How geo-blocking works
The service looks up the viewer's IP address in a geolocation database to find their country. It compares the result with the territories allowed for that title, plan or the whole service, and either starts playback or shows a message that the content is unavailable.
Why services geo-block
- Licensing: rights are sold country by country, and the license forbids showing a title elsewhere
- Sports blackouts: a match may be restricted in the region where it is broadcast locally
- Regulation: some content is not permitted in some markets
- Commercial rollout: launching in one market at a time, with different pricing in each
Where the rule is enforced
A rule applied only in the app's interface is easy to get around. Strong geo-blocking checks location when the playback token or DRM license is issued, and again at the CDN, so that a stream address copied from an allowed country does not play in a blocked one.
VPNs and proxies hide the viewer's real location. Geolocation providers keep lists of known VPN and data-center addresses, and rights holders often require a service to block them.
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