Netflix Pulls “Harry Potter” Movies from Australia and New Zealand and Nobody Is Happy About It
Netflix subscribers are no strangers to their favorite shows or movies suddenly disappearing only to find new ones that have taken their place. It’s simply a part of life!
The international streaming service has content in some countries that is not available in others, and each month, Netflix announces the titles that are coming and going. Netflix Australia and Netflix New Zealand are no exception to this rule.
This month, Netflix Australia has had to say goodbye to a long list of popular titles, and as Lifehacker so delicately states, “January is a real doozy.”
An article from Lifehacker revealed a list of 25 movies and 12 TV shows leaving Netflix Australia in January 2020. Some content that’s already gone includes all eight of the Harry Potter films, Happy Death Day, Alien Contact: Outer Space, The Light Between Oceans, American Horror Story, Spartacus, and so many more. The rest will be headed for the chopping block as January comes to a close.
Netflix New Zealand also fell victim to this. Users were upset when, overnight, they found all the Harry Potter movies were gone. Some viewers even hadn’t finished the series.
Users took to Twitter to air their complaints. One person said, “[I] was literally halfway through a movie and then it just disappeared off my continue watching. Not cool.” Another user urged people to invest in purchasing physical media (as in DVDs) instead of relying on streaming services that will pull content without warning.
Netflix tweeted its own frustrations about the need to take the content off the service, citing licensing agreements as the reason.
I solemnly swear that I’m sorry for not letting you know that Harry Potter was leaving @NetflixANZ. Licensing fantastic movies is a beast and we wish we could keep them all. (Especially Azkaban, the best one, don’t @ me).
One of the biggest reasons Netflix removes and adds content is because of licensing agreements. When a title leaves the streaming service, more often than not, Netflix has simply let its licensing agreement to stream that title expire. Expiration of agreements can happen for a couple of different reasons – the rights are no longer available for Netflix to use, the title itself may no longer be lucrative or popular, or there are “seasonal or localized factors.”
We have a hard time believing that Harry Potter was removed due to a lack of popularity, so all we can do is guess as to why all eight movies have been removed. If you ever need your Harry Potter fix, the movies are always available to rent or buy from Google Play or iTunes.
