IP vs. Home Address

Imagine settling onto your couch, snacks ready, excited to watch your favorite show. You turn on your streaming service, only to be greeted by an error. For some reason, it thinks you’re not at home. The channels you expect either aren’t available or, worse, nothing works. When you contact the streaming company, they insist you’re in another town or even another state. They may even blame it on your “IP address changing,” even though it probably hasn’t. 

At ITC, your IP address usually stays the same for long periods of time. While it can occasionally change, just like with most Internet providers, this isn’t a frequent occurrence. And if you’ve purchased a static IP address, it won’t change at all.

Why Does This Happen? 

Streaming services use a technology called geolocation to estimate your location based on your IP address. This helps them manage regional content restrictions and broadcasting rights, and prevents people from using VPNs to appear in other locations. Essentially, they’re making sure they’re following their contracts with broadcasters.

It’s worth remembering that misidentification isn’t a sign that something is broken on your end. Think of it like a map with blurry lines. Your location might be in the right region, but it’s not exact. Minor errors in geolocation can affect which shows appear available and other streaming issues. 

Behind the scenes, your streaming service relies on outside companies that specialize in mapping IP addresses to locations. These providers maintain large databases that estimate where users are connecting from. Even major providers report city-level accuracy rates of only 36–62%, and in rural areas, accuracy can drop even further. In other words, even the most trusted sources aren’t always correct.

In our own testing, we’ve seen members misidentified in places as varied as Sioux Falls, Minneapolis, or even Texas. All without even leaving home.

The takeaway? There is no reliable method for streaming services to match an IP address to your exact home address. It’s simply not what the technology was designed to do. It can usually figure out your country, often your state, and sometimes your nearest city. But beyond that, it’s just an estimate.

At ITC, we’re actively helping where we can. Based on feedback from members like you, we submit updates to the major geolocation providers to improve accuracy. Results can vary since each company updates its records differently, but we continue to advocate on your behalf and take the steps needed to improve location data.

Our goal at ITC is simple: to help you spend less time troubleshooting and more time streaming. Any questions on geolocation, please call ITC at 1.800.417.8667.