Netflix users from the UK often complaint about missing a considerable amount of shows due to geo restrictions. Which is right. As per data on Oct 26, The Netflix Library of US had 5638 titles while UK users were only getting 4683 titles. One might think the disparity between the availability of content might shorten through time, but that is not the case as per the report on October 6 2018. Currently, USA users are getting 12005 movies/shows while UK users are entitled to only 9462 contents.

This Geo-restriction not only limits to the UK but also all the other 200 countries where Netflix is currently operating.

What is Geo-Restricted Content?

Geo-restriction refers to the act where a provider restricts the access of its content or data to a user based on his/her geographical location.

How Geo-Restriction Works?

To restrict a User to access a Geo-restricted content, a service provider has to determine the location of that user. To do that, providers use methods like tracking the time zone and IP address of the User. As time zone settings are easily deceivable, providers only target the IP address of the users.

For example:

Suppose a user from the UK travels to China and figure out that his/her Netflix is not working then it’s because of geo-restrictions. Netflix is available in the UK is not available in China, as a reason why users of UK can’t access Netflix in China or another country where Netflix is not available. Same goes for contents in Netflix as well. Content available in Netflix USA might not be available for users in the UK. The reason behind is the licence issues in other countries.

How to Access American Netflix from the UK?

The only way to access the USA library of Netflix in the UK is through tricking Netflix to think the user belongs to the USA. A reliable VPN service can easily do that.

Types of Geo-restrictions

In general term, Geo-restriction refers mostly but not limited to premium multimedia contents like movies, and TV series. Copyright issues, licencing issues, price discrimination and blackouts are some of the main reason behind geo-restrictions.

1. Licensing and copyright

Ownership of content varies as per its location. For example, HBO Now is exclusively for US citizens, and users outside US cannot access HBO now as Time Warner has offered the rights of some of the HBO contents to other service providers of the respective countries.

2. Blackouts

Sometimes TV or Radio buys exclusive rights for some games like NHL, NBA and Baseball in the US. In such a situation, users are restricted to watch those events through the internet, which forces most users to Use VPNs to view their favourite events.

3. Price discrimination

Price discrimination is also a vital reason behind geo-restriction. A price, which is lower in some region, might get higher in other. Mostly it happens in online stores where buyers have to buy a product at a higher cost as they are from a different location. Primarily online discrimination used to occur in physical goods, but now digital goods also seem to have joined the race.

Apart from Netflix, there are lots of other content providers who also restrict contents based on the user’s geographical location.

Why contents in Netflix differs from country to country?

The cost of production of a blockbuster movie or a TV series is quite high compared to independent film and series. In short, the production house invests a significant amount of money while producing content. For example, according to the producers, the budget for Infinity war was  $316–400 million while the cost of producing a TV series costs around $3.5 million per episode. However, shows as Game of Thrones was quite higher as each episode costed $10 million for the producers.

As digital piracy has become prevalent over the years, it has become a headache for the producers to get their ROI. With such high stakes, one cannot even blame a studio if it tries its best to protect the contents by enforcing copyright measures.

Copying a movie is getting easier nowadays either through a CD, DVD, Blu-ray or even through a torrent file. The only option left these companies to combat piracy is to sell their productions to vendors like Amazon, Apple and iTunes.

Now the other way to gain some revenue is to sell distribution rights of their contents to Netflix at a profit. Currently, Netflix is operating its services in more than 200 countries and its tremendous gaining amount of subscribers each day. Apart from Netflix other streaming services are gaining popularity as well. Some other streaming services include Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO NOW etc.

To show content to a specific country, Netflix has to bid a price for a content individually. For example, Netflix has to pay $118 million to acquire the entire catalogue of Friends. Before buying rights for a specific territory, Netflix researches to find out if the investment is recoverable or not. If UK consumers are not interested in a US show, then Netflix will only bid for the territorial rights for the US. If research shows that both UK and US audience loves shows like “Black Mirror”, then it will offer on the territorial rights for both the region.

Sometimes studio’s charge more money to show specific content in a particular country. It’s a matter of demand and supply, which gave birth to the Netflix Regions.

Now, there’s more to it!

Netflix’s ban on VPN and Proxies

David Fullagar, Vice President of Netflix, announced that Netflix has decided to ban usage of any proxies or VPNs for users who access contents from other countries.

Even though using proxy users are getting access to a broader content, but it also breaks the agreement between Netflix and its content providers.

In the statement, Fullagar also addressed that Netflix has started using advanced technology to detect VPN users. The announcement was made in 2016, and till now Netflix is quite active in banning VPNs and proxies.

Currently, Netflix is available in more than 200 countries, but the contents in each region differ due to licencing issues. Netflix is not released officially in some part of the world as a reason users from those countries often use VPN and proxies to access Netflix. However, non-availability of Netflix is not only a significant reason for Usage of VPN but it the problem lies with the unavailability of specific content. People use these services to bypass geo-restrictions and watch restricted content in Netflix.

Netflix only confirms that it will block the VPN or Proxies of a User, but it won’t ban the account of the User. So if Netflix detects that a UK user is accessing US content through VPN, then it will only halt the VPN IP address of the User. The UK user can still watch the regular UK content as usual. So even if someone gets caught, they don’t need to worry much about it.

However, Netflix also mentions its terms and condition that it has the right to ban or remove the account of a User. Netflix is unlikely to do so, but it has the right to do so.

How to use a VPN to watch American Netflix

Hope users went through the entire topic mentioned above thoroughly and understood each topic very well before moving forward.

The first step users must do download a reliable VPN service in their computer or other devices. For reference purpose, we will use Lime VPN as an example, but the steps work the same with all VPN services.

To download the LimeVPN, users must visit the official website of LimeVPN and buy a LimeVPN pro plan. LimeVPN also has other cheaper plans as well, but Pro provides fresh IPs, DDoS protection, all basic plan features along with several other premium features. Netflix has a robust technology to detect VPNs and to bypass the geoblocking surveillance of Netflix, users have to use a dedicated IPs which only The Pro Plan provides.

Downloading and installing the application is a piece of cake. users only have to follow the instructions, and they are all ready to use the app. When users launch the app, an option will appear on the app, asking the users to choose their desired Location. users want to access the Netflix library of the US, they must select the USA as their desired location.

It will take only a few moments to be connected and then users will be set to Browse Netflix posing as a User of US. ‘Basic’ users might face IP blockage by Netflix as ‘Basic’ plan provides shared Dynamic IPs. In such case, users can use a different IP as LimeVPN offers more than 6000 IPs to Basic users. Whereas, Pro users do not have anything to worry about as they are getting fresh and dedicated IPs.

Using VPN on a smartphone:

Users who access Netflix on smartphones and tablets can also use VPN without any additional effort. Many premium VPN service providers offer a separate app for smartphones and tablets too. Then users have to use their login credentials to start using their VPN. users who use internet through Wi-Fi router can install their VPN to their home router, through which all of their devices will be securely connected.  

However, installing VPN to a Wi-Fi router might be complicated for some users. It’s best to go through the installation manual, or they can directly contact the support team of the VPN provider for a step-by-step approach.

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Neha Shelar