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.

But there are several reasons why it is now in Netflix's commercial interests to change its religion and stop turning a blind eye to the circumvention of so-called "geo-blocking".

This consumer behaviour has had the effect of pumping up Netflix's already impressive US subscriber numbers because overseas customers of the US site have counted as US ones.