Blocked from accessing zdf.de outside of Germany

zdf.de

4 points·derdrdirk··5 comments

I tried accessing the German public-service television broadcaster ZDF's website (zdf.de) from outside of Germany, but it seems I'm being blocked. There are national elections happening today in Germany, and I wanted to follow the coverage.

Error: Access Denied You don't have permission to access "http://www.zdf.de/" on this server. Reference #18.5d401002.1740330090.500ca4e4

https://errors.edgesuite.net/18.5d401002.1740330090.500ca4e4

I despise the practice of geoblocking so much.

According to the ZDF [0],

> For legal reasons, the 24/7 live streams under "Live TV" are only available in Germany. ZDF offers exclusive live streams for selected programs that can be used outside of Germany.

(translation by Google Translate)

No idea whether news coverage of the ongoing elections constitutes such an "exclusive" stream. Have you checked whether the direct link to the special [1] is blocked, too?

ARD hosts an explanatory page [2] which explains possible reasons for the blocking, at least on their side. There’s also anecdotal evidence that ARD might be a little more lenient [3].

[0]: http://web.archive.org/web/20250217165733/https://www.zdf.de...

[1]: https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten-sendungen/zdfspezial/bundesta...

[2]: http://web.archive.org/web/20240619204708/https://www.dasers...

[3]: https://github.com/mediathekview/zapp/issues/28

Works fine for me, I'm traveling around Europe but currently in a non EU country.

I get rejected similarly from the UK.

I would be suprised if it was france, but uk? That is the same as anyone outside of the eu

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