Why Can"t I watch Hulu, Iplayer, M6 Replay Media sites on my PC
This is a very common question frequently found on forums, blogs and social networking sites across the internet. There are two real answers but the crux lies in the business model of internet TV and how the viewing rights are sold. Most TV companies, the owners of the content on these sites, rely on advertising and overseas sales for the majority of their income. For advertisers buying space on a slot on Hulu for instance, the target audience is vital, they want their adverts seen by potential customers.
Of course the manufacturer who supplies goods or services to the US market wants US people to watch them. They will likely have little interest in their products being seen by European or Asian viewers for instance.
But probably the biggest reason, because it can result in a direct financial loss - is the way these content rights are sold. You buy the broadcast rights for a particular location. This leaves the owner able to sell or market the overseas rights to their content seperately. Of course if everyone knew they could just go to a web site and watch the series anyway, then these rights be would worth significantly less.
There are other slight nuances to this situation particularly with regards to public broadcast companies like the BBc who are funded by a fee, but generally this covers the main blocks to accessible content worldwide.
The problem is that this model is doomed to failure, it is simply too difficult to restrict content on a largely unregulated internet. Even if you could block all the filesharing, P2p and torrent sites that would only be half of the problem. Technically it is fairly easy to mask your IP address through a proxy or a VPN, which instantly bypass all current geolocating blocks. Sure you can block individual IP addresses but this can easily become an incredibly time intensive job. It's not that hard to switch and use another IP address and it will get significantly easier with the advent of IPV6 when addresses will be in abundant supply.
In essence these media companies have to start looking at the internet as a whole, there is no way in my opinion that this market segregation will work in the future. We are too well connected, a work around or a pirated copy can spread across the electronic world in hours. Creating new and more complicated technical blocks and censorships will become more costly than the revenue it saves. The market needs a rethink about how it does business in the electronic age.
Of course the manufacturer who supplies goods or services to the US market wants US people to watch them. They will likely have little interest in their products being seen by European or Asian viewers for instance.
But probably the biggest reason, because it can result in a direct financial loss - is the way these content rights are sold. You buy the broadcast rights for a particular location. This leaves the owner able to sell or market the overseas rights to their content seperately. Of course if everyone knew they could just go to a web site and watch the series anyway, then these rights be would worth significantly less.
There are other slight nuances to this situation particularly with regards to public broadcast companies like the BBc who are funded by a fee, but generally this covers the main blocks to accessible content worldwide.
The problem is that this model is doomed to failure, it is simply too difficult to restrict content on a largely unregulated internet. Even if you could block all the filesharing, P2p and torrent sites that would only be half of the problem. Technically it is fairly easy to mask your IP address through a proxy or a VPN, which instantly bypass all current geolocating blocks. Sure you can block individual IP addresses but this can easily become an incredibly time intensive job. It's not that hard to switch and use another IP address and it will get significantly easier with the advent of IPV6 when addresses will be in abundant supply.
In essence these media companies have to start looking at the internet as a whole, there is no way in my opinion that this market segregation will work in the future. We are too well connected, a work around or a pirated copy can spread across the electronic world in hours. Creating new and more complicated technical blocks and censorships will become more costly than the revenue it saves. The market needs a rethink about how it does business in the electronic age.
