As the iPlayer becomes popular outside United Kingdom's territories, the British Broadcasting Corporation has banned virtual private networks that offer access to its television shows. The broadcasting company has completely restricted common VPNs that offers access to its television shows outside the UK.
Users of iPlayer in the United States are complaining that they cannot view any of the broadcasting company's content this week earlier. When the citizens use the free streaming iPlayer, there is an error message that pops up stating that the viewers must be in the UK to view the program.
The broadcasting corporation's attempt to block the VPNs should stop viewers outside UK territories from using the iPlayer to stream its contents, as the player is a TV on-demand service of the company, which has become well-known to users in Europe, America, Asia, and even in the Middle East.
Although the broadcasting company did not comment on why they started blocking VPNs and the iPlayer usage outside the UK, this might be a pre-emptive strike for BBC's endeavours outside the UK for its streaming service that is set to release in the US next year. The service will feature all-original programming of the company, much alike HBO Now's and Netflix's programming formats.
In response to BBC's streaming services, users who are not UK-based will be receiving webisodes, live television feeds, and on-demand viewing content. This expansion has been in the making most recently, and could be delivering a lot of profit for the broadcasting company, as BBC solely relies on their money more than anything else. Also, this could mean for the company to invest in new programming if the services becomes a success.
BBC's streaming services could bring a large amount of money to keep the company running well. There was a time when UK's conservative government was looking for ways to cut the budget of the company. For this reason, the corporation is investing outside the UK such that if the Kingdom successfully finds a reason to cut the company off, they would have the means to run solely on their own.
The iPlayer has become well known especially in the United States because of company's hit shows like Sherlock and Dr. Who. No doubt, the company wants to turn VPN users to profits, as the BBC does not run advertisements and only relies as of the moment to its TV license paid by the UK citizens.
