Why would you dub? I mean, why would you either have to dub everything or not include it? Just have at set up a screen that asks which languages you speak, whether you prefer dubs or subs and whether you will accept subs for everything that doesn't have a dub if you previously selected dub.
Why is language so tied to location? Specially in Europe! (and I can imagine there is a pretty large market for shows in Spanish or Mandarin in the U.S. too, and why not have those in French, German, Japanese, Korean, etc too while we are at it...)
I think this announcement probably changes things in the direction I want in this respect. But it always seemed like the obvious choice to begin with.
Well, to Netflix' credit they offer everything with original audio track and never forced the local (german) audio track on me. A setting that Amazon still can't consistently provide for their paid video selection, which rules out half of their content for me.
I agree. I think they should give that choice. I think foreign media companies don't realize that even though many European countries dub movies, lots of people will watch an un-dubbed movie (with subtitles) if that is the only thing available at the time. Lots of people prefer the un-dubbed version (even without subtitles).
Most people in southern European countries like it dubbed. Doesn't mean that they shouldn't be given the option (specially if a dubbed version doesn't exist and is the only way to see the content at all).
From a technical point of view is a trivial fix. From a commercial point of view? Well, either selling content in a different language is profitable, in which case negotiating the licenses is worthwhile, or it isn't very profitable, in which case "license to distribute in Japanese with subtitles inside Italy" should not be a very expensive right to acquire.
One of many reasons to like Portugal, go on holiday, speak no Portuguese, can still go to the cinema (and have a proud usher tell you that no, they don't dub the films like the Spanish do, because Portuguese people can read).
Yup, I do use a VPN occasionally. I'm not sure if Netflix Germany / rights-holders get paid correctly if I login with my Australian account though, so I try not to do it often... if I knew everyone was getting paid I'd do it a lot more often!
I don't know if this problem still exists but at some point in the not too distant past not every title available on desktop was available if you signed up on say Apple TV. If anyone has the numbers I'd be curious how much of the catalog is restricted this way.
http://netflixportugal.netflixable.com/