Do you get an error message at YouTube saying: “The uploader has not made this video available in your country?” YouTube use a geo-block to keep content away from you. What can you do about it?
YouTube is becoming a platform not only for streaming video-clips, but frequently you can also watch live streaming of sports events, concerts and other happenings at the portal. But, when you try to watch such content you might discover soon, that such content is not meant to be available for everyone. That is why YouTube uses a geo-block, in order to make sure that certain content will only be made available in given nations. Is there a way to get access to such YouTube content anyway?
[stbpro id=”info” caption=”What is a geo-block?”]A geo-block is something websites and services use to keep content available for a limited audience only. Whenever you visit a website, your IP address is registered. Your IP address will share information about your whereabouts in the world, and based on this a website can decide whether to make content available, or to keep it away from you, based on that information.[/stbpro]
How to bypass YouTube geo-blocks?
If you get the error message saying “The uploader has not made this video available in your country“, you will need to use a VPN service in order to get an IP address in another nation in which the video stream can be seen. The best VPN provider for that purpose is HideMyAss, the worlds largest provider. They have servers in about 200 nations, meaning that you can get an IP address about anywhere in the world.
Press the button above, visit their website and sign up for their services. Afterwards you can download their content and get started. You can also follow these instructions if you use an Android device, an iOS device or of course also on Mac. It is also worth noticing that HIdeMyAss has a 30 day full refund policy, meaning that you will get your money back if you ain’t satisfied with what you get.
Understanding the geo-block will help you bypass it!
Now that you have a HideMyAss subscription, it is about time to bypass that YouTube geo-block. If the content you want to stream is unavailable in your nation, then you need to get an IP address somewhere else. Here are some good questions that will help you find out how to bypass the YouTube geo-block!
What do you want to stream?
A festival in the Netherlands
Let us say that there is a festival taking place in Amsterdam, Netherlands. This event is broadcasted on YouTube, but since the local crew wants the people of Amsterdam to visit the event themselves (instead of streaming it on YouTube), the stream has been blocked in the Netherlands. Sounds logical? If that is so, connect to a HideMyAss server in any nation (that is not the Netherlands), and you will be ready to stream the event right away.
A live stream from a sports event
This is maybe the most frequent case for which people get geo-blocked by YouTube. At the time writing there is Hockey World Championships arranged in France and Germany and as we tried to stream it on YouTube yesterday, we got the geo-block error. How do you solve this? To find out in which countries the YouTube live stream can be seen, you better ask yourself some questions:
- Which nations participate in the tournament? Normally partaking nations will have a broadcaster at home airing the event, meaning that YouTube will not be allowed to broadcast the event in that given nation. A great guess is therefore to get an IP address in a nation that is not taking part in the tournament.
- Sometimes YouTube also give information on the given channel or the actual video on where you can stream it, and where you can’t. Look for such information, but if you do not find it, go back to the first step again.
A special happening in a given nation
There might be events that are broadcasted on YouTube that can only be seen in one given nation, and sometimes even in one specific region of a nation (this is for example used by YouTube TV in the USA at the moment). If that is so, get an IP address in the given nation or region, and you will be ready to go afterwards.
The YouTube geo-block error messages
We do not know exactly which error message you received, but English language users who come to YouTube will get the following error message as they try to stream content not available in their country:
- The uploader has not made this video available in your country
If you have YouTube setup for a different language, you will get a different error message. Here are examples of the same error message in some different languages.
- Opplasteren har ikke gjort denne videoen tilgjengelig for ditt land. (Norway)
- Innehållsleverantören har inte gjort det här videoklippet gillgängelig i ditt land. (Sweden)
- A videó feltöltője nem tette elérhetővé videóját az országodban. (Hungary)
- Uploaderen har ikke gjort denne video tilgængelig i dit land.(Danish)
- Der betreffende Nutzer hat das Video in deinem Land nicht zur Verfügung gestellt. (German)
- El usuario que ha subido este vídeo lo ha bloqueado en tu país. (Spanish)
- Cette vidéo a été bloquée dans votre pays par l’utilisateur qui l’a mise en ligne. (French)
- Sá sem hlóð þessu vídeói upp hefur ekki gert það tiltækt í þínu heimalandi. (Icelandic)
- De gebruiker die de video heeft geüpload, heeft deze video niet beschikbaar gemaakt in jouw land. (Netherlands)
- Przesyłający nie udostępnił tego filmu w Twoim kraju. (Poland)
- O remetente não disponibilizou este vídeo no seu país. (Portugal)
- Lataaja ei ole asettanut tätä videota saataville maassasi. (Finland)
- Yükleyici, bu videoyu ülkenizde kullanıma sunmadı. (Turkey)
- Пользователь, загрузивший видео, запретил его просмотр в вашей стране. (Russian)
- Die oplaaier het nie hierdie video in jou land beskikbaar gemaak nie. (African)
- Používateľ, ktorý odovzdal toto video, ho nesprístupnil vo vašej krajine. (Slovenia)
- Ο χρήστης που έκανε μεταφόρτωση του βίντεο δεν έχει διαθέσει αυτό το βίντεο στη χώρα σας. (Greek)
- 上传用户已禁止在您的国家/地区播放此视频。 (Chinese)
Above you will find some examples on the same error message in different countries across the world. No matter which language you get the error message in, the method described above will help you bypass the YouTube geo-block, and will make you able to stream the content you are looking for online within a few minutes.
YouTube content location
As you scroll down to the bottom of the YouTube website you will see a language and a content location option. Does this in any way influence geo-blocks? If your content location is set to the UK and the content you are watching is supposed to be blocked in UK, will that keep the content unavailable, even though you use a VPN to get an IP address somewhere else? The answer to that question is NO! Your YouTube content location settings will not influence whether or not content will be blocked or not, the only thing influencing this is your IP address.
Questions or comments?
We hope these instructions have helped you out, but if you have any comments or questions related to streaming YouTube live streams online and bypassing geo-blocks, use the comment field beneath. We will do our uttermost to answer questions quickly, making sure that you can go ahead and stream the content you are looking for as soon as possible!
