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With the launch of Netflix in the UK, we’ve had another chance to directly experience the dreaded regional lockout; by that I mean the practice of only making certain content available in certain geographic locations. And it’s not for localisation reasons either. It’s simply to do with money, and it doesn’t have a place in our globally connected internet world.
Region locking isn’t a new practice; we’ve been subjected to it ever since video has been available at home. VHS tapes had it, of sorts, due to the technical differences between NTSC and PAL, but with the advent of DVDs we encountered the region lock in full force.
Discs bought from America were coded for region one and wouldn’t play on a UK region 2 player. Thankfully we got past that with region free players, and the only difference was the pattern of release — not everything was released everywhere or at the same time. The thing was that you could still import them; it might’ve cost you extra, but it was possible.
Now we’ve progressed to Blu-rays, and although they have region codes built into them just like DVDs, it’s up to the content producer to implement them. In my experience, Blu-rays don’t generally seem to be region coded for the most part, so on the physical side of video distribution we’ve made progress.
Unfortunately, the advent of video on-demand streaming has set us in reverse. We’ve gone back to the region locked days of the DVD. And what’s worse, there’s no way to import them legally like we used to either.
The content available through Netflix in the UK is a fantastic example of what I mean. You only have to look at what Netflix has available in the US to know that the UK is getting severely stiffed with a much smaller content library available for streaming in the UK. It’s the same service, from the same company, but the content is a poor representation of the US original.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly not blaming Netflix — it’s not its fault. It’s just really easy to compare two libraries from two separate countries using the service. The content deals that let Netflix and others stream here and there about the globe are what holds us up. It’s the content producers themselves, the studios, distributors and money-grubbing media monstrosities. They won’t sell you global rights because they make more money from bartering for regionalised rights.
I get that they have to make money; if they didn’t there would be no collateral to commission new shows, movies and content with. But by blocking international streaming, they’re hampering their customers — you and I.
Of course it also goes the other way too. Our US cousins don’t get access to some of the UK-produced content we love in Britian. That said, it seems British content producers, the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, seem more willing to market their wares in the US these days. But region locking is a global problem, not limited to one or two countries.
By preventing people from legally streaming region locked content, you run the risk of inducing piracy. There are no such restrictions on pirated content and it can often be of a better quality, or more convenient than the legal streams. The movie, TV and recording industry are constantly bleating on about piracy, and yes it probably is a problem of sorts. But complaining, blocking, harassing and forcing the hand of government, isn’t the way to stop piracy.
If you gave your customers what they wanted; when they want it; in a format they want it in (which we’re pretty much there with these days), and at a price they could afford, then what possible reason would the majority have to pirate content? It’s worked for music. There are no region locks, not really anyway, and it’s available at a cost and in a format that most people can enjoy. You’ll never stamp out the hardcore pirating minority, but the majority is pretty easily swayed.
Of course region locking your content doesn’t just induce piracy. A quick Google tells us that there are several ways of circumventing the geographic region locks currently being imposed. It’s a legally dubious area, which could contravene laws in both your own country, and the country you’re attempting to stream from; yet services like Unblock-US and a plethora of VPN services promise to do just that. They exist for a reason, and people obviously use them.
Perhaps what I’m hankering for is a change of business model. For the movie industry that wouldn’t be much of an issue, just simultaneous global release dates for feature films. We’re pretty much there these days, at least with Blu-ray and DVD releases between the UK and the US for instance.
But for the TV studios, it’s perhaps a bit of an ask to get them to make all their content available for on-demand streaming at the same time everywhere on the planet. They spend quite a lot of money making programs, which they make back by selling them to broadcast partners. Streaming services from the likes of Netflix and LoveFilm are seen as an added bonus, at least they were, not a real revenue stream. Mind you, we’ve seen Netflix outbid traditional studios for new TV productions, so we could see that tide turn. Of course that really revolves around subscriber numbers, which is a bit of a chicken and the egg scenario – you won’t get the hordes of subscribers without great content after all.
So, dear media companies, studios and producers – we’re in the age of the on-demand digital stream. There’s no real going back, and in the world of a globally connected internet, there’s no space for limiting connectivity like that. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. You can continue to fight it, and not make as much money as you could. Or you could do the smart thing and embrace it. Make all your content available in whichever country has a service to support it.
More people will subscribe, stream and enjoy. And in the process you’ll get more money. It’s a win-win situation. You just have to take the jump and commit. We’ll be there to catch you – I promise.
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Was the regional locking brought in so companies could price discriminate?
One of the main reasons for regional locking (as far as films go at least) is the publicity machine. Release of a film is staggered worldwide so that the stars can go to each region in turn to ensure the film gets extra publicity as a result, release of the Disc/Stream of the film must be region locked so that people can’t see it before the cinema release. With TV series it usually works that a series won’t be in demand elsewhere unless it’s a hit in it home country, which takes some time and there are certain trade shows where TV execs go to buy/sell product. So again the region locking ensures that a British company doesn’t pay millions for an Ameriacn hit show only to have everyone just stream it of netflix.
Of course this is a relic of the old days and should be done away with, but there are a lot of vested interests to conquer before it can happen.
I agree. I think it’s easier with film, than TV. As staggered film releases at the cinema, by like a week, is fine by me. But there’s no excuse for staggering streaming releases once it gets to that stage. IMHO obviously.
I’ve never understood why they block content that they have no intention of releasing worldwide.
Unblock-US has opened my computer up to some brilliant content. And I don’t feel bad about using it, I just see it as a virtual region free DVD player.
Region blocking is certainly a dated restriction. Although, I can understand that the distributors and content providers would want to find some way to still make money.
It’s not that hard for FTA services in Europe. They could simply start offering their respective national TV licenses for overseas users. People who wish for instance to watch UK content outside the UK could pay the license fee as a non-resident, and then require a username/password to access iPlayer when it detects a foreign IP address (UK residents would not need this, so it won’t affect them). Imagine all the extra funds it could generate as there would be millions of UK expats alone around the world that could potentially sign up for this.
As this extra income would be easy to separate from the usual UK license fee, it could be spread a bit more evenly around the five main FTA providers to keep everyone happy.
Things would be a tad more difficult for countries outside Europe which don’t tend to have license fees. But they could create a subscription service as well for international users to compensate for any sales loss from content suppliers to international regions. In other words, a combined login service for US FTA channels and Television, so the same subscription for one FTA channel works with another, when the service detects a foreign IP address. This money can be channeled back to the content providers as well as channel distributors based on that users viewing habits and everyone can be happy.
This could so easily work right across the board, for services from whatever country. It may sound odd to imagine say New Zealand having such a foreign subscription service, but I would imagine they still have quite a few expats around the world who would be interested in this, as would expats from any country (or those keen to learn foreign languages). The potential is enormous.
The price would have to be right though, too expensive and it wouldn’t be popular at all, but it would not be difficult to implement and would generate income – whether this is enough to compensate for ending region restrictions is a good question, but one will never know if one never tries.
Imagine how smart TV’s in the near future could be? It could be possible to have a sliding scale system for people interested in only specific channels. Apps could be downloaded for the channels or countries one subscribes to, and when you tune your internet ready TV, it will add those international channels you have subscriptions for.
As for Pay TV, there is no reason at all this should be region blocked. If an American pay network has 30million international subscribers, that simply means content suppliers can charge them extra for their wares.
It really is a relic from the old age. Rather than pushing laws like SOPA, companies should be focused on opening up laws like this!
I think a lot of networks typically get a fair bit of money by selling the rights to a program in international territories (case in point, HBO & Sky Atlantic).
The BBC seems to be at the forefront of change though with iPlayer being pushed out to overseas territories for a small monthly fee.
While it certainly is a risk to abandon their existing models – especially with cash cows like Friends and Simpsons making these networks tons of cash… the long term benefits could be amazing.
Imagine the potential audience you’d get for popular shows like Glee – once you take international figures into account you’re looking at an audience that is multiplied many times over.
It could potentially benefit smaller shows too, with shows like Firefly possibly justifing enough of an international audience to have it going for at least a few seasons.
This, to me is the future.
I just cancelled my Xbox Netflix account, it worked reasonably well but the content was shite.
Missing the last 2 seasons of most tv shows and movies are old…
One of the biggest problems is the fragmentation of distributors. Lord of the Rings Part 1 has over 30 different distributors alone for example, each wanting a bit of the pie for their specific region. If netflix offered a global package they would have to deal with each and every one of them. Same goes with broadcasters. They only have to negotiate broadcasting costs for their particular catchment area. The more people that can potentially watch the broadcast, the more the distributor will want in fees. That is why a small country like ireland (in population terms) can still afford to broadcast expensive hollywood produce vs a much more population dense country like the UK where it will cost considerably more to broadcast the same shows & films. Until this business model radically changes and accepts that some broadcasters are not regionally restricted and could be charged based on number of current subscribers rather than potential subscribers, we will be stuck with idiotic region coding and restrictions.
Well until they get it simply use this method to get US content: http://vpnfreedom.com/netflix/how-to-watch-us-netflix-in-the-uk/