Netflix is taking steps to prevent members using proxies to access titles available outside of their region.The move comes in the wake of the streaming giant launching in 130 new countries, with Netflix having made the announcement at CES 2016. Netflix is now offered in 190 countries around the world.
Via a blog post, David Fullagar, Netflix vice president of content delivery architecture, noted that Netflix is “making progress in licensing content across the world”, however has “a ways to go” before it can offer the same films and TV series everywhere.
Fullagar wrote that Netflix anticipates being able to do so over time.
“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,” he wrote. “In the meantime, we will continue to respect and enforce content licensing by geographic location.”
Proxies or “unblockers” are used by some members to access titles available outside their territory.
“To address this, we employ the same or similar measures other firms do,” Fullagar wrote. “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.
Fullagar wrote that offering all of its content everywhere, with “consumers being able to enjoy all of Netflix without using a proxy” is a goal that Netflix “will keep pushing towards”.
