Netflix has launched its service in France, with the US online streaming giant also announcing a deal with a French cable operator as it began the second phase of its European expansion.

For 7.99 euros ($A11.19) per month subscribers in France can now enjoy access to Hollywood films, cartoons and television series including original content such Orange is the New Black, a comedy-drama set in a prison, and the hugely successful political drama House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright.

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“We hope like in the rest of the world to be very popular by offering very low prices,” Netflix chief Reed Hastings told AFP.

Hastings said within the next five-to-10 years Netflix hoped to have a third of France’s 28 million households subscribing to the service, the same level now reached in the United States, and wants to top two million subscribers within five years.

Netflix has shaken up the industry in the US by allowing subscribers to watch as much as they like, at any time, on almost any internet-connected device such as a laptop, tablet or smartphone.

While savvy users can also connect their devices to a TV, Netflix announced a deal on Monday with Bouygues Telecom that will integrate the service into the operator’s next cable television box.

Netflix’s entry into the French market is the beginning of its second wave of expansion across Europe.

It is to be quickly followed by launches in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

The California-based company, which already has 50 million subscribers worldwide, three-quarters of which are in the US, has been available in Britain, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden since 2012.