[lotsofpulp]

I think it's because of price discrimination. Same reason why there are "international" versions of text books.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_discrimination

If you have a good whose marginal costs is very small, then once it has been created, the optimal method to sell it is to sell it to each person for the maximum amount they are able and willing to pay. Obviously, people in poorer countries aren't able to pay as much as people in richer countries, so by creating different versions for them, the seller can maximize revenue, but only if the people in richer countries aren't able to obtain it at the cheaper price.

In a way, this is good for poorer countries as they can obtain the goods at a cheaper price since the alternative might be that the seller simply abandons the market.

[solatic]

The original exclusivity deals between publishers and legacy distributors, of course, are not for standard prices. Different distributors in different regions are able to pay different amounts - largely, the distributors in richer regions are able to charge more and pay the publisher more than distributors in poorer regions.

Regardless, streaming distributors still need to work within the framework of the pre-existing deals that the publisher has already committed to.

[anoncake]

> the optimal method to sell it is to sell it to each person for the maximum amount they are able and willing to pay.

The optimal method for minimizing the consumer surplus.