Hulu bolts the door to overseas visitors

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 07 May 2009 10:09

Your IT - Home IT

But canny viewers used anonymous proxy servers within the US to get around this restriction. If a web server tries to determine users' locations according to their IP addresses, a proxy situated within the US will mask their true position.

It didn't take Hulu long to get wise to that trick, but all was not lost.

A VPN (virtual private network) connection into the US gives, as a side effect, access to regionally-limited services such as Hulu.

Now Hulu has bolted the door on that workaround too, and VPN connections are also being blocked.

The problem with all these measures is that it makes it even more likely that people will resort to viewing unauthorised copies of shows (eg, via 'Channel B').

You have to have some sympathy for the program-makers, as their hands are largely tied by contracts that were likely negotiated before many of us had the bandwidth to watch streaming video of decent quality.

Unfortunately, the parties don't seem to understand what's happening.

If Hulu can block traffic based on geography, why can't it insert ads based on geography? Rather than having to mess around with their own streaming sites, stations could negotiate with advertisers in their home territories and let Hulu take care of delivery.

That could also take care of the objections of broadcasters that air shows a long way behind the US.

And - before anyone raises the bandwidth objection - such a scheme wouldn't necessarily mean all the content would be delivered from US-based servers.

The point is that the sucess of Hulu suggests the model and the technology are about right. Local broadcasters should avoid trying to reinvent the wheel.