewCallus, Larry King)
