How to watch blocked Vice documentaries
Chris
Chris, a UK-born media connoisseur, is an expert in watching international TV. Known as "The Global Screen Wanderer", he has travelled extensively across the globe with long stints away from home. With over 10 years of experience he has become the go-to guru for streaming content from home and abroad.
Vice documentaries are excellent and an alternative to mainstream reporting. Often airing issues that national media outlets in countries wouldn’t cover or show.
Unfortunately on occasion there are Vice documentaries that just aren’t available in your area and I recently found this out when attempting to watch a series produced for HBO but available on the Vice website.
When I went to play the video it told me “Content unavailable – The video is not authorized for your location (GB)” which was rather surprising as I’d been able to watch quite a few other Vice documentaries earlier.
As it was something I was really interested in watching I did some research and found a way to bypass this Vice block and watch the video I wanted. I’ve put this guide together to show you how you can do the same.
How to watch blocked Vice documentaries
When you attempt to watch a video on the Vice website it firstly checks your location. It does this by checking your IP Address.
A IP Address is a series of numbers unique to your internet connection and from it the Vice website can determine what country you’re in and even what area of the country.
As they have restrictions in place, when it sees you’re not in the intended country for the video it blocks you and you’ll see a message similar to the one below.
What I did next was to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to alter my IP Address to that of another country and give the impression I was somewhere else.
At first I tried Switzerland but the same message appeared appended with (CH) at the end. This gave me the thought that perhaps the video was only intended to be viewed in the United States so I used the VPN service to grab an IP Address from the United States and tried again.
This time the video played without any issue because the Vice website thought I was in the United States.
The good news is VPN services are really easy to use and only take one or clicks to get connected to any country you wish allowing you to watch any Vice documentary or even other blocked TV stations and channels from around the world.
So let’s find out how you can get a VPN and how to use it.
Where to get a VPN
A good VPN service will cost you between $5 – $10 per month and become cheaper the longer you sign up for.
The price can be almost 50% cheaper when taking a yearly package over a monthly package so it’s worth considering a longer period of time if you intend to watch Vice and other content from around the world.
VPN services are essentially privacy services that have dual purpose that allow you to watch video from other regions. Due to privacy being a big deal these days it means there are thousands of companies to choose from.
Video from Vice and other places requires a fast VPN provider and it’s impossible to tell who offers a fast service and who doesn’t before signing up. Luckily for you I’ve been testing some of the leading providers and found ExpressVPN to be the best solution. Not only are they one of the cheapest but they also provide top speeds, enough for video.
If you want to shop around a little I’ve put together a list of three providers suitable for watching blocked Vice documentaries and other blocked content from around the world.
Just click one of their names to visit their website.
or you can click the button below to visit my recommended provider.
Once you’ve signed up read below to find out how to use the VPN service.
How to use the VPN
After you’ve signed up to a VPN service the process is really easy.
You can download software and apps for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. Decide which device or system you wish to watch on and download the relevant software from the provider’s website or app from the app store.
Once you’ve downloaded it and installed all you need to do is connect to a country that isn’t yours. In the case of the Vice HBO documentaries I wanted to watch on Vice it was blocked in Europe, or outside the US as far as I was aware so all I had to do was connect to the United States.
When you’ve connected to another country then you can watch all of the documentaries. Don’t forget you can swap countries as much as you want to watch any other blocked content.
As an example I’ve listed the process using ExpressVPN on Windows below but it’s pretty much the same from other providers too.
ExpressVPN:
- Download their Windows software from the Products area of their website.
- Install it. Run it.
- Click Selected Location.
- Click United States. Wait for the app to connect.
A VPN from ExpressVPN lets you watch blocked Vice documentaries.
The ExpressVPN software will now make connection which should take about 15-30 seconds.
Once connected you can visit the Vice website and stream any of the videos you want to watch.
Don’t forget you can swap countries as many times as you want so if a video is blocked in one then just switch to another country and unblock it.
Don’t forget you can unblock Vice documentaries by clicking the button below.
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