Netflix appears to be moving quickly to make good on a threat that it would cut off subscribers accessing its content from outside the territory in which they are located.
Users in Australia have begun reporting that they can’t use proxy services and virtual private networking (VPN) services to access international versions of the subscription video-on-demand provider.
According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, Netflix has started cracking down on Australian customers who use software to circumvent its geographical restrictions to access international versions of its services.
It’s estimated that thousands of South Africans use unblocking services like Media Hint and Unotelly to access the US version of Netflix and other online streaming services that are not officially available in the country.
There have no reports yet of South Africans’ use of the service being curtailed.
The move by Netflix to crack down on VPN providers comes in the same month that it expanded its services to most of the world, including South Africa.
However, the South African Netflix catalogue is significantly smaller than what’s available to US viewers, prompting many users to vow to continue subscribing to the US version.
Netflix vice-president of content delivery architecture David Fullagar warned in a post on the company’s website on last week that “in coming weeks, those using proxies and unblockers will only be able to access the service in the country where they currently are”.
VPN services typically mask a user’s Internet protocol address, allowing them to “fool” services like Netflix, Hulu and others into thinking they’re located in a different territory to where they actually are.
“We are making progress in licensing content across the world … but we have a ways (sic) to go before we can offer people the same films and TV series everywhere,” said Fullagar in the website post.
“Over time, we anticipate being able to do so. For now, given the historic practice of licensing content by geographic territories, the TV shows and movies we offer differ, to varying degrees, by territory. In the meantime, we will continue to respect and enforce content licensing by geographic location.
“Some members use proxies or ‘unblockers’ to access titles available outside their territory. 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,” he said. — (c) 2016 NewsCentral Media
