It's a rare thing when a high-profile company changes its position on a key issue overnight. So Netflix's announcement on January 15 that it would take steps to stop customers streaming shows that aren't officially available in their country came as a big surprise to many observers.

Not least, that is, the many thousands of Australians who are already hooked on the US version of the subscription video-on-demand service, which has a deeper and richer library than the Australian version. Citi estimated in August that almost a quarter of Netflix users in Australia were subscribed to the US platform.