Enjoy the BBC iPlayer and UK TV – How to Watch British TV in Canada
This post explains how to watch UK TV in Canada. If you follow the instructions you’ll find out how to change your IP from a Canadian one to UK one with very little effort. I wrote this article because a group of my friends were having a great time studying abroad in Montreal but were missing their favourite British TV show. This is how they fixed their problem and started to stream the BBC online from Canada.
If you don’t want to read the whole article, just grab a short subscription to NordVPN, which is definitely the best way to watch BBC iPlayer from Canada. Check it out and you can be watching in a few minutes.
Access Blocked by Geo-Restriction
The rise of the internet has meant that people can now access information from anywhere in the world. This means that there are many countries where you can find yourself being restricted from certain websites. For example, if you live outside the United States and try to visit a site like Hulu, you may find that you cannot access it. This is because Hulu is only available in the United States. Even if you live close by in Canada, you will not be able to access Hulu!
Of course, the same thing happens if you travel from the UK to Canada.
Your laptop might be filled with links and apps to watch all the UK television channels and streaming services, but when you arrive in Canada and log in, they’ll stop working. Of course, all this works in reverse too; a Canadian IP address will let you watch any Canadian TV shows and websites but they’ll also stop working if you travel outside Canada. It’s incredibly frustrating though, suddenly the global web is broken into little bits and pieces based on your physical location! Instead of a global network of information, the web is becoming segregated into little compartments simply based on where you happen to be at the time.
Basically you have two choices, you can either accept this state of affairs or you can take back control and watch whatever you like. So that does include being able to to watch Premiership football on Match of the Day every Saturday in Montreal or enjoying the latest episode of Doctor Who episode when it’s broadcast initially live in the BBC!
Watching British TV Channels in Canada
So here’s an example scenario : You’re somewhere located in Canada but want access to some British TV shows. It’s not surprising as the British Broadcasting Corporation produces some of the best English language TV shows anywhere in the world. It should not really be an issue after all we are supposed to be living in a digitally interconnected world and the BBC has the best media website on the internet. It’s called BBC iPlayer and using this site you can watch any program it broadcasts live and also watch them up to twelve months later from its archive section.
For many people in the UK, they simply don’t watch any other TV – the BBC has so much programming including drama, science, politics, news, comedy and everything in between. Yet because the network address your connected with is deemed to have it’s own nationality (and thus a location), it will all be blocked! A huge TV archive of some the world’s best shows potentially available for free is being denied just because you happen to be outside the UK. Being able to enjoy the BBC News abroad is also a godsend especially for expats.
Luckily, there is a way to solve this dilemma and it’s actually is a pretty simple one – just watch this short video for a demo.
Video Demo -Using a VPN to Play BBC Streaming Service from Canada
Discount Page for NordVPN
As you can see it’s pretty straight forward, simply connect to a UK VPN server and then you can access BBC iPlayer just like a UK resident. It’s all completely free (apart from the VPN) and you can watch live, from the archive and even download to watch offline. You may read articles about using a proxy to watch the BBC instead of a VPN – don’t worry they’re very similar (although a proxy is easier to detect).
Hide Your IP Address with a VPN Server
The problem is that you can’t actually change your IP address however there is another option. You can actually hide it using something called a Virtual Private Network (VPN). When you connect to a VPN first, any website you visit sees the IP address of the VPN server, not yours. So if you use a VPN service like NordVPN, then you can actually hide your real IP address whenever you want to. All you need to do is connect to a UK server on your VPN network and all your traffic will go through that server. Also because VPNs are primarily security programs that hide your data it is completely safe and secure. For access to the BBC iPlayer you’ll also be asked if you have an annual TV licence. You can just say yes as there are no actual checks of any kind.
So if you choose to a British computer on the VPN network, then you’ll effectively have a UK IP Address. While you’re using this then all the British TV channels will be completely accessible. This is because they will be only aware of the IP address of your VPN server which is of course based in the UK. Therefore you’ll have full access to the BBC iPlayer, and if you wish can also access the ITV Hub, C4 and Channel 5 too. You can enjoy Match of the Day, BBC or ITV News at Ten or whatever you want. If you’re missing the Premiership football, you could even sign on and watch Sky Go and get Sky sports and watch everything live. Although remember you will still need to pay for the subscriptions to these services too.
Why Can’t I Use a Free Service to Watch UK Television ?
Not surprisingly the vast majority of the VPN services cost money to use. After all the companies have bills to pay including staff wages, bandwidth and also buying the expensive hardware needed. It should be noted though that the majority of these services are available by subscription but they’re not expensive. Certainly if you compare the cost, in most countries they’re only a fraction of what a cable or satellite package will set you back.
Of course this is not your problem and free VPN services do exist? So why not use them instead?
Free VPNs are too Slow to Watch Streaming Sites
Although free is great for our wallets and purses it’s usually not the indicator of a quality service. Anything is free is almost certainly going to be overloaded and slow. This is most definitely the case with free proxies and VPN services for a couple of reasons. Firstly of course anything that’s ‘free’ will attract users from all over the world. No restrictions and no limits will mean people will use and abuse these services all the time.
If you were just using them for basic browsing and keeping your identity hidden then this may be ok. After all waiting a few seconds for a web page to load is no huge problem. However if you try and watch video over these servers you’ll find it a hugely frustrating experience. Video will stall, freeze and break down constantly and often it simply won’t even work. The only workaround is to buffer the stream a few minutes at a time and then watch it, however this often doesn’t work either.
Watching video over a slow connection is simply not worth the effort ! Although in some senses this is irrelevant if you read the next section,
Free VPNs are Usually Blocked by Most Streaming Apps
The streaming services like the BBC iPlayer don’t like people using VPNs to watch their shows. It’s not surprising, the majority of times the VPN is being used to bypass their geo-restrictions and watch from places like Canada, USA and the rest of the world. So their IT departments go to great lengths to block any VPN being used to stream content from their sites.
There’s a few methods but the most effective and simplest way to block people using a VPN is to monitor the number of connections from each IP address. The more connections = the more likely it’s coming from a VPN or proxy server. Two thousand people streaming the BBC to a single IP address can only mean one thing – they’re all using the same VPN.
It’s simple to detect and therefore simple to block and why nearly every free VPN is already useless for watching most online streaming services. Certainly the major ones like BBC, ITV, Hulu, NBC etc all use this method and free VPNs are automatically blocked. You can’t use them to watch popular sites and certainly using a free VPN to watch Match of the Day online won’t work at all.
Invest in a Secure VPN
Actually our preferred VPN is called NordVPN and costs little more than a few euros/dollars a month. For the subscription you get access unrestricted access to their huge global network with servers all over the world. It’s these international servers which mean there are also lots of other sites you can access beyond just watching the UK ones like BBC iPlayer.
Not only do you get access to UK sites, but you can also click on servers based in lots of different countries too. For example instead of the UK, a Canadian resident can choose a German server and suddenly open up a whole range of German only online TV channels. Or perhaps a French speaker could choose a French server to enjoy the M6 Replay website which is packed full of French language programmes and shows of high quality. It’ll also keep you up to date with European news or have connections there. You can also click on a US server and access all the US only websites like ABC, NBC, and Hulu.
BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub User Accounts
If you look around the internet, many large websites with free content are making people register for user accounts. Most of the major media sites have all implemented this requirement although usually the accounts are completely free of charge. They’re normally used to enhance the user experience, tracking what you’ve watched, suggesting streams you’d like and that sort of thing. Of course, they’re also used to harvest important marketing data about users and their preferences too.
For example the BBC iPlayer has had the facility for user accounts for many years but only recently enforced the requirement if you want to stream or access any media content. The user accounts though are free and you only need a valid email address to set one up. However understandably users from outside the UK are often concerned about setting one of these up.
Don’t Worry – you can register an account outside the UK without problems !
It’s not a problem, you must hide your location though before you start the process simply connect to a UK VPN before you start. here’s a couple of things people get worried about when trying to set up their free BBC account from outside the United Kingdom.
TV Licence Question
You will be asked during the registration and periodically when watching stuff online if you have a UK TV license. Unfortunately for most of us who would be happy to purchase one – you simply cannot buy a UK TV license if you live in Canada or anywhere outside the UK. However it’s not really an issue as there’s no real check or validation whether you’re watching from Canada, Spain or anywhere in the world (apart from the UK when you will need one!).
Just say yes whenever you’re asked if you have a UK TV license. There’s no check and remember you’re not breaking any laws if you’re outside the UK as you can’t buy one anyway.
Can BBC iPlayer Identity and Block VPN Connections?
It’s no exaggeration that now for millions of people that a VPN service is simply a must-have internet companion. Arguably the very best ones are those which primarily focus upon the security aspect of the service. For anyone who travels often and uses a variety of unsecured wifi hotspots, a VPN service is pretty much essential. Not only do they encrypt your connection and ensure your personal credentials are all secure regardless of where you logon from, they also provide a gateway to servers all around the world. The best ones are quick, secure and extremely easy-to-use. They offer security and access to servers all over the world.
It’s not actually very surprising that sites like the BBC iPlayer actively try and restrict access to VPN connections. In 2022 there are certainly millions of people who are using VPN programs to watch the BBC and other TV sites all over the world. The media sites cannot detect a well configured VPN service however they can identify if too many connections originate from the same source, this is the problem with many vpn services, they overload servers, which are then easy to spot.
So How Can I Watch UK TV from Canada ?
You need a VPN service which has servers based in the UK. Connect to a UK server and you’ll appear to have a British IP address and will be able to access the BBC iPlayer and other British TV stations online without a problem.
Try NordVPN – it Works Well to Stream British TV
Selecting a reliable VPN service can be a daunting task. I recommend trying out NordVPN. They offer unlimited bandwidth and servers in over 60 countries. You can also try out their 30 day money back guarantee.
