How to watch BBC iplayer in USA for free

Although this will work for anyone, this article is aimed at those British television licence holders who find themselves outside of the UK and unable to get BBC TV or watch BBC iplayer.

The BBC produces quality drama, news, comedies, and documentaries, much of which is available either streamed live over the internet or by watching BBC iplayer, which allows you to watch BBC tv programmes that were broadcast recently. The problem is that if you travel outside of the country and try to access their online services, the BBC will not allow you to watch BBC iplayer overseas. This is because it picks up your location and blocks you.

Even if you have a valid British television licence, you still will not be able to watch BBC iplayer in USA or anywhere else overseas. As a British holidaymaker in the USA for a month who holds a valid televison licence but has a limited amount of money, I spent some time researching how to watch BBC iplayer in USA for free and below are my findings on the best way to do it.

The BBC is paid for by British licence payers and the BBC don’t want people who live overseas without a television licence to be able to get BBC iplayer or watch BBC tv overseas for free. The problem is that the blanket approach of blocking all people abroad stops everyone overseas from watching the BBC iplayer, even if they have actually paid for and own a television licence and are only abroad temporarily, for instance, they are on holiday.

Basically, your computer has an ID called an IP address and the BBC can detect where your IP is situated. If you are in the USA or overseas, they will automatically block you, even if you have a valid British television licence. The only way that you can watch BBC iplayer overseas is to trick the BBC computer detectors into thinking that your IP address is situated somewhere within the UK. To do this you normally have to use a computer situated in the UK as an intermediary between your computer and the BBC. This is known as a proxy. There are lots of companies that offer proxy services, but the free ones are often unreliable and as I really didn’t want to pay, I spent a long time looking at and trying different proxy sites. I didn’t discover anything that I was happy with, however.

Then I came across a website called: Expat Shield. They promised me the opportunity to get BBC iplayer from abroad for free. I was obviously sceptical, suspecting that once I arrived at the site they would try to make me pay for their service, but that wasn’t the case. I downloaded the small Expat Shield program and installed it and that was it. I was away. They make their money back by using a small banner ad that appears near the top of your screen. It’s actually a very minor irritation and you can click to close it, if you want, anyway. It’s certainly worth putting up with when you consider that you get to watch BBC iplayer for free.

So that’s my recommendation: Expat Shield. And by the way, I have no connection with the company, nor do I get any sort of cut from them. I did run some anti-virus software on the program and I read up on them too as I hate installing programs unless I know a bit about them, but I haven’t discovered anything harmful or detrimental to my computer. In fact I have Expat Shield installed on both my laptop and netbook now and have really enjoyed watching BBC iplayer without experiencing any ill effects or problems. From what I have read elsewhere, Expat Shield have a good reputation as far as proxy services go. I have certainly done well by them.

Here is the link for expatshield.com