Why is a show on Netflix in one country but not another?

You pay for the same Netflix subscription as a friend in another country, yet their app has shows yours doesn't, and yours has films theirs doesn't. It feels arbitrary, but there's a clear reason: streaming services don't own most of what they show. They rent it, country by country.

Rights are sold by territory

When a studio makes a film or series, it owns the right to show it. It rarely sells that right once for the whole world. Instead it sells it in pieces: one deal for the US, another for the UK and Ireland, another for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and so on. Each piece goes to whoever pays the most for it in that market, and that might be a streaming service, a TV channel, or a cinema chain.

So a show can be on Netflix in Canada, on a local broadcaster's streaming app in the UK, and on a completely different service in Australia, all at the same time. None of them is doing anything wrong: each one bought the rights for its own territory.

Old deals don't go away when streaming arrives

Many deals were signed before a streaming service even launched in a country. If a TV channel bought the rights to a series years ago for, say, ten years, that deal still stands. A streaming service can't carry the show there until it ends, even if it carries it everywhere else.

Licences expire, which is why titles disappear

Licences run for a fixed period. When one ends, the service either renews it, often at a higher price if the title has been popular, or lets it go. That's why a film can vanish from your app at the end of a month, and why it might reappear a year later on a different service. It's also why the same title can leave in one country while staying in another: the deals end on different dates.

Studios now keep more for their own services

The big studios now run their own services: Disney+, Max, Paramount+, Peacock and others. When their old licences with other services end, they often bring their films and shows home instead of renewing. But where a studio's own service hasn't launched, or an older deal is still running, the same title may still turn up on a rival.

What about "originals"?

Shows a service makes or fully owns, its "originals", are usually available everywhere that service operates, because there's no one else's licence in the way. The exceptions are originals that were co-produced or co-financed with a local broadcaster, which sometimes keeps the rights in its home country.

So what can you do about it?

• Check every service, not just yours. A title missing from your service may be on another one in your country, or available to rent. Search it here and look at your own country's card first.
• Check other countries' catalogues. The Where to Stream page shows every country that has it, so you can see whether a service you already pay for carries it somewhere else.
• Wait for the licence to change. Catalogues change every month. If it's on a service you don't have, it may move to one you do.
• Consider a VPN, carefully. Some people use a VPN to browse another country's catalogue. It's not illegal in most countries, but it can break your streaming service's terms, so read what to know before you pay for one.