Logout of iplayer and remove the App. Then reinstall again and login. This might help. Also, does ITV, etc work?
Re Android problems, I’m not familiar with the workings of a TV, but using a standard Android device (or Windows PC), even with VPN set to UK, it is still necessary to switch off permission to access “Location” of your device and set the date/time to UK . Hopefully these can be altered on the TV.
After years of battling with the hugely pathetic and mind-blowingly lethargic Firestick, I acquired a W11 mini-PC (Blackview MP60) and changed to NordVPN. This combo, hard-wired to our Orange modem, gives near-perfect and instantaneous results. Except with UPlayer that is, which often skips content usually just a few seconds at a time. However, it is our wont to view two episodes of U&Drama offerings at a time, e.g. two consecutive “Chelsea Detective”, and I have realised that, almost inevitably, around 20 minutes into the second episode, it stalls and eventually a big pop-up appears saying “Whoops – that’s very embarrassing” (or similar). I have to restart the VPN and the Uplayer app to continue. Does anyone else see this? (or have a cure even!!)
Excuse a bit of thread drift @Pete_Paterson. I am almost convinced to buy a Blackview mini computer. Any complaints about it?
There are two reasons you may be prevented from watching UK TV in France. The one most discussed is to avoid copyright issues. Nord VPN should deal with this.
The French Government also wants to know if digital media is being sold in its country so that it can tax it. There is often a setting on modern TVs where you have to click the country you are in. With my Samsung running its own Tizen software, if I click France I cannot load UK apps. If I want to change that setting to UK it does a reset and I lose all the French apps and have to restart with UK. (Although, thanks to ChatGPT I was shown an undocumented way around this)
I am sure your Android TV will have something similar. Do you download your TV apps from Google play? That might be another route where you are telegraphing your location.
Leaving secret hacks aside, could you not have a smart TV set to France and an Amazon Firestick or Apple TV etc set to UK?
Since May 2025 I’ve stopped using Nord’s VPN on a smart TV & instead used their Smart DNS offering (which is included in Nord’s basic price). All seems pretty good so far…
This explanation seems to be aimed at the USA but it does work here in France I assure you.
Remarkably pleased after six months use. @Mik_Bennett. Bit of a gamble I thought, considering it was about one sixth the price from CDiscount (currently showing at €166) of my similarly spec-ed laptop. Admittedly, no screen, keyboard, speakers or mouse supplied. It must be said that it is used exclusively for streaming, so not at all stretched. Apart from a wireless mouse, I also operate it from the comfort of my sofa, using my laptop, using Teamviewer (free for private use – brill!).
Interesting. Thanks for the feedback. I think I will go for it as my win 10 mini computer is giving problems and won’t upgrade to win 11
I previously had a USFF HP for streaming, unsuitable for upgrade to W11. I should have mentioned that the upgrade to HDMI output provided by the MP60 was well worthwhile on its own
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Yes, I could Chris and I do. I was trying to offer ideas why @Rachman could not watch iPlayer on his Android smart TV. I think the Firestick is a very sound option. I had a friend who swore that it was impossible for him to watch UK TV on his smart TV even using a VPN. I just went round with my own Firestick, plugged it into his HDMI and, once it picked up his WiFi, started working straight away. He ordered his own Firestick the same day.
The reason I used a “secret hack” to log into UK and France at the same time was to be able to set up everything using the one Samsung control. Using that one control, I can watch French and UK satellite (with EPGs for both); terrestrial TV; Firestick; and BluRay.
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A Cunning Plan! 
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Just tried accessing BBC iplayer and BBC Sounds after signing up to Privado VPN. I’m recognised as being outside the UK. Have sent a report in to VPN provider. Anyone else using PrivadoVPN?
I don’t have enough expert knowledge to help you but in my experience it might not be your VPN at fault. I have Express VPN and I can’t use BBC Sounds with or without the VPN on and I have tried every UK locality available. … BUT, providing my VPN is OFF I can play iplayer in my car using Android Auto.
I have since discovered that I can play the BBC channels I am interested in on my phone by using the Alexa App. I just say “play BBC radio 4” and away it goes with NO VPN
The browser you’re using seems to make a difference. If I use Firefox the BBC reckons I’m not in the uk. If I switch to Chrome then there’s no problem. Channel 4 on the other hand will not run on Chrome but will run on FireFox. I’m using Nord vpn
When I was looking at VPNs articles said only 3 still work with iPlayer. Nord, Express and Surfshark.
PrivadoVPN support told me they had made some changes and asked me to retry on my browser. Went straight in to BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds
Edit - not able to watch any programme using the BBC iPlayer app on my Sony TV
We use Pure and it is still working.
It’s a little bit fiddly until you get your head around it, but happy to explain how to use get_iplayer which allows you to download BBC iPlayer shows on your PC / laptop, which you can then put on a USB stick and watch via your Sony TV in-built media player.
Are you using the Nord VPN extension for Firefox? It allows the browser to have an IP address from almost anywhere in the world, whilst the rest of your computer can remain elsewhere if you wish/need to.
Another option included within Nord VPN is Smart DNS, which we use on our smart TV all the time. It’s lot less phaff.