Why are some TV shows only available in certain countries?
In: Economics
After a show is made there will be various contracts with different TV stations to show it in various countries.
Some stations in some countries might not want to show it for various reasons. Maybe it’s too expensive or it doesn’t fit their brand. Maybe another station has negotiated exclusive rights.
Mostly copyright stuff.
The company that made a show usually sells the rights to show that show to different companies in different countries.
Before the rise of Netflix and its hundreds of imitators that made perfect sense.
You sold the rights to broadcast a show in one country to the broadcaster in that country. They dubbed or subbed it if necessary and made cuts for legal reasons about what you can show on tv in that country and perhaps for cultural reasons based on what people were willing to watch.
With streaming companies operating globally, whoever makes a show could simply sell the right to show that show to Netflix or Amazon or whoever and they could show it to all its customers.
However as long as there are contract with other local companies like tv broadcasters or smaller regional streaming services. Netflix and the others may not be able to buy the rights to show something in some of the countries where they have customers.
This is one of the reason why streaming services have been going more and more towards making their own content that they have complete control over.
Latest Answers