Netflix is chock-full of amazing titles, but did you know some of them are only available in some countries? Right now, it seems that the US, UK, and Canadian Netflix libraries have the most titles (almost 6,000).
Netflix UK stands out a lot since it hosts a lot of awesome titles. We’ll highlight the three best ones (in our opinion), and show you how you can unblock them quick and fast. Oh, and if you want to know how we checked if they’re only available in the UK, we used StreamCatcher.proprivacy – an online tool from ProPrivacy that tells you which regions a Netflix title is available in.
1. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Given how funny the show is, it’s almost a crime that it’s only available on the UK library. The premise is simple – five very egotistical friends own an Irish pub in Philadelphia and go on seemingly mundane but wacky adventures (accidentally turning their pub into the hottest gay bar in town, pretending to be pro-life to pick up women at an anti-abortion rally, and more).
The show received tons of awards, but the one that stands out the most about it is that it became the longest-running live-action comedy series.
2. Doctor Who
This show is a BBC classic that started in 1963 and ended up being extremely popular worldwide when it got a reboot in 2006. The series follows the adventures of the titular character who uses a device called the TARDIS to go to any moment and place in time and space. Doctor Who is an excellent mix of sci-fi, witty humor, and story writing that will make you binge a whole season in a day.
3. Mr. Bean: The Whole Bean
This is an award-winning comedy series that anyone who grew up in the ‘90s remembers fondly. Rowan Atkinson plays a childlike, bumbling character that struggles to perform even the simplest of tasks, and only ends up overcomplicating them (buying a TV, going to a dentist appointment, hosting a New Year’s Eve party, and much more).
How to Unblock These Netflix UK-Exclusives
What’s stopping you from watching them?
Geo-blocks, basically. Thanks to them, Netflix can redirect you to your country’s library. Don’t forget – the site knows your IP address, so it knows exactly what country and city you are from.
How can you get around them, then?
It’s really simple – just use a VPN. It’s an online tool that hides your IP address from Netflix. It does that by routing your connection requests through a VPN server. So basically, your connection looks like this:
Device ⇒ ISP Network ⇒ VPN Server ⇒ Netflix
Netflix will think your traffic is coming from the VPN server, not your device. Because of that, it will only see the server’s IP address. As long as you use a UK VPN server, Netflix will see a British IP address. That way, you’ll get redirected to the UK content library.
You’ll have to make sure you’re using a VPN that actually works with Netflix, though. The site is pretty good at detecting VPN IPs. When it does that, it redirects VPN users to the Netflix proxy error page.
But how do you know a VPN can bypass that issue?
Well, to do that, the provider has to regularly refresh their server IP addresses (lease new ones, essentially). Unfortunately, VPN providers don’t exactly mention how often they do that in their marketing copy. Instead, they just say their service can “unblock Netflix.”
That claim isn’t really enough to get you to buy a subscription, however. Maybe the VPN unblocks Netflix UK at first, but stops working after a week.
Why Else Should You Use a Netflix VPN?
Besides helping you unblock content, can a VPN do anything else?
Yes, actually – it can stop your ISP from throttling your bandwidth.
If you don’t know what that means, it’s when your ISP lowers your online speeds. They sometimes do it to prevent network congestion when there’s a lot of user traffic going through their servers. They might also do it as a warning if you’re about to go over your data limit.
If you like binging Netflix a lot (especially on weekends), you’ll probably deal with some throttling at some point.
So how does a VPN help?
It’s simple:
- It encrypts your traffic end-to-end. Your ISP can’t monitor your traffic anymore, so they won’t know that you’re using Netflix.
- It stops your ISP from seeing what sites you’re communicating with. They’ll only see that you’re connected to the VPN server’s IP address. They won’t know you’re exchanging data with Netflix’s IP.
Why Are Some Titles Exclusive to the Netflix UK Library?
Because Netflix only has the licensing rights for that region. Since they don’t own those shows and movies, they have to purchase distribution rights from the copyright holders to stream them.
In this case, they weren’t able to get global rights, just for the UK.
Why?
Probably because the copyright holders sold the distribution rights for other regions to other streaming sites and TV networks. It’s a much profitable deal for them, after all.
Or maybe Netflix’s data showed there wouldn’t be any interest for those shows in your region. So it wouldn’t be worth it to heavily invest in getting regional rights for your area.
Which UK-Only Netflix Titles Do You Like the Most?
We personally prefer It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but we’d like to hear your opinions too. Also, if you know other ways to unblock Netflix UK or other UK-only titles that should be present on our list, please let us know.
