If I remember correctly, it was the same in Mexico and Scandinavia and some other countries. While there are ways to disable the subtitles through unofficial means, I doubt that they still work.

It is quite possible that this is due to licensing issues. This link here https://mrgnome.wordpress.com/2013/11/02/no-option-to-turn-o... might or might not help you, given its age.

In some sense it is still better than Amazon Prime in Germany with only German audio being available when I was using it last.

Do you know whether the same thing happens with Netflix original content as well?

Do you mean they literally don't make the English subs available? Even for the stuff they produced? A clunky UX is one thing, but if they legitimately restrict the sub availability where the rights are available then I'm a bit shocked.

I'm not the one you asked the question but yes, that's what they do and it is a really dumb decision. I'm German and for perfecting my passive(i.e. understanding while listening) English language skills, I really like to view movies in English _and with English subtitles_. But in Germany, Netflix only offers German subtitles when the audio is set to English. Anyone got a contact at Netflix whom to approach with this? Edit: typo

I am bothered by this too and from two friends I got these tipps (not tried it yet): One is using full VPN solution (US-based I think) and the other is just using a Canada-based DNS server.

BTW the problem extends beyond subtitles. International movies typically are just available in their original language + local translation (German). Then sometimes the video stream also differs from the English version (e.g. when there is a sign in German language).