Honestly, this kind of childish pouting is ridiculous. As a US resident, there are plenty of non-US sites that's don't work for me. Do I cry about it and demand a stop to these sites?
No, because I understand the complexity of international copyright law.
Gimme too, or no one gets any!
vance
· 1 year ago
Well, same here I was excited to try the service but sadly according to the Press Tour, which I didn't rread before I tried playing a file, its only available for US Residents!
BTW I live in the Philippines so that scks! Well what's new I can't even view any show online provided by NBC, ABC and other hug network..
vance
· 1 year ago
correction: I meant product tour.
Sandy Kemsley
· 1 year ago
Also not available in Canada, although I travel to the US often enough that I can try it out.
Flying Dutchman
· 1 year ago
Glad someone finally stomps down the hulu-hype. Yep, the (online) world doesn't end outside the US borders ;) Hulu plainly sucks for people outside the US (and no, I don't want no stinkin' proxies)
Jurrian ten Hove
· 1 year ago
I've been seeing this unfortunate overlay for quite some time know. I couldn't agree more!
Pamela Heywood
· 1 year ago
Absolutely. This is something that has been annoying me for years, not just because of content not working (and I come across it frequently), but also merchants that don't accept non-US affiliates; that Google's referral program is crippled for us; PayPal reduces in features the further you get from "civilized" borders and, if you live in a "dodgy" country like Spain, as I do, your email is that much more often treated as spam. This is supposed to be the "World Wide Web"? Ha. The web may be wide, but the thinking is certainly narrow. /Rant :)
willsurvive
· 1 year ago
Yep, it's no fun at all. They need a big banner that says "Non-Americans not welcome here". You know, like the ones at US border control...
Alex Blonski
· 1 year ago
Up here in Canada we have quite a few stations that syndicate shows from the major U.S. networks. For Hulu to offer their service in Canada, they'd have to negotiate with every one of these stations, paying them money for online rights to these shows. And that's if our communications commission the CRTC even allowed it.
Yes it does suck, but do you expect Hulu to negotiate a deal with every major television station provider in every country? As international consumers we miss out on a lot of media content. We still don't get major TV shows through iTunes, Xbox Marketplace or any major U.S. network's website.
Why should Hulu be any different?
nabil
· 1 year ago
Definitely agree with you Stan! Hey Hulu you sucks! Ok maybe you don't care about Oustide US people but why making a big announcement! I mean why you don't precise that you made a product that would be available only in the US at first. The worst thing is that I heard in a french radio that you officially launched, they should have checked before announce it!
Carl Brutanananalewski
· 1 year ago
Totally agree, not here in Australia either (adultswim.com is the same). So, back to illegal things for me
Dan Carew
· 1 year ago
Not here in Asia Pacific either, where hulu means "butt" (in Bahasa Indonesian & Malay) and "hair" (in Hawaiian), and I coincidentally, put the same "no love" graphic in my post on hulu from Hong Kong, earlier today: http://indie2zero.com/2008/03/12/hulu-how-not-t...
amorson
· 1 year ago
I can understand them not wanting to expose international crowd to shows that were not publicly aired worldwide. Problem is, that the block is wider than that and is not per show really. You will notice that even news clips are not available, which means they are dissing the international crowd altogether with no relation to broadcasting right or whatnot.
Thorus
· 1 year ago
As the site states in its "Product Tour" as well as in the "About us" section: "Hulu offers U.S. consumers a vast selection of premium video content, on demand, free and ad-supported"
U.S. consumers .. so why do you complain if you live outside the US of A ?
I could cry out loud nearly once a week discovering a new great service especially around video contents, but I dont, because I do know how it works.
There are sites like fancast.com which doesnt even inform me about restrictions to users from outside the US. You can click through the whole site but just when you try to finally WATCH something, you get some info like the one also screeshoted on your Hulu experience. Read the FAQ there, the About .. nothing tells you why you are not able to actually watch that stuff.
hulu_europe
· 1 year ago
I'm in France and it works fine for me... Nothing more to say.
neasneap
· 1 year ago
reason?
john
· 1 year ago
How?
Rick
· 1 year ago
works in europe using anchorfree hotspot shield. only for hulu, though. doesn't work on abc.com
Christopher Trudel
· 1 year ago
They don't like Canada either!
name
· 1 year ago
Pruebing
JennieO
· 1 year ago
Hulu will fail because it's not a spectacular service, not because someone in the EU had their sense of entitlement offended.
Scott
· 1 year ago
Annoying yes. But the reason is quite simple. The makers of theses programmes sell the rights to broadcast them to broadcasters in different territories for a LOT of money. In the UK BskyB paid around 3/4 million per episode for first broadcast rights to Lost for instance - which allows them to broadcast it before anyone else in the territory )the Uk for example. Do you think Sky etc are going to pay that if people can just watch the US broadcast free?(leaving aside bittorrent sites). It actually has very little to do with copyright - It is all about contract law.
Hyder
· 1 year ago
Because it's about time it changed.
Unless they specifically want to lose revenue to torrent sites.
vance
· 1 year ago
What hulu does is it has all the show from some US major network (Well I think) in 480P which is not bad.
Sadly though due to legal stuff... they can't provide users outside the US the service.
I wish they could have atleast allowed the OLD contents (yup they have 1950's show on their lineup like "The addams family") to be viewed by other countries...
Jim
· 1 year ago
Who cares if the site has no value for you! You aren't valuable to the American networks. One of the main purposes of Hulu to help people find new shoes they like which they can later catch on TV. If your not in the states this is generally hard to do which makes you of no use to Fox or NBC. It's a great sight with lots of shows and minimal commercials. Instead of complaining about being entitled to American online services why don't you go create your own! Watch the bbc or something.
audi
· 1 year ago
I am a bit tired of the arrogance of some short sighted people and also some businesses, who assume just because I am not in the US they should assume I am not an American.
Myself I currently live in Germany but fortunately can enjoy some of my radio programs from home via the internet. So just because I am not in the US does not mean this media needs to be filtered.
I also absolutely hate the fact that some web sites automatically switch to German or force me to the .de versions.
The web is international, if you play on the web you have to accept this.
Name
· 3 months ago
I'm an American living overseas because my father is in the military, so yeah, I'm complaining because I can't watch the shows I used to watch back home. So sorry for offending "real" Americans like yourself.
serving-abroad
· 1 year ago
I'm military serving overseas and really miss my TV and was looking forward to Hulu. Unfortunately this happens on media sites I used to visit when I was back home. Just another reason I can't wait to get back to the states!
claye
· 1 year ago
Can't watch Hulu anymore - yeah, I get the "unfortunately this video..." message - the weird part?
I live in Utah.
There is also a security bug - I was a beta user and apparently our profile information didn't migrate well - after I logged in and couldn't watch anything, I double checked my login info. It was good, so I kept trying, and then went back to see if there was anything I could change in my profile info that would allow me to watch videos, but the profile page now says that I am a 58 year old woman from Washington State (I'll keep her information confidential).
Anyone seeing similar bugs?
Matt
· 1 year ago
As a Uk resident soon to be moving to a non-EU corner of Europe I couldn't agree more. Too much of the so-called World-Wide-Web simply does not live up to its name!
Ryan
· 1 year ago
Alright, this content is blocked not because "the copyright lawyers won't allow it", but because most of the adds/commercials they show are irrelavant to non-US consumers. Hulu gets the 'top dollar' add revenue because they have a distinct market. Hulu is a business, not a free-market good guy who just wants the world to have free TV. They cut costs and boost revenue.
Also, the moment you open up to all nations, the target market of the commercial is washed out.
To be honest, I don't expect this to work outside the U.S. anytime soon. In fact, I would guess that this won't open up until it is a success in the U.S. which must happen before they decide to invest more dollards and branch out.
P.S. I am a Canadian and currently cannot watch the content and will just use the "proxy" work around to view it.
vance
· 1 year ago
Hotspot Shield works hehehe. Well, hotspot shields main purpose was to protect your pc from sniffers when your on a open wifi network but I also learned through a netcast that the ip gained from using hot spot shield is a US IP. so that will enable you to watch shows from US restricted site.
Lynda
· 1 year ago
In your p.s. comment, what do you mean by using the "proxy: work around to view it (I'm also in Canada).
LeAnn
· 1 year ago
Really??? It works for you -- I'm in France, too, and would love to get it to work -- could you explain?
souris
· 1 year ago
@Lynda: "In your p.s. comment, what do you mean by using the "proxy: work around to view it (I'm also in Canada)."
Hulu would know that you're accessing it from outside the US -- Canada, in your case -- based on your IP address. If you access it using a proxy service that's based in the US, the IP address that you reach it with is the proxy service's, not your own, so you can "fool" Hulu into thinking that you're located in the US.
For example, say you're in Ontario and you access Hulu directly with your browser. Hulu will know by your IP address where you are, and will deny you access. But now, say you go to a site like Free Proxy Site (one I picked at random from my Google results for "free proxy" -- there was also Hide My Ass , the name of which just plain cracks me up); this is just a directory of freely available proxy servers from around the world, which are becoming more popular here (I don't know about other locales, though) among MySpace brats who just HAVE to get access during school hours, but their school's blocked MySpace. The way it works is that you use the proxy as a middleman: You access the proxy, then the proxy accesses Hulu. (That's why it works for the MySpace kids: Their school blocks MS, but not the proxy, and as far as the blocking software can tell, all they're doing is accessing the proxy itself -- although the schools are starting to wise up and block the proxies, as well.) Say you pick a proxy that's located in New York and go through there to Hulu; now, as far as Hulu's concerned, you ARE in New York, since that's where your IP address is located.
This has an amusing side-effect on your surfing. The proxy I use is based in Germany, and I started noticing almost immediately after I began using it (about a year ago) that when I'd log into the MySpace account I still had at the time, most of the ads were suddenly in German. The funny thing about that is that all I can do with the German I currently know is tell you where I live and count to seven, so I had no idea what they were trying to sell me.
uhm, well it's not a dud. it's a beta website that is so large in value to americans it has not yet been made compatible with other countries. sorry, but don't get so angry about it. sheesh.
plus, my website contains videos from hulu, and although other countries cannot view the videos, they've still given me good reviews several times =]
Anonymous
· 6 months ago
Hulu won't show what I want to see? Then I torrent the video and hope Hulu gets burned.
Huloosers
· 4 months ago
Co Sign!!! Hulu is so lame man, now that myspace is full of them too, it's so irritating
All Comments
Tell that to copyright lawyers.
Honestly, this kind of childish pouting is ridiculous. As a US resident, there are plenty of non-US sites that's don't work for me. Do I cry about it and demand a stop to these sites?
No, because I understand the complexity of international copyright law.
Gimme too, or no one gets any!
BTW I live in the Philippines so that scks! Well what's new I can't even view any show online provided by NBC, ABC and other hug network..
Yes it does suck, but do you expect Hulu to negotiate a deal with every major television station provider in every country? As international consumers we miss out on a lot of media content. We still don't get major TV shows through iTunes, Xbox Marketplace or any major U.S. network's website.
Why should Hulu be any different?
Ok maybe you don't care about Oustide US people but why making a big announcement! I mean why you don't precise that you made a product that would be available only in the US at first. The worst thing is that I heard in a french radio that you officially launched, they should have checked before announce it!
http://indie2zero.com/2008/03/12/hulu-how-not-t...
"Hulu offers U.S. consumers a vast selection of premium video content, on demand, free and ad-supported"
U.S. consumers .. so why do you complain if you live outside the US of A ?
I could cry out loud nearly once a week discovering a new great service especially around video contents, but I dont, because I do know how it works.
There are sites like fancast.com which doesnt even inform me about restrictions to users from outside the US. You can click through the whole site but just when you try to finally WATCH something, you get some info like the one also screeshoted on your Hulu experience. Read the FAQ there, the About .. nothing tells you why you are not able to actually watch that stuff.
Nothing more to say.
Unless they specifically want to lose revenue to torrent sites.
Sadly though due to legal stuff... they can't provide users outside the US the service.
I wish they could have atleast allowed the OLD contents (yup they have 1950's show on their lineup like "The addams family") to be viewed by other countries...
Myself I currently live in Germany but fortunately can enjoy some of my radio programs from home via the internet. So just because I am not in the US does not mean this media needs to be filtered.
I also absolutely hate the fact that some web sites automatically switch to German or force me to the .de versions.
The web is international, if you play on the web you have to accept this.
I live in Utah.
There is also a security bug -
I was a beta user and apparently our profile information didn't migrate well - after I logged in and couldn't watch anything, I double checked my login info. It was good, so I kept trying, and then went back to see if there was anything I could change in my profile info that would allow me to watch videos, but the profile page now says that I am a 58 year old woman from Washington State (I'll keep her information confidential).
Anyone seeing similar bugs?
Also, the moment you open up to all nations, the target market of the commercial is washed out.
To be honest, I don't expect this to work outside the U.S. anytime soon. In fact, I would guess that this won't open up until it is a success in the U.S. which must happen before they decide to invest more dollards and branch out.
P.S. I am a Canadian and currently cannot watch the content and will just use the "proxy" work around to view it.
"In your p.s. comment, what do you mean by using the "proxy: work around to view it (I'm also in Canada)."
Hulu would know that you're accessing it from outside the US -- Canada, in your case -- based on your IP address. If you access it using a proxy service that's based in the US, the IP address that you reach it with is the proxy service's, not your own, so you can "fool" Hulu into thinking that you're located in the US.
For example, say you're in Ontario and you access Hulu directly with your browser. Hulu will know by your IP address where you are, and will deny you access. But now, say you go to a site like Free Proxy Site (one I picked at random from my Google results for "free proxy" -- there was also Hide My Ass , the name of which just plain cracks me up); this is just a directory of freely available proxy servers from around the world, which are becoming more popular here (I don't know about other locales, though) among MySpace brats who just HAVE to get access during school hours, but their school's blocked MySpace. The way it works is that you use the proxy as a middleman: You access the proxy, then the proxy accesses Hulu. (That's why it works for the MySpace kids: Their school blocks MS, but not the proxy, and as far as the blocking software can tell, all they're doing is accessing the proxy itself -- although the schools are starting to wise up and block the proxies, as well.) Say you pick a proxy that's located in New York and go through there to Hulu; now, as far as Hulu's concerned, you ARE in New York, since that's where your IP address is located.
This has an amusing side-effect on your surfing. The proxy I use is based in Germany, and I started noticing almost immediately after I began using it (about a year ago) that when I'd log into the MySpace account I still had at the time, most of the ads were suddenly in German. The funny thing about that is that all I can do with the German I currently know is tell you where I live and count to seven, so I had no idea what they were trying to sell me.
http://www.ultrareach.com/company/download.htm
http://startupcenter.blogspot.com/2008/07/hulu-...
plus, my website contains videos from hulu, and although other countries cannot view the videos, they've still given me good reviews several times =]