Canadians Suffer “Constant Insecurities” Over Netflix Library Says CEO

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings says there are various challenges when it comes to growing the company, in all markets worldwide, in a new company profile piece over at Wired.

The CEO gave the example of Canada, the second longest running market Netflix has operated in, behind the United States. Hastings says Canadians “harbour constant insecurities” when it comes to the breadth of the Netflix Canada library, even though we get exclusive titles, such as the upcoming stream of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (thanks to a Disney licensing agreement here), which won’t be available to our American neighbours.

Hastings said “We know what everybody wants, which is the same catalog around the world.” He noted “we see this every time we launch a country,” adding “people want all the content in the world, and upon launch we don’t have X or Y. That’s a natural reaction.”

Business Insider reports the Canadian Netflix library stands at 3,349 titles versus 5,598 in the U.S. That’s a sizeable disparity, and is why many Canadians use VPN services to bypass geo-restrictions. But Netflix is currently trying to stop these proxy workarounds, which as hit some VPN providers hard.

Open Media recently launched a petition asking Netflix to not block VPN services, which has already garnered over 41,000 signatures.

In Canada, we have the right to complain about being secondary when it comes to nice things from American companies, specifically when it comes to online shopping. If we want all the things, we have to fork out big bucks for shipping, duties and taxes (when applicable).

What do you think? Do you lose sleep at night over your ‘inferior’ Netflix Canada library?

[via BuzzFeed]