Netflix has announced it is cracking down on subscribers using VPNs, proxies, and unblockers to get access to the US catalogue.

Over the last few years, many South Africans have used VPN services like UnoTelly, which allows them to use Netflix US.

Despite the service launching in SA, subscribers still use VPN services because the United States Netflix service offers a larger content catalogue compared to the local version.

David Fullagar, Vice President of Content Delivery Architecture at Netflix, said they are looking to address this issue.

“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,” said Fullagar.

He said they are making progress in licensing content across the world, but conceded that they have “a way to go before we can offer people the same films and TV series everywhere”.

As it stands, Netflix will continue to enforce content licensing by geographic location.

“To address this, we will employ similar measures other firms do.”

“This technology continues to evolve and we are evolving with it. That means in the coming weeks, those using proxies and unblockers will only be able to access the service in the country where they currently are.”

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