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NETFLIX RECENTLY ANNOUNCED it had launched in another 130 countries around the world, bringing the total number of countries it’s available in to 190.
While it’s great news for the company itself, it’s not so good for those who use a proxy or Virtual Private Network (VPN) to access shows and movies in other territories.
The company announced its intention to clamp down on proxies and unblockers over the coming weeks, with its global expansion a key reason for it.
For certain shows and movies, Netflix only owns the rights to show them in certain territories and while the aim is to have content consistent across the globe, licensing agreements means this won’t be happening anytime soon.
“If all of our content were globally available, there wouldn’t be a reason for members to use proxies or “unblockers” to fool our systems into thinking they’re in a different country than they’re actually in,” said Netflix’s David Fullagar. “In the meantime, we will continue to respect and enforce content licensing by geographic location”.
To address this, we employ the same or similar measures other firms do. This technology continues to evolve and we are evolving with it. That means in coming weeks, those using proxies and unblockers will only be able to access the service in the country where they currently are. We are confident this change won’t impact members not using proxies.
Companies like Sony have been less than pleased with Netflix’s failure to block VPN users and accusing it of breaking its licensing agreement. Rumours it would be blocking said users popped up last year when it denied it was blocking VPN services any more than usual.
When it announced its expansion last week, its CEO Reed Hastings said the company hopes to see the same content available on all versions “over the next five to ten years”.
“We want citizens of the world to have the same content… that’s going to be available in every country of the world. And all of our new originals are like that,” he said.
So as we build the library, as we do more licensing and renew existing deals, we’re getting to the state over the next five or ten years where everything will be consistent around Netflix and everything will be available globally.
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Tell us our concerns in niche dramatic terms we never heard before… Thanks.
@Vonvonic: I know. Can’t be bothered reading when I see that. I know the rest will just annoy me.
@Vonvonic: Polarity is important as understanding it lets you know where your countries relationships are and should be, multi-polarity means Ireland are likely to be drawn into the middle of multiple centres of power’s arguments. That’s a massive risk, for example right now France and the UK have a major dispute in relation to fishing agreements, Ireland and the UK actually have shared a common opinion on it for the past 40 years but now Ireland is aligned to France in this area through the EU and most joes on the street will say “da Brits are always wrong” but we may have more to gain from the UK winning the argument – either way Ireland will now be pulled hither and thither. Multi-polarity is a massive risk, especially when the Center of power is not aligned to your benefit… is the EU?
Once Michael’s tender is over, all will be grand.
@Madra: Yes, when he goes polarity will automatically be solved, nurses will grow on trees, as will lorry drivers and builders, economic scarring won’t cause a recession because the global market will understand that Michael Martin was in fact the real reason for the pandemic and magically Ireland will grow a reasonable political party that our biggest economic partners can work with out of the countries ar5e. Or the next leaders will all be the same because the same people are voting… Lowry will still top Tipp, The eejits will still top Kerry, people will still drive parish pump, populism will continue to grow and Ireland will have a load of parties with around 15/20% of the vote that can’t agree for the next 2 decades and nothing will change while they all point fingers at each other.
YAAAAAWWWNNNN, More selling fear lol
The largest risk to Ireland is the incompetence of our current leaders closely followed by the naked popularism of those poised to replace them. If ever a country was screaming out for change, it is modern Ireland, but where will change come from.
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