Using a UK Proxy Server for BBC iPlayer

The internet is of course incredibly useful to people who travel around a lot especially for work. There’s very little now that can’t be accomplished from a smartphone, tablet or laptop irrespective of where you are. Twenty years ago, suddenly realizing you’ve forgotten to pay your utilities bill would have been a complete nightmare. Yet nowadays you can usually sort out anything like this from the appropriate web site.

However, despite this there are a few annoyances that the internet has managed to maintain. Paying a fortune for Wi-Fi access is one which is thankfully becoming rarer in most hotels and bars in 2023.

My biggest issues now relating to the online world are usually associated with geo-targeting. Typically, just as the internet is breaking down barriers and making communication easier – companies, organizations and governments are finding ways to block and control it.  It’s why I need to use a VPN like NordVPN almost every day to achieve simple tasks, from watching the BBC to even accessing my bank online!

Websites Extend Geo-Targeting Controls

So, what is this geo-targeting and why is it so important? This is the process where a website seeks to ‘tailor’ your experience based upon your physical location. IN many ways this is supposedly to help the user but in reality, doesn’t always work like this. One simple example is when you try and search for a tradesman for your home property, but the search engines will helpfully supply local addresses instead. When you’re in a French airport for two hours it’s unlikely you’ll need a Parisian plumber in the near future! All major search engines do this and to be honest it can be really useful, most of us will probably just take this for granted.

However, fixing these minor inconveniences are nothing compared to the actual physical blocks that are becoming increasingly common often referred to as geo-blocks. Some web sites have even adopted a sort of national exclusion based on your location. It’s incredibly sad that we’re trying to split up the internet in this divisive way but it’s happening more and more.

Bad for Streaming Sites

Now my personal issue is that I watch almost exclusively UK television stations which are all available online. In fact, the wonderful BBC streams everything live and archives it for 12 months on the good and covers all my entertainment, news and education needs. New content is added daily and there’s hundreds of box sets, documentaries and shows in all different genres. It’s an incredible resource and all available online completely free of charge – no cost, no adverts and the highest qualities you’ll find anywhere.

All the other UK main TV sites are available online too – ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 all have some great channels packed with entertainment.

So, here’s my problem and it’s one that millions of people have experienced. None of the UK TV stations websites including the BBC iPlayer will work if you happen to be outside the UK. So, anyone on summer holidays, travelling for work, or just who happens to live outside the UK won’t be able to access any of these great sites. If you try and access them, you just get a message saying something like this –

Blocking based on your Location

What’s happening here? Well, when you visit the BBC iPlayer website it’s recording your IP address. This is the unique network number that is essential to using the internet, absolutely everything which goes online has one. Then the BBC looks up the location of this IP address primarily by checking where it’s registered to. This is easy to do, there are several global databases where you can check where an IP address is registered to.

In this case the website has determined that my IP address isn’t registered in the UK. Hence it won’t work, in reality I’ll actually be redirected to the ‘international version’ of the BBC website. However, if you force our way directly to the streaming section, you’ll just get this or similar error messages. The BBC is not alone in doing this almost every major media site on the planet does exactly the same thing. So, Hulu’s US site in only accessible in the USA, you can only watch CTV in Canada and so on.

Hide Your Location to Use Streaming Sites

It’s not just media sites which do this, you’ll find lots more restrict access based on your location too. Betting and gambling sites might block access because of local laws, banks, utilities and finance sites may restrict access for fraud prevention reasons and lots more. The more you travel, the more restrictive it can become. If you travel or work, it can be really inconvenient beyond the occasional foreign holiday. For expats it blocks a link back to your homeland – being stopped watching your favorite TV shows simply because you’re in a different place,

The problem revolves around websites tracking and monitoring your location. In order to avoid these blocks and filters, you need to take back a little privacy and ensure that all these sites don’t have the automatic right to track where you are using your IP address. This also ensures that you don’t have to worry about all these restrictions and filters being applied based on your current location.

Using a BBC iPlayer Proxy to Watch Online

Fortunately, there is a solution to this very annoying problem, and it’s illustrated in this video – which demonstrates how to Access BBC iPlayer using something called a proxy or VPN.  The video refers to watching from Spain but in truth your actual location is irrelevant as it’s hidden – it’s exactly the same from Canada, US, Asia or wherever you are.

NordVPN Latest Discount Page 

It’s not very difficult as you can see, you just load up this program called NordVPN and change your connection to route through the UK. From this point everything will work as if you were actually in the UK! Although it’s worth pointing out you may actually get blocked from sites that are restricted from outside the country, you’re actually in. Yes, lots of media sites do this, in fact I don’t think there’s any major media site that doesn’t use geo-targeting to some extent.

Use a VPN/Proxy Server Address

Just to clarify a proxy and VPN service are very similar. In practice the only real difference is that a VPN will encrypt your connection increasing your privacy even more. As far as bypassing these geo-blocks goes, both can do the job so can be considered interchangeable. The majority of services commercially available in 2022 for watching BBC iPlayer are usually VPNS, but there are still a couple of good BBC iPlayer proxy services available too.

It’s becoming the must have tool for everyone who wants to access the internet without restrictions and with a little bit of privacy too. By enabling a VPN program to proxy your internet connection then you’re hiding your real location and providing an alternative. The key point is that you control what address the websites sees, no anyone can have full access to BBC iPlayer by simply selecting a UK address for example. Suddenly as long as you have access to UK proxies then it doesn’t matter where you actually are anymore.

Importance of the IP Address Used

There are lots of different VPNs and most of them do a pretty good job of securing your internet connection. However, the main issue if you are trying to avoid blocks is the IP addresses that they use. You will see some mentions online of the BBC iPlayer not working through VPN, which is partially true. Unfortunately, many of these services have had their address ranges blocked and they won’t provide access to BBC iPlayer for example.

What is basically happening is that the media sites are detecting when IP addresses are over-used to identify proxies/VPN services. If two thousand people are streaming Eastenders through a single UK IP address, it’s not very hard to work out that they’re probably using a proxy or VPN. These blocks can be avoided by ensuring that the IP addresses are rotated and not overused for connections to sites like the BBC. It takes some effort but it’s perfectly possible to keep a UK VPN working perfectly with the BBC for example.

My favorite VPN service, is called NordVPN and they maintain access by ensuring specific servers work with the BBC. This is much easier to manage than monitoring thousands of different IP addresses and rotating them all the time.

NordVPN BBC IP Addresses

All the VPNs and proxies which get blocked by the BBC and other media sites are detected because they have too many people using the same IP addresses. You’ll normally find that the smaller and expensive VPNs are rarely affected by these blocks because they have less users connecting to these entertainment sites,

NordVPN have hundreds of UK servers but specifically optimise a small proportion of them to work with the BBC. If you choose this service and want to watch the BBC don’t let the service AutoConnect to any UK server but choose one of the ones below instead.

UK# 1840-1847, 1850-1863, 1865, 1869, 1873, 1875-1878, 1880-1881, 1900-1901, 1903-1904, 1911, 1913, 1917, 1919-1920.

Select from the search bar and save to favourites if you want to stream BBC iPlayer

If you want a BBC iPlayer UK proxy that does work, then NordVPN (using the above servers) works perfectly in 2022.

2024 FAQ Update

This post was originally written in 2013 when I first started using a VPN called Identity Cloaker to watch the BBC when I was travelling and on holidays. Now ten years later, I’m still doing exactly the same with the same technology. I use a different VPN service now mainly because it’s cheaper and works better on my tablet and smart phone. Identity Cloaker still works well though on PCs and laptops if you want to check it out.

Over the years I get a lot of questions so thought I’d add some of them to this post in order to keep it almost up to date!

Has BBC Blocked all the VPNs and Proxies?

You might have come across a lot of posts and discussions online suggesting that BBC iPlayer has blocked all the VPNs and now none of them work. There is some truth to this as the BBC has definitely become more effective at blocking this workaround in the last couple of years. Indeed, many VPNs won’t work at all now with BBC iPlayer, but they definitely haven’t blocked all of them. The method still works but you have to be more careful about which services can still be used to access the BBC. The two mentioned on this page still work in March 2023 and there are plenty of others that do – but it’s best to check with them first as this could change at any point!

You Must Have a TV License to watch BBC iPlayer Online?

When you try and stream anything from the BBC iPlayer site you will often be asked if you have a UK TV license. There are two options here – you can answer Yes or No, if you say no then you’ll be politely routed off the UK BBC site onto the international version which has no live TV or video. If you say Yes, then everything will work properly. There’s no check or validation (and you can’t buy a license outside the UK anyway) – you just have to say you have got one.

Is it safe to use a VPN or proxy?

This can be a confusing question as I’m not always sure what the person means? I actually get some variation of this question quite a lot, so I’ll try and answer it. Firstly, here’s my interpretation of what this question refers to.

• Whether your data/computer is safe when using a VPN?
• Is it legal to accessing sites like the BBC over a VPN?
• Can your connection be identified when using a VPN?

So, first of all it’s important to remember that when you use a VPN or proxy you are actually routing your data through a server controlled by a third party. Therefore, it’s important you trust them. Using some free proxy, you find online is obviously extremely risky, they’re often free because they’re being used to steal your credentials and passwords. Use an established VPN company who you can trust, pay for a safe, reliable service there’s lots out there.

You are definitely not committing any sort of criminal offence by accessing sites like BBC iPlayer from outside the UK using a VPN or proxy. You are breaking their terms of service though, so potentially can get kicked off the service (which you are anyway if you don’t use a VPN outside the UK). Remember there are literally millions of people doing this and have been for well over a decade. It’s kind of like how we used to copy records or record songs from the radio, technically it’s not allowed but everyone did it.

Finally, the reason you can bypass all these geo-blocking websites with a VPN is because the site cannot see your true location. The only location that is visible is that of the VPN server, everything else is hidden including your data which is encrypted.