Netflix chief product officer, Neil Hunt, has insisted that news of changes to the streaming service’s policy which would block users from accessing the US version from other countries are “false”.
Speaking at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Hunt said: “The claims that we have changed our policy on virtual private networks (VPN) are false. People who are using a VPN to access our service from outside of the area will find that it still works exactly as it has always done.”
Earlier this week it was reported that Netflix had begun to block VPN and proxy server users to help regulate regional copyright.
However VPN provider TorGuard’s Ben Van deer Pelt expressed “suspicions” that Netflix may be testing new IP blocking methods in certain markets leading to a “handful of clients” using VPNs or proxies to be blocked.
“At this time the blocks do not seem aggressive and may only be targeted at IP ranges that exceed too many simultaneous logins,” he added.
Netflix regularly comes under pressure from studios and producers with different distribution deals in place in different countries to restrict proxy tourism.
