Given recent Netflix war against geo-unlocking services like SmartDNS, proxies and VPNs, it is time to reconsider why you are paying the Netflix subscription.
Content availability per region is totally different
Many already know that the content offering between countries where Netflix is available is highly different. The difference between the US version and many local version might be a 10:1 ratio (over 6000 titles in US, around 600 elsewhere). UK and Canada don’t even have half of the content available in USA.
Pricing is different and you might actually pay more for less
The price for the subscription is either the same or more expensive in the European countries due to EUR/USD exchange rate. To put it short: the European customer would pay more for less (10% more for getting only 10-30% of the US-based content).
Netflix doesn’t show the actual content availability before signing-up
The average user may reasonably expect content to be the same everywhere and doesn’t care about region content licensing. There’s absolutely no indication or warning that the content might be different in his country when singing-up. The only way to check the content availability per country is via 3rd party websites that aggregate such information. But how many users are aware of such services?
Geo-blocking content in 2016 is a terrible idea
We live in ages where information should be easily accessible everywhere, without relying on outdated geo restrictions. The content distribution model used by content creators is out of date by at least 20 years and it needs to change. They need to adapt and find ways of distributing the same content everywhere instead of relying on dated methods that won’t do any good to their business but would simply encourage piracy, which they blame in their hypocrisy.
Blocking legitimate customers is bad
Some are calling Netflix users “pirates” for using geo-unlocking tools. We got news for those making such claims: Netflix is not available for free, but on a paid basis. So how exactly is someone “a pirate” for paying to access online content?
Content is out of date and sucks, anyway
The content you get access to with a Netflix account is mostly old. Except for very few self productions, everything is years old. For example, virtually all series are at least 1 season older.
So if you want to watch some of the movie titles made 10 years ago or show seasons that are 2-4 years old, then Netflix might be a good choice.
They are pushing payment processors’ hands to ban unlocking services
PayPal has recently banned several geo-unlocking services and it is no surprise that they done that at the same time Netflix was fighting “pirates”. That is not coincidence, but a decision made on behalf of Netflix, under pressure.
What does such payment blockage mean? Well, depending on their actual business, it might mean a lot. PayPal is, by far, the most widely used online payment method. Banning a business and freezing their account for months might result in huge business loss, eventually leading to bankruptcy.
Conclusions
Considering all the reasons listed and maybe some more, it is pretty obvious that Netflix is running some deceptive service that is not worth the money. Content is out of date, it is not distributed equally even if people pay the same price (or even more, for a lot less content). Blocking VPN and SmartDNS services is a terrible move, as lots of users use such solutions to get access to content they paid for legitimately (travelers, expats).
Stop looking for solutions to unlock their content. If they don’t want your money, just keep it or spend it on better things.
Took up a Netflix subscription at Christmas (2015) in the UK. After 5 days we had watched just about all there was of interest. The number of new or recent titles available was quite disappointing. Not having used Netflix before I imagined the content would be somehow like Spotify for video.
The first month was free – I cancelled before the end of the month.