Watching international TV online

[Franklan]

One of the larger threads on the old forum-that-shall-not-be-named was about access to international TV.

As a matter of fact, there were possibilities to watch for example BBC by using tricks and gimmicks called "SmartDNS" or "VPN".

What is the status on that in the year 2024?

How are you doing it?

Content form the UK? Content from Ireland? From Iceland? From the USA?

[bethannbitt]

I use a VPN. If I’m in Armenia or the US it allows me to seamlessly access ARD Mediathek. When I’m away from home I wanna keep up with my deutsch. Here in Konstanz it allows me to watch US stuff if I care to and it allows hubby to get a bunch of stuff from Switzerland that he likes.

[JanxSpirit]

The only free vpns I found that work are Veepn for Channel 4 https://www.channel4.com,

https://uktvplay.co.uk and

https://bflix.to/home (but use an ad blocker when using the last 2).

Doesn't work for BBC or ITV so I use Windscribe that has a 15 GB limit but I can find most shows on Bflix. I have the free Disney+ subscription (has adverts).

[Eric7]

If I wanted to watch international TV (which I don't!), I'd go for IPTV through a standalone set top box.
I really couldn't be bothered with all the hassles of messing with VPNs/DNS and "looking" for whatever I want to watch.
I would want to turn on my TV and browse through the channels/Video on demand content just like if it was Sky or terrestrial TV.
Be aware - these IPTV systems are not legal which is why I don't have one.

[bethannbitt]

If I wanted to watch international TV (which I don't!), I'd go for IPTV through a standalone set top box.
I really couldn't be bothered with all the hassles of messing with VPNs/DNS and "looking" for whatever I want to watch.
I would want to turn on my TV and browse through the channels/Video on demand content just like if it was Sky or terrestrial TV.
Be aware - these IPTV systems are not legal which is why I don't have one.

Won’t work for me since we don’t have a TV set. On Christmas Eve Oma made and four adults plus a 4 and a 7 year old all snuggled together on the couch to watch the original “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” on her MacBook. Great bonding time.

[murphaph]

I'm using Swiss Zattoo via smart DNS. However I think it may be difficult these days to open a Swiss Zattoo account. The Non-Swiss ones are useless for watching UK TV.

[Franklan]

I'm using Swiss Zattoo via smart DNS. However I think it may be difficult these days to open a Swiss Zattoo account. The Non-Swiss ones are useless for watching UK TV.

If I may ask: What are you watching on Swiss Zattoo that you cannot access otherwise?

[murphaph]

All the UK terrestrial TV stations. They also relay the major Austrian, Swiss, Italian, French ones and a bunch of other ones including German pay TV like RTL and Pro7. More or less anything that can be received free to air in CH is rebroadcast on Zattoo. That's a peculiarity of Swiss law. At one stage they contacted me and required that I choose a Swiss or German account. Obviously I chose Swiss. There may well be better (if dodgier) solutions out there these days but this works for us so I just run with it.

[AlexTr]

One of the larger threads on the old forum-that-shall-not-be-named was about access to international TV.

As a matter of fact, there were possibilities to watch for example BBC by using tricks and gimmicks called "SmartDNS" or "VPN".

What is the status on that in the year 2024?

How are you doing it?

Content form the UK? Content from Ireland? From Iceland? From the USA?

My current situation: Getflix has kind of fallen apart. They basically no longer respond to tickets, or you have to hound them to get an answer. I am currently disconnected from their services and plan to cancel my account.

I have a Norton subscription for security (yes, I know opinions vary; open a thread about it to discuss). Norton offers a toggle VPN service. Using that, I can access everything on my laptop. If we want to watch something decidedly US-based, we just cast to the TV.

[Franklan]

My current situation: Getflix has kind of fallen apart.

To be honest, SmartDNS was a good way to get around geo-restrictions in the past.

In fact, most content providers didn't care if a minority of people could get around the restrictions by using SmartDNS.

However, Netflix has really stepped up to the plate, and the way they determine location has made it (nearly) impossible to get around their geo-restrictions with a SmartDNS approach.

This has been the death knell for most SmartDNS providers, because a SmartDNS provider that unblocks a "lot of things but not Netflix" is like a "The best of Procol Harum" CD that doesn't include "a whiter shade of pale".


The BBC has also sharpened its knife to detect and block access via VPN. This is now almost impossible, as the commercial IP databases that indicate whether an IP is private or commercial or the exit point of a VPN have become extremely good.

[Auntie Helen]

Although NordVPN is still working well for the BBC for me.

[pappnase]

I'm using Swiss Zattoo via smart DNS. However I think it may be difficult these days to open a Swiss Zattoo account. The Non-Swiss ones are useless for watching UK TV.

I use Swiss Zattoo too, but via a self hosted VPN (Don't ask I have some free credits with a Cloud provider) I can confirm that if I try to access directly via my German IP address it doesn't work, so you do still need some kind of location masking such as smart-DNS or a VPN.

[Fraufruit]

BBC here - http://www.freeintertv.com/view/id-2328?mode=1&page=1

[editorL]

I use Swiss Zattoo too, but via a self hosted VPN (Don't ask I have some free credits with a Cloud provider) I can confirm that if I try to access directly via my German IP address it doesn't work, so you do still need some kind of location masking such as smart-DNS or a VPN.

As debugging that kind of stuff is a PITA, there are some tools available:

https://toytown.ing/whatsmyip to find out what your current IP is.
https://toytown.ing/whatsmylocation to find out what your current location is.
https://toytown.ing/reverseip to find out your Reverse IP.
https://toytown.ing/proxystatus to find out if the current IP is considered to be a proxy or a VPN endpoint.
https://toytown.ing/dnsleaktest to find out if your vpn connection has a DNS leak.
https://toytown.ing/whois to see the WHOIS database entries for your current IP.
https://toytown.ing/ping to see the result of the server pinging you.
https://toytown.ing/traceroute to see the route from the server towards you.

https://toytown.ing/resources/myflag-large.svg to see the flag associated with your current IP.

To enforce usage of IPV4 or IPV6, you can prepend ipv4. or ipv6. to the URL's, here are some examples:
https://ipv4.toytown.ing/whatsmyip to find out what your current IPV4 is.
https://ipv6.toytown.ing/whatsmyip to find out what your current IPV6 is.

For whatsmylocation, reverseip, proxystatus, whois, ping and traceroute, you can even specify the IP address to be queried: Just append ?IP=1.2.3.4 to the url. Example: https://toytown.ing/traceroute?IP=8.8.8.8.

For whois, you can also specify a domain to be queried, for example https://toytown.ing/whois?DOMAIN=microsoft.com.

And finally, there is NSLOOKUP to query the name server of a domain, for example https://toytown.ing/nslookup?DOMAIN=microsoft.com.

[Krieg]

The only free vpns I found that work are Veepn for Channel 4 https://www.channel4.com,

https://uktvplay.co.uk and

https://bflix.to/home (but use an ad blocker when using the last 2).

Doesn't work for BBC or ITV so I use Windscribe that has a 15 GB limit but I can find most shows on Bflix. I have the free Disney+ subscription (has adverts).

I don't recommend using a free VPN of any type. First they might sell your data. But the worse and the dangerous thing it that they might use your connection as and exit node for other people's free "VPN", so if they make something illegal it is you IP what is facing the world. And the worst of the worst is using them as browser extensions because then on top of that most probably your connection is not encrypted.

[Fraufruit]

Don't underestimate the amount of people who are unwilling to pay € 5 per month to watch TV in their own language from a foreign country.

[JanxSpirit]

I payed for one for a while but the BBC still got wise and then you're locked into a useless contract.

[JanxSpirit]

From the Google Store:

No data shared with third parties
Learn more about how developers declare sharing

This app may collect these data types
Personal info and Device or other IDs

Data is encrypted in transit

You can request that data be deleted

Independent security review

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... l=en&gl=US

I only use VeePN in a dedicated browser and only turn it on to watch something

[Fraufruit]

BBC here - http://www.freeintertv.com/view/id-2328?mode=1&page=1

[JanxSpirit]

BBC here - http://www.freeintertv.com/view/id-2328?mode=1&page=1

Unfortunately only live but nice as a backup