Netflix doesn’t think its proxy crackdown will lose it many customers
Netflix has rubbished claims it will be unable to enforce its newly-laid ban upon users accessing shows and movies not licensed to their country.
The video streaming website launched in 130 countries earlier this month. Previously viewers in nations where Netflix was unavailable would have to re-route their IP address to that of an available nation in order to access the content.
Upon the global expansion, the firm no longer risks alienating many of these subscribers who were once in Netflix limbo.
The streaming site's chief executive Reed Hastings echoed this view in his Q4 earnings call: “I don’t think we will see any impact," he said.
“We’ve always enforced proxy blocking with a blacklist. Now we’ve got an expanded and enhanced blacklist, so I don’t think we’re going to see any huge change.”
The pressure to crackdown on proxy viewing comes from the copyright holders supplying Netflix with region-specific licenses.
The proxy tourism is arguably undermining media giants’ international deals. Global, rather than regional, licensing has been widely suggested as a solution to the issue.