So How Can I Watch British TV in Spain in 2024 ?

In this article we’ll explain exactly how anyone can enjoy watching UK TV online in Spain. There’s lots of conflicting information about this online partly because it’s essentially an ever changing battle. All the major UK TV channels attempt to prevent access from outside the UK, however with varying amounts of effort. However please remember it’s still perfectly possible to watch UK TV in Spain quite easily in 2024 using a VPN for a few Euros irrespective of what you might read online.

At the time of writing January, 2024, the BBC has become a little more aggressive in blocking the various solutions being use to access their streaming services.  During the end of the previous year it was ITV Hub which seemed to be thwarting most people’s efforts. Understanding the methods used to block access can help you to choose a solution that works for you.

Current Situation Watching UK TV Online

There are several hundred thousand Britons living in Spain, and many of them face an uncertain future because of the pandemic and Britain leaving the EU.  In fact it’s been predicted that many thousands of these people will be forced to return to the UK for a variety of reasons.  However there are still an estimated 100,000 UK pensioners for instance currently living in Spain who will probably mostly remain. They will all almost certainly want to continue to enjoy their favourite UK television programmes.

English TV Channels are a Link with Home

It’s not surprising that most are eager to keep in touch with the British news and need access to UK TV online in Spain to see the latest developments in whatever particular crisis is happening at the time. Unfortunately for those without expensive satellite TV systems this can be difficult to achieve as well. Most UK TV stations broadcast online but unfortunately due to regional restrictions these are not available in Spain.

There was some hope that this was going to change, the European Union was implementing requirements that digital services should be as available in across all member nations. So your access to BBC iPlayer funded through the UK TV license would be accessible wherever you are, obviously this may not happen now unless the UK follows this template too. Of course, this would only help if you have the relative access from the UK – e.g. a UK television licence or a Sky TV subscription etc.

Understanding How UK TV Channels Block Access from Outside the UK

What happens is that when you try and visit the BBC website for example your IP address is checked. This is the unique number assigned to your connection when you access the internet and it can be used to look up your physical location. The BBC and all the UK TV stations only allow access to their programmes online if you are actually in the United Kingdom when you connect.  Even being close across the border in Ireland the BBC is blocked too.

This is the primary method for blocking access to people trying to watch from outside the United Kingdom. Simply checking their IP address and determining their actual location. You can however easily bypass this block by hiding your address and location by using either a proxy or more commonly a VPN (virtual private network) service. It sounds complicated but it really isn’t, it’s simply hiding behind another computer situated in the UK.

How to Watch UK TV Online in Spain

It doesn’t matter that you may be on holiday, resident or in fact pay for a UK TV license – if you’re not physically located in the UK then you’ll get blocked if you try and watch any TV online. Over the years however most expats have figured out how to bypass these blocks and get BBC from Spain which you can see in this video.

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Using VPN Service to Disguise Your Real Location

As you can see, the solution is to use something called a VPN server to hide your real location. This works by relaying your internet connection through this VPN server based in the UK. This has the effect of hiding your real location as any web site will only see the IP address of the VPN server and not your real one. It’s easily the most popular method to get English speaking TV channels in Spain.

Expats and travellers have been using this method for years to watch UK TV online in Spain. However there is a slight caveat that last year the BBC and some of the other companies implemented a purge on some of these VPN services and many don’t work anymore.

There are plenty that do work however so don’t worry ! All the features from live TV including the BBC News channel, archived programmes from the BBC iPlayer and the ability to download programmes and watch them offline will work with a decent UK based VPN. All the other TV channels in the UK should work too including channels like Sky Go and Netflix. You will obviously need a subscription for those too.

Methods TV Streaming Services Use to Block VPNs

It’s worth mentioning though that checking your IP address isn’t the only check that the BBC and other channels make. Otherwise every VPN and proxy would work, which they definitely don’t in 2024. It’s why choosing the best VPN for UK TV in Spain is slightly more difficult than in previous tears. Not all of them work anymore, in fact, the vast majority of VPN services are blocked by both ITVX and BBC iPlayer.

• Identify IP address ranges used by VPN companies – this is as easy as actually signing up to a service, logging all the addresses and blocking them,
• Use legal avenues against VPN companies – any company who openly advertise that their service can be used to bypass geo-blocks risks legal action (against them not you!).
• Identify IP addresses that are being used concurrently – if an IP address has ten thousand simultaneous connections to the the BBC iPlayer site then it’s almost certainly a VPN or proxy.

So it’s important all of these are avoided ! So you need to choose a company which keeps a low profile and doesn’t advertise the TV watching functionality on their sales pages. Also they should restrict the number accessing each UK TV from each IP address – this is becoming increasingly important as it’s easy to block addresses accurately by this method.

Top-Rated VPN for Accessing UK Television in Spain: NordVPN Review

All this takes an awful lot of resources particularly ensuring IP addresses are not used concurrently by too many people. They need to be monitored and rotated periodically in order to stop them being identified. You can pay more money and pick one of the more expensive, specialized VPN services who simply don’t have the numbers using their servers specifically to access UK TV

Otherwise you need a VPN company who has the resources and infrastructure to support access to sites like BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub and Channel 4. For example NordVPN have chosen to focus on maintaining access to specific servers rather than enable every single one of their UK VPN IP addresses.

NordVPN BBC iPlayer Optimized Servers

This is is a sensible tactic ! Most of the larger VPN companies have hundreds of UK servers and IP addresses and monitoring them all would be extremely difficult. So instead they focus on a smaller range of addresses and make sure you can use these to watch British TV whenever you want.

So if you decide on NordVPN for your VPN and want to watch UK TV like BBC iPlayer use one of these servers.

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

You can select the servers individually by typing into the VPN search bar. Don’t use the auto-connect feature which just picks the fastest UK server for you, particularly for BBC iPlayer. Any that work well just add to your favourites and you can select them from that list.

TV Channels User Accounts – English TV in Spain

Most of the UK channels have started asking for a user account to be set up. At the time of writing both BBC and ITV have made these mandatory for watching online. , don’t worry about this – just enable the UK VPN beforehand and make sure you put in a UK postcode when prompted (anyone will do). The user accounts are just there to keep track of your profile and suggest programs for you, although I’m sure the BBC marketing departments are using the information too.

Investing in a VPN service is a very good investment for any traveler or ex-pat, it means you are not affected by any of these region blocks at all. Literally thousands of people rely on them on the Costa Del Sol and Spain for all sorts of reasons, from being able to watch Sky Go abroad, enjoying Match of the Day on a Saturday night or even accessing UK only betting sites like Betfair. The best VPN programs are flexible too, so you can enable them on other devices.

You can install NordVPN to watch UK TV abroad on most of your devices like iPad or smartphones too.

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