Key Takeaways
- voddler.co.uk today is a UK blog publishing streaming alternatives lists and entertainment news, not a streaming service.
- “Voddler” was also a Swedish video on demand startup (2005 to about 2012), nicknamed the “Spotify for movies”. No public evidence connects the two.
- The current site is listicle heavy, posts mostly under one author byline, and shows no verified ownership or contact details.
- Reading the blog is free, but streaming alternatives content sits in a legally grey area, so use legitimate services to watch.
If you typed voddler.co.uk into Google, you probably expected one thing and found something else. Search results mix a modern UK blog about streaming alternatives with memories of a Swedish video service that shut down years ago. This guide clears up the confusion.
In short, voddler.co.uk is an informational blog covering alternatives to popular streaming and sports sites, plus entertainment and tech news. The original Voddler was a Stockholm based video on demand startup that never survived the Netflix era. Below you will find what each one is, whether the current site is safe to read, and what happened to the old service.
What Is voddler.co.uk Today?
voddler.co.uk is a UK focused blog that publishes “alternatives to” listicles about streaming sites, alongside entertainment, gaming, and tech news. It is not a streaming platform, it hosts no videos, and it sells no subscriptions. Visitors come for articles like “alternatives to BuffStreams” or “alternatives to 9anime” and leave with reading material, not a play button.
The site runs on WordPress with a category driven archive. Recent posts sit under categories such as News, Business, Gaming, Anime, Online Streaming, and Blog, with “Latest” and “In Spotlight” sections on the homepage. Topics spotted include datacenter proxy pools, PDC Darts UK streaming, World Cup 2026 coverage, and pieces on how algorithms shape digital life.
The bulk of the catalog is the alternatives series, covering sports, movies and TV, and anime sites in detail, each broken out in the content pillars table below.
Dated posts run from November 2024 through July 2026, so the blog still appears to be updated rather than abandoned. Most articles carry a single author byline, Kristen Jensen, so readers get one editorial voice across nearly every topic.
The content leans on listicle format, useful for quick scanning but thin on original analysis. Compared with deeper review formats like our Tozy Magazine review or our what is Sosoactive explainer here on DigitalGeekSpot, voddler.co.uk stays closer to surface level summaries than hands on testing.
Are the Two Voddler Entities Connected?
Direct answer: No, there is no public evidence of any connection. The old company was a Stockholm based video on demand service that shut down around 2012, and the current site is a UK blog about streaming alternatives. They share a name and nothing verifiable beyond that.
What Was the Original Voddler Service?
The original Voddler was a Swedish peer to peer video on demand service founded in Stockholm in 2005, completely separate from the current voddler.co.uk blog. It shut down years ago. At its peak the press called it the “Spotify for movies”, because, like Spotify, it was a Swedish startup betting that new distribution technology could beat piracy with convenience.
The company was venture backed with offices in Stockholm, Palo Alto, and Beijing. Its core asset was Vnet, a peer to peer distribution system covered by 28 patents across two patent families. The first seconds of a film were cached locally so playback started instantly, with up to 13GB cached on the viewer’s hard drive to keep streams smooth.
Voddler Timeline
- 2005: Voddler founded in Stockholm.
- 28 October 2009: Beta launch in Sweden, initially only for customers of ISP Bredbandsbolaget.
- February 2010: The service is hacked and taken offline, staying down until 8 March while the team rebuilds the client on Flash.
- 1 July 2010: Full public launch in Sweden after an invitation only phase, then expansion to Norway, Denmark, and Finland.
- 2012: Limited launch in Spain with a smaller catalog, an exclusive app for Nokia Lumia Windows Phones, and a “movie night” social watching feature.
- 2012 onward: The service fades as licensing costs and better funded competitors squeeze it out. It never expanded beyond the Nordics and Spain.
How Did Voddler Make Money?
Voddler mixed four revenue models, ambitious for the era. The company signed license deals with Warner Bros., Paramount, Sony, Disney and subsidiaries such as Touchstone and Miramax, plus HBO Home Video and BBC Worldwide, and claimed more than one million registered users across the Nordics.
| Model | What It Means | Voddler Example |
|---|---|---|
| AVOD | Ad supported video on demand, free to watch with ads | Free film catalog, with up to 5 minutes of pre roll ads reported in Sweden |
| TVOD | Transactional rental, pay per title | Paid films rented for around 2 to 4 euros, with offline viewing in the desktop client |
| SVOD | Subscription video on demand, monthly package | Subscription packages offered alongside rentals |
| EST | Electronic sell through, buy to own | Films available for outright digital purchase |
Why did it fade? Licensing Hollywood films country by country is expensive, and by 2012 Netflix style subscription services set the pace. Voddler stayed limited to the Nordics and Spain while rivals went global, and peer to peer delivery mattered less as broadband improved.
Voddler Then vs Now: Side by Side
This comparison keeps the two straight:
| Legacy Voddler Service (2005 to ~2012) | voddler.co.uk (Current Site) | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Peer to peer video on demand platform | WordPress blog about streaming alternatives and entertainment news |
| Business model | Mix of AVOD, TVOD rentals, SVOD subscriptions, and EST purchases | Informational content; no subscriptions or rentals sold |
| Content | Licensed Hollywood and Scandinavian films, TV episodes, documentaries | “Alternatives to” listicles for sports, movies, TV, and anime sites, plus tech and gaming posts |
| Availability | Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, then limited Spain | UK focused, accessible worldwide as a website |
| Status | Defunct, shut down years ago | Active blog, with posts dated from November 2024 through July 2026 |
| Connection between them | No public evidence of any connection; the shared name appears to be coincidence or reuse of a dormant brand | |
What Does voddler.co.uk Publish?
The site’s output falls into five clear pillars:
| Content Pillar | Example Topics |
|---|---|
| Sports streaming alternatives | BuffStreams, Hesgoal, Streameast, Rojadirecta, Stream2Watch alternatives |
| Movies and TV alternatives | YesMovies, TVMuse, TheWatchSeries, SolarMovie roundups |
| Anime alternatives | 9anime, Anilinkz, Animesuge lists |
| Entertainment news | Football documentaries, HBO Max UK launch, PDC Darts UK streaming, World Cup 2026 |
| Tech and gaming | Datacenter proxy pools, online gaming in Canada, gamification and crypto, digital tools |
Is voddler.co.uk Safe and Legit?
Reading voddler.co.uk as a blog looks like a low risk activity, and it appears to be a genuine active publication rather than a scam. Here is what can actually be verified. A third party site checker (webrate.org) reported the domain online behind Cloudflare hosting, with rough estimates of about 1,961 daily visitors and a site value near $2,825.
On the caution side, the same checker flagged the site’s SSL certificate as expired (its page cites a certificate expired April 17, 2025, reviewed January 19, 2025). Certificate status changes over time, so check the padlock in your own browser before entering personal information anywhere. We could not verify ownership details, author credentials beyond a byline name, or a contact page, so browse the articles freely but share no personal details, payments, or logins there.
Is voddler.co.uk Legal?
Reading a blog is legal. The nuance is the niche: “streaming alternatives” content often references unofficial sports and movie sites, and that category sits in a legally grey area in most countries. The articles themselves are informational, but laws differ by jurisdiction, so use the blog as a reading resource and do your actual watching on legitimate services, the same principle behind our Nemin.io guide.
Who Should Read voddler.co.uk (and Who Should Skip It)
Useful for you if:
- You want quick lists of alternatives to well known streaming, sports, or anime sites.
- You follow UK angled entertainment news, such as darts, football documentaries, or British streaming launches.
- You are researching the streaming alternatives landscape and want one more data point.
Probably skip it if:
- You expect hands on testing or original reporting.
- You want verified expertise. One byline across every topic with no credentials shown limits how much weight the recommendations carry.
- You came looking for the old Voddler streaming service. It no longer exists, and this site is not it.
Frequently Asked Questions About voddler.co.uk
What is voddler.co.uk?
voddler.co.uk is a UK based blog publishing “alternatives to” listicles about streaming, sports, and anime sites, plus entertainment, gaming, and tech news. It is not a streaming service and hosts no video content.
Is voddler.co.uk safe and legit?
It looks like a genuine, active blog rather than a scam, with posts dated from late 2024 through mid 2026. Ownership is unverified, a third party checker once reported an expired SSL certificate, and no contact details are visible.
Is voddler.co.uk free to use?
Yes. It is a free to read blog with no subscriptions, rentals, or accounts. It is a publication, not a streaming platform like the old Voddler service was.
Is voddler.co.uk legal?
Reading the blog is legal. Its niche, streaming alternatives, sits in a legally grey area in general, since such lists often reference unofficial sites. Stick to legitimate services for actual viewing.
What happened to the original Voddler streaming service?
The Swedish Voddler launched in beta in October 2009, expanded across the Nordics and briefly into Spain, then faded around 2012. Costly licensing and competition from global subscription services squeezed it out, and it never returned.
Was Voddler really the “Spotify for movies”?
That was the press nickname, not an official title. Like Spotify, Voddler was a Swedish startup using novel distribution tech, patented peer to peer delivery, to offer a legal alternative to piracy. It captured the ambition, but Voddler never reached Spotify’s scale.
Is voddler.co.uk connected to the old Voddler company?
There is no public evidence of any connection. The old company was a Stockholm based video service that shut down around 2012, while the current site is a UK blog about streaming alternatives. Treat them as unrelated things sharing a name.
What are the best alternatives to voddler.co.uk?
For streaming news and site reviews with deeper analysis, try our Tozy Magazine review and Sosoactive explainer, which use the same plain language review format with verified facts.
The Bottom Line
voddler.co.uk is a still updated blog for scanning streaming alternatives lists and UK entertainment news, but it is not a streaming service, not a deep review publication, and not connected to the old Voddler. Read it as one input among many, and stream on legitimate platforms.
For more “what is this site, really” explainers in this style, explore our technology coverage on DigitalGeekSpot, from the Tozy Magazine review to the Nemin.io guide.
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