Dr Foster on BBC iPlayer

The BBC iPlayer was one of the first live media streamers on the internet, simultaneously broadcasting its content to terrestrial television and online. However even in its infancy it was difficult to imagine just how popular it would become.  It’s now become one of the most popular sites on the whole internet, with millions of people using the site very single day.

The BBC has just released some figures about its online presence which have revealed that there were over 239 million requests for programmes in the month of September 2017. It’s a staggering amount of traffic and reveals some of the huge infrastructure that supports this sort of popular website.  The numbers have continued to rise over the last few years too, and still millions watch regularly from all over the world.   From English speaking countries like Australia, USA and Canada the BBC is hugely popular and of course a great way to learn English in other countries too.

Why is the BBC iPlayer so Popular?

Well in essence it’s not really the technology or the interface, although these are very well presented. It’s simply the quality of the BBC programmes which continues to make the BBC iPlayer one of the most popular websites on the planet. Recently a drama called Dr Foster has received both rave reviews and some incredible viewing figures. Indeed, the television drama currently sits at the top of the BBC download charts with the first few episodes of the second series accounting for over 9 million individual downloads.

Of course, a large part of the BBC’s ongoing popularity is not new dramas and shows but some of its regular features. Television programmes like Strictly Come Dancing have a huge and loyal following which almost guarantees huge viewing figures. Also shows like Eastenders and even something like the BBC News has millions of regular viewers.

Doctor Foster Not Available on BBC iPlayer Currently

It’s often cited that the BBC is among the most ‘missed’ things for UK expats who settle outside the United Kingdom. Worryingly many said Love Island was too, although that’s currently on ITV. However, despite the fact that the BBC is ‘officially’ unavailable outside the United Kingdom – many of these millions of downloads originate from outside the country. Even in places like Ireland you’ll find hundreds of thousands of people regularly watch. You don’t need any special equipment to pick up the BBC in Ireland, just use a simple VPN program to hide your location.

It’s one of the reasons that the DNS and VPN (virtual private network) services are becoming so popular too, they have the ability to unlock huge areas of the internet which are often blocked by location.  Take for example Dr Foster, the first series is now not available on the BBC iPlayer as it has expired.

However, it is available on some regional variations of Netflix – by using a UK VPN for example you could switch to the UK version of Netflix and watch series one.   Then by maintaining the VPN connection you could watch the second series which at the time of writing is still on BBC iPlayer.

In fact, a VPN forms the core entertainment of many people who travel or live abroad.  Did you know that the Indian VPN can allow you to access free to air Premiership matches which are broadcast on Indian TV for free.  Using the UK VPN also allows you access to all the other British TV stations as well – Channel 4 and the ITV Hub  online can also be accessed from abroad using a UK VPN.