Watching British television in Australia has always been popular. The Commonwealth of Australia was of course founded in 1788 and even now most of its population can trace their family trees back to the United Kingdom.
More than 1 in 20 people walking around in Australia at any one time have a UK passport and still, the number one destination for Brits want to relocate abroad.
UKTV is the main outlet for most wanting British TV in Australia. This service is broadcast via the Foxtel system (Australia’s equivalent to Sky) and plays many British TV shows. This service, however, is often criticised for not playing current episodes of UK shows and airing those months after the UK. It is also known for playing far too many old British TV shows that have long past their sell-by date. Only fools may be great but there are only so many times that this can be replayed.
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As technology has moved on over the years, the days of Brit expats being posted VHS tapes of Eastenders specials are long gone. Brits in Aus and all many other places now try to watch British TV via the TV apps and websites that have been introduced over the years, but there are some issues. If you are outside of the United Kingdom, you will be abruptly reminded of this when trying to watch.
VPN technology has been around since 1995 but is really only a term that has been commonly used with the average guy on the street for the last 5-10 years. When you have a VPN installed on your devices, you can mask your IP address and replace it with one from another country. So if you have a British VPN running on your iPad, BBC iPlayer and all other UK TV apps such as ITV and channel will work without any restrictions.
IPTV and KODI have been favorites with many in recent years, but can be both expensive and unreliable. Using a VPN costs only a few pounds/dollars per month and will work on all devices usually. Privatrax is popular with Brits in Aus as it specializes in unblocking UK TV apps abroad. Not all suppliers will unblock both BBC and ITV and unless they constantly change IP servers in the UK, you will be blocked from usage.
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Prices for VPN’s are around $10 per month, although this can be halved if a year is paid for upfront. Many people are now holding VPN accounts not just for the obvious benefits of unblocking British and American television abroad, but also for the security and anonymity benefits that are brought with it. If you have a VPN running when you are on public WIFI, there is zero risk of your data being hijacked, so a must for PayPal and online banking usage out in public.
As western governments are cracking down on certain areas of internet use, downloading when connecting to a VPN is always advisable. If you like to download movies and music from torrents or KODI, then unless you are connected to a VPN, you are at risk from getting an unpleasant letter from your internet service provider (or even worse local government authority).
Connecting to a VPN used to be something that slowed down your internet speed to the point of buffering videos, however now with improvements to internet speeds this is now not an issue for the average broadband or 4G user.
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So if you wish to watch BBC iPlayer in Australia, your best bet is a VPN. We recommend Privatrax as it is one of the few that we tested that managed to unblock ITV hub on an iPad.
