There won't be (with some exceptions) worldwide licensing fees. Licensing movies/TV shows to local companies/channels is too important.
Sony Pictures mad at Netflixs failure to block overseas VPN users
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There won't be (with some exceptions) worldwide licensing fees. Licensing movies/TV shows to local companies/channels is too important.
Marty Chinn
Member
Sure it's on Sony to a degree, and you can bet if Netflix doesn't do anything about it, they're going to raise the rates accordingly to compensate for worldwide distribution which Netflix will either have to take and raise rates to the consumers or drop the content all together and that takes a hit on the Netflix library.
But let's not let Netflix off the hook here. They negotiated for US rights and left a back door open that they know about to let other people outside of the US to watch and aren't even making the smallest effort to stop. They reap the benefits as a result, Netflix should have some obligation to try and stop this from happening. Sony is rightfully unhappy about Netflix turning a blind eye on this while fully benefiting financially.
What people should understand:
Obviously this guy's beef with Netflix makes zero sense from the Sony CEO's standpoint or the customer's viewpoint.
Region locking is a side effect of inter-company political bullshit. Of course their international distribution guy is upset because he is losing out on "his" cut of the revenue / profits. He's missing out on bonuses / performance metrics / whatever that are going to other Sony executives in different branches.
Obviously this guy's beef with Netflix makes zero sense from the Sony CEO's standpoint or the customer's viewpoint.
Region locking is a side effect of inter-company political bullshit. Of course their international distribution guy is upset because he is losing out on "his" cut of the revenue / profits. He's missing out on bonuses / performance metrics / whatever that are going to other Sony executives in different branches.
Hexa
Member
I don't think you're reading it right. Or maybe I'm not.
Netflix doesn't pay Sony per viewer. They make a single deal per country. But people are watching it from outside the country they made a deal with Sony with. Sony made the deal for only the US.
Sony is willing to grant them rights for other countries as long as Netflix pays them more than the original deal but Netflix doesn't wish to do so.
Thus Sony is pissed.
Ultimately this should be solved by making all deals global and have them priced accordingly for Netflix, but Netflix is too big at the moment for them to have enough leverage to do so. So they're even more pissed.
Hence enters Playstation Vue.
Why does So y care if people use VapN to watch Netflix from other countries if they are paying for It? I thought they where cool with this since PS4 is region free
Because they (Neftlix) are not paying (Sony).
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Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Exactly. It will take television and physical media more or less completely disappearing before such a thing becomes possible.
As a consumer, of course, I really don't care about Sony's issues, but they have plenty of reason to be pissed. Netflix is not making much of an effort to prevent people from circumventing regional restrictions. Then again, I don't know if they are even obligated to do so from a contract perspective.
This puts Sony in a really poor position with its regional partners with whom they have individual deals and will more than likely put them at a disadvantage next time they are negotiating distribution rights.
Again, as a consumer, I don't care, but Sony definitely has good cause to put pressure on Netflix.
Why does So y care if people use VapN to watch Netflix from other countries if they are paying for It? I thought they where cool with this since PS4 is region free
Netflix plays Sony for the rights to stream video to consumers in specific regions. They only pay for a few regions.
People pay Netflix to access their service. The service is only officially available in specific regions.
Lots of people use a VPN to gain access to the service despite it not being officially available in their region. Netflix gets paid just the same, so they're in no rush to put in measures to stop this. Sony feels like they are losing out.
Oh ok, wouldnt it be better for Netflix to have a $1 offer for those who want to watch other countries Netflix?
jts
...hate me...
Netflix do the bare minimum, which is region detection. That's the industry standard procedure. Hulu does the same, but even BBC iPlayer, which offers content mainly provided by BBC themselves I think, can be tricked in the same way as Hulu and Netflix.
At the end of the day, it's very hard to regionally lock anything on the internet. From Amazon to Steam, to Sony themselves, people very easily access content from all over the world. Nintendo from all companies are probably the ones who lock out content better, haha.
Sure, Netflix could lock accounts to a region forever, but that would mostly make that most people around the world would just sign up to the american Netflix and not their local Netflix service.
So you want to raise the price of content in Nigeria to be the same as the US - watching a film would cost a week's salary?
Or do US customers have to start paying a 25% premium for European sales taxes?
No other sector, anywhere for this.
EatinOlives
Member
That doesn't really matter to Sony, because you're paying Netflix, but Netflix isn't paying Sony for the distribution rights to the country where you are (assuming that you're in a country where Sony's content is not being offered through Netflix).
Sony's wording is shit in general (lol, equating it to piracy), but their reasoning is sound. Not that it really matters to customers. This is something for Sony and Netflix to duke it out.
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Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
It's inflammatory perhaps, but calling it piracy is perfectly accurate (assuming the language of the deal applies to physical location rather than IP addresses). What else would you call the distribution of copyrighted content that you have no rights to?
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Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
The party complaining is not getting paid.
Sony has a point here, NetFlix could easy do more by simply region locking to the subscribers billing/credit card address. Different shows need different distribution models across the world. Like Breaking Bad never had a UK deal so Netflix bought it so people could catch up then aired the final season a day after the US date. If US customers used a UK proxy they could view it without paying for cable.
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The Everyman
same content available everywhere and maybe something like a 1st world price, 2nd world price, 3rd world price, and that's all the price tiers i could tolerate.
MoodyFog
Member
What happens if i'm in a 1st world region but use a vpn to create a 3rd world account though?
jts
...hate me...
Hmmm, I wasn't aware, as the region-override service I use (unblock-us) still lists Hulu, BBC, etc as working with their DNS method.
But okay that's a fair point.
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The Everyman
ok fine, shittier content on the 2nd and 3rd world ones.
1st world all content. 8 bucks a month
2nd/3rd world. less content. < 8 bucks a month.
better yet. just make a high tier and low tier nextflix system, both available globally. the well-off in nigeria would probably want the good stuff anyway.
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Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
And we're right back at where we are now? You just proposed the very thing you decried a moment ago.
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The Everyman
pssh, hardly. right now we have different prices for europe, the uk, canada, the us, aus etc. and theyre all in that 1st world catagory. im saying they should flatten it out because differentiating between those regions is pretty stupid, local laws aside.
there should be a high tier and low tier nextflix system, both available globally.
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Deleted member 1235
Unconfirmed Member
no, the reality distortion field prevents a lawyer from understanding this fact
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Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
The reality is that they still have a lot of deals in place with companies in those countries that prevent them from doing a global license. They could change that, but they'd have to determine that it would work out better for their bottom line by doing so.
Do you know.... there is something called tax? And government do stuff with that money...
Entryhazard
Banned
basically enforcing region lock lol
And_Gignac
Member
Comcast level of scum behavior. Fuck Sony Pictures.
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The Everyman
i very much doubt the european prices are purely tax related. im sure a lot of the overhead on the price is due to local pricing standards. any variance in price due to laws and unavoidable stuff like taxation i understand, but that should be all there is to it. which we know isnt already the case because prices everywhere hit nice and tidy X.99 numbers.
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Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Enforcing distribution rights.
Sony is typically pretty lenient on what you do with products you've bought. They still have observe local laws and deals with other companies when it comes to the distribution or sale of that product.
What is this?
Are all of you who are shitting on Sony about this taking a second to think at all? Is your argument anything more than, "I don't care. I want mine."
AcademicSaucer
Member
Fuck you Sony, I love Netflix + VPN
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Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Really, why should they care? Why should your liking of something be top priority and cause Sony to forgo their rights?
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Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Honestly, all of the necessary information is in the OP.
If BBC blocks their stuff, I don't know what I'll do with my life. 😱
biggersmaller
Banned
Sony is absolutely in the right here. Netflix is only paying for US distribution, yet is accepting international subscription dollars. Know that if you live abroad and are using VPN to pay for US Netflix, it's not that Sony doesn't want your money - it's that Netflix doesn't want to fork it over.
jts
...hate me...
Turn that upside down. Why would he care about Sony nickel and diming their revenue streams?
He wants his. Sony wants theirs. Both can express themselves regarding this. In the end one wins.
Fudgepuppy
Banned
I actually paid for my Netflix account a smaller fee because I was paying in dollars and not swedish crowns. All because of my VPN.
Then the VPN stopped working and I stopped paying. Wasn't worth the money when there was nothing worth watching.
Then the VPN stopped working and I stopped paying. Wasn't worth the money when there was nothing worth watching.
Sounds like they need to negotiate a day-and-date with same features contract with Netflix for worldwide distribution.
People not being able to see Breaking Bad, et. al. at the same time as the US is probably what drives people to use a VPN to get that content.
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Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Because Sony is the one who owns the content by rights and not Netflix or the customers paying Netflix for a subscription?
I don't see how they are nickel and diming anyone by trying to enforce the terms of a distribution deal.
It's like claiming that you're a legitimate paying customer when you're buying burned discs of games or copied DVDs or something.
But the person not being paid in my case is the holder of Australian distribution rights. Surely Sony Pictures handles their own distribution in the US. Sounds like the Australian distributors are getting ripped off if Sony makes more money selling the rights to them than they do getting money from me directly via Netflix.
I'm sure they would love to, but why would Netflix pay for worldwide rights given the current situation?
(ignoring the other distribution deals that are probably in place)
This. Can't believe the ignorant and uninformed responses in this thread.
Not to mention providers who spend megabucks to buy a TV Series exclusively for their channel in a specific country, only to find people watching it on Netflix via VPN. That will then put pressure on Sony, who will in turn then have to put additional pressure on Netflix.
It's obvious why there would be so much upset.
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Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Netflix is the one who gets your money.
Completely separate of your subscription payment, Netflix negotiates deals with rights holders to stream content. Obviously they have to strike a fine balance between making a profit, while charging a low enough price and having compelling enough content so people subscribe en masse. That's probably a big part of why they don't offer the service all around the world. It's likely not financially viable to buy up the rights in every region. Not only that, but certain regional deals already in place may prevent Netflix from even obtaining streaming rights to certain content in certain regions in the first place.
In your case, Australian distributors of content have every right to be pissed. They're making deals with Sony and paying accordingly so they can distribute, and presumably, make money off of that content. Netflix's widespread availability presumably hurts their ability to do this and you can be sure they're going to use this as leverage the next time they are at the negotiating table with Sony, which then cuts right into Sony's bottom line. All as a direct result of a deal in the United States with Netflix. If this happens enough, the deal with Netflix is no longer worth it and Sony just pulls out, making everyone lose out.
It's a complicated situation, but I don't see how anyone can fault Sony for acting in their own interests. They have to due their due diligence to their regional partners.
Exactly. Netflix is enjoying a worldwide customer base (obviously not to full potential due to the VPN hoops one has to jump through) all while only paying for rights and taxes in a couple of countries.
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Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
If you bought copied DVDs from a guy on the street in New York or Hong Kong or wherever, would that not be piracy?
"Piracy by paying users" is what Ars Technica wrote, by the way, not Sony. Sony's accusation is that Netflix is engaging in a form of piracy.
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Deleted member 13876
Unconfirmed Member
When I recently discovered how easy this was, I figured content distributors would be really pissed about this. A lot of them have exclusivity deals with local VOD players so if someone from a country where such a deal is in play the local partner will be pissed because they paid for that exclusivity.
From a consumer standpoint, I'm going to act in my best interest and spoof an IP that gives me a larger catalog, but it's not hard to see why business would act in their best interests as well.
From a consumer standpoint, I'm going to act in my best interest and spoof an IP that gives me a larger catalog, but it's not hard to see why business would act in their best interests as well.
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