Okay, so I know this is a frustration for many of you living in America who want to watch Italian TV. I really believe the problem is temporary, but temporary can mean longer than your life, so… you need a solution!
You may have noticed that some of the videos posted here on My Italian Diary disappear or you see a notice that says the video is not available in your country. What’s going on here? It has to do with the notion of copyright. Those of you who know me, know I have strong opinions on this topic. I’m not going to go into it here. All I will say is some publishers are very foolish and do not publish their content worldwide. This limits their reach, of course, which is why I think it’s very foolish. Nevertheless, there is no reason for you to accept this nonsense. For a small fee you can be watching anything you want, anywhere in the world. How?
The Solution
With a VPN. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. You see, whenever you are on the internet the world knows where you are via an address that only your computer has. That address, in the lingo of the computer savvy, is known as an IP address. IP addresses, not being real addresses, but metaphorical ones, can essentially be anywhere. You just need to know how to make them appear to be what you want. Sounds hard, but it’s actually very easy – because some other computer savvy people have developed an easy peasy system for you. One such company is called Hide My Ass(ino). This is the VPN that I use and it works very well for me.
Why Hide My Ass?
Well, VPN’s are not only used to watch videos banned in your country for whatever reason. They also help hide your IP address for security purposes. But, you can read all about that on their website.
At the moment they are having a very nice sale, so for $4.99 a month, you can be watching all of the shows on RAI Play, anything on YouTube that shows only in Italy, and content on a lot of other Italian websites, too. And you get a little security when you’re on public wifi. That’s cheap!
How Does It Work?
It’s very simple. You sign up for subscription plan and download an app. Then, you sign in to the app, follow a few onscreen instructions and BOOM, you’re in Italy! (Ah, if it were only that easy, eh?)
You can use the VPN on your computer, your wifi network, your smart TV, your iPhone, your tablet, etc and so on. That means if you happen to be using the wifi in Starbucks and you want to watch RAI Play on your iPhone, guess what, you can!
You can’t go wrong, either, because there’s a 30-day money back guarantee if you decide it won’t work for you. But it will! Think of all the Italian TV you’ll be watching! And I don’t mean that boring stuff on cable that you have to pay $10 a month for. So give it a try!
And so, if some of the videos I post disappear, now you know why. But you also know that YOU can still watch them.