How to Watch BBC iPlayer in Portugal
For lovers of UK television there was some hope that channels like the BBC and ITV would become available in Portugal in the near future. The expectation was that new European legislation would ensure that if you purchased digital rights to access something, e.g., a UK TV license that those rights would extend across European borders, and you could access them online anywhere in the Union.
The BBC was in fact making plans to allow a license payers logon, to make the BBC iPlayer completely accessible to people who had paid their TV license irrespective of their location. It was great news for a lot of people like me who spend some time outside the UK and arguably a much fairer system. Alas it looks like the BBC has shelved these plans for now, presumably because they won’t need to follow the directives anymore, thanks Brexit!
Free UK TV in Portugal
Fortunately there’s a way to access all the UK TV channels including BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4 and Channel 5 relatively easily. In this article we’ll show you how to use one of the simplest methods called Smart DNS.
It’s very simple to use and you can actually try it out entirely free of charge for 14 days here
Smart DNS Free Trial
Below you’ll find a video on how it works and how to set it up.
English TV Channels in Portugal
So, we’re back to the current system where as soon as you step foot outside the United Kingdom all the online broadcasting channels disappear. What happens is that your IP address is checked when you connect to any of the sites, if it’s not registered in the UK then you get blocked, redirected or filtered. Basically, none of the BBC’s streaming options will work, just like all the other British TV channels such as ITV, Channel 4 and 5. Fortunately there is a solution that people have been using for years including literally thousands in Portugal.
It’s only when you’re deprived of it that you realise just how good the main UK TV online sites are. The BBC is incredible, you can watch just about any program live and the vast majority is available from its archive the BBC iPlayer for several months afterwards. Similarly, the other main networks have websites which are packed full of programmes too. Indeed, for any English-speaking traveller getting access to the British TV sites is like having a very expensive cable entertainment package at their fingertips.
So what’s the solution that people use? Well basically the trick in unlocking any geo-locked content is to hide your true location and pretend to be in the country that the website allows. So if you’re relaxing on The Algarve or Silver Coast and want to access something on the BBC site, you have to pretend your IP address is in the UK. There are several ways of doing this, although these do change all the time. Proxies were the simplest way a few years ago but they no longer work. Now it’s either using a VPN (virtual private network) or something called Smart DNS which personally I find more suitable. It’s also become the most popular method for expat UK TV viewers, just ask them!
Using Smart DNS to Watch UK TV Online in Portugal
The following video has a demonstration of how-to setup Smart DNS to watch UK TV online anywhere.
As you can see it’s very simple to set up as long as you can get access to your network settings. On things like PCs and laptops it’s very straight forward and on most streaming devices like Smart TVs and games consoles too. Some devices like the Roku, stop you getting access to the DNS servers so you should try and stay away from these if you can.
For simply watching online TV I think Smart DNS is the best option, however VPNs do provide an extra layer of security as well. The main issue is that the website you’re visiting does not realise that you’re outside the UK. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Portugal, or Spain or the Antarctic – you’ll appear to be in Great Britain. Most of these sites are constantly trying to block these circumvention techniques but it’s actually very difficult to do as long as the web site doesn’t actually infringe any copyright restrictions which the best never do.
BBC iPlayer Portugal & ITVX and British TV Free for 14 Days
So just to summarise what you need to do is –
- Grab the Free Trial of Smart DNS Proxy at the end of this post.
- Change your DNS servers to Smart Ones.
- Click on ‘Activate’ in the Members area to enable your IP address
- When You Visit any Locked UK Site – e.g the BBC iPlayer, Smart DNS will detect it and route your connection through the UK.
- All the UK Television Sites will work perfectly, there’s nothing else to do.
One of the great things about using Smart DNS is that it just sits in the background, you don’t need to do anything. It will only operate when you try and visit a locked web site in it’s database. At all other times it’s simply an ordinary DNS server resolving names and IP addresses when required. Indeed, it doesn’t actually route your entire connection like a VPN would, just enough to fool the site that you’re in a different location. This means that there’s no traffic overhead when you actually start streaming video as it comes straight to your device.
Watch ITV in Portugal
It works for most locked sites but be aware that they have to be enabled by the provider first in order to work. Most of them will enable popular sites like the BBC, ITV and Hulu but if you’re after something a bit more obscure then it’s worth checking first. Certainly is fine to watch British TV in Portugal as all the major channels already work.
They can also switch versions of global sites like Netflix, allowing you access to the US version of the site which has thousands more films that other locales. Another advantage for using Smart DNS to watch UK TV online in Portugal is that because it doesn’t consume much of your and their bandwidth it’s generally cheaper. Most of the leading services which still work well with the BBC are only a few Euros a month to subscribe too.