Streaming giant Netflix has announced that it will be clamping down on subscribers using internet proxies to access content not available in their own countries.

Because of the nature of licensing agreements differing around the world, Netflix content varies from country to country. However, many users set up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or other proxy servers to get around these limitations.

Usage of such proxy networks is particularly prevalent in territories that have a much smaller catalogue than other countries. For example, the Australian Netflix catalogue only has about 10% of the content available to users in the United States.

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Netflix announced on Thursday (January 14th) that it would be stepping up efforts over the coming weeks to block these proxy servers. It’s a reversal of policy on a denial statement released last week after reports had surfaced that Netflix would be cracking down on VPNs.

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The American company expanded its streaming services to a total of more than 130 countries in early January.

In a blog post on the same day, Netflix’s vice president of content delivery architecture David Fullager said that the firm was endeavouring to harmonise access to same content around the world.

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“If all of our content were globally available, there wouldn't be a reason for members to use proxies or 'unblockers' to fool our systems into thinking they're in a different country than they're actually in,” he wrote. “In the meantime, we will continue to respect and enforce content licensing by geographic location.”

Netflix anticipates that its efforts in this regard will not impact users who are abiding by the rules and not using proxies.

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