The problem has been around since the vhs. It is the regional rights that are the problem
It isn’t a Virtual Private Network, it is just a mask
Have you tried an Amazon Firestick? Amazing piece of kit. You attach it to your TV with an hdmi socket so your tv needs to have one of those and you sync it to your wifi router.
Is there anything on UK Television worth watching?
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Loads of things. Repair Shop, Soul America on BBC 4 and the final series of Spral soon (I hope).
Thanks for the suggestion. I’ve actually got chrome cast. Doesn’t that do much the same thing? I’ve got Firestick stuck away in a box somewhere so perhaps I’ll look it out and fiddle about with it.
The problem is that I have a Bbox router, which is incompatible with the VPN provider that I’ve been going on about - Express VPN - and although you can use your own router with Bouyges my techincal competence isn’t at a level where I could install it properly. Also, the BBC won’t allow you in if it detects that you are out of the country, regardless of whether you’re trying to get there via a router, phone, tablet or anything else.
Thanks to an earlier comment I’m trying out Surfshark, which at the moment seems to work okay. However, the root of the problem remains. If the BBC has developed something that blocks Express VPN as effectively as this, perhaps it’s only a metter of time before they turn their attention to other VPN providers. Express VPN were considered to be one of the most reliable services for acessing iPlayer until this happened.
Why is the BBC not available as a subscription service? If they were to charge the equivalent of a UK TV Licence, for example, which is currently £157.50 per year to have access to all the BBC channels and BBC iplayer would anyone be prepared to pay for it?
I imagine someone will tell me there is a technical/legal reason why this is not possible.
Izzy x
I can think of the parallel with use of still images. When selling a photograph, one specifies the use it may be put to and the territories where that use will be permitted.
So ‘BBC TV North-East’, which bought some Geordie band pix of mine for local use and paid all of £6 each - I was mortified - is a different proposition to MCann Erickson Advertising, Coca-Cola, worldwide usage.
The actors, writers and others on the ‘creative’ side would all have to be paid more up front to make the same programmes if these were accessible to territories outside UK, free to air. There will be formulae for how much more everybody gets paid, depending on where the content is available, if it is sold as a package. The Natural History Unit, Bristol, is a gold mine of revenue for the BBC.
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Even if it were it is likely that restrictions on the geographic region where material can be shown would get in the way of watching the Beeb in France.
More articles on the subject - I’m sure if you stick the above query into Google you will find even more arguments (probably both in support and against).
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Very interesting Paul, thanks.
But they are available in territories outside the UK. BBC subscribe,or whatever the equivalent is, to Freeserve/Freesat. I can watch live and record. What’s the difference between that and iPlayer? I hope I’m not sounding provocative, but it’s something I’ve never understood.
proprietary rights? Freesat et al publishes stuff which is free to air whereas iPlayer is owned by the BBC so they can control who sees it…
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Spiral 8 next year.
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You don’t need vpn for that just get a sky box
Have got one, or the equivalent at least. That’s not the point though. It’s being able to access iPlayer for the things that you can’t record ( BBC 4 is difficult), things that you see that are available that interest you, that sort of thing.
Plus BBC 3 of course
