Hulu Blocks International Access Via Witopia 256
An anonymous reader notes, and excerpts from, an article at PC Authority: "It's human nature that people always want what they can't have — which is why there's so much interest around the world in accessing the US-only Hulu site. Hulu offers a range of television shows for streaming, including Family Guy, The Daily Show and House along with a few full length movies. ... If you're outside the US, the easiest method for accessing Hulu that many people are discussing online, is using a US-based VPN, which tricks Hulu into thinking their computer is within the US. Initially Hulu started cracking down on free VPN services such as Hotspot Shield, but now it's turned its attention to Witopia — which costs $40 or $US60 per year but offers a faster, more secure and more reliable service than its free competitors. Initially Witopia's LA gateway remained unaffected, but now Hulu has blocked this as well."
Dear content producers... (Score:5, Insightful)
Bottom line. We, the people who don't live in the country where you are currently producing, want to -buy- your content or at least look at the ads. If you won't let us, fine. We will simply pirate it. But chances are you want to make money right? So don't treat us like second-class citizens, we have money just like "your part" of the world does and no, we don't like getting episodes 1-2 months later than the rest of the world and no we don't like being shut off of a service that would allow us to watch TV while supporting the producers. If you must, just block non-American IPs but don't be idiots and start blocking VPNs and other ways to block your fans from trying to legitimately support you. We have other options, but you have an opportunity with the internet to allow us to pay for content. But if you don't want our money, fine. We will go back to pirating your shows.
Re:Dear content producers... (Score:1, Insightful)
Actually I'm guessing advertisers don't pay for foreign web hits so you aren't supporting the content providers you are just sucking down Hulu's bandwidth. Not being obnoxious just explaining why they are being spoil sports. They may offer the paid service worldwide if you are serious about supporting content providers. If advertisers don't pay for the shows viewers have to and few advertisers will pay for worldwide exposure since it's effectiveness varies and some advertisers are local.
"But if you don't want our money, fine" (Score:5, Insightful)
err... what money?
I thought Hulu was ad-supported?
And what American advertiser is going to want to place ads for videos that are seen in countries where they may not even have an establishment?
Even those that do - say, McDonald's - can't exactly advertise a burger that they're offering nation-wide in the U.S. for a particular price in another country where that product is not available, or is available but for a different price.
So, Hulu and the content rights holders would have to come to advertising agreements in all of the other nations being catered to while at the same time, trying not to piss off the the broadcasters in those areas too much (after all, the syndicated content -does- appear on TV much later, once these smaller broadcasters can actually afford it - but what advertisers are -they- going to attract if everybody's already seen it for free via Hulu?)... so good luck with that.
And if they -did- start charging cold hard cash... well, I guess one could claim iTunes as being highly successful, so if they did it well, it might even work. In due time, I suppose.
How it probably works... (Score:5, Insightful)
You got Hulu which is supported by ads. For every single person who views a show, they view ads.
Businesses pay for these ads to be shown. Maybe it's like 10 cents for a 30 second commercial, times the number of times its viewed, or something like that.
Since the advertisements are geared towards American audiences, when someone from a non-American audience views it, it devalues what the ads are worth. A business can argue since their target is Americans, and if let's say 50% of viewers are non-Americans, then they should only have to pay like 5 cents per 30 second commercial per viewer, and not the full price.
As the number of people viewing Hulu increases, and assume that the percentage of Americans viewing in total viewership decreases, then the profit Hulu makes falls.
Assuming that the number of American viewers is static, Hulu has to pay for more people to view their site, while having a fixed influx of revenue.
Of course, this can be solved simply if content providers allowed other countries to view the site, and also had advertisers geared towards that audience.
What about Overseas Military and Expats? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Dear content producers... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"But if you don't want our money, fine" (Score:5, Insightful)
You, the presenter (in this case Hulu) have to convince McDonalds of that.
Ads are VERY time and location specific. You don't advertise snow tires in Miami, and you don't advertise sandals in Minnesota. Ok...maybe. But not in February.
Boise, Baltimore, and Barcelona all get different McDonalds ads. And at different times.
As for the Boeing ads...thats just brand awareness. Obviously not a product you will buy, but a brand you, the business owner/voter, may defend in the next round of bailouts.
Re:"But if you don't want our money, fine" (Score:5, Insightful)
Geolocation via IP - serve up different ads based on the viewers' geographical location. It's done all the time, along with time-of-day, so that you can target your ads to the viewers you want. Spamvertisers with their affiliate advertising do it all the time, why can't Hulu?
Re:This is illogical (Score:3, Insightful)
The people putting up the ads are only putting them there because they will make money from them. Displaying, and paying for, an ad that the viewer cannot buy, or cannot understand, is a waste of money.
They try not to do that.
Re:Dear content producers... (Score:3, Insightful)
But now, here's my proposal: We, the media, will give you global media - your way, anywhere. Now you - you just have to sign on the dotted line here, that says "I the undersigned, agree to a global governing body"...that's right, good. Now, see? We were going this way all along. And you and me, we both benefit this way!
Re:Dear content producers... (Score:3, Insightful)
Bottom line. We, the people who don't live in the country where you are currently producing, want to -buy- your content or at least look at the ads.
Your countries are often at fault themselves. For example, many European nations insist on translating US programs into the local language. There are also many regulations, agreements, taxes, tariffs, guilds, copyright limitations, licensing fees, performance fees, etc. that effectively end up necessitate negotiating separate agreements with every country.
Re:How it probably works... (Score:3, Insightful)
Hulu [hulu.com] says that their reason for restricting content is "clearing the rights for each show or film in each specific geography." Well, why not make the site available to at least all of the places where these rights are already cleared. Eh? Name a show that is in the U.S. that are explicitly banned in, lets say, Canada. But to be honest, I only care about the fact that I can't access Pandora [pandora.com]
Actualy, they probably don't have the rights for a show in Canada. For exmample, CBC might own the rights to broadcast Heroes in Canada, while NBC owns the rights to broadcast it in the US. Therefore, Hulu needs to pay money to CBC to show Heroes in Canada. (It's a terrible outdated model, I know, but its very difficult to undo the hundreds of already existing licensing deals.)
Re:Dear content producers... (Score:1, Insightful)
Unfortunately it comes down to copyrights.
When a networks purchases the rights for a show or movie they purchase the rights by reason.
Buying the rights for the US is significantly cheaper then buying worldwide rights. Hulu (NBC) doesn't own all of the worldwide rights for their content. If they offered it in a country where the sane show has been licensed by it's creator to another network they would be sued.
For now, there isn't really a solution.
Re:How it probably works... (Score:2, Insightful)
The greed of the movie and recording industry, is only exceeded by the oil business. I have no sympathy for Hulu, and some archaic distribution scheme. The internet is across the globe. Maybe some one should have told one of these greedy media executives the the full URL www.hulu.com contains (www). Some one needs to tell the money grubbing teeth gnashing slime ball that means "World Wide Web".
Hulu DOES want to broadcast to ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Rights are complex. They can be, essentially, broken up into infinite pieces. I can sell you the right to be the first to broadcast something, and sell the rights to subsequent broadcasts to someone else. That's what "all rights reserved" means ... if I don't specifically say they're included, they 're not included.
Sometimes companies screw up when they sell rights, failing to anticipate some technology, and finding out they are prevented from taking advantage of that technology because the rights they sold were too broad in scope.
They can be anything; I could create a contract selling the rights to broadcast in any year the Yankees did not win the World Series, or the rights to broadcast only on tuesdays in Upper Volta and only if the date is an odd number on the Gregorian Calendar. Whatever.
Hulu has to prove to the content creators that they are capable of enforcing the rights they buy from the creators, who (we assume, because it's US made content streamed to US viewers) are the rights holders. Hulu very much wants to stream to every country in the world, but before it can do that, it has to show it's capable of enforcing the rights it buys and limiting the scope of it's stream to those it has the right to stream to, and no-one else.
If Hulu fails, the content creators will just shit-can them and get someone else. Hulu has a lot at stake here, and they can't afford to screw up. So, they're going to limit streams to US residents, because that's the only viewers they have a right to stream to.
Later, if they pull this off, they'll set up elsewhere by negotiating with rights holders elsewhere.
Chances are when they get around to 'elsewhere' they are not the same people they buy the rights from for the US streams; the content creators are in the business of selling rights to others, and those rights probably cover what Hulu is doing. So, Hulu needs to negotiate with those people, not the original content creators.
Ads are irrelevant ... that's purely Hulu's business and revenue model, and has nothing to do with whether you can view the stream wherever you are. Content creators and rights holders don't care how Hulu makes it's money as long as they get paid themselves.
Re:How it probably works... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Dear content producers... (Score:2, Insightful)
How can they be sued if they don't sell in the country where it would be illegal. They can't be sued for someone crossing a border with their product.
Re:"But if you don't want our money, fine" (Score:3, Insightful)
They already do. How do you think they block non-US viewers?
The problem is that US-centric advertisers don't want to target someone in Kazakhstan and that Hulu doesn't want to jump through hoops licensing their content to each and every country.
Hadn't expected them to actively block VPN services though.
Re:Dear content producers... (Score:3, Insightful)
I would happily pay $60/year directly to Hulu to be able to access their content in the UK without adverts, and I'd even be willing to pay annually in advance. It's only $5/month for them, but it's $5/month that they wouldn't otherwise be getting. I don't own a TV, so the content producers aren't getting anything from me via syndicated networks over here either. They get a little bit when I rent DVDs, which is how I watch most TV shows these days, but that's almost certainly less than $5/month because they have to share my subscription with films and so on.
It really amazes me that these companies complain about piracy hurting their profits, but when I'm standing here with a credit card asking to buy their products they won't let me. If I owned shares in any of them, I would be suing the board for their chronic mismanagement.
Re:Dear content producers... (Score:4, Insightful)
I pay over $100 a month for internet and TV and still haven't gotten rid of those damned video ads over there on the television. Don't press your luck. =\
(Though the TV is on maybe five times a month in one hour blocks, so that may be going away soon. Hulu is too convenient for me to bother with the TV.)
Re:Dear content producers... (Score:4, Insightful)
Why ascribe to male that which can be explained by common sense?
- Can advertisements about Double Whoppers have any value to Europeans or Japanese?
- How about advertising about Bank of America?
- Or the new Chevy Volt?
Hulu's advertisements are aimed towards a specific audience - Americans. They have zero interest in advertising to other areas of the world, because Hulu has nothing to gain from it. Therefore Hulu cuts-off those regions where they have nothing to gain, and you would probably do the same if you owned that business.
Re:Dear content producers... (Score:4, Insightful)
True but Bank of America would still rather advertise in the U.S., where the ads are relevant to SOME of the people, than advertise to the EU or Japan where the ads are relevant to NONE of the people. That's why BoA and other US-centric businesses pressure Hulu to block non-US viewers.
Re:Dear content producers... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Dear content producers... (Score:1, Insightful)
So why expend effort to do anything if they have nothing to gain? They now spend time seeking out alternative ways that audiences in other regions are using to access their site, and then expending time and manpower to close those 'loopholes'. If they had NOTHING to gain, then they wouldn't bother, leaving those holes open and generating some goodwill and what little audience they could get in the process.
So it's either an instance of taking their ball and going home, or they're getting something out of limiting their audience to the US only.
Re:Dear content producers... (Score:1, Insightful)
Man, fuck you on the fluent english comment. The foreign people going to Hulu know what they're getting, they're fine with it, the sorry fact is the US "culture" has been exported so successfully that EVERYONE (well almost) in the world has absorbed it.
But well, who gives a rat's ass about Hulu anyway, they're going behind a paywall next year, long live BitTorrent, getting Family Guy 1/2 an hour after it's shown in the east coast (I think that's even earlier than the west coast) is sweet. And it's free, and it's ad-free as well, so kiss my shiny metal ass!