Netflix now everywhere except North Korea, China, Syria, Crimea

Netflix has decided that it's no longer interested in incremental expansion to reach new markets. Over the nine years since its 2007 launch, the service—once used to mail DVDs to you but now better known for online streaming of TV shows and films—has grown to cover 60 different countries, with North and South America, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan all covered. At CES today, CEO Reed Hastings opened the floodgates: Netflix will now be available in almost every country on Earth.

The expansion includes Africa, Eastern Europe, and almost all of Asia and the Middle East in one fell swoop giving Netflix greater reach than any traditional broadcaster. The only exceptions will be China, though the company says that it is still investigating ways of selling there, and North Korea, Syria, and Crimea, because of US government restrictions. To support this new larger market, the company also added support for Arabic, Korean, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese, with further languages in development.

The selection of shows and films available in each country will continue to vary on a country-by-country basis. Netflix says that its own content, including such shows as Jessica Jones and Sense8 will be available everywhere at the same time, presumably without any kind of geographical restriction.