Netflix started a heavy attack on VPN providers globally in 2016 to stop them as they help users worldwide to stream their services online in other regions, that is to change their present Netflix region to another. This came as a natural step following up their launch in more than 130 new nations at the start of January 2016. A natural consequence was that they forced everyone to watch Netflix in their home-nation instead of watching and enjoying content in other regions.
We, as the end-users of their streaming services, didn’t have any problems changing our Netflix regions before this all happened. But, since then, it has gotten very hard, and lots of people have given up. But, is there still ways to bypass geo-blocks and get access to other Netflix regions?
I recently wrote an article about the film Selma which can be seen on, for example, Canadian Netflix. For me to watch that I needed to use Canadian Netflix and to watch Canadian Netflix I had to change my region to Canada. I used a VPN connection for that purpose, but if I would use the same services now I would get the error message above. Does that mean that I can not use a VPN or a proxy or some sort of unblocker tool anymore to unblock other regions?
I once read that the battle between the giant of the streaming world Netflix and the providers helping people change their Netflix region is like the battle between the lion and small fishes. The lion is far stronger and can kill any fish, but with many fishes around it might not be able to catch all of them so there will always be fishes around swimming freely and surviving the dangerous attacks of the lion. And that is probably the way it will be with Netflix as well.
Many blogs and articles also speculate in the fact that the moves recently made by Netflix are made simply to “satisfy” the requests from the film companies around the world who has placed pressure on Netflix to stop their users from changing regions. If that is so, then they will probably put some energy into stopping unblocker tools and proxy services now so that they can say mission completed to the big film companies but then they will let things go on as before later.
Is there any unblocker or proxy tools still working?
This is a very good question and the challenge with the question is that what works today might very well not work tomorrow. I remember testing a service the other night and thought that I should write about. But, I skipped, and did not write the article, and the next day as I tested it again it did not work anymore. That is why actually promising you that any service is working or operating 100% is risky business. But, there are sources updating their articles daily, so to find more information I recommend that you read this IP Guide article on that subject.
It should also be mentioned that there are VPN providers that have worked with Netflix continuously since the block-down in 2016. You can read very updated articles about VPN providers still working with Netflix at netflix.fromabroad.org.
The future of region switching on Netflix
More than 2 1/2 years have passed since Netflix started blocking VPN providers. They are still working on it, and lots of streaming networks and TV networks are doing the same. But, there are still small fishes finding solutions and ways to bypass these. And, if they haven’t been able to block those services by now, I do not believe they will ever be able to.
To many VPN providers live from the income of people paying to bypass geo-blocks. These will do their uttermost to always have working products, and thus they will always get hold of new IP addresses not blocked by Netflix.
What do you think?
