Netflix is facing heavy pressure to close its VPN loophole

As Australia prepares for the long-rumoured arrival of Netflix, rights holders are pushing to have the US version of the service blocked in Australia. Currently, more than a quarter of Australians with a paid-content media subscription are using Netflix, circumventing the geoblock on the US-based service by using a VPN. However, the head of the Australian Home Entertainment Distributors Association said rights holders are looking to bring this to an end when Netflix launches a dedicated Australian service. Simon Bush, CEO of AHEDA — the industry organisation that represents the home entertainment divisions of companies including Warner Bros., Roadshow and Universal Sony Pictures, as well as Foxtel — said that while the members of the organisation have not asked AHEDA to lobby on the issue in any official capacity, “some of the member companies individually are doing that”. “I don’t know what Netflix will do around geo-blocking people using VPNs and international credit cards, but presumably it would fit the business model — if they’ve got rights cleared in Australia…and [they’re] going to the effort — that they would want Australians to access their locally-based service,” he said. “That is just a common sense assumption.”