How to Unblock Geographic Restrictions for Video

Posted on March 10, 2022August 4, 2022 by Andrew Marshall

We’ve all faced this frustration. You hear about a new movie or an online video on YouTube and you want to watch it, but when you click on the link you get a message that goes something like this: “We’re sorry, this content is currently restricted in your area”, it’ll be quite annoying since you’re “perfectly” blocked from viewing the video or accessing the website.

There are plenty of reasons why this happens. Certain content is restricted due to licensing limitations. Other times, government laws force internet service providers, or ISPs to prevent users on their network from using certain websites, like peer-to-peer sharing platforms.

But what can you do? Is it possible to bypass a geo-restriction on your laptop or mobile phone? Fortunately, yes! You can easily download a reliable VPN like SkyVPN to get around the area blocks. And not only does this one-tap app give you access to any website in the world, it provides military-grade encryption on all your incoming and outgoing data, meaning that you boost your privacy and security.

What Is Geo-Blocking? And Why Isn’t Everything Available in My Country?

Put simply, geo-blocking is a method that websites use to limit access to certain content based on the geographical location of the device connecting to the website. You see it most commonly on video streaming websites such as YouTube and Netflix, but these kinds of restrictions can also be used to block particular types of content on social media websites including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., news websites, and even dating websites like Omegle.

If we take a look at video streaming as our primary example, most of this comes down to the complex web of licensing restrictions and copyright laws that are in place that govern how a piece of content can be used and where it can be published.

For a music video, numerous people might have a copyright claim on the content: the singer, the producer, the songwriter, the music label, etc. If they choose, they can prevent content being accessed in particular countries. On top of that, many governments have different copyright laws that determine how protected material can be shared and used, and whether or not the owners of the content will get paid appropriately. If these copyright laws are not stringent enough in a particular country, then the owners of the content may not release it there.

Take a look at Netflix, for example. Every single country has a different Netflix library with content specifically tailored to audience interests. But it goes beyond curating content based on what certain demographics mostly want to watch. There are many films and TV shows that are illegal in some countries, some that are released in waves (normally Hollywood films, which come out in the United States first), and somewhere Netflix has only paid for the distribution rights for a particular area.

Aside from video streaming and the copyright restrictions that companies like YouTube and Netflix have to deal with, there is also the problem of censorship. You might think that this is only imposed by a few very oppressive governments who limit free access to the internet, such as in China, but in fact recent research suggests that state-sponsored censorship is increasingly becoming the norm. Countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom both employ some form of censorship, as do more that 60 other countries around the world.

Note: The specific methods to stream some hot TV series and shows will be provided at the end of this article. If you rush, directly scroll to the bottom of this article.

How Do Geo-Blocking and Region Restrictions Work?

Geo-blocking, fortunately, is a fairly rudimentary process that companies and governments employ, which means that it’s easy to overcome. Content restrictions work by tracking your Internet Protocol (IP) address and banning everyone with an IP address identifying them as being from a particular country.

An IP address essentially works as a unique identifier for each device connecting to the internet – it’s a bit like your home address on a piece of mail. It gives away your location to any website that you connect to (that’s how Google always knows your location). On going to a website, your network’s IP address is sent to the server, so it knows where it has to send the content. This is fundamental to the way that the internet works, but it has significant downsides. Using specialized software, companies can track which websites you have been to in the past, when you visited them, and how long you used their services.

This type of tracking is simple but effective because very few people are aware that it exists, and not many people employ any countermeasures to prevent it. By checking your IP address, websites can easily restrict content based on location.

And, of course, giving away your location has many other problems associated with it than simply losing access to particular content. It can be very dangerous to give away your location to every website you visit. Not only can they spam you with targeted ads, but they can sell your data to malicious third parties.

How to Unblock and Bypass Geo-Blocking in 2021

Despite all these attempts to shut down internet freedom, there is a simple way to get around geo-blocking: a VPN.

A VPN (or Virtual Private Network) service makes an encrypted tunnel between your device and a remote secondary server. All of your data is routed securely through this encrypted tunnel, keeping it safe from hackers and surveillance.

When your traffic exits this VPN server, it picks up its IP address before going onto the destination website. This masks your own location and your identity, and makes it appear as though you are coming from the country wherever the VPN server is located. The good news is that most VPN providers have hundreds of servers all throughout the world, so you can just choose one with a location that has access to the content that you want.

Of course, there are several VPN services to choose from, but we recommend SkyVPN. It’s the only free premium VPN service in the world, meaning you get unlimited, unthrottled access to over 3,000 lightning-fast servers all around the world without having to pay a subscription.

In addition, SkyVPN uses military-grade encryption across its entire network, protecting your data, intercepting cookies, hiding your IP address, and allowing you to browse anonymously, securely, and with complete freedom.

Moreover, SkyVPN allows users to customize their own security mode by keeping a balance between cybersecurity and local life. It features kill switch, split tunnel and DNS leak test to minimize any risk on the Internet.

A Step-by-Step Guide: How to Stream Hot TV Series or Shows in 2021

Here comes a complete guide on how to stream the following hot TV series or shows.

For more streaming lists, bookmark SkyVPN Blog and follow SkyVPN on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and you’ll be able to visit the latest updates of TV series and shows.

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