get TV abroad

Archive for the ‘iplayer’ Category

I was speaking with an American user of Identity Cloaker recently, who obviously was using it to watch American TV in his home away from home in Moscow, Russia (Showcase, HBO and Hulu to be precise). Anyway I was a little suprised to hear from him that he had NEVER heard of the BBC iPlayer service, ok actually I was very suprised. The vast majority of people who come here do so simply to watch BBC television abroad, and yet I must now consider that several thousand people a month who visit this site actually have no idea what the iPlayer service is!

So lets correct that issue right now!

The service was originally called Interactive Media Player, and was announced back around 2003 and generated much anticipation. However, since then the product was met with much criticism due to the constant rebranding and testing periods that lasted at least 4 years until the product was officially launched. A group of 5000 internet users then tested the service for 5 months during October 2005-Feb 2006. After another frustrating wait, the program was re tested in a closed beta version. Beta is the testing stage that programs go through, right before the final program is released. What really irritated most customers who sponsored the program through payment of television licenses was that it stayed in the beta stage for quite a while.

Around mid 2009 BBC started streaming and offering television shows in upgraded quality; with some in High Definition, and others in Mp4 format. There are rumours that an iPad and iPhone compatible application will soon be released very soon (they have got through the big hurdles of the BBC Trust). Once this is in place, BBC shows will be available 24/7 from any location in the UK (and abroad for those of you using Identity Cloaker). Some experts predict that this technology will soon move to other handheld devices, including Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile. In fact, as an April Fools’ joke, the British Broadcasting Corporation announced a ‘breakfast telly’ version available on a toaster, with a special 7 inch heat proof display screen. Despite numerous criticisms from, well, critics; the BBC iPlayer service has become extremely popular across the UK and around the globe, and the new possibilities being developed (however long they may take) will ensure that the BBC remains ahead of the game.

It's always nice to hear from people who are enjoying UK TV abroad, something that was impossible just a few year ago. I quite often get asked 'will Identity Cloaker work in country X' and the simple answer is yes, it would work on the moon if you had an internet connection there! I recently found this blog post from a user in Japan who is happily using Identity Cloaker to watch UK TV there:

日本でBBCを見るには

個人的にテレビ自体はあまり見たいのですが、イギリスのBBCが何気に面白い番組をやっているので、なんとか日本で見たいなと思っていました。BBCの公式サイトには、BBC iPlayerというのがあって、最近の番組を見れるのですが、これがイギリス国内からしか見れないようになっているのです。

まあ、そういうことなので、iPlayerにあたかもイギリス国内からアクセスしているように思わせれば良いわけです。色々方法はあるのですが、技術的なややこしい話は置いておいて、ちょっと調べて良いなと思った方法が、『Identity Cloaker』というソフトを使う方法です。

http://www.gettvabroad.com/how-to-watch-free-national-tv-abroad

これは便利ですよ！

有料なのですが、そんなに高くないし、何よりも速いので、iPlayerの番組も比較的スムーズに見れます。なにより日本にいながらBBCが見れるのが嬉しい！

はじめに5ユーロで10間お試しで使ってみてすっかり気に入ったので、3ヶ月分のライセンスを買ってしまいました。（それでも30ユーロ程度）

iPlayer自体もなかなか作りが良くて、新しい放送分はもちろん、ドラマなども同じシーズンならば初めのエピソードまで遡って見れるようです。（TVを買ってみるより便利なのでは？）

回線が遅くてリアルタイムでスムーズに見れない時などは、番組をiPlayer内にダウンロードしてくれる機能もあってなかなか気が利いています。

Doing the rounds again is the news that the BBC will be launching a global iPlayer for those living outside the UK.

Great we can all cancel out subscriptions to Identity Cloaker!!! er…. Well… Probably not.

There are a number of things to consider, not least of which is that BBC Global iPlayer is not going to be free either. In fact given that the BBC has already stated that people will be willing to pay up to 10 pounds a show, that more than an entire months subscription to Identity Cloaker! There is also the simple fact that this will be a select service, there is NO way it will include all the content broadcast by the BBC and included on the proper iPlayer Website. Why? Well just consider F1 racing, they do not have (and never will have) the rights to broadcast this online internationally. Equally shows which the BBC do not directly own will require special permission to be broadcast, something they are unlikely to bother with.

So what will be on BBC Global iPlayer? Well lets take a guess that you will be getting Doctor Who, Top Gear and Eastenders for sure. However would you be willing to pay so much just to watch these shows?

At the moment there is no timeframe for the deployment of the Global iPlayer (past attempts have been blocked by other UK and European TV companies, and this may well happen again), it has however been stated it will be sometime in 2011. So right now if you want to watch BBC iPlayer abroad your best bet is still Identity Cloaker. In 12 months time I would say 99% your best bet to be watching iPlayer outside the UK will still be Identity Cloaker and not BBC Global iPlayer.

I have had a few emails recently about the ability to watch BBC iPlayer abroad for free and if this is a valid solution. Well…

Firstly it is 100% true you can do it for free, there are many things you pay for every day which you can get for free. You don't need to pay rent or a mortgage if you are willing to live under a tree, and you can always eat for free from the bins outside the supermarkets. While both options are free I don't think many of you would choose to live that way!

Watching BBC iPlayer for free generally requires the use of open proxy servers, which are both unreliable and a pain to find. There are various programs out there which will track these down for you, and then you can take the information and manually enter it in to your browser or proxy program and then IF the server is fast enough you will be able to watch iPlayer abroad for free…for a while… perhaps…

The issue is they are just not reliable, you will find that they only work for a very short period before they are either turned off or just simply swamped by the thousands of other people using them. So you will be forced to search over and over again for new proxies, wasting hours of time. Liken this to needing to retune you TV every time you turn it on and then again every 20 minutes of viewing. Annoying? Certainly!

There are also security risks, as you have no idea who is running the proxy and what they are doing with all the data you are passing through them (a quick look over at change-my-ip.com will reveal many of the dangers of public proxies!).

Running with a professional and secure private proxy company such as Identity Cloaker costs under $10 a month, saves you a lot of time and it works (you open the program, select UK, connect and watch iPlayer).

Sure give the free iPlayer abroad options a try, but you will most probably regret it.

It might well be a hung parliment but that fact is the massive amount of interest in the UK elections have resulted in many BBC services not working too well at the moment! If anybody tried to watch the BBC coverage of the Spanish GP online today they may well have been met with blank screens!

So if you are testing out Identity Cloaker to watch BBC iPlayer abroad and its not working quite how you would hope then give it some time and try again as the problems are at the BBC end of things!

As some of you have read the BBC has gone flash only for it's delivery of iPlayer, though it's still working fine on the non-flash iPhone.

So what effect has this had on watching BBC iPlayer abroad? None.

Please continue watching and enjoying BBC programs as before!