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Want to break that pesky region lock and watch American TV streaming services in the UK? You’ve got another option. Hola promises to let you watch Hulu, American Netflix, CBS, Fox, and even stream Pandora, all with a simple, free browser plug-in or app. As easy as a single click.
Like Media Hint, Hola can be installed as a simple Chrome or Firefox extension, but there’s also a dedicated Windows app should you want to use another browser. It apparently works by using a kind of p2p-come-proxy solution, which sounds a bit like voodoo to me, but has seemingly racked-up over £11 million in investment.
Anyway, if you want to watch the likes of Hulu and American Netflix, or iPlayer when you’re outside the confines of Blighty, then Hola promises to sort you out. [Hola via TNW]
Want to Watch Hulu, American Netflix or Stream Pandora in the UK? Here's How
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“…Hulu and American Netflix, or iPlayer when you’re outside the confines of Blighty..”
“outside” the confines of blighty?
As in, access BBC iPlayer and ITV player *shudder* when you’re abroad, because they’re both region locked to the UK.
That bit’s specific to iPlayer I think
yes, he’s missing the all-important comma at the end of his quote
I do love a good comma. Makes all the difference sometimes.
I see it now. My bad.
Haha. Reminds me of this.
http://i.imgur.com/MzaUi.png
Fantastic link.
Also an episode of Jonathan Creek hinged on a missing comma.
Chrome store >
“This extension can access:
Your data on all websites
Your tabs and browsing activity
This item can read every page that you visit — your bank, your web email, your Facebook page, and so on.”
Yeah, think I’ll give that a miss.
Yeah, that’s basically how a proxy works though. But you’re totally right, turn that crap off when you go visit your bank.
What the hell? Hot spot shield does this and actually protects me rather than harvesting.
hotspot shield can be awfully slow at times though
only time i really had a problem with hss was when living in dubai, and you’re right it was incredibly frustrating, when there i think i payed for ghost vpn which was outstanding. Latley though HSS has really sped up for me on virgin.
more ways are always welcome but mediahint has been working very well for me for a good while now
I’ve always wondered about the legality of these things. Surely your permission from the copyright holder to access the content is dependent on your location? If that’s the case, then wouldn’t using this be illegal? And if it’s illegal, really it’s just a more convenient way to pirate TV shows.
There’s no such thing as permission to watch from the copyright holder. The reason these services are region locked is because Hulu, Netflix, etc. do not have permission to *distribute* this content outside that region. And for all they know, they are distributing it to a computer in the US. So this is not illegal, nor is it pirating. More like getting a US-only item from a regional seller on eBay.
It’s not illegal to unblock content. The region block is a contract between the content provider and the broadcaster – not between the viewer. An example of this, is the fact you, the viewer, never signed a contract before watching ITV. In the situations like Netflix or Hulu which have a t&c which must be agreed to, then unblocking these is still not illegal for the viewer, but maybe breaking the t&c, in which case, the most that could happen, is a cancellation of the service.
It’s pretty easy to know where you stand legally. Watch a show that is blocked, is no different than buying a DVD in the US and watching in the UK – that is 100% legal. If the service requires a payment or subscription fee, that MUST still be paid. Not paying for something, but using the product is generally speaking illegal.
Unblocking works great for everyone. The content providers still have their traditional regions, so they can sell the product multiple times. The broadcasters perform the block, thereby making good their contract with the content suppliers, and the viewer can “unblock” if they wish to go this path, to watch the content they choose. In a subscription model, they still pay the broadcaster, where the money in turn filters down to the content provider. Everyone wins.
Torrenting is different. Here people download (and crucially) upload films and TV shows, bypassing the broadcasters (losing advertising revenue or subscriptions) and the content providers (losing income)
Thanks guys, that has cleared it up for me.
Although it does raise questions about how much they are required to do to block non-US people from accessing their services. Presumably they have to make it at least seem like they are making an effort. Otherwise they would just stick up a screen asking you if you are in the USA or not (like how some sites check people’s ages).
It doesn’t work great for everyone though. If you watch something on the US Hulu, then potentially British broadcasters are losing out.
For the first point, it is indeed an interesting question. The answer would depend on a good compromise between ensuring their regional viewers have no problems in accessing their content, and blocking viewers outside the region. If the content providers insisted on stronger blocks, which may force many legitimate viewers to loose access to the broadcasts, the broadcasters would be unhappy. For national broadcasters (BBC, ABC-au RTÉ etc) this could be a serious issue for license or tax payers. For commercial networks, this would be an issue for advertising coverage. So, the broadcasters have a good case to ensure the blocks are not too rigid. (An example of this was Australia’s ABC which used to only allow certain Australian ISP’s to stop VPN server access, but this resulted in many very angry Australians that paid their tax but because their ISP wasn’t on the list, they were unable to access the service. The ABC no longer has such tight restrictions)
The content suppliers should not be too bothered, as long as they retain their regional markets which are not too diluted by unblocking services.
This in turn answers your second point. The unblocking service simply shifts the viewers to a different region. So, UK viewers watching something on US Hulu indeed may drop from the UK market, but the vast number of expats in the US watching something on the BBC or ITV could equalize this.
The numbers all up are still only a fraction of the normal audience. By far, most people are more than content with local content, it is only a small portion that explore other regions, mostly expats, but also a small quantity of people looking for alternate content.
Anyone got any advice on how to pay for Hulu if you live in the UK? It wont take non US Paypal accounts and it asks for a US based card and address as well.
You just need a US ip address. I use a VPN service, funnily enough I found them becasue i wanted to watch US netflix. I found these guys http://www.watchusnetflixinuk.co.uk. Its actually a spin off site from a company based in London called http://www.vpn24.co.uk. It means you can watch US netflix or hulu or any web based USA TV. Good luck.
@swimman, good call. Been using them for ages.
I like showmonkey.com – don’t have to download anything onto your computer – works with multiple devices (PS3, iPad, etc). You can watch US Netflix, Hulu, etc.