Special Deal: 12 Months + 24 Month extra! ALL PrivateVPN plans are protected by a 100% money-back guarantee. Simply sign up in 3 easy steps and test out your VPN for 30 days risk-free!
Your IP Address: 18.220.242.160
You are not protected (read more)

How to watch BBC Abroad in 2019

You want to watch BBC abroad in 2019, but whenever you go into BBC iPlayer which is the online player for BBC, you get told that “this content is not available in your country” and can’t? That’s what this blog is for, to solve your problems that come with being in the wrong location at the wrong time.

Whether you are just 5 minutes away from Nothern Ireland or across the world, if you follow this guide, you will be able to watch BBC outside of the UK in 2019.

But Why Can’t You Watch BBC iPlayer Abroad in the First Place?

It goes down to rights to content. BBC doesn’t have rights to show some of the material that it doesn’t fully own outside of the UK. And some of the content it does own? BBC signed exclusive agreements with other TV channels or platforms for exclusive access to it, in countries outside of the UK. Meaning that it’s just a complicated situation, and while BBC could do something to make BBC more accessible, it would cost them a lot.

And that’s why we are bringing you a solution for how to watch BBC abroad in 2019, a solution that BBC cannot share.

What Do You Need to Do to Watch BBC Abroad in 2019?

To watch BBC abroad in 2019, you merely need to fool BBC into thinking that you are in the UK where BBC works. It’s as simple as that.

Of course, that’s not as simple as it seems as otherwise, you wouldn’t need to search for how to watch BBC abroad in 2019, but it isn’t complicated at all to do once you know the steps.

  1. You first need to make a BBC account. It’s just like registering for any other account. Make sure to select the UK as your location, and later, if asked for whether you pay a TV license, do also select that you do.
  2. To watch BBC iPlayer outside of the UK in 2019, you need to make BBC think you are not abroad.
  3. You need to install BBC iPlayer on your mobile device if that’s where you want to access it.

The second and third steps are not as easy as it seems. Fooling a service is never that easy in the first place, and well, installing BBC iPlayer, it’s only easy if your store right now is already registered in the UK.

How to Fool BBC to Watch BBC Abroad in 2019

It goes down to changing your location virtually. That’s the only way to do it unless you want to physically go into the UK.

To watch BBC abroad in 2019 you need to use a VPN which is a virtual private network. It allows you to virtually be in a location that you are not in, physically.

In this instance, you need to be in the UK virtually in order to watch BBC abroad in 2019.

What service do you use for that? PrivateVPN is one of the few that works with BBC iPlayer. The likes of BBC are aware of the existence of VPN services and thus make a consistent effort to prevent them from working. PrivateVPN has working UK servers for BBC, but it also supports the most regions as far as Netflix meaning that you can access the widest Netflix library out there with the use of PrivateVPN. And yes, even DAZN is supported by PrivateVPN. We made a post about why is DAZN not available in the UK and many other countries recently that shows how to make it work. It’s a far more complicated guide though.

How to Install BBC iPlayer on Mobile Devices to Watch BBC Abroad in 2019?

It seems like everything is far much easier on desktop devices rather than mobile devices. You need to get the BBC iPlayer app to watch on mobile devices, and well, it requires some work.

Oh, and you also need to get the PrivateVPN app on your phone. Don’t forget that. But that’s easy to download.

Installing BBC iPlayer on Android Devices to Watch BBC Abroad in 2019

  • On your web browser, go to payments.google.com followed by clicking on Settings and on the Country tab.
  • Select the UK as your location.
  • Then on your phone, go to Settings followed by going into Apps and clicking on the Google Play Store.
  • While there, press on Force Stop.
  • The last step? Go to Storage followed by the Google Play Store and CLEAR DATA.

This should allow you to download BBC iPlayer to then watch BBC abroad in 2019. Repeat force stopping and clearing data if you still can’t.

Installing BBC iPlayer on Apple Devices to Watch BBC Abroad in 2019

On Apple devices, you actually can’t just change your location as on Android as you will lose everything with that method.

Instead, you need to first sign out of your current iCloud account followed by making a new one based in the UK. That will allow you to watch BBC abroad in 2019 on Apple devices.

After you download BBC, you can switch back to your old account, if you wish.

Installing BBC iPlayer on the Amazon Fire TV Stick

Did you really think we would just leave you hanging without showing you how you can watch BBC abroad on a big screen?

To get BBC iPlayer on the Amazon Fire TV Stick, you also need to change the location of the store.

  • In this case, go to amazon.com and click on Accounts & Lists although that might slightly differ depending on the Amazon account you have already.
  • Either way, after going there, you need to press on something like Content and Devices.
  • There you need to change your region to be in the UK.
  • Lastly, go into your Amazon Fire TV Stick or other devices you use, and go Settings followed by My Account where you need to deregister your device followed by signing in again.

Sometimes you will need to update your method of payment to be from the UK. Just you a virtual card for that. Otherwise, ask a friend.

And that’s it.

That’s How to Watch BBC Abroad in 2019

If you want to watch BBC abroad in 2019 whether you usually live in the UK or not, you need an account, you need to be there virtually, and you might need to change the location of your store.

Written by Michael Smolski.