Here’s How to Watch BBC iPlayer in Ireland Plus UK TV Channels

It’s not so far away, but unfortunately when you are in Ireland, many great UK TV web sites become unavailable. Fire up the BBC home page from Dublin for instance and you won’t see the normal UK version, but the ‘International BBC home page’. At first it appears that it’s not possible to watch BBC iPlayer from Ireland however there are ways and they are quite simple!

On the international version, there are two, obvious differences – firstly adverts appear on the site and on the TV page instead of being able to watch live streams from all the BBC channels, you just get information on programmes and channels. Also you won’t be able to find the link for BBC iPlayer if you’re in Ireland.

Basically all the best parts of the site are disabled, no live channels and no wonderful BBC iPlayer if you try and stream anything you will simply get a message about the BBC not being available. A similar experience awaits anyone visiting the other UK TV channels – ITV, Channel 4 and 5 will all have blocks against viewing if you’re outside the UK.

How do They Stop Me Accessing the iPlayer Service and App?

It’s called Geo-Blocking and it operates on all the world’s big media sites. Basically the web site looks up the location of your IP address when you connect, then either allows access or blocks/redirects depending on where you are.

The technology has been around quite a long time and was originally only used by the search engines. The idea was that they look up your location and use that information to help compile the best search results. It’s why you can type in ‘local plumbers’ into a search engine and get results located near to you. It’s certainly useful in this context.

However it’s increasingly used to block and filter people rather than help them. Virtually every large media site in the world including all the UK TV sites like BBC iPlayer use it. By restricting access to their domestic market they avoid having to pay out extra for distribution rights globally. Which is why you can only watch UK TV in the UK and US TV in the USA and so on.

Many other sites are doing the same, increasingly they use it to maximise profits too! Sites will charge different prices depending on your location. Fortunately, there’s a way to watch whatever you want from Ireland including unblocking BBC iPlayer and bypassing all of these blocks anywhere in the world.

Watch BBC iPlayer Service from Anywhere

Fortunately, it’s fairly easy to bypass these restrictions if you hide your IP address using a VPN service – here’s how I watched from Dublin.

We use NordVPN as it’s cheap and reliable.

If you’re using NordVPN – Pick one of their BBC iPlayer Optimized Servers below.

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

It’s quite simple as you can see, by selecting a UK server your IP address will suddenly appear to be based in the UK. Hence, all the British television sites will suddenly start to work without issue as long as your connection is routed through a UK proxy server. Try the other media sites like Channel 4 and 5 or ITV, your British IP address will let you access them too. You can watch from anywhere, your location is unimportant.  You can watch wherever you travel, it’s the same method to watch British TV from USA as it is from Dublin. There’s nothing else required and you can use the same program for BBC iPlayer Ireland with android or iPad access too.

BBC iPlayer Accounts and the UK TV Licence

Since 2021 the BBC and ITV Hub have insisted that you need an account on their sites to stream programmes directly. These are free of charge and are mainly used to facilitate using the websites. They keep track of where you are, what you’ve watched and suggest programmes you may enjoy based on your viewing preferences.

If you’ve already got these accounts then don’t worry just log in as normal when your VPN is enabled. If you haven’t then you’ll need to create one, there’s nothing to worry about though all you’ll need is a valid email address.

• Connect a UK VPN server
• Find the User Registration Page (here’s the BBC iPlayer one)
• Fill in the details and validate the email address
• Watch whatever you like.

It’s perfectly simple and easy to do from Ireland but just read the next two passages before you start.

Find a UK Postcode for the BBC and ITV Accounts

You will be asked a couple of questions which from Ireland may look tricky but there’s a simple way around them. The first one is asking for your postcode, now it’s important you don’t put an Irish one ! A Dublin postcode is going to stop your account being created so you need to use a UK one. The good news is that you can literally use any postcode you like as long as it exists. You certainly don’t need to provide proof of residence or anything like that. Just find any valid UK Postcode and use that – if you’re stuck for ideas then just use one of these Manchester ones – M1 1AA, M1 1AD, M1 1AE, M1 1AF, M1 1AG, M1 1AH.

The only minor point is that your account will be ‘regionalized’ based on the postcode you enter. So if you use one of the Manchester ones, then you’ll automatically get North West local news and programmes. Don’t worry though you can change your location later and there’s really only minor differences anyway.

Oh No – It Want’s a UK TV Licence !

So here’s the picture that you will probably see at some point using BBC iPlayer (it’s the law but only in the UK!).

It also stops many people from creating an account or using the BBC iPlayer app. Obviously you can’t pop down to the Post office in Sandymount and pick up a UK TV licence as they’re only available in the UK.

So what can you do?

Well it’s quite simple, just say Yes I have a UK TV licence. There’s no check or validation and everything will work fine. Hopefully one day the licence will be available in Ireland or outside the UK and we won’t have to all fib.

What’s More You Can Watch All the UK TV Channels Abroad Free of Charge

The process is exactly the same for using ITV hub so if you’ve figured out how to access BBC iPlayer outside UK then you’ve got the solution for all British TV channels. If you try and access the site without a UK IP address, you’ll get a similar warning screen like this –

To bypass this block you do exactly the same, although just like the BBC in 2023 you will need to register a user account. Don’t worry about this all you need to do is enable the UK connection before creating your ITV hub account. It will again ask you for a UK postcode, but use any valid UK one as described above you’ll be fine. All the ITV content will work perfectly and if you want to watch without adverts you can even subscribe to the premium subscription. SO remember for all UK TV overseas just make sure your UK VPN connection is enabled before you use it.

The software sits in your task bar and you just click to change your location, you can also use your account on other devices like iPads, phones and tablets, just look for the guides in the members area. There are also versions which work with Android and Mac OS X, all included in the subscription – use one or all of them on all your devices. Use this service to unlock virtually any web site anywhere in the world – simply select the correct location and you’ll get access.

Check Out Other TV Sites Online

Try it on US or Australian TV sites for example, they should all work perfectly too as long as you pick the right country connection first. Don’t be worried about data restrictions or having access to limited servers they’re all included in a single subscription. There’s also some great Canadian TV sites too although some of them ask for your Cable subscription number too which unfortunately acts as a block.

You may have heard some reports about various BBC iPlayer VPN not working and this is in fact true to some extent. The BBC started to block many of these services over the last few years, mainly by manually blocking IP address ranges. Fortunately the market leaders like NordVPN have large server infrastructures with hundreds of IP addresses so have largely been unaffected. So you can still use it to access BBC on demand in Ireland and in fact any UK service for example to watch Sky Go abroad too.

They’re are hundreds of VPN services available however unfortunately only a few still work with BBC iPlayer from Ireland. So make sure you check that the one you choose will work with the BBC. We use NordVPN as it has specially optimized servers and has always worked reliably with both BBC and ITV Hub.

Click to See Latest Nord Discounts

How to Watch UK TV in Ireland ?

To summarize there are a number of ways to access UK TV abroad, However the easiest is to get a reliable VPN and use it to change your IP address to a UK One. You can then watch all the British TV channels on all your devices free of charge