BBC I player abroad

Bigphil1474

Had a look on TVL website, and it doesn't say that the license is for watching TV in the UK. Says:-

"A TV Licence covers you to:

• watch and record programmes as they’re being shown on TV or live on an online TV service, and
• watch and download BBC programmes on iPlayer – live, catch up and on demand.

This could be on any device, including a TV, desktop computer, laptop, mobile phone, tablet, games console, digital box or DVD/Blu-ray/VHS recorder."

It's semantics - is it a license to watch the relevant UK TV output, or is it a license to watch the relevant TV output in the UK. If it's the former, then you should be able to watch it anywhere if you have a license. 

Martin_the_Unjust

It's well past the time the TV tax was abolished and replaced with a BBC subscription service or similar anyway.

wongataa

Bigphil1474 said:

Had a look on TVL website, and it doesn't say that the license is for watching TV in the UK. Says:-

"A TV Licence covers you to:

• watch and record programmes as they’re being shown on TV or live on an online TV service, and
• watch and download BBC programmes on iPlayer – live, catch up and on demand.

This could be on any device, including a TV, desktop computer, laptop, mobile phone, tablet, games console, digital box or DVD/Blu-ray/VHS recorder."

It's semantics - is it a license to watch the relevant UK TV output, or is it a license to watch the relevant TV output in the UK. If it's the former, then you should be able to watch it anywhere if you have a license.

As before streaming was a thing you couldn't watch UK TV abroad (yes I know if you were on the bits of Europe closest to the UK you could be able to pick up the TV signals) so it was a moot point.  I suspect the TV Licensing people just haven't though about updating the information on the web page and just assume that people would realise a UK TV license is only relevant for watching UK TV in the UK.  It is a license to watch UK TV in the UK only and nothing else.  You can't use the other UK terrestrial TV online streaming services abroad either.

JJ_Egan

Though as always their are work around to watch BBC/ ITV / Sky etc content .

But not for discussion on these boards .

Carrot007

cymruchris said:

When I was living in Malaysia I found that Nord vpn worked best - but even then I had to keep changing the connection often, reloading and trying again. Sometimes I wouldn’t  get access for a day or two - and then struck lucky again. And yes, I did have a Uk tv license. 

I take it you looked at their posts telling you which specific vpn's to connect to for various things rather than just the default random uk one and hope for the best. They do have good info and update it often.

jennifermerkle

Hey @frugal90, I use streamlocator to watch bbc iplayer when abroad...

Chino

JJ_Egan said:

But not for discussion on these boards .

So says the self-proclaimed  internet police.

mobileron

Not illegal at all,i live in UK pay my licence i go on holiday and watch tv on iplayer.

jennifermerkle

frugal90 said:

I pay my licence fee so why can't I watch BBC I player when I am abroad?

The BBC quote "technical issues", now amazon prime and netflix don't have "technical issues" , so why should the BBC?

Its because they have permission/ rights to show content only in certain geographies. In todays day and age, this sucks. Because thats the whole point of streaming services. Even Netflix and Amazon Prime do not allow us to watch certain content when traveling. But there are legit workarounds that exist such as stream locator. It connects to the router and lets you choose the country.