Have you ever noticed during your stays abroad that streaming platforms do not offer the same content as in France? If it is primarily a question of contract with the rights holders, there is a way to circumvent this restriction and turn it to your advantage.
You may not know it, but customers of streaming platforms who live in the United States, the United Kingdom or even Australia do not benefit from the same catalog of content as the French. Each region of the world has its own particularities, and some users are better off than others. Fortunately, a service like NordVPN allows you to erase these virtual boundaries and access almost all the films and series present on SVoD platforms.
Why does the catalog of SVoD platforms vary depending on the country?
If the catalogs of SVoD platforms are so different between each country, it is first and foremost a question of money and broadcasting rights contracts. In each country, the holders of these rights – the studios and distributors – form partnerships with television channels and streaming platforms to authorize the broadcast of their content for money. And it is generally the highest bidder who wins the bid to obtain exclusivity.
Broadcasting rights also vary depending on the strategy of distributors in different territories around the world. For example, Marvel series and films have long been broadcast on Netflix in France. But that was before the arrival of Disney+ in France. Since 2022, all content from the Marvel universe has left Netflix to land on Disney+, shortly after its launch in France. This for the simple reason that Marvel Entertainment has been under the umbrella of The Walt Disney Company since 2009.
Finally, France has specific legislation concerning the distribution of cinematographic works, this is called the cultural exception. Broadly speaking, it imposes a certain delay between broadcast in cinemas and availability on SVoD platforms or television channels. A deadline which varies depending on the investments they make in original creations in the region. More concretely, this is what allows Canal+ to broadcast films 6 months after their theatrical release. This period is extended to 15 months for Netflix, and 17 months for Amazon Prime Video and Disney+.
How can a VPN bypass these restrictions?
If VPNs like NordVPN are primarily known for protecting the user when connecting to the internet, they also make it possible to bypass the geographic restrictions of SVoD platforms. How ? Thanks to the presence of VPN servers located in many territories around the world. In the case of NordVPN, more than 6,000 servers are listed, located in 111 different countries.
By connecting to one of these servers located abroad, your entire internet connection passes to this location before reaching the website or service you are visiting. So, by selecting a VPN server located in the United States, you make all the sites you visit believe that you are located in this part of the world, even if you are indeed in France. It is thanks to VPN servers spread across the world that it is then possible to circumvent the geographical restrictions imposed by SVoD platforms, or the legal restrictions of the French cultural exception.
NordVPN: the benchmark VPN
NordVPN is one of the most recognized VPNs on the market, and there are good reasons for that. First of all, and as the Frandroid test highlights, NordVPN guarantees excellent connection performance. You can connect to a VPN server and benefit from excellent speeds that do not penalize download or web browsing speed.
All of NordVPN’s features are available from the application, which is also available on PC (macOS and Windows), on smartphones (iOS and Android) and even on certain connected televisions (including Apple TV). This benefits from a particularly simple to use interface. Simply select a country from the list to connect to it.
However, behind its apparent simplicity, the NordVPN application has advanced features such as the choice of connection protocol, split tunneling and the kill switch as well as DNS management. You can use all these features on up to 10 devices with a single subscription.
Last asset up NordVPN’s sleeve: its price. The provider currently applies a 71% discount to its two-year subscription, and also offers you three months of subscription. At the end, the subscription only costs you 3.69 euros per month.
If you change your mind after subscribing, please note that NordVPN offers a 30-day “satisfied or refunded” guarantee. During this period, you can withdraw without justification by simple request to customer service.