Currently, regulation states that those with British subscriptions can access the same content as they would anywhere else in Europe, meaning if you were to visit France, Spain or Italy you’d receive the same shows as you would in London or Manchester. These rules only came into play in April and could face just a matter of months in play.
When Brexit first came to light there were plenty of unknowns when it came to travel. Will Brits need visas to travel around Europe? Will mobile data tariffs change? The last thing on the mind of the public was whether Netflix or Spotify may or may not still work.
That could well be the case though according to new reports, as Spotify and Netflix shows could be blocked for Brits across Europe.
Currently, regulation states that those with British subscriptions can access the same content as they would anywhere else in Europe, meaning if you were to visit France, Spain or Italy you’d receive the same shows as you would in London or Manchester. These rules only came into play in April and could face just a matter of months in play.
That’s because all is set to change as soon as the UK leaves the EU however as the portability arrangement between countries in the European Union will no longer apply.
This means that the likes of Netflix, Spotify and Amazon would be no longer required to serve up UK shows abroad to those with a UK subscription. Which of course poses a problem for many.
There will be ways around it for users, and the ruling would undoubtedly see a rise in the number of people using VPNs to get around geoblocks.
Ultimately that’s what will be put in place and users in those countries will be faced with, but there are completely free VPN services out there which will see a huge increase in usage.
What that does is enable a user to change their IP address back to the UK and ultimately browse as if they were doing from the comfort of their own home.
Without it, account holders of streaming services or Spotify will be able to use their accounts still, but it will be reflective of the country they are in. So, for example if trying to access Netflix in France, you will be able to watch all the Netflix shows licensed in France. The same applies to Spotify and Amazon.
What Netflix have been keen to point out is that if this does happen, Netflix Original content will still be available globally.
This would only necessarily happen should Britain be in a state of no-deal Brexit, which of course could have severe consequences for the country across the board, never mind simply streaming content.
Netflix have tried to be reassuring stating, “UK Netflix subscribers are able to access Netflix everywhere in the world Netflix is available and will continue to do so once the UK leaves the EU.”
As stated though, the catalogue will be incredibly different and it will be interesting to see how subscribers react as a result.
Of course, the final decision has far from been dealt and things will change dramatically in the next few months as Brexit gets ever closer. For Brits though, enjoying episodes of Benidorm on holiday in Benidorm could well and truly be over.
