Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has suggested that introducing global content will disincentivise would-be subscribers from using virtual private networks (VPNs) to access different versions of the service.

Speaking to Gizmodo Australia – in a territory where it has been suggested there are are as many as 200,000 ‘subscribers’, despite there being no operation there prior to its anticipated 2015 launch – Hastings said the VPN scenario was “someone who wants to pay and can’t quite pay,” suggesting that the basic solution was for Netflix to “get global and have its content be the same all around the world” so that there was no incentive to use a VPN.

According to Netflix, the online entertainment streaming service would then we be able to work on the more important part, piracy. “The VPN thing is a small little asterisk compared to piracy,” commented Hastings. “Piracy is really the problem around the world.”

According to Hastings, the key thing about piracy was that it arose because users were unable to access their desired content. “That part we can fix. Some part of piracy however is because they just don’t want to pay. That’s the harder part,” he suggested. “As an industry, we need to fix global content,” he concluded.

Categories: Articles, Content, OTT, OTT, Piracy, Rights