British TV : Watch BBC iPlayer and ITVX in Spain
For many years it was actually quite difficult for people to watch UK television from Spain. You could get some programmes on cable packages or install an enormous satellite dish to access more channels. These were all expensive and often simply not worth the money. The internet has changed all that and now you can bring all the major UK television channels to your devices in Spain without any additional equipment.
You will need one subscription, although it’s only a few Euros for a service called a VPN.
What is a VPN
A VPN allows you to change your IP, which tricks website systems into thinking that you are from the United Kingdom. It stands for Virtual Private Network. This enables users to access content that may be blocked by Geo-restrictions and government policies. A VPN opens unlimited options for watching TV shows and movies across the globe.
A VPN or Virtual Private Network is a way to connect to the country of your choice by simply choosing a server in that country. This allows you to do things like watch American Netflix in Spain, for example, without having access restricted by geographic restrictions.
Other benefits include anonymous internet activities and preventing ISP from throttling your speed. The VPN automatically secures all your communication by encrypting the data in transit. This means you can safely access things like email, banking sites etc from any Wifi access points.
Best UK VPNs for Watching British TV Abroad
Originally just about any VPN service would work for watching UK TV channels from other countries. However if you’re reading this after 2021 then this is no longer the case. Unfortunately the television companies didn’t like people bypassing their UK only restrictions and have invested a lot of time and effort in blocking many VPN and proxy services.
Why Most VPNs No Longer Work with British TV Channels?
There are a variety of methods used to block access to the many VPNs to sites like the BBC iPlayer and ITV Hub. Although technically it’s very difficult to actually detect a single VPN connection. It’s not that hard to find them when thousands of people are connecting from the exact same IP address.
This is the main issue, to make VPNs inexpensive then thousands of users share the same servers and IP addresses. It’s not a problem in most situations as these servers are fast, powerful with loads of bandwidth. Yet it makes them easy to detect if you’re looking for signs of a VPN service.
Which is exactly what sites like BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub and All 4 do. They monitor inbound connections and block those with too many concurrent users. It’s stopped many people from watching UK Tv from Spain and many other countries.
How VPNs Avoid These Blocks
It’s not actually difficult to do but it does take a lot of time and effort. The key is simply to ensure that users that are connecting to sites like the BBC iPlayer are spread across lots of different servers and addresses.
Also it’s important to rotate and switch addresses to ensure that there’s no simple pattern to identify the VPN connections. People will always share IP addresses to some extent by using the same access points at home, work, cafes and so on. The key is to minimize that level so that the media companies won’t block the addresses automatically.
- Large companies like NordVPN with lots of addresses and resources to monitor and switch servers addresses.
- Smaller companies like Identity Cloaker with many less users. Particularly those not marketed to TV watching services where not many people will be accessing the UK TV sites.
Which UK TV Channels Can I Watch from Spain ?
If you pick the right VPN then you should be able to watch virtually anything that is on mainstream UK TV channels irrespective of your location. Before connecting just ensure that you’ve selected a UK server from your VPN service.
BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer is a streaming service that allows you to watch live BBC TV channels, including the likes of BBC One, Two, Three or download some CBeebies shows for the kids. It’s available for TV license holders in the UK and is accessible from anywhere with a VPN.
Important : Although you will be asked if you have a UK TV license, however there’s no check or verification. If you say Yes everything will work perfectly irrespective if you have a UK TV license or not (you can’t actually but a license outside UK anyway!) You’ll also be asked for a valid UK postcode which you can find here or use any code you know is real.
Although there’s no check on the postcode as long as it’s valid, the one you choose will slightly affect your viewing. the main change will be on which regional BBC News channel you see because it will be matched to the postcode you enter.
ITV Hub
ITV Hub is a video on demand service that offers a variety of programmes from homegrown programming to imports across ITV, ITV2, ITVBe, ITV3, and CITV. Some programmes are not currently available due to rights issues.
On 23 November 2015 the app was given a revamp but kept its name ‘ITV Hub’. In the future, ITV Hub will be free for all users and will only show pre-roll adverts at a certain point in time. However, as of now there are still some ads shown even with anti-ad blocking software enabled.
It’s got some great shows and covers most areas including comedy, drama, kids, news and light entertainment. Most of which are available through the catch up facility as well as watching live.
All 4
All 4 is a video on demand service that offers streaming services for movies, TV shows, and sports. It’s free to watch most content and funded by advertising. However, viewers must have a TV licence when watching live programming but not when using the on-demand service. The platform is available without ads on payment of a subscription, and the features include live viewing without ads and apps for mobile devices. Channel 4 was renamed All 4 on 30 March 2015
My5
My5 is the brand name of video-on-demand services offered by Channel 5 in the UK. The service went live on 26 June 2008 and as Five Download, it offered downloads in Windows Media Video format of US imports CSI, House and Grey’s Anatomy. Individual episodes could be ‘rented’, with some episodes available 7 days before they appeared on TV.
Other Subscription Channels – Sky, Now TV
If you use a decent VPN with plenty of UK servers, then you should be able to watch most UK only premium channels too. However remember this doesn’t bypass the need for a subscription. So if you have an existing Sky or Now Tv subscription you can use a UK based VPN to watch it anywhere in the world.
You can also use the VPN to subscribe but be careful as you’ll need a valid form of payment from the UK like a bank or debit card.
