Good article written by Ted Kritsonis
Geo-blocking isn’t fun for anyone, but it’s the reality we face here in Canada, since copyright and licensing issues preclude us from enjoying all the content that’s on tap with popular online TV show repositories like Hulu in the U.S. and BBC iPlayer in the U.K. Thankfully, there are ways to get around this. If you’ve already tried going to Hulu or BBC iPlayer, you no doubt encountered a message indicating that you’re cut off because each service offers its content to Americans and Brits, respectively. They may be a bit cryptic about it, but the reason why this happens is because there are distribution deals in place with Canadian broadcasters that give them first dibs on American and British programming, which means that the licensing has to be reworked in order to allow Hulu and BBC iPlayer to start operating unimpeded here.
There is a free app called Hotspot Shield, which worked seamlessly in tunneling under the restrictions by using a virtual private network (VPN) to provide you with a U.S. IP address. This is all it took to gain access to sites with U.S.-only content like, Hulu, Fancast, Joost and even music sites like Pandora and Slacker.
But Hulu caught on, and it’s now very difficult, if not impossible, to access the site in Canada using Hotspot Shield.
Despite the setback, there are plenty of shows that you can watch through Canadian networks’ sites. CTV’s Video Page offers up full episodes of American shows like, Mad Men, Fringe and Gossip Girl, as well as all the homegrown shows it airs. But there’s also access to Comedy Central’s lineup, which includes the popular The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report. And CTV has added “mini-episodes” of retro shows like, Starsky and Hutch and The Partridge Family.
Global’s video page also offers full episodes of shows like, Family Guy, 24 and The Good Wife. The only problem is that there’s a lack of organization with some of the shows in that you’re not sure what order they come in. Others, like 90210, only have a couple of episodes available. Classics like, Who’s the Boss?, Good Times and Dawson’s Creek are also up for grabs, but episode lists seem a bit random.
The same is true of CityTV’s video lineup, which offers a bunch of different shows, but with no real set order or number of episodes.
CBC’s video site also offers a list of shows that include The Tudors, The Border and Coronation Street.
But these sites may not be enough to satisfy your on-demand needs for your favourite shows, especially when certain shows are only available at certain times or in certain quantities. That means that you would need to find a way to circumvent the geo-blocking restrictions imposed on you. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an option for the Mac that was both free and consistently effective, but I did find one option that works well with minimal fuss, despite the fact that you have to pay for the service. There are also a couple others that I’ll point out as well.
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There’s also Toronto-based Blacklogic, which costs $100 per year, but I did have to get help from tech support, as it wouldn’t recognize the password given to my test account. The process to get up and running is nicely detailed
Source:
http://whatsyourtech.ca/2009/12/03/how-to-watch-hulu-and-bbc-iplayer-in-canada/