My name’s Terry, I’m a British expat living in China and I’m writing to tell you that if you want to watch UK TV in China, you’re going to find it impossible without a VPN.
If you want to skip ahead and get started with using a VPN to unblock UK TV in China with the fastest speeds, we recommend you pick up a free trial of Express VPN, which is undoubtedly the fastest and unblocks the most sites in China.
Don’t just take it from me– 88% of Express VPN’s users on Trustpilot rated it 5 stars.
More than a few happy customers . . .
- The fastest of the lot for streaming UK TV services like iPlayer, Netflix, All 4 and Channel 5. Seriously, I’ve been in China long enough to know.
- Easy to setup for Windows, Mac, iPhones, Android phones, PlayStation, XboX, Apple TV, Fire TV, smart TVs, your toaster, etc. – it just works.
- The only VPN in China with no restrictions– a rarity!
- Protected from government surveillance. You don’t want the Chinese government to know you are using a VPN and you can have total peace of mind with Express VPN.
- 30 day money back guarantee
Why is it not possible to watch UK TV abroad?
Because of copyright and licensing reasons, of course. Same old, same old. Indeed, the producers of content have licensed exclusive rights to different broadcasters. Because they want their content to be more widely available, which is also good for users. As as result, TV channels can offer similar services specific to their own region. But they have to limit the access to local customers.
Therefore, the drawback is that you can’t access your content outside the UK, even if you paid for it at home. Indeed, you’re on the turf of another broadcaster. So, if your favorite TV show is licensed to Sky in the UK, you won’t be able to access it from abroad. Because another channel is broadcasting it in your current location.
Can you access any content from abroad?
It’s very unlikely. Because your TV provider has similar licensing agreements with hundreds of content suppliers. Therefore it’s easier for them to restrict your access to the channel and not to the programmes. If you visit a UK TV website or use its app, you will just get a message like the one below from the BBC. Sometimes you won’t even be able to reach the homepage of a site!
How can a TV provider block your access?
The common practice is to use geo-location techniques. Because their restrictions depend on your geographical location. To determine your position, the provider will check your IP address against a whitelist (or a blacklist). And the result of this check rules if you can access the content, or not.
In this particular case, your provider has the list of all the IP addresses registered in the UK. And if yours is not in the list you can’t get English TV streaming. It’s that simple.
How to watch UK TV online?
Good news is: It’s never too late to bypass these restrictions. So even if you’re abroad now, reading this article, you can unblock English TV streaming within a few minutes.
The tool that you need to stream British TV live is a VPN. What is VPN? To keep it simple, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a software that can emulate your location anywhere in the world. Maybe not anywhere. But everywhere your VPN provider offers a server. So the wider the network, the better!
A VPN server acts as an intermediary between your device and the websites you want to reach. All your traffic goes through this server via an encrypted tunnel. And the server then visits websites on your behalf.
Therefore, the websites consider that you “are” the VPN server, not your own device. And the server’s IP address is in the whitelist of the television websites. So the sites gives full access to their content. And the server sends it back to your device.
Finally, you can watch UK TV abroad, like if you were on your couch in Leicester. The VPN server is your gateway to unblock British TV overseas. For example, with a VPN server in the UK you can watch BBC iPlayer. Also, with a server in the US you can stream American Netflix! BTW, you can check my article about the best VPN for Netflix, along with the one about the best VPN for Kodi UK!
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Protect your online privacy
Unblocking UK TV online is a popular feature of VPNs. But it’s not the main one. Indeed, a VPN improves your privacy and your security. It creates an encrypted tunnel between your computer and its server. Therefore, your data is protected from snoopers (your ISP, your government, or hackers).
Also, it hides your IP address and replaces it with the IP of its own server. So the websites you visit have no clue you’re actually browsing them. Because they consider you’re the VPN server. While they have to know the requests you made (to be able to send you content), they can’t link these requests to your real IP address.
That’s why I recommend you to always use a VPN while connected to the Internet, on all your devices. Because you leave traces of your activity on all the websites you visit. And with all these bits of anonymous information, it’s possible to find your location and your identity…
How much does it cost to subscribe to a VPN?
You’re looking for a VPN to watch UK TV abroad. You may be on vacation or on a business trip for a couple days. And you don’t want to spend much. That’s fine.
Beware of free VPNs
First of all, you’ll find free VPNs on Google, which could be attractive for an unwary user. However, nothing’s really free these days, right? And the companies offering free VPN services are definitely not NGOs.
Behind their free services is a network with hardware, software and employees. An infrastructure like theirs is very expensive. Therefore, they need to monetize something in return. Where’s the caveat? Well, your value is in your navigation data. So they’ll use all your data for commercial purposes and sell them to the highest bidder. And you can forget about your online privacy.
Furthermore, you can’t get a premium VPN service for free. So a free VPN will mostly fail to unblock UK TV abroad. And its speed will be too slow for a proper streaming.
An affordable monthly fee
A reliable VPN is not free. But it’s quite cheap: From £5 to £10 for a whole month. And if you don’t like commitment, you can sometimes subscribe only for a day. However, if you subscribe for more than 6 months, you can get much better prices, with over 50% discounts. I’ve seen up to 70% discount on some deals!
Also, most VPNs offer a money back guarantee. So you can subscribe and try their services. And if you don’t like it, you can easily cancel your subscription and get a full refund.
What are the best VPNs to watch British TV online?
While it is not that simple to compare VPNs, there are some criteria to focus on to watch uk tv abroad:
- The VPN is user-friendly: Plug and play and a good interface…
- The speed of the VPN: You want to watch UK TV online, so it’s a must!
- The VPN unblocks content: Always, regularly, from time to time…
Express VPN Setup Guides
I have painstakingly prepared these guides to setting up ExpressVPN so your setup is as fast and hassle-free as possible. Enjoy!
Windows setup guide for ExpressVPN
Mac setup guide for Express VPN
Android setup guide for Express VPN
iOS setup guide for Express VPN
If you’re in no rush, then read on to learn more about China’s notorious Great Firewall and the quick and easy methods to bypass it using VPNs.
The Great Firewall
China’s Great Firewall is notoriously restrictive to expats trying to access sites that they miss using from home. BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter–you name it, it’s probably blocked.
Instead, the Chinese government prefers instead for its people to use an alternative set of sites that closely mirror their Western counterparts. Baidu instead of Google, AliExpress instead of Amazon, Renren instead of Facebook, Youku instead of YouTube, and the list goes on.
The Great Firewall of China is set restrict access to websites that represent a potential threat to the government. Every time a user in Mainland China connects to a website, the Internet Police scans the URL, IP Address and page content. With a VPN in China, you can bypass censorship and also reduce its range.
List of popular websites blocked in China
All these websites are blocked. However, you can access these while in China with a good VPN. The best VPN for China cloaks your IP address and hides you behind one of its own IP Addresses. If you’re located in China, I’d recommend you to connect either to UK or USA servers.
| Alexa Rank | Domain | Category | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | google.com | Search | BLOCKED |
| 2 | facebook.com | Social | BLOCKED |
| 3 | youtube.com | Sharing | BLOCKED |
| 8 | twitter.com | Social | BLOCKED |
| 32 | instagram.com | Social | BLOCKED |
| 51 | xvideos.com | Porn | BLOCKED |
| 54 | xhamster.com | Porn | BLOCKED |
| 64 | pornhub.com | Porn | BLOCKED |
| 87 | dailymotion.com | Sharing | BLOCKED |
| 108 | nytimes.com | News | BLOCKED |
| 110 | dropbox.com | Sharing | BLOCKED |
| 112 | vimeo.com | Sharing | BLOCKED |
VPNs vs China: A raging war
Many VPNs don’t work in China, like free VPN services. Because the Chinese government knows about VPN. And they want to have total control over the Internet. Therefore, they block VPN servers to maintain surveillance and censorship. Only the best VPN for China will give you access to unrestricted Internet.
The Chinese Internet Police keeps blocking the VPN servers. How? By using two techniques to disrupt service: First, deep packet inspection, examines the data in Internet packets to try to determine if it’s a VPN connection. Second, IP blocking, shuts off traffic destined for the Internet addresses used by VPN servers.
The only answer from the VPN companies is to improve the encryption of their packets and to constantly renew the IPs of their servers. This way they guarantee you can keep browsing an unrestricted internet.
How to choose the best VPN for China?
It’s hard to select the best VPN for China. Because you can’t try it before you get there… And because many companies claim to offer the best VPN, rightfully or not. But not all VPNs can unblock content from China.
Important update! China started blocking the OpenVPN protocol, in their latest round of VPN blocking. Therefore most VPNs are down! China increased Internet censorship greatly in 2017, a trend which appears to be continuing… And an all-out VPN ban is slated to take effect in February!
Knowing that OpenVPN protocol is now blacklisted, I decided to keep only VPN providers which offer un-blocked solutions. And unfortunately, there aren’t many who can boast to have proprietary protocols to bypass Chinese blockade. Express VPN is the only service I can vouch for.
Best China VPN 