A quick rant. I’m in Geneva, the city where boredom goes to be bored, and wanted to watch a movie on Netflix Instant Play. I headed over and discovered, much to my chagrin, that the system was keyed to my current location and, as a result, I’m locked out. While I’m aware of IP masks and other tricks I could use to get to the content, I’m essentially browsing Usenet now simply because I don’t want to go through the trouble.
Seeding content internationally is a the magic of globalization. Just because someone is sending said content over a satellite doesn’t mean everyone in the free world has satellite TV. Show Heroes to people in Switzerland. While they probably won’t understand it – they’re very literal-minded – I’m sure they’ll enjoy the colors.
As a public service to others, go and download Hotspot Shield and restart your browser. That’s all you need to get video overseas. As for me, I’m stuck downloading and, interestingly enough I’ve found a wonderful German film called “Church of Fudge” which is starting out swimmingly with a priest and a nun discussing something in Deutsch. Oh. Oh my god. Oh no.
The ever obnoxious old world IP protectionist model strikes again. Must control markets can’t allow growth or usage without forcing somebody to pay up front… even if they already have, must get paid again and again for the same thing…
It could be a matter of them being legally restricted from broadcasting out of the US.
I actually live near geneva… all we use is youtube, surfthechannel and ovguide. Oh yeah, we also use facebook a lot.
Couldn’t agree more!
As a former Netflix employee (and current resident in Switzerland), I can confirm that the issue is absolutely the licensing enforced by the studios, not the desires of Netflix. There is simply no way to get the content customers actually want to see without going through ridiculously complex regional rights negotiations. Actually, it is not even just the fault of one particular studio, as multiple entities usually control distribution rights for various regions and/or methods (physical first sale, second sale, broadcast, digital online, cable, satellite, etc.) worldwide, so negotiations for one title can involve 2-3 or more legal entities. Seems like some progress is made in the last few years, but I doubt it will be clear cut and easily available for a long time to come.
I know it’s not Netflix fault, but it’s just so silly how easy it is to circumvent.
Have you checked out Joost?
Check Youtube then . I was unable to play the video of ” We cry ” from The Script due to the reason that i am India. Guess that one was avaialable in UK alone !
The studios are still living in the stone age as far as the internet is concerned. They want to use it for advertising and promotions without making their offerings available to international customers. And then they complain that people pirate their videos.
I live in Kuwait and I’m willing to go the legal route and pay for anything I watch, but apparently my money is not good enough if I don’t live in the US.
This is not aimed at netflix only, I experienced that with Amazon.com download service also.
The frustrating thing is that the only legal way to watch these shows would be ordering the dvds (when the season is over and they’re released) from the US; because we don’t have places that keep up with the latest releases!