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How to Watch European TV in the US - Using a VPN

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Pauline

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Many TV networks allow only people in their country to watch their TV shows online. For example, if you live in the US, you cannot watch BBC shows online. Or if you live in Europe, you cannot watch Jon Stewart's The Daily Show online. Or can you?

Yes you can. Use a VPN (virtual private network) to "fake" your IP address, so you look like you are in that country and then you can access their TV on the internet. The TV websites look at your IP address, the internet address where you logged in, and can tell what country you are in. The VPN lets you chose where you login. So if you want to watch UK TV online, log in via the UK.

Read more on my blog - How to Watch British TV in the US.

I use Witopia which you pay for, but @Jim Zurer recommends HOLA which is free. And there are other options.
 
I've used Hola for free on my PC. But I think if I want to use it on my iPad I need to get an app, which is not free. I haven't tried it lately, but used it a few months ago to watch "Last Tango" and "Spiral".

I just started watching "Wolf Hall", the BBC production that's now showing here in the US on PBS. Kind of an overstuffed historical drama; maybe there be some with in future episodes, but so far the only interesting aspect is Damian Lewis. He is eminently watchable!
 
I've used Hola for free on my PC. But I think if I want to use it on my iPad I need to get an app, which is not free. I haven't tried it lately, but used it a few months ago to watch "Last Tango" and "Spiral".

I just started watching "Wolf Hall", the BBC production that's now showing here in the US on PBS. Kind of an overstuffed historical drama; maybe there be some with in future episodes, but so far the only interesting aspect is Damian Lewis. He is eminently watchable!
He is always watchable. I fell in love with him as an actor in The Forsythe Saga, liked him a lot in Homeland, but adore him in a series on Netflix called Life.
 
While we're talking about British TV, does anyone know if VPNs still work with iPlayer? I thought they'd been banned but this site says different?
 
Frankly, I don't know what a VPN is! I'm trying to get rid of cable television and use only streaming devises. I'm mostly satisfied with what I can view. To fill my Brit need, I signed up for Acorn TV.
 
VPN is explained in the first post of this thread.

BBC iPlayer still works with a VPN (making it look like you are in the UK). You have to tick a box saying you pay the British TV Tax, but that is as far as they have taken things. Eventually they may require proof that you pay the license fee but that will be a big change to iPlayer.
 
I just tried to use BBC i Player with the Tunnel Bear VPN, and saw on the BBC site that you can't use the iPlayer if the BBC site detects you are using a VPN..

BTW, it's years since I last used a VPN from the US, and I see now that there are many warnings against using HOLA. It's different from most others in that there are no servers, it's a peer-to-peer thing which seems a bit risky to me. Tunnel Bear is free.
 
I just tried to use BBC i Player with the Tunnel Bear VPN, and saw on the BBC site that you can't use the iPlayer if the BBC site detects you are using a VPN..

BTW, it's years since I last used a VPN from the US, and I see now that there are many warnings against using HOLA. It's different from most others in that there are no servers, it's a peer-to-peer thing which seems a bit risky to me. Tunnel Bear is free.

Hey, thanks for this heads up. I actually tried Tunnel Bear before, but I easily run out of allotted MBs. Actually, Netflix also can detect if you're using VPN service. Anyway, the whole HOLA thing now seems sketchy to me, I don't know if they comply with stuff like the ICO (read here), so I'll avoid using it for now.
 
I am pretty happy using Cyberghost....

 
When I cut the cord and started using Amazon FireTV, I also wanted to watch the European tv channels. Having surfed the Internet, I found out that it is possible only if I install a proper kodi build and VPN. I decided to try Surfshark. I should say, I haven't regretted my choice, and it turned out to be a good VPN for Fire TV.
 
I'm not sure whether TV companies are just getting smarter, ot that VPNs are becoming easier to detect. I used Ivacy for a couple of years, and it worked very well for most of that time - but eventually I was being "found out". I now just use the built in VPN in the Opera browser - I wouldn't suggest it is better, but it is free.
 
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