Getting British TV on a laptop outside the UK

Hern

Friends of ours who retired to the Canary Islands ten years ago have been having trouble recently getting UK TV channels such as BBC1 and ITV. They're about to invest in a new laptop and wondered if it's possible to buy one in the UK with some kind of in-built tuner that will allow them to get live or catch-up UK television programmes in Tenerife.

It was my understanding that such isn't possible if you're not living in the UK, but I'm no tecchie.

Advice appreciated. Thanks.

Oldernotwiser

You need to use some kind of proxy ISP (I think that's the term, I'm not very techie).

Expat Shield is free http://expatshield.com/ although there are lots of others.

You just download these, they don't need any special equipment.

Hern

Many thanks for the instant help, ONW: much appreciated. I'll pass on your info to our friends.

Sincere thanks again.

neilwoods

does it have to be on a laptop. They could get freesat, do think they are just within the area of the south beam of astra 2, get all the free uk channels then, could even go for sky tv.

may require a large dish though 150cm fish (about 5 feet)

cit_k

Hern wrote: »

Friends of ours who retired to the Canary Islands ten years ago have been having trouble recently getting UK TV channels such as BBC1 and ITV. They're about to invest in a new laptop and wondered if it's possible to buy one in the UK with some kind of in-built tuner that will allow them to get live or catch-up UK television programmes in Tenerife.

It was my understanding that such isn't possible if you're not living in the UK, but I'm no tecchie.

Advice appreciated. Thanks.

They would be breaking the law though surely?

Parva

cit_k wrote: »

They would be breaking the law though surely?

Yeah, I'm sure that the BBC detector vans and door knockers are rife in the Canary Islands......

londonTiger

yeah it's against the law. maybe you'd like to send the bbc a cheque every year for voluntary license fee contribution. alternatively watch dave or bbc america.

Lleucu

Oldernot wiser, diolch, slightly techie question, presumably to use the product, you need to open the programme, it does not permanently give you a UK IP address??

mcfisco

I use a paid for service - PureVPN - for when I'm working away
For a tenner a quarter, I can't fault it
I've tried a few of the free ones but they tend to get bogged down a bit at times

They're all fairly simple to set up and use
You simply set up a VPN connection and connect to that before browsing to the relevant site - iPlayer etc


EDIT: It would be fairly simple to set a laptop up to connect to the VPN server at bootup
so - for all intents and purposes - it'd have a UK [or US etc.] IP address

Hern

neilwoods wrote: »

does it have to be on a laptop. They could get freesat, do think they are just within the area of the south beam of astra 2, get all the free uk channels then, could even go for sky tv. may require a large dish though 150cm fish (about 5 feet)

Neil: many thanks for that info. I'll pass it on so they can talk to a local specialist sat TV supplier.

londonTiger wrote: »

yeah it's against the law. maybe you'd like to send the bbc a cheque every year for voluntary license fee contribution. alternatively watch dave or bbc america.

Couple of points:

1) Many people outside the UK who enjoy BBC programming have offered to pay their whack. But the BBC says such is not possible;

2) If, as seems most likely, my friends are only able to connect to BBC iPlayer to watch on demand then they're not breaking any so-called 'law'. No-one is legally required to pay the BBC licence fee to watch or listen to any recorded / archived BBC iPlayer content, doesn't matter whether they're resident in the UK or not. A licence is required only if they watch live TV.

mcfisco wrote: »

I use a paid for service - PureVPN - for when I'm working away
For a tenner a quarter, I can't fault it
I've tried a few of the free ones but they tend to get bogged down a bit at times . . .

Thanks for that info, mc; much appreciated. I'll pass it on.

ChiefGrasscutter

I'm quite sure the BBC will clamp down on iplayer before long.
If it was them I'd make it available worldwide -BUT require everyone to pay a "licence fee" to use it - ie stick behind a paywall as it's referred to.