It’s a bad(ish) day for those of you who like to feast on the full gamut of Netflix‘s larder.
Local VPN and DNS provider UFlix has officially announced it is tapping out in the fight against the streaming giant’s geoblocking.
The company, which enabled customers to get their grubby mitts on US and international versions of the service via geo-dodging workarounds, officially announced it will not be supporting services that allow Australian users to access overseas versions of Netflix, due to ongoing and increasingly difficult security measures being put in place by the company.
Whilst previously it was thought that any pushback against geo-dodging customers by Netflix would be temporary, in recent months the streaming juggernaut has maintained a constant, ever-evolving effort to kick Australian users off the international version of the service.
A huge update implemented this month has been the final straw for UFlix, who have simply not been able to keep up in the constant cat-and-mouse efforts against geoblocking.
Customers have been left without access to the service, as new fixes and workarounds put in place by UFlix have been nuked by Netflix within a matter of hours.
Managing director Peter Dujan stated that although the company will still be working on Netflix workarounds in the background in case their current relentless approach to geo-dodgers eases up, they remove support for Netflix workarounds for the time being.
“We made the decision due to the aggressive nature of their bans. Unfortunately every time we set up a new network or find a workaround it is getting blocked within hours.”
“This may possibly change in the future, but for the moment we are not going to support Netflix. We are however still working on it in the background and have some things ready as a proof of concept which we will be testing.”
UFlix will continue to provide Australian customers with services that allow them to access other geoblocked streaming platforms like HBO Now, HBO Go, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and BBC Player.
But their caving in the push against Netflix comes as the latest in a string of companies waving the white flag; UnblockUS and UnoTelly, for example, both removed support for US Netflix in similar circumstances. GetFlix remains one of the few notable Australian VPN/DNS companies still offering support for Netflix, though customers have reportedly not had access to the US library for several weeks.
For the time being, you can still get your grubby mitts on the US version of the service if you are absolutely desperate enough. But if Netflix’s rabid push back continues, those days could well be numbered.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald.
Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty.
