Inside Sling Box TV Streaming

A Guide to Watching UK TV Abroad

For those who have experienced it, I'm probably safe to say that UK TV is one of the best in the world certainly for English speakers.   The BBc is rightfully famous and there's something wonderful about being able to watch TV without irritating ad breaks every fifteen minutes.  Now that the BBC has lots of great channels, there's a lot to choose from and it's also even easier to watch thegreat US shows on UK television as even the commercial stations have loads less breaks.

Unfortunately if you are living outside the UK it isn't always easy to get access to UK TV, but here's a few methods in case you want to try.  

If you are travelling a lot and still have a base in the UK then one option is to use a little device called a slingbox, this attachs to any satellite system and relays your connection through an internet connection.  Of course you need everything set up in the uk but if you have a fast UK broadband connection and a valid satellite  Sky susbscription it works really well. 

The things to remember that you can only watch one channel at once, so if someone is using the setup in the UK you both have to watch the same thing, the next thing to check is that you have a decent upload speed from the UK which helps you stream the video.  With those in place you can access all your satellite and cable channels anywhere in the world through your PC.   If you don't have a base in the UK then you can even pay people to host a UK satellite system for you, although this can get quite expensive.

The most popular way to access uK TV though is through the channels own web sites.  BBC Iplayer was probably the forerunner of internet channels and you can watch just about any BBC content on it.  Also the other major UK stations ITV, SKy, Channel 4 and 5 also have similar sites.  There is a slight problem with this if you're not in the UK and this is a system called Geotargeting.  

Geotargeting is the process of defining what you see based on your IP address, so if you're in the US you'll get more American content for instance.  Sometimes this is useful but unfortunately many websites also use it to restrict your access.  All the UK TV sites block access to their programmes to anyone with an IP address outside the UK.

Fortunatelly you can bypass this restriction just by using a couple of technologies.  For the BBC Iplayer currently you can just a proxy server based in the UK.   It's fairly easy to do but the challenge is finding a reliable service.  You can find free ones that sometimes work, but they constantly disappear, fall over and generally break.  If you have lots of time to search each time you want to view something it may be an option for you.

For the other UK stations you need something slightly more than a proxy, you need something called a VPN (a Virtual Private Network) - this is because the other stations media sites block the use of ordinary proxies.   It's unlikely you'll find a free VPN unless you can set one up yourself.  All the main US sites require a VPN as well (a US based one) to access outside the States.