Why Disney Plus is Blocking VPNs and How to Get Over It?

Whenever you try to access Disney+ from a VPN that has been blocked, you’ll receive an error that says, ‘Sorry, Disney+ is only available in certain regions.’

Now, Disney+ implies that this error occurs when you’re trying to access the service from a region where the Disney+ service isn’t available or either you’re using a VPN.

Disney Plus is now having a crackdown on VPNs to prevent anyone from viewing its content other than those 13 countries.

Not all VPNs are able to bypass Disney+ geo-restrictions. VPNRanks has conducted detailed analysis of 11 VPNs and out of these, there are only a few that work with Disney+ with a high degree of reliability.

In this guide, I’ll be discussing why Disney+ block VPNs and how you can avoid it.

Why Disney Plus Block VPNs?

Disney+ has licensing agreements with the content owners to provide their content in particular regions. Since its service is available in 13 countries, Disney+ makes an agreement with content owners to provide their content for viewing in those 13 countries.

Therefore, Disney Plus wouldn’t want any user to use a VPN and access its service in a country where Disney+ service isn’t available. That’s quite straight forward.

Even though it isn’t illegal to use a VPN with Disney+ which I will be discussing later in this article, still Disney+ can’t just sit down and let everyone use VPN to access its service from another country even though they have subscribed to its service.

As a result, Disney Plus manages to block these VPNs and ban their IP address such as 192.168.1.1 so that users aren’t able to watch Disney+ content from outside of those 13 countries.

How to Unblock Disney Plus with a VPN?

Step 1: Subscribe to any VPN (As discussed at the start of the article)

Step 2: Download a VPN app from their website

Step 3: You need to ‘Run’ the installation

Step 4: Once installed, enter login details

Step 5: Click on Locations menu and select any server (e.g. US server)

Step 6: Once connected, open browser in Incognito mode

Step 7: Open Disney+ website and start streaming any content

Can I Use a Free VPN to Unblock Disney Plus?

You can try using a free VPN to unblock Disney Plus content, but you won’t be able to do it. Why? Because free VPNs do not have residential IPs that can help unblock Disney+.

These residential IPs are quite expensive and only premium VPNs are able to afford it. Disney Plus every now and then blocks these IPs if there are too many people trying to access the website at the same time.

These VPNs have to find more residential IPs in order to keep assisting their users in accessing Disney+.

These free VPNs neither have residential IPs nor do they have servers in abundance. They claim to unblock Disney+ and other streaming services through their paid plans which is basically their premium version.

Also, even if the free VPN manages to unblock Disney+ service, you won’t be able to stream much because they have a bandwidth limitation as much as 500 Mb for a month that is easily consumed with a single episode of ‘The Mandalorian’. They entice users into buying the paid version.

Let’s assume that a completely free VPN manages to give you Disney+ access without charging you any money and gives you unlimited bandwidth, then you must know that they’re selling your data to third parties. In any case, say no to free VPNs.

It is Legal to Use VPN to Unblock Disney+?

It is perfectly legal to use a VPN with Disney+ but the streaming service itself does not recommend it.

One of the reasons why it isn’t recommended is because it has made a licensing agreement with content owners. It wouldn’t recommend subscribers to use it in countries where the service isn’t available. Even travelers are not exempted to use the service abroad.

Second, a VPN slows down your internet speed and it may ruin your streaming experience so Disney+ doesn’t recommend using a VPN.

But if you’re thinking that they might cancel your subscription then you’re totally wrong. I tested many VPNs to see if they work with Disney+ and most of those VPNs won’t work because I received the geo-restriction error. However, not once I was notified that my service will be terminated.

Key Takeaways

Disney+ service has now started to crack down on VPNs that previously managed to unblock the service from a country where its service isn’t available.

You’ll get to know once you receive a message that says Disney+ isn’t available in your region.

The best way possible to bypass its restrictions without getting banned is to use only those VPNs that offer residential IPs as I have discussed in this guide. If you need assistance with your technology, BCA IT in Miami is a managed IT support company that can help you.