Speaking in a Q&A at the MIPCOM global television market in Cannes, Netlfix's chief content officer Ted Sarandos described both countries as "very attractive territories that are English speaking and love US content."

Australian industry sources at MIPCOM believe that Netflix is gearing up to launch simultaneously in both countries in the second quarter of 2015.

The news poses a significant threat to incumbent free-to-air and pay television providers because of Netflix's huge popularity and low price and its appeal to the increasing number of people watching less linear television and more on-demand shows and movies.

Netflix, which releases its latest earnings this week, has more than 50 million paid subscribers in 40 countries.

It has revolutionised the TV industry with innovations such as the release of all 13 episodes of its drama House of Cards with Kevin Spacey at once.

It is now seeking to overhaul the movie industry's windowing model by releasing its own titles in cinemas and online simultaneously.

"We are operating under a model that's been in place since the early 70s and the beginning of movies on TV," said Mr Sarandos.

"You should be able to choose whether you want to see it on Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon on an IMAX screen that's big and bold and beautiful on in hi-resolution at home with the family as a family event."

He added: "I don't want to kill 'windowing', I want to restore choice and option".

Interest in Netflix has been huge at MIPCOM and Mr Sarandos's session was the most packed so far, with standing room left online in an overspill screening room away from the main stage.

In anticipation of its arrival Foxtel has launched its own movies on demand service Presto and is in talks to partner with Seven West Media on the service, adding the number one free-to-air television network's content.

Nine Entertainment Co has also responded by creating a streaming joint venture with Fairfax Media, owner of The Australian Financial review. the venture is called Stream Co and is due to launch next year.

Both Presto and Stream Co are understood to have a presence at MIPCOM where huge amounts of content deals are struck every year by the world's television networks.

Nine, Seven and third-placed Ten Network Holdings have also responded to changing viewer habits by investing more in live entertainment such as sport and news which are best viewed as live, rather than on-demand.

Mr Sarandos said it was unlikely that Netflix would move into these genres, but he did not rule it out.

"Sports and news is very much a linear live events and it adds a lot of value in broadcast and cable, which are built for aggregating large audiences at the same time," he said.

He did add, however: "If we can figure out something interesting to do with news it might be interesting. I don't rule anything out."