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Is Netflix shooting itself in the foot with VPN ban?

By Vijay Anand & John Law - on 19 Jan 2016, 9:30pm

Is Netflix shooting itself in the foot with the VPN ban?

A VPN ban wouldn't just hurt global subscribers. It could prove to be devastating for Netflix's own revenue stream as well. <br> Image source: Wired.

Netflix opened up its doors to the rest of the world just weeks ago, and their decision to go through the official channels of more than 130 countries was met with much fanfare.

The only caveat to this, is that compared to their original user base in the US, not all of the streaming service’s mass media library is available in other countries, which is also why many VPN users contribute to the majority of Netflix’s global revenue and distribution.

Then, as though adding fuel to the fire, Netflix announced quite indecisively that they would be implementing a VPN ban, in an attempt to crackdown on the millions of people who access their service around the world.

While this may be seen as a move to protect their vested interest, it’s a move that might prove to be devastating not just for Netflix’s international user base, but for Netflix themselves.

As the Wired puts it, a VPN ban by Netflix wouldn’t do any good for anyone, including themselves, and the accompanying evidence to this conclusion is really quite simple. As mentioned earlier, the Netflix offering for each country varies around the world, as different countries impose certain content restriction policies for themselves, be it in the U.K, Europe, or even in Central or South America. To put further intricacy into the scenario, we don’t even have to look beyond our own borders: at current, the media library of Netflix in Singapore is somewhat lacking in comparison to its US content library. To be exact, we get to access only 10% of it.

Remember Hulu? They tried to implement a ban on VPN and proxies back in 2014. Guess what? They failed. <br> Image source: Exstreamist.

Netflix won’t be the first company to try to ban VPN subscribers. Hulu, another popular media streaming provider, once tried to ban VPN users and proxies from accessing their content back in 2014.

“Back in 2014, Hulu tried to cut off access for people living outside the US by blocking VPNs and proxies,” says Faraz Ali, Digital Marketing Manager for PureVPN. “But they did not succeed because many VPN providers found other ways to bypass the restrictions. Everyone knows that Hulu failed.”

For now, Netflix is apparently still being wishy-washy about the ban, with no clear indicator if they’re even going to go all the way with what may be a decision that could backfire on them.

Source: Wired.

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