get TV abroad

Posts Tagged ‘UK TV Abroad’

Everything looked SO good when they announced they would be showing full practice and qualifying for the GP a few weeks ago here in Australia. Normally all we get on TV is a little bit of the qualifying and then the race, minus most of the buildup and analysis afterwards. For the Australian GP OneHD here in Australia showed everything! BUT. Now it seems we have gone back to normal for the Malaysian F1 GP and the only F1 on TV this weekend in Australia is the usual little bits.

Not if you have Identity Cloaker though!!!

Just like last year I have been able to watch the full practice sessions from the BBC website by using Identity Cloaker to get myself a UK IP address, check out the post from last year showing how to watch the Malaysian F1 GP from the BBC Sport Website.

The one downside of this is I now have much more of Eddie Jordan on my screen, not even Identity Cloaker can help with this problem!!!

For the race, if they don't show it in your country, you can also watch online via the SpeedTV website in America, however the BBC TV coverage is better (honest!).

Like most people, I rely on the media to give me accurate news and information. It has been greatly disturbing to me, therefore, to watch as conglomerates have bought up radio and TV networks over the last decade. This reduction in the variety of media sources means that there is less breadth of opinion and source material on the news. As we have seen recently, it is now all too easy for a false or exaggerated statement to be picked up and replayed over and over. There simply is not enough diversity to provide a balanced account of current events.

Even though I do not necessarily agree with everything they broadcast, the BBC has remained my long-standing bastion against this intrusion of corporate media giants. Because they enjoy government support and are required to follow a public charter, the network maintains a level of even-handedness and transparency that other networks cannot rival. I would even go so far as to say that the network has a stabilizing effect on the UK by acting as a link between the public, government, and other important resources.

One vital piece of this successful formula is the BBC Trust. This is a panel of twelve trustees plus support staff who safeguard the independence of the network from corporate interests while insuring that the network listens to the public. This important group guards the gate, as it were, governing the network's radio and TV stations and making sure that they remain what they were designed to be. As technology has continued to reshape the world around us, the Trust has taken on the important new responsibility of managing the new BBC iPlayer.

Built to utilize the technologies that have made iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, and other media platforms leaders in the industry, BBC iPlayer opens up the network to huge new audiences and is helping to keep radio and TV current amidst the changing technological landscape. The inclusion of the iPlayer has thrust the BBC Trust and the BBC as a whole into uncharted waters, raising new questions about access to broadcasting. The BBC Trust is entrusted with the task of sorting out what can and can't be done with this new feature so that it stays democratic, efficient, and useful.

Want to Watch BBC iPlayer Abroad? Learn How

As use of the BBC iPlayer has increased, it has fallen to the Trust to determine such things as how much access to programming the public will have, how far back episode archives will reach, and the effectiveness of the design of the player itself, as well as analyzing public response to these factors. In this capacity, the BBC Trust fulfills a hugely important role by acting as consumer agents with direct access to management. By instigating thoughtful rules and then collecting responses from the public, the Trust has been an essential part of developing a media platform that is useful and fair. In my opinion, safeguards like this are what keep the BBC far more responsible to the public than for-profit networks, and perhaps goes a long way to explaining the continued popularity of the BBC and its iPlayer service abroad.

As technology rolls quickly forward, we must remember that the precedents that we set today will have an impact on the way systems evolve. Over the last few years, the BBC Trust has proved its worth by guiding the network in its launch of this new and powerful technology. Through its ability to govern the BBC while remaining responsible only to subscribers, the BBC Trust is an excellent example to follow as we forge ahead into the rapidly evolving world of new media access. In the years to come it will be partly down to the BBC Trust to decide exactly what content will be available on the much talked about Global iPlayer service (though TV rights holders, and no doubt EU politicians are going to have the final say!).

What is certainly clear already is that the Global iPlayer service will be an extremely limited one, containing only a selection of BBC content, and unlikely to contain any live streaming. Thus while I am happy that the Trust is there to keep the standards of the BBC high, I am equally happy that the services of Identity Cloaker allow me to continue to enjoy the full content offered by the BBC abroad.
 

At risk of making this a Doctor Who blog (perhaps not so bad, better than going on and on about iPlayer abroad anyway!) a date for your diaries is Saturday April 23rd… The return of Doctor Who to the BBC! The first show is going to be a two parter written by Steven Moffat, so we can be pretty sure of a fun filled couple of hours.

This 6th series of Doctor Who is going to be split, with the first half ending early June and then starting up again in the Autumn. The question then is will the new Torchwood be on during the break?

As always you can watch Doctor Who outside the UK live on BBC1 by using Identity Cloaker to get yourself a UK IP address.

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 seems quite a few people decided to watch TV via iPlayer this past Christmas, with the total requested programs for December being 145 million, an increase of 27% over 2009!

Quite how many of those requests came from viewers outside the UK is a statistic which nobody except the BBC can give. As always the most popular shows were Eastenders, Doctor Who and Top Gear.

One other popular new show has been Come Fly with Me, created by the same team behind Little Britain. I have to confess I found the first episode a little 'trying' but the show has grown on me as over the weeks.

If you want to watch Come Fly With Me on the BBC iPlayer service and are living outside the UK then get yourself a 10 day trial of Identity Cloaker and you will be watching it in not time at all. Identity Cloaker allows you to watch almost any TV channel from the UK, USA, Canada and much of Europe no matter where in the world you are living. No longer is it difficult to watch BBC iPlayer abroad, or any other supported TV station for that matter!

Just a quick Merry Christmas to everybody, and don't forget to watch the latest Doctor Who Christmas Special!

As always you can enjoy UK TV abroad with the help of Identity Cloaker, giving you not only UK but US, Canadian and other European TV too.

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。

I have often wondered why it is that so many people want to watch UK TV abroad, no so much the fact they want to watch TV but why UK TV in particular. Any search on Google will, and you should know this as that's how I expect you got here, reveal countless online TV viewing opportunities. Quite a few will mention Hulu or other US networks, but the only which you will see the most is the BBC's iPlayer. So much so that many people perhaps think that BBC iPlayer represents all available UK TV abroad!

The BBC is however a good example as the quality of shows output are generally amongst the highest in the world. While the USA has a reputation for long running mainstream format shows it is not often that a US network will break the mold and go with something different. On the other hand the BBC, which does not have the same advertising pressures as most TV stations, has slightly more freedom to go its own way with things. As a result we end up with diverse, quality programing, and one of the main reasons for the popularity of UK TV abroad.

Taking this year as an example the BBC has had amazing success with the new (new(new)) Doctor Who, the third incarnation in the current rebirth of the franchise. Not only changing the lead actor but all of the support actors and much of the production crew and writers. Such transitions are almost unheard of with US TV shows, sure the odd character may be replaced but rarely will a complete restart be allowed. Another show which has seen a huge transformation was the BBC Sherlock, an daring modernization of the popular Sherlock Holmes stories. The premise was audacious and yet simple, bringing the characters of Sherlock Holmes to the 21st Century. The similarities between Sherlock and Doctor Who are quite obvious to anybody who has watched them, but it's this modern style of show format which makes UK TV abroad so popular.

The above new shows, along with staples such as Top Gear, Eastenders and Come Dancing have all resulted in a huge increase of demand for UK TV abroad over recent years. This is of course only considering the programming output of the BBC, and says nothing of other terrestrial channels or indeed the specialist satellite channels whom have all produced hundreds of quality shows. As a such the export of UK TV abroad has increased by 9%, a trend that looks set to continue with the continued and growing popularity of UK TV abroad.

Anybody who wished to watch UK TV abroad can do so by using the great proxy and VPN software provided by Identity Cloaker. You will see a number of such packages offered on the net, ranging from free to very expensive. Identity Cloakers pricing, of less than $10 a month, puts it towards the cheaper end of the spectrum however the quality of service, and program itself, is definitely one of the best available. Identity Cloaker is not marketed as a TV viewing platform, however it is because their servers were originally setup to provide extreme levels of security and confidentiality that they offer the best service available. You can read more about viewing TV with Identity Cloaker on this site, while information on the security aspects of Identity Cloaker are better covered at change-your-ip.com and the excellent Anonymous Proxies blog.

SeeSaw TV has just been launched and as always all you need to watch it outside the UK is a copy of IDC! Simply use the UK proxy from IDC, though you can use the VPN method too if you prefer, and start viewing UK TV abroad from this new supplier! They offer archived TV from several UK TV companies, including the BBC. Be sure to turn off encryption in IDC if you want the best quality video streaming experience.

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SeeSaw uses technological know-how from Venture Kangaroo, the now defunct venture owned by BBC Throughout the world, Channel 4 and ITV plc. Kangaroo was blocked by the European Competition Commission in February 2009. In September 2009 all of Kangaroo's technologies and assets were bought by Arqiva for approximately £8m.

SeeSaw hopes to has around 3,500 hours of TV content offered, which includes a mix of free advertising-supported content material and paid-for programming. SeeSaw has already announced a content deal with BBC Worldwide, so shows like Cranford, Lark Rise to Candleford, That Mitchell and Webb Look and classic Doctor Who are going to be offered for viewers