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Comment by eigenvector | Hacker News Reader

> Now if everybody in the world can get US Netflix content the right-holders are the ones who will have problems selling content in other markets.

Or... they could just sell the worldwide rights to Netflix and nobody would have to to use a proxy to begin with.

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That would never happen (costs aside). The publishers would be screwing themselves in the long-term because they would slowly erode the market into a monopsony, and eventually Netflix would be able to simply dictate lower licensing costs by being the only game in town.

If licensing deals are time bound, Netflix would have to renew them periodically, thereby granting publishers the opportunity to renegotiate terms. They can't screw themselves in the long term that way, while the distributor has the freedom to deliver content to everyone. Wouldn't that work? I'm a travelling user and I'm frustrated by having to decide which shows to choose as replacements every time I cross a border :-/. Personally I feel today's world no longer has a place for territorial licensing.

Another reason it would never happen: Publishers like to charge different prices to different countries, usually based on the average income in that country. So US citizens pay more than, say, Indians.

I had hoped Netflix did the same. The Indian price is similar to US with less then 20% content.

Is Netflix willing to pay for that? They weren't even willing to pay for worldwide rights to House of Cards and Orange is the New Black--their cornerstone properties.

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