Why Netflix is different in every country
Search for a film on Netflix in London, then search again in Toronto, and you can get two different answers. That isn't a bug. Netflix, like nearly every streaming service, runs a separate catalogue for each country, and the gap between them can be large. Our streaming report tracks the size of the Netflix library in every country, and the biggest is several times the size of the smallest.
Rights are sold country by country
Most of what you watch on Netflix isn't made by Netflix. Studios and distributors own the rights to their films and shows, and they usually sell those rights one territory at a time. A studio might license a series to Netflix in the UK, to a local broadcaster in Germany, and to a rival service in the US. Netflix can only show a title where it has bought the rights, so each country's library is really a patchwork of separate deals.
Those deals also run for fixed periods, often a few years. When one ends in a country, the title disappears there, even if it stays on Netflix somewhere else. We explain more in why movies and shows leave streaming services.
Studios keep the best titles for their own services
Many big studios now run their own platforms: Disney+, Max, Peacock, Paramount+ and others. In their home markets they tend to keep their own films and shows for themselves. Outside those markets, especially where their own service isn't available, they're often happy to license the same titles to Netflix. That's one reason a show can be on Netflix in one country and only on a studio-owned service in another.
Netflix Originals are the exception
Shows and films that Netflix produces or buys outright worldwide, labelled Netflix Originals, are usually available in every country Netflix operates in, often on the same day. If a title is missing from Netflix in your country, it's very likely licensed rather than original. Some titles carry the Netflix branding in one region only, because Netflix bought the rights there and someone else owns them elsewhere.
Local tastes and local rules
Netflix also shapes each catalogue around what people watch there. You'll see more Korean dramas in South Korea, more Bollywood films in India and more anime in Japan, because Netflix licenses more local content in those markets. Some countries also require a share of a streaming library to be locally made, or ask for certain titles to be removed for legal or classification reasons.
How to check what's on Netflix where you are
The quickest way is to search a title on FlickFinder. It shows every country where that title is on Netflix and on every other major service. To browse instead, pick your country on the Netflix by country page to see what's popular on Netflix there right now.