This Programme Cannot Be Streamed Due to Rights Restrictions

by | Nov 30, 2020 | Ireland, Technology - Proxies, VPN

So this message – “Programme Cannot Be Streamed Due to Rights Restrictions”  and some very similar sounding ones are becoming more and more common in the online world. It’s normally preceded by an attempt to stream a video, or watch a TV show or listen to some sort of internet radio channel. It’s a message with no real upside and basically informs you that based on your physical location this particular piece of content is not available to you.

If you want to solve it quickly then simply subscribe to NordVPN then connect to a server in the matching country !

Solution - This Programme Cannot Be Streamed Due to Rights Restrictions

The last time I saw this was this afternoon when I was trying to catch a cool new show on RTE player the Irish version of the BBC. Most of the site appears to work fine but as soon as I try to watch a programme on rté player then I’m given this chastisement that it cannot be streamed due to rights restrictions. What it means exactly is difficult to know for sure, however these rights restrictions will only affect you if you’re outside Ireland.

However if you are in Ireland don’t worry it will affect you too ! Just about every single decent media station in the world restricts access based on location. You can visit their sites but as you are doing so your IP address is being checked and if you’re in the wrong place you’ll get a message that this programme cannot be streamed –

message this programme cannot

Here’s another one from the BBC that you’ll get if you’re based outside the United Kingdom. Which yes also includes inhabitants of Ireland, even if they’re a hundred yards from the border. There isn’t really a media site that doesn’t practice this to some extent and increasingly this filtering, controlling and blocking is becoming pervasive to our online experience.

It’s an increasing scourge on the online world, and it seems to be spreading. Most video and online broadcasts are restricted whether they’re on an online player like BBC iPlayer, RTE Player or even YouTube. The justification is normally claimed to be due to rights restrictions, presumably that the broadcasting rights to each programme are assigned on a per country basis.

If this is true then it’s pretty crazy that copyright for a global medium is being still assigned on such a restrictive basis. What’s more worrying that this is increasingly meaning that access to information on the internet is becoming segregated based on your physical location. In reality it’s probably more to do with maximising profits and being able to keep different markets separate in order to charge different prices.

Where You’ll Get – This Programme Cannot Be Streamed Due to Rights Restrictions

To be honest it’s likely to occur on any large media companies streaming sites, They all use a system called geo restrictions which will allow access based on your physical location when you visit the site. All the major UK TV channels operate these restrictions you can’t normally watch the BBC Player abroad for example. You can’t watch RTE Player without an Irish IP address either.

  • BBC iPlayer – UK only
  • RTE Player – Ireland Only
  • ITV Hub – UK Only
  • NBC – USA Only
  • M6 Player – France Only
  • Hulu – USA Only

Basically pick any country and you’ll find the same. If you’re outside the domestic market then you’ll normally be blocked by default as soon as you visit the site.

Simple Solution – Stop Getting Blocked/Controlled Use a VPN

For many of us using a VPN service has been something of a second nature for years. The realisation about how little privacy we all have online is becoming a major issue. You may think that everything you do online is ‘private’ and ‘anonymous’ but it really isn’t . Virtually every website we visit, tracks and monitors our behaviour. Plus your ISP has access to logs which contain a full and comprehensive of absolutely everything you do online. That includes every website, every video you watch, every file you download, every email or message you send. Imagine how much information that contains on each and every one of us, how much of this would you enjoy being in the public domain.

rte player channel list

Using a VPN provider to both hide your location and encrypt all your data stops all this. As long as you pick a reputable VPN service who delete all your logs instantly then you’ll regain a large proportion of your privacy online. Your ISP will not have a full list of all your activity as it will be hidden by the VPN server – both the actual web pages and all your data too like emails, messages etc.

Yet for many these benefits aren’t even the main reason that they use VPN services ! It’s simply to try and bypass the geo restrictions we mentioned above. Using a VPN means that no-one knows your real IP address which is the primary tool that websites use to block people’s access.

  • Watch rté player outside Ireland
  • Watch the BBC from anywhere in the world
  • Access US entertainment sites like Hulu, NBC or Pandora from outside the US

Plus many, many more! A VPN is the ultimate tool to bypassing these geo restricted filters, you simply ensure that you connect to a VPN server in the right country before accessing the site. So for RTE player you’d need to choose one with servers in Ireland, for NBC servers in the USA and so on.

Fortunately most of the top VPN providers have facilitated this function and you’ll find they provide servers all across the planet under their basic subscriptions. You should always check though if you want to be able to watch a programme from a specific country as only the biggest VPN providers will cover every major country. Especially if they can be expensive to locate in like New Zealand and Australia. Ensure they have either a trial or a proper money back guarantee just in case you find your chosen programme cannot be viewed.

Most of the VPN services will cover North America and the majority of European countries though, so you should be ok with the majority if the channels you want to watch are in one of these locations. If you want a recommendation for a quality VPN provider then NordVPN is worth checking out. It has one of the biggest global networks with VPN servers in more countries than most which means you’re able to stream most content you’ll find blocked.

Watch RTE in USA – How to Watch Irish TV Online Anywhere

by | Jul 11, 2019 | Ireland, Unblock Access with a Porn Proxy and Surf Anonymously

Just checked this post as it was over six years old, wanted to make sure RTE is still accessible in 2020.  Well the RTE site has changed a lot from 2013 and it actually has a lot more options.  Anyway I was just checking how can I watch Irish TV in UK or USA and can confirm it still works fine.  There are reports that many VPNs are now blocked with RTE but NordVPN appears unaffected.

Anyway I’ve just streamed the news, a sports programme and a soap called Fair City without interruption using NordVPN. However I still suggest testing it out first and seeing if it works ok for you, please feel free to leave a comment with your own experiences.  Fortunately they have a 30 day money back guarantee so you can try it out first.

Another post for those missing their favorite TV channels just because they are outside their home country. This ones about accessing RTE from the US, or in fact anywhere that’s outside the Irish Republic.   RTE player is a great little site linked to the Irish National broadcaster – RTE (Raidió Teilifís Éireann). people-ireland

As usual though if you’re not actually in Ireland when connecting to the website then it won’t work for you, although you can access some of the radio content and sometimes the Irish news.  I always think this is a bit strange as the people who will want to watch things like RTE and the GAA over the internet will mostly be Irish people living in places like the UK and USA!   Fortunately there is a solution, read on to see how to watch RTE player abroad.

So How Do I Watch RTE in USA /UK?

It’s not actually that hard to do, when you connect to RTE player the site determines your location. It does this by checking the location of your IP address – if it’s an Irish IP then fine but anywhere else and you get redirected to the international version of RTE player which blocks most of the decent shows and all the sport like GAA.  The RTE player international version is ok, but the majority of shows and sports are not available on this site, you can watch most of the local news broadcasts though.

So all you need to do is change your IP address to an Irish one. It’s actually not that easy to change your real IP address as it’s controlled by your ISP and is linked to the country you connect from. Fortunately there is another way, and that is connecting via a VPN or proxy server, when you do this the web site see’s the servers address and not your real one. So if the VPN server is in Ireland, you will also appear to be in Ireland and all Irish only resources like RTE Player will work just fine.

There are quite a few companies who offer these services, but only a handful worth considering especially if you need an Irish IP address. Here’s the one I use it’s a security program called NordVPN –  I like it because it’s well priced and has lots of fast servers in different countries which is useful for accessing sites like BBC iPlayer, Hulu etc which also block access from outside countries.

So here’s the little program called NordVPN which sits in the taskbar on a PC and you simply select the country you need to connect to –

RTE in USA

So for RTE we’d obviously select one of the Irish servers and then press connect.  You then open your browser as normal, and when you visit the RTE player site, you’ll get the Irish version of the site rather than the International one simply based on your IP address.   In fact you can enjoy any Irish TV stations plus lots of other sites restricted by location.

RTE Player with Irish IP

Using the Irish server you can watch anything on the site as RTE considers your location to be Ireland, have a go all the channels should be available from rté one and you can also watch RTE player live sport.

It’s extremely easy to use and the servers are very fast which is essential if you’re going to watch RTE live stream feeds across them.   You can also access some fantastic sites in other countries simply by selecting the matching country – try Hulu by using a USA proxy, BBC iPlayer in the UK or there’s some great online TV stations in Canada and France for example.

They’re all included in the subscription which only costs a few dollars – here’s the program in action.

Here we see the PC version working on my laptop but there are applications for most devices.  You can install the Nord App on your smart phones and tablets too just using the same subscription which supports up to six devices.

If you want to access RTE in the US or learn to watch Irish TV from anywhere in the world including the US  then give them a go.  NordVPN has thousands of servers all over the world including plenty of them in Ireland too.  Indeed you don’t have to be limited to RTE in fact you can watch online media and TV stations from virtually anywhere on the planet.  There’s plenty of great free stations in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia for example which broadcast all their content in English.