How VPNs Open Up A World Of Streaming Entertainment

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How VPNs Open Up a World of Streaming Entertainment


If you’ve spent any time online recently, chances are you’ve heard of a VPN (Virtual Private Network), which is short for virtual private network. The general context for this piece of consumer software is its utility as a cybersecurity tool. Sure, that’s a big part of the many practical guises taken on by a VPN.

But there are more leisure-oriented use cases that are just as transformative and can greatly enhance your interaction with the online world.

Got your interest piqued? Good, because you will now be guided through the ways in which you can use a VPN to multiply your stock of entertainment resources. Just pick a good streaming VPN and the rest is easy as 1,2, 3.

What Does a VPN Do?

The main action that a VPN carries out for your internet connection is something called IP obfuscation. This is when the VPN hides your real IP address and replaces it. What’s the new one, you ask? Well, that’s what you decide. You can pick the location from where your new IP address will be selected.

The VPN service has a list of servers in international locations, spread across continents, where each server has a pool of IP addresses belonging to that region. If you select that region, you are assigned an IP address from that region’s pool, and off you go! You are, at least, no longer identifiable by where you physically are, but from where you digitally appear to be.

How a VPN Connection Benefits You

Once your identifiable location is obscured on the internet, websites you visit, or apps you use, are only able to see your VPN-assigned IP address. That opens a whole new world of possibilities for you. Because, much like the real world, locations on the internet have their special spin on apps and services that you may be familiar with in your home. 

These geo-specific traits can appear in the form of different types of content and other differences. The more you explore, the more you realise that your access to the internet was limited to the familiar and that there is another world out there where people interact online that was hidden from you.

When we talk of entertainment specifically, here are the actions a VPN enables you to perform:

Unblock Geo-restricted Streams 

We love an international sporting event, especially when our team is participating. Worldwide, there are hugely popular soccer, racing, athletic, and combat sports events that attract global fans.

But in this era of labyrinthine copyright restrictions, we may not be able to access the good quality live stream of the big game, or match, or fight, because we just happen to live in a particular place. A VPN solves this conundrum with its built-in features.

Select a location where the stream is readily available from the VPN’s server list and you will soon be joining the millions of fans that enjoy a live sporting event the way it should be enjoyed- in real time and HD quality.

Get Cheaper Subscriptions

There are times when whole subscription services are beyond our reach because of regional restrictions on content availability. This is a similar problem to the one mentioned above, but stretched to include hours and hours of content rather than a single event. 

Of course, a VPN helps in this scenario, but do you know, you can get a better deal on your entertainment with a VPN even from streaming services that do exist in your region? That’s right!

There are countries where the same subscription service you use operates at much cheaper rates. This cost reduction materializes because of the exchange rates, but also because streaming services have different pricing regimes for different countries.

For instance, YouTube Premium is cheaper in India than in most other regions, even if you factor in forex rates. If you subscribe to this service while connected to an Indian server, you will see a significantly reduced price list that you can take advantage of. The same goes for services like Spotify.

Access More Streaming Libraries

What if you discover there are no major cost differences between the streaming service you use and its counterpart in another country? Well, look again because the relevant differences don’t end there. 

Many streaming services curate their content library according to the region in which they operate and the varying tastes of the local audiences. This means that the Netflix library in Japan will not be the same as the one in Brazil.
There is major content overlap in both countries, for sure, but there is also a notable number of movies and shows that you cannot watch outside of Japan or Brazil, taking the same example.

Connecting to a VPN and restarting the streaming service shows you the new and exciting films and series you have been missing out on by sticking to the content library associated with your physical location.

Enjoy Subscriptions While Travelling

When the holidays come around, many people accumulate a backlog of shows and movies they are not able to watch due to time constraints. But another type of holiday entertainment fast is the one where you are abroad, and so, none of your subscriptions are accessible. 

Don’t sustain yourself with the meagre offerings of a hotel TV service and deprive yourself of a hearty entertainment diet. Connect your VPN, and sign in to your music and video-on-demand apps just as if you were at home. This way, you’ll be able to participate in the online fandom discourse and not get left behind.

Some apps allow limited access to their service while a subscriber is abroad. Since you are still paying full rates for the same time period, why not get your money’s worth by connecting via a VPN and not letting anyone stand in the way of you and your entertainment.

Conclusion

A VPN is a pretty nifty tool that, with its primary objective of providing online privacy, gives users a streaming advantage. If you get a paid subscription, the return on investment is staggering.

All you need to do is hit connect on the relevant server location and then play smartly with the streaming options it opens up for you.

Image: demairre

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