Geo-fencing (or geo-blocking) an RSS feed restricts access to your podcast based on a listener’s geographic location. This is commonly used to manage rights and licensing agreements or to limit distribution to specific regions.
Before getting started, there are a few important things to understand about how geo-blocking works:
Things to Consider…
Timeline
Geo-blocking requires at least 30 days’ notice. The setup is more complex than a standard onboarding and involves coordination with our Tech team, scheduling, and a specific order of operations.
Listener Experience
Listeners outside of your allowed regions will still see your podcast’s artwork and title in apps, but they won’t be able to play episodes. Instead, they’ll hear a “blocked episode”- a short audio message (provided by you) explaining the restriction.
Allowed Countries
You’ll need to provide a list of the specific countries where your podcast should be available.
VPN Access
As with most geo-restricted content, listeners using tools like VPNs may still be able to access your content by masking their location.
Setup Process
1. Confirm Your Launch Date
- Determine your geo-block launch date.
- Notify the PRX team at podcast-support@prx.org once your date is confirmed.
2. Create Your “Blocked” Episode
This episode will be served to listeners outside of your allowed regions.
- Create a short audio message explaining the restriction.
- Set up this episode as a draft in Dovetail (do not publish the episode).
- Notify the PRX team at podcast-distribution@prx.org once the draft is ready.
The PRX team will configure this episode to act as your geo-block placeholder.
3. Implement Geo-blocking
- PRX will apply geo-blocking to your feed in Dovetail using your list of approved countries.
- Once enabled, only listeners in those regions will be able to play full episodes.
4. Update Platform Settings
Apple Podcasts Connect
You’ll need to update availability settings directly in Podcast Connect:
- Log in to your account
- Select your podcast
- Go to Availability
- Click Edit next to availability settings
- Select the countries where your show should be available
- Click Save
Spotify for Podcasters
- The PRX team will handle geo-blocking on Spotify for you.
Questions? Feel free to reach out to our support team at podcast-support@prx.org.