Watching UK TV on the Costa Del Sol

So as we all know, life in Marbella isn’t without it’s challenges. One of the first ones people relocating from the UK face is that none of their favorite UK TV sites will work using a Spanish internet connection. It’s often quite unexpected, after all you don’t imagine that the internet would be controlled like this. However it’s actually quite common, if you travel outside your home country often then you’re probably already very familiar with these blocks.

It can strike anywhere, fire up the BBC News as you’ve been delayed in a French airport, nope sorry. Want to load cBeebies to keep the little ones quiet while on their foreign holiday, I’m afraid not. Basically the rule is that any UK media site will be virtually inaccessible the moment you step outside the UK. The BBC, ITV, Channels 4 and 5 all operate a similar policy – you can watch anything online as long as you’re physically located in the United Kingdom. Even the stuff you pay directly for, cable channels and things like Sky TV don’t work outside Britain. There are other sites too, betting sites and many banking ones won’t work properly from abroad either.

But I’ve Seen People Watch British TV in Marbella !

You almost certainly have, as although technically you can’t watch the BBC or any other channel with a Spanish internet connection – there are several workarounds and loads of people use them. You don’t have to look far in any ex-pat community to find an opinion or advice on how you can unlock all the UK sites from the sunny shores of Marbella!   There’s numerous boxes, software and all sorts of workarounds that claim to give access to British TV some which work much better than others.  There’s even UK TV in Spain forum somewhere on the internet too!

This post however focuses on arguably the simplest, cheapest and most reliable way to gain access which is to use a VPN service. This basically hides your real location so that you can access the same British TV sites as anyone in the UK will.  This is important because ultimately when you’re settling down to watch Eastenders or Match of the Day, then the BBC will be much more reliable than some third party streaming service running on an old server in a basement in Moscow!

So using a VPN,  just sounds technical and complicated ! Is it easy to use?  Although a VPN (Virtual Private Network) does sound  like you need a computer degree to setup and use, most of them now just involve clicking a button or two.

Here’s one of the oldest ones in action –

As you can see, it’s very simple to use.  Basically when you need to access something that’s blocked you simply click on the country you need to pretend to be in.  Then you’re entire internet connection is encrypted and routed through that server.  So if you want British TV like the BBC for instance you select a server based in the UK.  Your real location and indeed your entire connection is completely hidden and anonymous, none of the websites will see where you really are.

Although for people in Marbella, the most popular use of these programs is to watch UK television it doesn’t actually stop there.  If you click on another country you can use sites which are restricted to those countries.  Obviously the USA is a favorite as people in Spain use a US VPN to access some of the great media sites there. Particular favorites are Hulu, HBO and NBC although there’s nothing to stop you watching the US version of Netflix either (although you’ll still need a Netflix account).  Suddenly where you are becomes unimportant, it doesn’t matter if you’re in Marbella, Barcelona or enjoying a holiday in Turkey – location is irrelevant.  Just click a UK server and every website you visit will think you’re in the UK too.

UK TV in Spain

Indeed, it’s no surprise to find people using VPNs virtually every day to access the websites they want to use.  Many thousands of people in Marbella use them to stream British TV and have for many, many years.    They are certainly much more reliable than many of the other solutions – check out the IPTV reviews and see how often they simply don’t work.   Although for bypassing subscriptions too (which a VPN won’t do) then IPTV can be cheaper, to watch SKY TV in Spain 2018 – 2019 you’d need both a Sky account and a VPN with a British server.  Using IPTV though does carry more risks as you are effectively getting access to a paid resource for free, so not surprisingly the companies target these users more aggressively.

A VPN is a safe and reliable option although because it relies on client software to make it easy to use, it works better on computers, laptops than it does on Smart TVs for example.   You can set up some VPN connections on other devices though, Identity Cloaker for example will work with tablets, iPads and Smartphones fairly easily.  You need to take a couple of minutes to set up the VPN manually the first time, but it’s not difficult – my 78 year old father managed it !!!

So if you’re confused by all the options and costs involved, then using a VPN is a pretty good place to start with.  If you choose a decent one,then you’re pretty much guaranteed uninterrupted access from wherever you are.  There’s certainly none of the many IPTV Spain problems that people have on an ongoing basis.  You may come across reports about the BBC blocking and detecting VPNs which mostly happened a couple of years ago.  What basically happened was the BBC cracked down on all the huge overloaded VPN servers which were selling access at very low prices and blatantly advertising the UK TV workaround. They all got blocked although some still pretend they work with the BBC.  The proper VPN programs all still work though as they don’t crowd thousands of users on to the same servers (with the same IP addresses) .

Here’s our recommendation, a VPN which I personally have been using for over eleven years from Spain and all across Europe.  It has never let me down and is always fast and reliable, but try it out for yourself – their ten day trial is only a few Euros and has no commitment.

Identity Cloaker Trial

 

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