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I previously wrote about how to work around content restrictions on viewing television shows from outside of the US using anonymous proxies and VPN services. Unfortunately, those measures no longer work for Hulu, the largest free online site for viewing TV shows.
TechCrunch reported yesterday that Hulu is now blocking VPN services and anonymous proxies in addition to their other blocks on non-US based IP addresses. If you try to access the service using a VPN like Hotspot Shield, you now get the message:
Based on your IP address, we noticed you are trying to access Hulu through an anonymous proxy tool. Hulu is not currently available outside the U.S. If you’re in the U.S., you’ll need to disable your anonymizer to access videos on Hulu.
If you’e lucky enough to have a private or corporate VPN in the US, that should still work, but this move effectively shuts out most of the major public VPN providers.
In a bit of positive news, the Financial Times reports that Hulu has been signing international deals for content. This could lead to an global roll-out of its services, though there is no estimated time frame for this. Looks like we’ll go back to using Miro and BitTorrent until someone realizes that content cannot really be controlled anymore.
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3 responses so far ↓
1 Gilbert // May 8, 2009 at 4:53 pm
When I was down in Buenos Aires in the(ir) spring of 08, I used surfthechannel.com. I stayed caught up with a lot of the programs I watch in the States. Click on channels, then go to television. The only drawback is if you choose to watch a program on Megavideo, you are only allowed to watch it 77 minutes every few hours. So if you''re going through a marathon, you'll have to split up the viewing time or pay a fee to get unlimited access. Otherwise, Surf the Channel is great. I say screw Hulu.
2 Reed // May 8, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Not that I have a strong urge to watch much TV, but this has been one of the surprisingly frustrating things about living here. Someone will send an old (or new) SNL clip, and there's just no way to see it. It's not killing me or anything, but it just seems dumb that they can't work out some kind of deal.
3 Mark // May 12, 2009 at 2:55 am
Hmm, I just tried accessing Hulu while using Hotspot Shield, and found no problems. Was able to watch the latest episode of "24", so seems they fixed that issue.
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