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How to Watch Saturday Night Live Outside of the USA

By Paul Liu
Saturday, September 7th, 2013

Saturday Night Live (SNL) is one of the all-time great Stand-up comedy and variety shows that made its debut in 1975. The show was created by Lorne Michaels for NBC and is renowned for its live acts and musical performances. Each show is usually hosted by a celebrity who joins the cast in parodying political stories and contemporary culture through comedy sketches.

Saturday Night Live also acts as a springboard for talented actors and writers and several of its cast members and writers have found great success on TV and films (Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Mike Myers, Dan Aykroyd, Tina Fey, Chris Rock, Jimmy Fallon among others). The show has received most Emmy award nominations, appeared in several all-time great shows lists and has even inspired books, feature films and international versions.

Saturday Night Live Availability

Saturday Night Live is telecast on the NBC Channel and is also available through the official NBC portal. The online version of SNL also showcases past episodes as well as best-of and exclusive videos. However, due to content sharing agreements signed by NBC, the online version of the show is not available outside United States. Fans of the show who try to access it online from a different country come across this message – “We’re sorry, but the clip you selected isn’t available from your location. Please select another clip”. Such restrictive practices are especially harsh for travelers and expats who cannot watch their favorite shows just because they happen to be outside the country.

How NBC Blocks Access To Saturday Night Live

NBC is able to block people from accessing Saturday Night Live since it knows about their location through their IP addresses. Every internet user has a different IP address which can instantly reveal his/her location as well as several other details. Content providers like NBC usually allow country based access so visitors from US are able to access the shows while the international visitors are redirected to the error message page.

To unblock Saturday Night Live from outside US, you need to shield your real IP address from NBC and get a new US based IP address. Proxies or VPNs usually do the trick and allow you to instantly unlock all NBC shows including SNL. However, VPNs offer speed and privacy advantage over proxies so they are well-suited for unlocking online streaming shows.

How To Watch Saturday Night Live From Outside US With A VPN

Step 1: Look for a VPN vendor with at least one server in United States. To unlock Saturday Night Live episodes, we advise choosing from Overplay, VPN4ALL, proXPN, and BolehVPN simply because these companies offer extremely fast connection speeds at an affordable price.

Step 2: Get the VPN client from the VPN provider’s site and install it according to the instructions provided or configure the virtual private network by updating the system’s network settings. For mobile devices like tablets and Smartphones, there is typically no installation essential but you must set up the service by editing some network parameters. Nearly all VPN companies include in-depth setup tutorials on their websites so make sure to select the accurate setup method meant for your device and its operating system.

Step 3: Save and apply the updates and restart your desktop computer if needed (not necessary for handheld mobile devices). For tablets and Smartphones, you simply need to save and apply the changes and restart the NBC application to make use of the new network settings.

Step 4: Launch the VPN service by clicking on the VPN Connection name through the start menu or simply tap on Connect option.

Step 5: Search for a US based VPN server in the event the default server is from a different country. Nearly all VPN providers have got servers at number of locations around the world so you must select a server from US manually in order to unlock Saturday Night Live episodes. Should your VPN company offer a lot of server options within US, look for a server which is nearest to your actual location to get a lot faster streaming and buffering speeds.

Step 6: Connect to the NBC site and check whether you are able to watch Saturday Night Live videos without facing any issues. To watch SNL episodes by means of mobile devices, close the NBC native app and start it again to unlock all features. Congratulations, you have unlocked Saturday Night Live and you are now ready to enjoy its episodes from just about any location in the world.