Disclaimer: The following is relevant for UK licence fee payers only. You follow the instructions below at your own risk!
Ok, so you are a licence fee payer and are over in Germany on business. You miss your Eastenders, Coronation Street, Britain’s Got Talent etc. You can (even as a non licence fee payer) in certain areas subscribe through cable to BBC Prime. It is crap however. Unless you are an antiques freak, DIY freak, or enjoy endless episodes of the weakest link you will not be very impressed (they do have Eastenders though which is about 2 weeks behind UK).
What to do?
Well it’s simple but requires a reasonably stable and fast internet connection (normal DSL should be ok).
All you have to do is go to Filmon.com. Download the player, install it and that’s it!
You now have the main UK channels live streaming in very high quality on your computer (which with most modern televisions you can connect it to your tv). I should mention there are channels on there that are not suitable for children. Also this is a beta product and is currently free. That may change or they may eventually get taken down. As this blog is new with not so many visitors I am posting this but will remove this post after one or two weeks. I have seen this player in action and believe me you will be impressed.
So thats what to do for live UK TV.
What about the catchup services (BBC iplayer, ITV catchup etc.)?
All the main TV station catchup services incorporate geographical IP checking to see if you are coming from a UK IP. Which obviously if you are here in Germany you are not. You can find open UK proxies but these are very unreliable and often get closed down quickly. Therefore you need a closed, ideally unique, uk IP number. I dont want to get too techie on you but you will need whats known as a VPN (Virtual Private Network) based in UK (or if you are American a US based VPN for US catchup services.) There are various services that offer you a VPN but obviously for money. Simply type into Google “uk vpn service” for various VPN service providers. They vary in prices but you can get for example from instvpn.com a dedicated vpn ip for $10 per month. How to set your computer up once youve recieved your Ip number and login details is well explained and easy. $10 per month for all UK catchup services isnt a bad deal I think you’d agree.
Please do not link to this page. Please do not post this information on your own blog or tell too many people. As mentioned I will be removing this post in probably just a week.
