As I was watching the sixth season of Rupaul's Drag Race Tuesday night, something terrible happened. Instead of a screen of Drag Queens, my screen suddenly went black. As I stared into shell of myself reflected on my computer screen, the message appeared.
"You seem to be using an unblocker or proxy. Please turn off any of these services and try again. For more help, visit netflix.com/proxy."
My heart dropped; after thirty minutes of trying to uninstall and reinstall my VPN, Hola, I realized my attempts were futile. There was no way to work around this message of doom; I could no longer watch movies like Ant-Man or Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I may have cried. To me, this unblocker opened a world of possibilities. By using Hola, my unimpressive American library grew by thousands of titles. In the past month I have switched from my American library to Canada's to watch many Marvel movies; I have flipped to the UK's library to watch comedies that I couldn't stream anywhere else.
To be fair, Netflix did give a bit of a warning before doing this. In January news broke that "Netflix [would] step up enforcement against subscribers who use VPNs, proxies, and unblocking services to mask their locations." At the time, it seemed Netflix was only making a statement to appease their content owners. I, and many other people, were not expecting what seemed like a cruel joke to actually occur. Netflix has not only blocked popular VPNs such as Hola, but pretty much any geofilter extension. To make matters worse, Netflix has certain licenses that only allow titles to be streamed in certain places. Vice President of Content Delivery, David Fulgar, recently said that "We are making progress in licensing content across the world and, as of last week, now offer the Netflix service in 190 countries, but we have a ways to go before we can offer people the same films and TV series everywhere.."
While it is unfortunate that Netflix has started banning a number of VPNs, there are many other streaming sites that offer broader libraries. They are listed and linked below.
1. Amazon Prime Instant Video
While many people have subscriptions to Amazon Prime, they fail to utilize their instant video section. While less known than top sites, Amazon Instant Video has an amazing selection of original series, popular television shows, and movies.
Amazon Instant Video (an extension of Amazon Prime): $99 per year
2. Hulu
For 7.99 a month, Hulu is a great alternative to Netflix. Hulu is awesome for people who love television but constantly miss new episodes of their favorite shows. New shows appear on Hulu as soon as a day after they first air.
Hulu: Starting at $7.99 a month
4. HBO GO/NOW
HBO GO is an interesting streaming service because if you already have a cable subscription, you get it for free! HBO NOW, however, is a standalone service that you can purchase if you do not subscribe to HBO.
HBO GO: Free with your cable subscription
HBO NOW: $14.99 a month
3. Youtube
Youtube rolled out their rentable service a few months ago, and it's great. Instead of running to Redbox, you can rent a movie instantly online. Youtube also has a selection of free movies––although some are a bit dated.
Youtube Movie: Ranging from $0.99-$14.99
4. VUDU
VUDU is another streaming service, but unlike the others, this one allows you to create an actual digital library. When buying a DVD you are given a code that you then enter on VUDU's site. This site also allows you to rent or buy DVDs instantly.
VUDU: Ranging from $4.99-$19.99
