You have heard about the great concept of watching TV shows and movies on your TV set, so you settle down in front of Hulu and start streaming the show. Then… You get the dreaded message ‘ Why? Because you are in the UK or France or Canada. The TV site is US based and noone else gets to watch it. Pretty lame huh?

Hulu which is owned by US networks NBC and Fox is full of great on demand catch up tv shows including 24, Heroes, American Idol, Lost and many more. Then there are the movies. But only if your PC IP address tells Hulu that your a US resident. Similarly if you happen to want to watch some great quality BBC content and you hook up the much acclaimed iPlayer you receive a similar message if your not a UK resident. The BBC in answer to the question of Geo targeting state:-

Geo targeting or geo gating, which the networks themselves refer to it restricts access to streaming content outside the countries to which they have the rights to broadcast. It seems a very outdated concept in these days of instant entertainment and the global community but until the networks sort out this mess we have to put up with it. Or do we?

Currently there seems to be a glimmer of positive news from Hulu and the BBC

The BBC’s website states:-

“Much of our website is aimed at UK users, so we negotiate rights to include video, audio, images and other types of content for the UK only. World rights are much more expensive, but we are hoping to make more audio and visual content available to our international audiences.”

Hulu’s statement reads:-

“Hulu is committed to making its content available worldwide. To do so, we must work through a number of legal and business issues, including obtaining international streaming rights. Know that we are working to make this happen and will continue to do so. Given the international background of the Hulu team, we have both a professional and personal interest in bringing Hulu to a global audience.
If you’d like, please leave us your email address and the region in which you live, and we will email you when our videos are available in your area.”

So what do you do while the networks try to find a workaround to the problem?

There is a roundabout solution if you happen to reside in another country and it is free to use. Watch Hulu Outside the USA. This information also applies to Watching the other big networks such as CBS, ABC, NBC and FOX TV episodes from other countries outside the USA.

The article explains that the current best option for watching Hulu outside the US is a program called Hotspot shield by Anchorfree. CEO of Anchorfree David Gorodyansky commented :- “Our job is not to promote Hulu or offer them in regions where they’re not available. We’re just enabling people to be private and secure online. What people choose to do once they’re private and secure is kind of their business.”

The company make revenue from an advertising banner that is displayed at the top of your screen as you watch the streams. So are these kinds of programs legal? Well, noone has been prosecuted yet and no case that i know of has been put before a court. And the liability would not be with the user anyway. If anyone where to get prosecuted it would be the program creator not the user. More likely that the networks will, when it becomes a sufficient annoyance work a way around the softwares geo cracking abilities.

They may of course not bother. After all viewers have many ways of viewing and downloading illegal content if they wish. So maybe the answer is an opening of the borders , and until thats possible. A little flexibility. After all the younger generation of this world are used to the web being full of free content. Not being restricted because they live in Europe and not the US and vice versa.

Secondly you can browse our catch up tv section and choose the current streams available in your country.

Related posts:

1. Hulu UK launch has a hitch
2. Watch Hit TV show 24 online with no commercials
3. Youtube to take iPlayer worldwide?
4. Watch Hulu Outside the USA on your PC
5. Hulu showing UK shows but only in the US