

You can find out more in our guide to the best VPNs for iPlayer. Once connected, you then open the iPlayer app or website, sign in, and you can watch shows as if you were in the UK. You may need to choose a specific server from the list that’s optimised for iPlayer. The bottom line is that if you want to watch from abroad, you need to install a VPN on your device (that could be a TV, Firestick, phone, laptop, tablet, Mac or PC), connect to a UK server. Not all VPN apps will unblock iPlayer, which is why it’s a good idea to use one that has a good track record of being able to do so.

It doesn’t want people watching outside the UK, which is why the Beeb and VPN services play a cat-and-mouse game of blocking and evading those blocks. It’s important to know that steaming services, including the BBC, work hard to block VPNs. In reality you could be in Australia, Spain or anywhere. Using a VPN means your real location is hidden from the BBC, which sees that it’s streaming EastEnders to a viewer in the UK. In this case, that server needs to be in the UK, and BBC iPlayer in the service. We’re not going to get into the rights and wrongs: we’ll simply explain how you can do it if you so decide.įor the uninitiated, a VPN is an app which routes your internet connection through a server somewhere on the internet before it goes to the website or service you want to use. Maybe the UK isn’t your home, but you still want to watch. That’s all well and good, but what if you’re abroad before the next episode of your favourite show is aired? You can’t download it, so you’ll have to wait until you return home. The Beeb says the correct way to watch iPlayer content abroad is to “download a programme on BBC iPlayer when you’re in the UK, you can watch it anywhere in the world.”
