UK leadership unlocks pay TV for holidaymakers inside EU

[Conniff]

From: Department for Business, Innovation & Skills

Prime Ministers Office

10 Downing Street

First published: 9 December 2015

 

New European Commission proposals mean that UK consumers will be able to access digital subscriptions when travelling in other EU countries.

 

For the first time, UK consumers will be able to access digital subscriptions such as Netflix when travelling in other EU countries, thanks to new European Commission proposals championed by the government.

Today’s Digital Single Market (DSM) proposals on portability follow repeated calls from the Prime Minister and other UK ministers for the EU to deliver a clear set of digital rights for consumers across member states.

 

As well as allowing them to watch films or sport on subscription services while on holiday, UK consumers will have a clearer set of rules when they buy digital content such as games or music from elsewhere in the EU.

This change also reinforces one of the key priorities for the government’s EU reform agenda: reducing red-tape and boosting competitiveness in a way that works for businesses and consumers across the EU.

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-leadership-unlocks-pay-tv-for-holidaymakers-inside-eu

Edited December 10, 2015 by Andyorch
Content reduced and link added

[MaxxPower]

People have been using VPN/DNS services to do this already for years (I can access Netflix content from anywhere in the world with my UK subscription ), so the new regulations are basically acknowledging that the battle for Geoblocking was lost long ago

[Conniff]

On a similar vein, do you remember when many many years ago a Japanese dvd player manufacturer took a man to court for selling an adaption that changed a dvd player into a multi format player capable of playing any dvd from any part of the world and the company lost ?

[MaxxPower]

That was a hilarious waste of time for everyone involved.

Region blocking of any kind is never going to work long term. If anything, it encourages piracy more than it prevents it. The number of people who only pirate things because there is absolutely no legal (Or at the very least non hardware warranty bypassing, ala DVD/Blu-ray unlocks) method of viewing it where they live is utterly staggering.

[Conniff]

I think the main reason for it was because they were a lot cheaper in the US so didn't want people buying their movies from there. As we know, we are always being ripped off so not being able to play movies from other countries, especially the US meant they could charge double in the UK for the same product.

[san_d]

UK leadership?