Restrictions by geographic area

When establishing the rights for the global transmission of audiovisual content, one of the negotiating criteria is geoblocking, which specifies which territories the content can be viewed from.

TV3's policy on the negotiation of digital rights is to make content as widely available as possible; as a result, whenever possible, videos are available worldwide. Nevertheless, geoblocking must be used in some cases to ensure that programs are only visible in Spain or Catalonia.

On occasion, when programs are restricted to viewers in Catalonia, some local users are nevertheless unable to access them. This is due to technical issues related to geoblocking. To determine the viewer's location, TV3's video server asks the user's device where it is located and, depending on that information, it either permits the viewer to view the content or returns a “content not available” message.

The information provided by some internet providers is often erroneous, indicating that the user is outside of Catalonia even if they are not. The video server then believes that the user is located elsewhere and, in keeping with the broadcasting rights, it does not allow them to view the content.

Since such problems only arise when content is restricted to Catalonia, and since this is due to problems beyond TV3's control, TV3alacarta includes very little content with this type of restriction. Geoblocking is only used to restrict content to users in Catalonia when all other options are impossible due to matters regarding rights and negotiations.

If you are in Catalonia and still have problems viewing content, you can find out what location your internet provider has assigned to your device by visiting the following website: http://www.iplocation.net/. If that location is incorrect, you can contact your internet provider and ask them to assign you a location within Catalonia.

TV3CAT has no restrictions regarding live broadcasts. As a result, all of its live content can be viewed online from anywhere in the world.