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On forums and blogs across the internet , this is a frequently asked question. The reason is that these companies block access to all but specific countries. The truth is that business model of internet TV and how the viewing rights are sold, require these restrictions.

Most TV companies, the owners of the content on these sites, rely on advertising and overseas sales for the majority of their income, of course BBC Iplayer is slightly different being publically funded.

For Hulus advertisers, the target audience is vital, they want their adverts seen by a specific geographic group. 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.

Although the biggest reason is because it can actually result in a direct financial loss – because of the way these content rights are sold. You purchase broadcast rights for a particular geographical location. Leaving the owner able to sell or market the overseas rights to their content seperately. Of course if everyone could just go and watch on a web site, 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 P2P 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. Even blocking individual IP addresses which works 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 like Hulu and M6 Replay will 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 all too well connected to each other, we can all share media, fixes and work around with ease. The new technical blocks and checks will become more costly to run than the revenue it saves. The market needs a rethink about how it does business in the electronic age.