

This service lets you use Netflix, Pandora, Hulu, and Rdio from any country - jkaljundi
http://thenextweb.com/media/2012/11/06/awesome-this-service-lets-you-use-netflix-pandora-hulu-and-rdio-from-any-country/

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bobsy
Its a shame that this will almost certainly be shut down quickly. Just browsed
Hulu and they have shows on there which I download on a weekly basis.

I do not watch much TV. I do not want to pay an extra £20/mo to get the
hundred or so channels I need to watch the handful of shows I enjoy.

Instead to get access to shows I like reasonably quickly I need to frequent
some ad-infested torrent crap hole to find the file. The alternative is wait
for it to come on DVD which can be up to or beyond 9 months after the show has
finished airing in the states.

I would happily pay for hulu. I would happily buy advanced access for
individual series. Maybe this advanced access fee could then become a voucher
to own the series? Promote a purchase after the series has finished?

Unfortunately due to geography this isn't allowed... so I will keep
downloading torrents and keep giving ad revenue to some unscrupulous torrent
site owner. Not because I am bad person. Its because the entertainment
industry hasn't figured out a way to give me an option to access their
content.

Note: I subscribe to Netflix - which is great if you don't want up-to-date
episodes of TV shows. Why I can't buy credits to watch the latest season or
two is beyond me.

~~~
koko775
It's not that they haven't figured it out, it's that Hulu's average revenue
per user earns much less than DVD sales or TV sales.

Hulu, Netflix, etc. all WANT licenses in perpetuity worldwide. It's not they
don't want to offer it everywhere, it's that the licensors _won't let them_.

Profits for online media need to be higher to kill broadcast. The average user
watches 6 episodes on Hulu per month and earns $2 for that month. Buying a
12-episode season for $30 means that a DVD buyer is 750% as profitable as a
Hulu watcher. Hulu has about 30 million users, but in terms of TV
profitability, you can wave your hands a little bit and equate the importance
of that audience to 4 million TV watchers.

Similarly, Dish Network has 14 million subscribers, a much lower number than
Hulu or Netflix, yet has far greater profit and therefore much greater
purchasing power for content licenses.

It's a bitter pill to swallow, but Hulu and Netflix are such a great value
that they're not providing enough of one to be the destination for the newest,
best content. Which is why they're working on creating original content -
hoping that, among other things, it increases eyeballs, which increases ad
sale profits, which makes it more profitable to the entrenched content
producers - which, finally, is their path to dominating the online
entertainment market.

I think their strategy is wrong and that there's a better path.

~~~
bobsy
I get what you are saying. I get that on Netflix for example they aren't just
going to give away the latest series or episodes away for "free" to a standard
account. I am fine with this. What I want though is an option where I can pay
to watch the shows I enjoy. I feel it is so dumb that I need to request this.

If Netflix offered credits. £1 to unlock latest episodes I would pay that. I
will probably purchase the DVD anyway. Why not? It would be really convenient.
This shouldn't interfere to much with traditional TV channels. If you already
have the relevant cable package you wouldn't be paying for the episodes again.
You would just watch it on the cable channel or catch up or whatever.

Its the startling lack of consumption options which is empowering piracy.
Right now I am downloading a US TV episode of a show I follow. The TV package
to get this channel in my country costs £26.50 a month. Considering how little
actual TV I watch it would be literally £7 per episode assuming the show is
shown every week. I am buying the show's dvd box set when it comes out. I want
to support the show. I want to see the extras. I would be paying episode by
episode now if there was an option... alas... licensing prevents that. I find
it so frustrating. Lobbiests in the UK are already pressuring Google to delist
or devalue links to copyright infringed content. I just wish a little of this
gusto was put into creating new ways to legally access copyrighted content.

~~~
koko775
I see what you're saying and I think I agree with what you're getting at but
to do so Netflix would need to build a radically different service and license
it differently as well.

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aculver
Yeah, lots of VPN services let you do this. However, it becomes hard to do at
scale because some of the services like Netflix, Hulu, etc. work to actively
block IP addresses that represent anonymous proxies/VPNs[1]. For example, I
was unable to use my WiTopia account to use Hulu.jp. Instead, I had to
register for a separate VPN account on StrongVPN. Even then, one of their
Tokyo-based tunnel end points worked, and the other didn't. That's because
Hulu works actively to detect these servers and blocks access to them.[2]

I imagine this will be even harder to scale since the _only_ thing people will
be using the VPN's outward facing IP for is connecting to these services, as
opposed to the mixed usage traffic the other VPN providers see.

[1] [http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/159360,picking-the-
perfec...](http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/159360,picking-the-perfect-home-
entertainment-box-hulu-blocks-international-access-via-witopia.aspx)

[2] <http://www.hulu.com/support/article/243651>

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rb2k_
This only seems to set a proxy which is ok, but limited to your browser.
Stand-alone mediaplayers (apple tv, roku, ...) won't be able to use this
easily.

I always liked the DNS based services[0] seeing as you can enter them in your
DSL router and all wifi appliances will be able to take advantage of them. The
other option I used was using socks and proxychains[1] to force e.g. XBMC
through an SSH connection to a cheap US VPS.

Both of them have the advantage that you don't push ALL of your traffic over a
VPN line.

[0] [http://blog.marc-seeger.de/2011/04/07/hulu-and-iplayer-
outsi...](http://blog.marc-seeger.de/2011/04/07/hulu-and-iplayer-outside-the-
us-without-a-vpn/)

[1] [http://blog.marc-seeger.de/2012/02/26/socks-and-
proxychains-...](http://blog.marc-seeger.de/2012/02/26/socks-and-proxychains-
as-a-vpn-alternative/)

~~~
gislik
For those who want to explore the DNS based services there are a few options.
These services seem to very similar and most of them are $5 a month.

I have been using <http://playmo.tv> for just over a year and I get my daily
dose of Netflix, Hulu through my Apple TV.

Prior to discovering "geounblocking" I must admit how oblivous I was about the
advances in streaming media :s I am happy to pay for the conveniences of
streaming Netflix, etc.

~~~
rb2k_
It's also worth noting that those services have to "manually" enable support
for sites. Playmo e.g. doesn't seem to support any of the BBC/iPlayer content.
Unblock US does (and a few more). The only downside is that the Playmo website
looks way more snazzy :)

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Tipzntrix
Are the users of this service technically performing illegal activity? After
all, the reason we're not watching Hulu is because it's licensed only for
certain areas. I don't know the law pertaining to this case itself.

EDIT: Obviously using a VPN isn't illegal (in most first world countries,
anyway), but the actual access of Hulu from an unlicensed area is what I mean.

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ktf
I just want to use Netflix from Linux...

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dmooray
This just sets up the browser to use a proxy,50.116.59.63 port 80, for those
websites.

~~~
jobigoud
So… this can't last very long can it ?

~~~
limpangel
I don't think so. :)

Unless they constantly change their proxy's IP and play cat and mouse with the
targeted websites. That is possible without user intervention because they use
a self-hosted file (<http://mediahint.com/default.pac>) to setup the proxy
through the use of their extension.

