Photo: tunnelbear.com
Starz is making episode 1 of Outlander, “Sassenach,” available to US residents free for a limited time (Sept. 28th).
- You can see it On Demand from your cable provider
- You can watch it directly here on Starz.com
- You can watch it here on Youtube
But what if you’re not a US resident?
“One of the great ironies of the Internet is that it is meant to connect everyone together and break down barriers, but at the same time media companies erect location-based barriers around their properties. This practice is known as geo-blocking…To some people however, these constant attempts by the media industry to segregate users according to geographic location seems unfair. The way around this issue is to use a VPN (which stands for Virtual Private Network) program, such as TunnelBear.
Basically what a VPN does is provide you with a temporary new IP address, which makes the blocked service think you are living in a country where it’s allowed to view the content you are trying to access. We can’t stress enough that using a VPN is perfectly legal, so you don’t have to worry about the cops kicking your front door down with an arrest warrant just for having this software (unless of course you’re using the VPN service for something illegal).” ~ Mark O’Neill, pcworld.com
Is it really and truly legal? It depends on who you ask, and which respective country’s copyright law is being referenced…do your research.
***Disclaimer: Under no circumstance do I believe in freely sharing paid-for/subscription-based content with those who do not pay for or subscribe to said content (i.e. Napster.com, etc.). That constitutes piracy/theft, robbing the actors/artists/crew/networks of their hard-earned profits, a slap-in-the-face to those who worked so hard to bring the project to fruition.
But a VPN does not rob the content-creators of their profit; the way I understand it, it simply gives those who would not otherwise have it, the same access as those who do. It makes the content more widely available.
Does this mean that a non-US resident, using a VPN could actually pay for/subscribe to Starz? I don’t believe you can subscribe to Starz as a web-only customer, but honestly I have no idea. Also, I have not personally utilized the above-mentioned (or any for that matter) VPN, nor do I represent them in any way. They are just an example of a VPN that I found reviewed by pcworld.com.
I strongly recommend reading the article & doing your own research.
And respectfully, Starz has made this first episode available for free via the avenues listed earlier; I feel like utilizing a VPN in this instance, for this FIRST episode only during the free-viewing-timeframe set by Starz, can only increase the fervor/demand from the countries who have yet to pick up the series…
In the meantime, the end-goal is still for countries around the world to broadcast Outlander, so I encourage residents in those countries that have not yet picked up the series to continue campaigning—call the networks, email them, Tweet them! Be relentless!
Here is a list of Twitter handles collected from our ongoing #WorldwideTVNeedsOutlander campaign:
UK:
- @sky1
- @SkyLivingHD
- @SkyAtlantic
- @FoxTVUK
- @Channel4
- @SyfyUK
- @UniversalCHUK
- @E4Tweets
- @More4,
- @Channel5_TV
Dutch/Netherlands (includes Belgium):
- @RTBF
- @RTLTVI
Finnish/Suomi:
- @Maikkari
- @YleTV1
- @YLETV2
- @Yleisradio
- @MTVSuomi
- @Kutonen
- @AVASuomi
- @HBO_fi
- @Netflix_FI
- @FoxSuomi
French/Français:
- @OCSTV
- @m6
- @TF1
Germany/German:
- @SkySerien
- @SkyDeutschland
- @RTLde
Italian/Italiano:
- @FoxTVItalia
- @SkyCinema
Spanish/Español (includes Argentina, Mexico, Columbia, Uruguay):
- @moviecity
- @Canal_Sony
- @foxtves
- @foxlife_ar
- @FoxMexico
Portuguese/Portugues (includes Brazil):
- @FOX_PT
- @AXN_Portugal
- @HBO_Brasil
- @CanalFX_br
Remember, be relentless! Good luck!
outlanderfan.com 
Anonymous said,
August 2, 2014 at 2:52 pm
Thank you! I was able to watch the 1st free episode of Outlander with Tunnelbear. So good!
OutlanderFan said,
August 2, 2014 at 7:40 pm
Yay!
jennyc10va said,
August 2, 2014 at 4:31 pm
Reblogged this on jennyc10va's Blog.
jennyc10va said,
August 2, 2014 at 4:32 pm
Great write up, Jennifer! Thank you!
OutlanderFan said,
August 2, 2014 at 7:43 pm
Thank you 🙂
Angela Sasso (@angela_sasso) said,
August 2, 2014 at 5:34 pm
We don’t really want BBC to broadcast this show as they will edit it. Please don’t target the BBC. Target @SkyAtlantic, @FoxTVUK, @Channel4 @SyfyUK, @UniversalCHUK, @E4Tweets @More4, @Channel5_TV
OutlanderFan said,
August 2, 2014 at 7:39 pm
I have updated the list/deleted BBC Angela, thank you!
chtease said,
August 2, 2014 at 5:47 pm
Thanks for supporting Outlander fans worldwide. There are a few revisions to make in the list of handles. As Angela noted above, UK fans are very much not in favor of the BBC purchasing and extensively editing Outlander.
The exciting update is that @HBOnl purchased the Dutch rights and announced it on July 31, nearly at the same time as the New Zealand rights were announced. The handles ending in “nl” can be removed from the list. The 2 remaining handles under “Dutch” are for French-speaking Belgium, which does not have a deal in place.
We’ll check with our Scandinavian contacts to see which handles should be targeted there, as new information has come to light.
The UK fans are looking to take to Twitter within in the 5 days or so with another campaign. Please watch for announcements as to date, time and hash-tag.
Thanks for all of your support for #WorldwideTVNeedsOutlander
OutlanderFan said,
August 2, 2014 at 7:40 pm
Ok, I’ve adjusted/updated the list based on your & Angela’s comments, thank you so much 🙂
RebeccaTrogner said,
August 3, 2014 at 10:49 am
Reblogged this on Rebecca Trogner Blog and commented:
Have you watched the first episode of Outlander? If not, here is an amazing post of how you can.
RebeccaTrogner said,
August 3, 2014 at 10:50 am
I reblogged this post. Great article. I watched the episode last night and was thrilled. Thank you
Jacqui Duthie said,
August 4, 2014 at 3:36 am
Chtease, when you say New Zealand has the rights, does that mean we are going to get it free here? Thanks Jacqui
Susanne said,
August 4, 2014 at 10:45 am
In Sweden we have the following handles as Twitter targets @tv3se @MTGAB @Viasatsverige @visplay_se
Plz remove HBO and TV4 – they will not show Outlander
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