Enforcing geo rules without breaking legitimate viewers
A streaming platform combined ASN, proxy, and country signals to enforce licensing rules while minimizing false blocks.
Audience
Streaming platform
Streaming / Media
Reference stack
Go • CDN edge workers • PostgreSQL
VPN/proxy detection on streaming traffic competitive with specialist providers
Fewer geo-blocking support tickets after switching from a stale IP database
Single-digit millisecond overhead added to edge authorization
A streaming platform operating in dozens of countries faced a patchwork of licensing agreements. They needed to enforce geo restrictions reliably, but their existing IP database was slow to update and struggled with VPNs and shared networks.
Viewers were either incorrectly blocked or allowed through when they should not have been, creating tension between legal, product, and support teams.
By moving geo enforcement to the edge and using Predax as the source of truth for IP intelligence, they were able to make consistent decisions in a few milliseconds. Edge workers called Predax for each playback request, caching results aggressively while respecting TTLs.
Support teams gained access to the same IP context used at the edge, making it easier to explain decisions to customers and adjust rules when needed.
Results with Predax
- VPN and proxy detection accuracy for streaming traffic became competitive with specialist providers, significantly reducing leakage across regions.
- Support tickets related to geo-blocking dropped meaningfully, as fewer legitimate viewers were incorrectly denied access.
- The additional checks added only single-digit milliseconds to edge authorization latency, keeping playback snappy.