Netflix to close access to international geododgers

By Dan Barrett

Netflix today announced that they will implement measures to prevent subscribers using proxies and unblocking services from being able to access the service from other countries.

In a blog post on the Netflix site, Netflix vice president of Content Delivery Architecture David Fullagar reported that the service is now available in 190 countries and that they are making progress in licensing content across the world, but that it will take time before they can offer the same films and TV series everywhere. Fullagar said, "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".

Currently, subscribers using unblocking services are able to switch regions to access Netflix services in other countries, in order to access content not available in their own country. Many users are accessing the US service for the larger library currently available in that country. It is believed that the US service offers approximately 5800 titles against 2100 titles on the Australian service, for example. Other users are accessing international Netflix services for content not available in their own country, seeking out specific TV shows and movies not available in their home country due to licensing restrictions.

A small industry of companies have built up globally around users geododging proclivities. These include unblocking services such as Unblock-US and Getflix, as well as Netflix search engines like Flix Search.

Last week Netflix announced a massive 130-country increase to the number of territories that they are operating in. With local services in almost every country in the world, subscribers no longer need to use a geododging tool to access a Netflix service. Prior to the Australian launch of Netflix, it was believed that over 200,000 Australians had subscribed to the service using location-masking services.