UKC

What are people using to stream UK TV overseas?? Any recommendations??

I was using Transponder tv, but it seems my account has expired and its not currently possible to update it for some reason. I wasn't particularly happy with it anyway, so hopefully some better options. 

I'm happy to pay for a service, and want to be able to stream basic UK channels to two tv's, but not simultaneously, and ideally with an app available that I can install on the TV, rather than casting to the TV from my phone (as I had to with transponder tv). 

A Firestick with an IPTV subscription loaded on it ??

Thanks, but I'd prefer not to use a firestick, and would prefer to use an app on TV, or an app on my phone which I can cast to the TV. 

If you specifically want suggestions of an app you can install on your TVs then you need to specify what TVs you're talking about. Different TV software has different apps available. But external sticks are normally the better bet. TV software rarely has as wide a selection of apps and normally gets out of date very quickly.

Same story if you want to cast from your phone, there are several variations on sending and receiving tech depending on what phone and TV you've got.

The best overall solution would probably be a VPN so that you can appear to be in the UK and then just use the normal streaming apps for each channel.

Yes, but also won't work with wireless casting and are fiddly to set up on a TV. Personally I use a VPN, but for TV watching it often necessitates a laptop and HDMI cable.

Using a VPN wouldn't completely prevent casting, but you would have to get technical to make it work.

You could get a VPN router so all devices in the home go through the same remote server?

I haven’t had huge success with VPNs but for the last five years have used a DNS4me.net sub using an Apple TV. Not expensive but works consistently and is fast. I get 100mbps in NZ on iPlayer which is faster than mum and dad get in the uk…

strong recommendation from me. Do need to log in again in event of power cuts. 
 

b

Samsung Frame TV's, plus an iphone. 

I am normally using the the TV Cast (for samsung) to cast from my phone to the TV. So, any internet available platform will work in this manner, but it would be more convenient if there was an app on the TV so I dont need to cast each time.  

Presumably this will mess up my location for other streaming services, such as prime video, netflix etc?

This is what I’m referring to when I say “fiddly to set up”. As 99% of my home internet use is not watching UK only TV, I can’t really be bothered with it when all I need to do is plug a laptop into a wire.

Yes. And more annoyingly IMO, online shopping

No, you log in the first time and can select which services you need and where from. So in NZ I can appear to be in the UK for iPlayer, and when in the UK I can appear to be in NZ for TVNZ OD. Other sites that don't need geolocation are unaffected.

b

My IPTV subscription has a phone/tablet/laptop app, no firestick required. 

I spend a portion of my time abroad, and VPNs aren't really the panacea they claim to be in this respect.  After a while the Beeb, ITV, etc recognize that whatever ip address the service is using is associated with a VPN and block it.  This means you can't connect to the streaming service until the VPN server recognizes this and reallocates another IP address.  It works again for a while until the Beeb, ITV, etc. again recognize the VPN, and thus the game of "whackamole" continues.  Some VPN providers seem better in how they handle this than others.  EasyVPN I found to be useless, with ability to connect about 20% of the time.  NordVPN better with connection attempts working around 60% of the time, and ExpressVPN working best (of the 3 I've tried) working about 90% of the time.

Same here... Nord does have lots of different servers, so it's easy to switch. Express went through a very poor patch a while back, so I migrated from there.

I also have a dodgy IPTV app on my firestick, which is excellent for all UK TV. 

I am waiting for when the BBC License Fee includes watching their content from abroad - might be a long wait!

I don't think it will be a complete solution because generally the reason content is blocked by country is that the copyright holder has sold the rights to different customers in different territories. So even if you have an official, paid for iPlayer in say France, you likely wouldn't be able to watch a series that the beeb had sold exclusive rights to Canal+ over here. This is why the Netflix catalog is different by country, even though you can theoretically watch Netflix anywhere.

I mostly solved that issue by installing a satellite dish and bringing a Freesat DVR decoder back from the UK so I can record stuff over satellite (it was mainly because up until getting Starlink a few months back, my broadband was too feeble to manage anything other than YouTube and Netflix, which benefit by edge caching their content closer to you, something obviously UK providers won't do).

Obviously that only works if you're close enough to the satellite footprint to pick it up.

Agree, VPNs (especially free ones) really don’t last. That’s why I ended up using a DNS strategy and it has been faultless since I joined in 2018. I had never managed more than a few months before even with a paid VPN. 
b

Yep, mine does to. It just works better through a Firestick, or even better the Fire TV cube.

Which one are you using?

I use PureVPN and it’s been very good. Especially recently. If there is an issue their help desk can give you a work around, but that’s unusual. I’ve been using their Chrome extension, but their IPad/IPhone app is even better. 

Like you say a fire stick is the way to go, if you have enough bandwidth for live streaming. Sky, BBS or ITV. will not be fooled by VPN. In Cham. we have a satellite dish and receiver, but the signal strength and therefore coverage has halved. We had to install a larger dish. However high speed broadband is now available, so from here on in its a fire stick.

I watched the women's Euros final in Croatia using Surfshark on iPlayer. It was really easy to set up and I cancelled it afterwards so I only used the free trial period. 

But my understanding is that a fire stick just uses the normal steaming apps, so you need to set it up with a VPN anyway to 'work' abroad, although admittedly this is handled by the stick so it's easy and an all in one package. However it means it's only as good as your VPN provider. 

I just use Netflix, Disney and Prime on my TV apps because having the French versions is fine, but tempted to get a Fire Stick for iPlayer so I don't have to plug in the laptop.