Bbc iplayer and VPN's

[Bristolfashion]

Well there are certainly some here that have a UK TV licence but are unable to access the service they pay for whilst out of the country. The BBC have talked for years about implementing a licence based login for iPlayer but failed to do so so far. I dont see that they have any reason to feel guilty

Well, being the devil's advocate, strictly you've only paid for use whilst in the UK (plus, of course, downloads for the 30 day period.) Them's the terms.

I presume that the Beeb negotiates rights and sales on the basis of the agreement. To allow overseas access would, I suppose, lower their income and increase their costs. To say nothing of running around enforcing their terms & conditions ad vpns pop up and disappear. So there is something to feel a teeny bit guilty about.

Still, hopefully the Beeb keep an eye on this forum thread as a quick way of finding out which vpns to shut down - very helpful.

Of course, the excellent radio output is fully available overseas ( although no downloads)

I live in Australia some of the time - our public broadcaster, ABC, does not allow any overseas access or any downloads AND the radio output is not available overseas.

Cheers

Beeb lovin' Bristol

 

[nortada]

I'm just wondering if there is anyone that feels just a little bit guilty accessing the BBC by VPN in contravention of the terms of service and, presumably, costing the cash-strapped Beeb significant money in enforcement?

I don't do it.

Cheers

Bristol

Well there are certainly some here that have a UK TV licence but are unable to access the service they pay for whilst out of the country. The BBC have talked for years about implementing a licence based login for iPlayer but failed to do so so far. I dont see that they have any reason to feel guilty

 

[maby]

If you have access to a PC in the UK, then VNC (I've used TightVNC) would work. Basically, VNC allows you to control and see a remote machine. I've used it to set up machines in Buenos Aires from Cambridge, with no problems at all. It would certainly work for iPlayer and so on, as iPlayer would actually be running on the machine in the UK, not on your on-board PC.

If you have access to an adequate PC on a decent broadband link within the UK, just load up OpenVPN on it and run your own VPN. I'm pretty sure that the BBC recognise and block VPNs based on their IP addresses and the number and pattern of connections coming out of them. It is difficult to identify a VPN by any other means. If you have your own VPN server located in the UK and make sure that you don't let too many people use it, it will be close to impossible for the BBC to recognise it as such.

 

[One A.]

Don't feel guilty, just think about all the years of having a TV license and the amount of time it's sat there off, that time belongs to you.

 

[maby]

Don't feel guilty, just think about all the years of having a TV license and the amount of time it's sat there off, that time belongs to you.

As already pointed out, I doubt that the BBC are particularly concerned from a revenue point of view - they will be obliged by the terms under which they have purchased content to take steps to block people outside the UK viewing it.

 

[maxi77]

It is all clearly part of the Little Englander attitude that pervades all our lives these days. All other European broadcasters manage to allow access to their satellite signals EU wide. It is only the UK that finds such a service uneconomic.

 

[maby]

It is all clearly part of the Little Englander attitude that pervades all our lives these days. All other European broadcasters manage to allow access to their satellite signals EU wide. It is only the UK that finds such a service uneconomic.

I'n not sure that that is true - you try buying a subscription to the premium services of Sky Italia from an address in this country. When a broadcaster - particularly a free-to-air broadcaster - buys the rights to transmit a new movie, they pay a fee which is based on their anticipated viewing figures. It's the studios that insist on controlling the distribution - they want to charge the broadcasters in each country for the same movie - if the BBC pays on the basis of the UK population size but effectively makes the film viewable all over the world, then the studio is going to have trouble convincing the broadcasters in places like Australia that they should pay up.

 

[Bristolfashion]

It is all clearly part of the Little Englander attitude that pervades all our lives these days. All other European broadcasters manage to allow access to their satellite signals EU wide. It is only the UK that finds such a service uneconomic.

Which is a little bit irrelevant now as Brits have voted for the "little Englander" attitude and is leaving the EU.

 

[Bristolfashion]

Don't feel guilty, just think about all the years of having a TV license and the amount of time it's sat there off, that time belongs to you.

But you don't buy "time" to use any time you fancy, you buy access for a period, subject to term & conditions.

 

[tinapaul]

Yes.

Free VPN UK has also been blocked so clearly a big push on blocking VPNs to access UK TV.

Pathetic

That's true. I have been living in Germany and frequent to Canada very often. iPlayer doesn't work on both these places; forget free VPNs even some paid ones cannot get you access to the app. As they have started detecting VPNs and blocking them from access. There are very few at the moment to work with BBC iPlayer and same for the Netflix (US).
Nordvpn, surfshark (I use this) and a several more work this time.
Here is a verified list:
https://www.vpnranks.com/bbc-iplayer-vpn/

 

[One A.]

But you don't buy "time" to use any time you fancy, you buy access for a period, subject to term & conditions.

Time is a concept that you can't buy but you can control to some extent.

 

[BrianH]

As already pointed out, I doubt that the BBC are particularly concerned from a revenue point of view - they will be obliged by the terms under which they have purchased content to take steps to block people outside the UK viewing it.

The BBC sells all their four TV channels to my Swiss cable service via BBC Worldwide Ltd, for which I pay heavily to have bundled in my combined package of digital channels. The same cable service also supplies my broadband internet via their ISP but I am still unable to access iPlayer content.

In comparison, when living aboard in my Italian marina, the Astra 1 satellite delivers me a plethora of TV channels, which includes every existing German one, public, private and regional, which is usually of a better standard of reporting and interest (to me) anyway. Of course, there is no BBC channel, they are all on Astra 2E with a tightly focused footprint on the UK only and even with a large dish antenna, not receivable in NE Italy.

 

[bendyone]

I run a Openvpn server on a small Linux machine at home (UK) I can happily connect to it from anywhere and have a UK IP address. Works for me.

 

[Vodkadrinker]

That's true. I have been living in Germany and frequent to Canada very often. iPlayer doesn't work on both these places; forget free VPNs even some paid ones cannot get you access to the app. As they have started detecting VPNs and blocking them from access. There are very few at the moment to work with BBC iPlayer and same for the Netflix (US).
Nordvpn, Aeroshield (I use this) a several more work this time for BBC iPlayer and watch Hotstar out of India
Here is a verified list:
6 Best BBC iPlayer VPNs [100% Working Ones]

I've read that smart dns (if i'am not mistaken) is a new way to watch BBC iPlayer without bans and lags.

 

[nortada]

I've read that smart dns (if i'am not mistaken) is a new way to watch BBC iPlayer without bans and lags.

Welcome to the forums.

What is dns?

 

[ryanroberts]

DNS is what (among other things) resolves textual addresses like iplayer.bbc.co.uk to the underlying numeric IP addresses like 223.22.11.2 etc. Smart DNS just seems to be a VPN brand?

 

[Mistroma]

DNS refers to the Domain Name system and is a way of converting a more memorable descriptive name e.g. Google to the IP address used to connect (e.g. something like 64.233.160.0).

You use a server to lookup the IP address. Google provide a public one 8.8.8.8. I have used that explicitly when a marina has had problems with their Internet providers DNS server. It is pretty complicated trying to explain DNS accurately and in detail but my explanation should suffice.

However, you are talking about SmartDNS which is a way of spoofing your location. It doesn't form an encrypted link in the way a VPN works and this means it it faster but less secure. Better than VPN wrt speed for streaming but not suited to secure applications (e.g. online banking).

I'm not even going to try to explain SmartDNS other than say it routes your un-encryptyed traffic to a server based in a country of your choosing using a proxy server.

 

[nortada]

DNS refers to the Domain Name system and is a way of converting a more memorable descriptive name e.g. Google to the IP address used to connect (e.g. something like 64.233.160.0).

You use a server to lookup the IP address. Google provide a public one 8.8.8.8. I have used that explicitly when a marina has had problems with their Internet providers DNS server. It is pretty complicated trying to explain DNS accurately and in detail but my explanation should suffice.

However, you are talking about SmartDNS which is a way of spoofing your location. It doesn't form an encrypted link in the way a VPN works and this means it it faster but less secure. Better than VPN wrt speed for streaming but not suited to secure applications (e.g. online banking).

I'm not even going to try to explain SmartDNS other than say it routes your un-encryptyed traffic to a server based in a country of your choosing using a proxy server.

Thanks so from your last sentence, apart from less security, no different from VPN?

 

[Bristolfashion]

If you're outside the UK temporarily, but within the EU why not just pay for Britbox?

 

[nortada]

If you're outside the UK temporarily, but within the EU why not just pay for Britbox?

When out of the UK temporarily, you can use up to your data allowance (Three = 20GBt per month) free.

If you are out of the UK for longer than 4 months+, why not use local free wifi and free VPN? Not sure if you can get smart DNS free?