BBC IPlayer

[LadyEloise1]

For those of us don't live in the UK and don't have to pay the BBC licence fee but do have access to BBC television channels and pay a monthly subscription for tv and broadband, in my case to Virgin Media, we can't use the BBC IPlayer.
It would be so useful to have it.
I would be willing to pay a monthly subscription for access.
The BBC is short of money.
A subscription service would bring in much needed revenue.
It's a no brainer.
So why don't they do it ?
Open up the BBC IPlayer to the world for a fee.

Brilliant idea.

(I’m frustrated paying my UK BBC licence fee - but being unable to access it when travelling in Europe). Paying for a service - can’t use it.

Licencing and copyright issues I would imagine.

I use a VPN when not in the UK. I have a UK licence so I don't feel I'm doing anything particularly immoral although I know the BBC don't want people doing that.

I was going to mention BritBox but I see that it is due to close at the end of this month.

I agree. It seems very sill not to do it. They licence BBC programmes to Netflix etc. They would make a killing with a subscription service that was available abroad. I think the BBC should be taken out of political control and just things like news coverage and the arts covered by general taxation, while commercially viable parts like BBC1 etc should be available on subscription through iplayer. It would be for their own good too, the amount of times they get threatened by various 'culture' secretaries.

WHAT?!!

I'm just hoping someone in the relevant section of the BBC is a Mumsnetter and sees this thread and thinks "Yep, great idea!"

I did email the BBC DG some years back re my splendid idea. But to no avail.

I think it's such an obvious thing to do, and they clearly tried something similar with Britbox that there must be a reason why it isn't done. Maybe something to do with the BBC charter?

When was this announced? I’m gutted.

@AgentProvocateur
Early February this year, according to this Radio Times article. It all seems a bit rushed.

Do we know what will happen to the BBC content on BritBox?

I think Britbox is now part of ITVX.

They won't do it due to licensing. It wouldn't make them the money that you think because it's not actually a case of they just have all this footage lying around and can let people access it at no cost to themselves. They have sold the rights to programmes in different countries so to show them themselves breaches that agreement. This is more lucrative than a streaming service which hardly anyone would actually subscribe to, it would mostly be expats and there aren't that many of us.

Just use a VPN like the rest of us do 😆

How does this work please.

I would like to be able to use it when abroad.

Exactly this

What VPN do you use @BlackAmericanoNoSugar as I know, like me, you are in Ireland.

In Australia I use getflix.

I'd imagine the major shows are on the other streaming sites, I think doctor Who used to be on Netflix!

I live in the uk and have a license. When I am abroad I use Surfshark VPN. Not sure how it would work with a TV but I can stream it through my I pad with a cable connected to the TV or download the programmes and play them the same way.

I use Pure VPN, sometimes a really good offer for a 5 year contract comes up and I take that, otherwise I go year by year and it costs about $110. If you let it expire for a bit they will email with offers, but I have now reached the stage that it expires in the middle of Strictly so I generally just renew it. There are all sorts of extra security or storage stuff that you can pay extra for but I only need it for streaming so I don't bother with them. If you use my referral code you can get 15 days free trial (I get 1 month contract extension). https://purevpn.com/refer-a-friend-v2?referrer=TGtLTWdTa0JWR1FkWERWb2JXSW5uKytGQXpsRmU1RFF6VnNJWVF4bVA0MEljQjhVbllob09EY1ZYU0pCczRDKw== Or just Google and see if there are any discount codes around.

The way it works is that there is a dashboard and you can choose where you want to be either by location or by shortcut. Location is just country and city, shortcut is specific to use eg BBC - UK. Either will work. Photo of dashboard below. Just click on the one that you want. I can log in to it from up to 10 devices, so I watch on my computer and the family also use it on their devices. I haven't tried it on the TV but it's a smart TV so it might work, or could possibly cast it from my phone or iPad.

Sorry, just checked and I'm currently on a 5 year plan for $110. I thought it seemed a little steep when I was typing it before.

I had the same issue OP (I'm in Ireland) and I tried ExpressVPN, but I only ever got it to work once or twice - the BBC website would flag that I was in another country and block me. Even when I cleared cookies on my laptop etc., so I stopped my subscription.

I don't understand why I can access Channel 4 but not BBC.

Not me obviously but a good friend tells me NordVPN works well and you can subscribe for just a month (about £11). Good for those on holiday abroad.

BBC checks to see how many people are logging in from one IP address, if there are thousands then they block that address. If you use a VPN that is good for streaming (Googling will give you loads of top 10 VPNs for each specific purpose) then they rotate the IP address that they use. I occasionally have to disconnect my VPN and then reconnect, but on the whole it works fine. I think most of the big names like Nord, Surfshark, Pure etc would work.

I've just checked and Express, which didn't work for you, comes up as good for streaming BBC iPlayer. So either they've improved or the top 10 lists are not useful. Pure, which I use, seems to not make it onto many of the lists at all, but as I find it works fine I'll keep using it until it stops working for me.

I live abroad and use a VPN too. I may or may not have a tv licence.... ! but I pay here to watch BBC1 and 2 but no iPlayer. Think the BBC needs to totally rethink its licence fee- people don't watch tv in the same way they did 20 years ago.