EU lawmakers have passed a law banning content streaming services from engaging in geo-blocking practices. The new ruling means that whist in the past, subscribers to services such as Netflix in France could not access the same content in Spain for example, tourists can now access such content from anywhere in the EU, for a “limited amount of time”. The change will impact all paid subscription services, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Spotify. The ruling comes just as a report was released by Digital TV Research on the number of video-on-demand subscribers in Western Europe. The report found that whilst there are 33 million users currently registered in the region, this is expected to rise to 55.2 million in 5 years. A spokesperson from the European Parliament said that “the new rules increase mobility and successfully offer portability to users of European online content without affecting copyright”, which is usually assigned on a country by country basis.Â
