Netflix: Website that unlocks US content claims content being blocked

A website that unlocks US content says Netflix has begun trying to block Australian access to that content.

The growth of US streaming giant Netflix has slowed down to its lowest level since launch as rival services fight back by securing exclusive content deals to attract Australian subscribers.

A website that unlocks US streaming movies and TV shows says Netflix has begun blocking Australian access to that content.

Melbourne based uFlix.com.au is claiming that Netflix has sent notices to customers where it detects they are using an unblocking or proxy service to access US content.

Uflix says some of its customers have received notices from Netflix. The notices allegedly say: “You seem to be using an unblocker or proxy. Please turn off any of these services and try again,” uFlix says on Twitter.”

Some users are starting to have issues with Netflix blocking non-Australian content when going through uFlix,” uFlix says.

“Though it is only affecting a few users at the moment, we expect this number to grow. We are working on a solution to get around these new measures and apologise for the inconvenience to those who are currently only getting Australian Netflix.”

Later uFlix said it had found a way to unlock the Netflix block, in what is now an escalating battle of wills between Netflix and unblocking services.

“We have found a fix, but are putting an additional measure in place before we release it. Fun times,” uFlix said.

The Australian has asked Netflix in Australia to confirm whether they had sent the notices, but so far there is no official response.

In the meantime uFlix is seeking information from its customer base in what seems an effort to work out which customers are being targeted and how their proxy set-up was being detected.

It asks: “Did you sign up for Netflix before or after it was available in your country?, “Is the error occurring on USA region alone or other regions too?”, “Have you set up our DNS directly in your router or is it set on the device(s) itself?”, “Is the error occurring on multiple devices?” and “Is the error occurring on a single device but working on another?”

The Australian this week reported that another unblocking service, unblock-us.com, had signalled it would fight the Netflix move. A spokesman indicated they were unfazed by Netflix’s decree.

“We are aware of the announcement and should our service be affected at any time, we will make adjustments,” the spokesman told The Australian.

“Presently, there is nothing to be concerned about as everything is working properly.”

The spokesman said it was the company’s mission to provide its customers with open and free access to content from anywhere around the world.

In a blogpost this week, Netflix vice president of content delivery architecture David Fullagar said the streaming service would move to nullify the unblocking services, thereby forcing viewers to watch Netflix content available from where they are watching.

“Some members use proxies or “unblockers” to access titles available outside their territory,” Fullagar wrote. “To address this, we employ the same or similar measures other firms do. This technology continues to evolve and we are evolving with it.

“That means in coming weeks, those using proxies and unblockers will only be able to access the service in the country where they currently are. We are confident this change won’t impact members not using proxies.”

Consumer advocate agency Choice, which has followed the geo-blocking issue, says it was the first time it was aware of Netflix taking action to activity counter their customers geo-skipping to Netflix in another country.

“This is certainly the first time we’ve seen Netflix going beyond just talking on this,” Choice spokesman Matt Levey said. “They’ve talked for some time of closing off services but this is the first time they’ve actually be seen to be taking some action.”

Asked whether Netflix was being pressured to do this by other content providers, he said: We can only speculate, the perception would be there are being pressured by other content owners, especially by the big American ones.”

He said geo-skipping to another location breached Netflix’s terms of service but wasn’t unlawful.

He believed it was inevitable that streaming services would become global operations.

“We’re staring at the death throes of this model of carving up among regions. The question is how long it takes to go to new business models.

He said that before it officially entered Australia, Netflix had 340,000 customers who were accessing content in the US and elsewhere. Netflix now has more than 2.7 million Australian subscribers.

He said that in the changing market, it would make sense for single-country video streaming services to form alliances across the world to offer content globally.