An expat friend living in Europe wants to be able to watch BBC iPlayer and other UK terrestrial content online. At the moment she is unable to do this via Google. Is there a way around this?

Oh Bother, wrong forum. Mods, can you place this in the Chat Forum please?

VPN. I use Strong. Yes it’s against the licence agreement but many people do it. I’m fairly relaxed as I have a UK TV licence but most don’t

I used Hide my ass when on holiday

So, as I understand it. Friend signs up for VPN such as suggested by jambalaya (he never fails me) and for a fee can then access UK based internet content that would otherwise be inaccessible?

Is it really that simple? Does Strong just sort of exist in the background ‘behind’ the browser or is it more like eg. Spotify in as much as you need it as a portal/ search engine in its own right?

Cheers

Don’t know about Strong, but Hola works as a Chrome plugin and works perfectly in France, the US and Colombia to watch iPlayer. There have been reports that it works like a botnet that users are willingly signed up to though…

http://www.filmon.com is good for live streaming

OP you pay an annual subscription (£25-ish?) then run the program when you want (you can choose from multiple locations eg UK, US etc) and then all internet access appears to come from the country of choice whatever app or web browsers you use. Also traffic is encrypted so ISP can’t see what you are doing. Other solutions inc free ones may work too as above.

Hola plugin for Chrome is very easy and free.

As above, a VPN will should do the job, but the BBC (and other services like Netflix) and starting to crack down. Known VPN ip addresses appear to being blacklisted.

The methods to spoof the location works but tech is catching up apparently if NetFlix are to be believed. Also legal – grey area, breaking license agreements – yes.

I use unotelly, works great.

Loads of mates in Singapore watch US netflix via VPN and other methods.

OP based on what I’ve seen here I’d give Hola or similar a try if BBC iPlayer is primary objective. Not sure if it works with the downloader as well as streaming via browser. I prefer to download as it avoids buffering/bandwidth issues and you get longer to watch once downloaded.

Loads of mates in Singapore watch US netflix via VPN and other methods.

They are making public noises here in Oz (as they have an offering here) of clamping down on access. Potentially detecting the Hola type set ups and blocking them, not sure if/how the VPN stuff would be effected.

They are making public noises here in Oz (as they have an offering here) of clamping down on access. Potentially detecting the Hola type set ups and blocking them, not sure if/how the VPN stuff would be effected.

Yup, it’s a game of cat and mouse.I wouldn’t advise your “friend” to sign up long term to a VPN provider in case that provider gets blocked. Stick to monthly contracts and be prepared to switch provider when needed. Also consider unblock-us

I use unotelly here in oz… very good. Selected because it’s completely fit-and-forget, so the wife can just use the iplayer app on the telly (or apple TV) as normal.

I pay 50 bucks a year I think? To be honest I would pay 10 times that to avoid watching Australian television. People who want to dismantle the beeb need to have their heads examined.

I use hola when abroad. Works fine.

To be honest I would pay 10 times that to avoid watching Australian television. People who want to dismantle the beeb need to have their heads examined.

🙂

Isn’t it about time the Beeb got their act together and start some kind of subscription service? The amount of ex pats around the world has a potentially massive earning potential rather than the only option currently being the illegal one.

They do, they sell the shows to local networks, we get a heap of BBC stuff here in Oz on normal TV just a bit late. They probably make more money from exclusive deals than they could from subs.

It’s complicated by licence deals with individual regions so even if they could do a subscription they might be restricted from showing the content in that country. Sometimes because there’s another deal with a local pay provider who does the same show, sometimes because it’s a non BBC show and there are limits, or even the show has a piece of music which there’s a licence for in the UK but not outside. This often happens with DVD releases where the music has to be substituted for worldwide release (or even UK release sometimes if the BBC have the broadcast rights but not commercial).

Isn’t it about time the Beeb got their act together and start some kind of subscription service? The amount of ex pats around the world has a potentially massive earning potential rather than the only option currently being the illegal one

It has taken content creators to just the past couple of years to get to the point where they are charging for a service that piracy was providing 10 years ago.

They still are not getting what customers want now, and now that is what is being provided by VPN and smart DNS services.

Also, watching uk tv via a proxy here in rural Spain is expensive, we get internet via satellite and pay €55 per month for 24Gb download. We get BBC and ITV via satellite using a Tooway setup but no Freeveiw stations. No great hardship as we are playing out most of the time.

I pay 50 bucks a year I think? To be honest I would pay 10 times that to avoid watching Australian television. People who want to dismantle the beeb need to have their heads examined.

Oh my word yes – this is going back a few years but Aussie TV used to be appalling – they’d cram an extra add break into the usual half-hour shows and have to trim them down a bit so you’d occationally miss the odd thing, worse still they’d do it at the end of a programme – I liked watching Seinfeld after work, it would be going along and break for the adds, only to return for the closing credits – they’d lop the last few seconds of each episode off to make you think there was more to come.

I use PrivateInternetAccess to watch iplayer and channel 4 from NZ. Originally got it so I could sign up to US Netflix before such civilisation reached this part of the world, works for all sorts though. Not sure it’s breaking any laws (i.e. I’m not sure NZ has a law about breaking the terms of service of a UK company), definitely breaking the terms of use though.

It’s complicated by licence deals with individual regions so even if they could do a subscription they might be restricted from showing the content in that country.

Fair enough but I can still happily listen to BBC radio content online without a problem…and for no charge.

They don’t sell the radio on. Remember the Top Gear BBC’s biggest earner?
Get loads of comedy and drama out here too.
Netflix is in this position, half the stuff on the US version has already been sold to other other broadcasters so it’s not on offer till after they have shown it/deal expires. The BBC would loose out on some of those deals if they made it a sub content as they couldn’t sell exclusive rights.