It's plausible that licensing agreements prevent some content from being shown in some markets. But what could possibly be the reason for Netflix holding back its own content — content that directly drives subscription revenue — in other markets?
In Italy netflix sold house of cards right to sky before its service being available. Now netflix opened shop here but many originals are locked by the initial licensing until the end of times.
Distribution deals happened for House of Cards... For obvious reasons distribution deals are usually exclusive per region (I spend a lot on marketing and then some other guy just starts selling the same content...)
Interesting -- I didn't realize Netflix distributed their content through third parties. So in a few years they've gone from a licensee dependent on the vagaries of contracts they sign with content owners, to a content producer developing their own original material, to a licensor distributing their properties through others. It's a situation not precisely worthy of the "looked from pig to man, and man to pig" quote, nor "content is king", nor "commodify your complements"; perhaps a blend of all three.
The order isn't quite as you put it -- it was only the earlier originals that Netflix couldn't afford to buy out. They aren't looking to license their originals back out at this point (exclusive + global is still the strategy going forward). They've even gone back and worked to pick up expanded rights in more countries for the ones they've missed (e.g., HoC).
They do indeed - here in Germany House Of Cards has an exclusive window on the pay-TV service Sky, which results in Season 4 of House of Cards not being available on Netflix currently.
