How To Watch UKTV Abroad: The No-Nonsense Guide for 2024

Written by: Tomas Mazowski, TV enthusiast and streaming expert
Last updated: July 30, 2024

Traveling outside the UK? Ready to settle down and catch-up with your favourite show on Dave? Your device is ready, the UKTV app is downloaded and you press play. But instead of a classic episode of Eastenders you get a message telling you you’re not able to access the service while you’re abroad. 

In this 10 minute guide we’ll show you how to get rid of that message by unblocking UKTV, wherever you currently are.

UKTV

UKTV Play is the streaming service for UKTV. It’s what you need if you want to catch-up on a classic episode of Eastenders or The Bill, check out Abandoned Engineering or one of the many comedy shows. All you need to do is register on the website and away you go. Apps are available for mobile and streaming devices, but you’ll still need to register on the website.

Dave, Yesterday and Drama area available for free and the other UKTV channels as part of a subscription. It means classic UK shows like Holby City, Red Dwarf and New Tricks are all available when you’re ready to binge.

Why am I Geo-blocked?

Geo-blocking just means that a service is limited to a specific location due to licensing and rights. So, for UKTV it means that they are limited to broadcasting in the UK and when you're abroad you can no longer watch your favourite programs - unless you have something called a VPN.

A VPN is a piece of software that makes it possible to catch up with Kavanagh or log in to Lovejoy whether you’re in the UK or anywhere else. Vacation on Tenerife? Working in the States? Take UKTV with you by using a VPN. And in this article, we will show you how.

What is a VPN?

Virtual Private Networks or VPN’s have been around for a long time. These days, they are mostly used to increase your privacy while going online and for bypassing geoblocks used by different streaming services. Using a VPN, you can hide your information from the rest of the web. This includes your location. Using a VPN app you can move your digital location to another country, making streaming services (such as UKTV, BBC iPlayer, ITV etc.) believe you are back in your couch at home, in the UK.

How do they do this? VPN providers have servers in countries all around the globe. By using a VPN app, you can redirect the traffic that's usually going directly from your device to the streaming service (UKTV in this case) through one of these servers. So instead of seeing your location and blocking the content, UKTV will see the location of the VPN server.

A quick search on google shows that many companies offer VPN services and that pretty much all have servers in the UK. Many of them are safe, reliable and reasonably priced but unfortunately, most are blocked by the streaming services. We've tested a couple of the more popular ones that do work - use one of these and you’ll be watching UKTV in no time at all.

Step-by-step: how to watch UKTV Outside the UK using a VPN

1. Get the UKTV apps

This step is easy and free. Click the link here to register on the UKTV website or you can download the apps from Apple (iPhone / iPad) or Google (Android). If you don’t have an account, you’ll need to register on their website and if you’re using a mobile device you’ll need to register that too.

2. Sign up for a VPN subscription

As we mentioned, there are a lot of VPN providers and some are better than others. Most do not even work with the popular streaming services (Netflix is notoriously famous for blocking VPNs). So, we tested them to find out which ones are smoothest and actually work for UKTV, which have the best reliability and what their customer service was like.

Each of the recommended VPN providers will offer different subscription lengths. This is so you can decide how long you need a VPN for. Is it just for the time you’re abroad? Do you live full time in Spain or France? Or would you like to access TV from all over the globe when you get back home?

We have found these three providers that best meet our standards:

#1 ExpressVPN - Our top recommendation

ExpressVPN is by far the best VPN we've tested. They are slightly more expensive than the other options, but it is still reasonable. Especially when you consider that they have servers all over the world. You can stream TV from almost any country you wish and they unlock more Netflix regions - they are not considered the premium VPN for nothing.

Their speeds are top of the line and reliability is flawless. Added together with good customer service and easy to use software, ExpressVPN is an excellent choice.

Click here to unblock UKTV using ExpressVPN

#2 Surfshark - A great alternative

Surfshark offers the cheapest subscription at just £2 a month with one of their longer subscriptions. Surfshark allows you to access UKTV and other UK based broadcasters such as BBC iPlayer, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 (My5). The app is easy to use and they have excellent customer service. Our favourite feature with Surfshark is that they allow as many simultaneous connections as you like. Which means the whole family can be watching different things all at the same time.

Click here to unblock UKTV using Surfshark

#3 NordVPN - Popular choice

NordVPN is excellent with fast connections and reliable service. And this is why it’s a popular choice. They too, provide options for subscription length.

NordVPN is compatible with all UK broadcasters including UKTV. They also have servers in a few more countries than Surfshark and they also unlock a couple of the more "exotic" streaming services, such as ABC or Eleven Sports. NordVPN offers 6 simultaneous connections.

Click here to unblock UKTV using NordVPN

Which one to choose?
All the providers we mention above are good options, but for us, the combination of extremely high reliability and a great selection of servers make ExpressVPN our top choice. So if you’re like us, a regular user without any special requirements, looking for a service that allows streaming of UK television, unlocking more Netflix regions, maybe watching some sports online - go with ExpressVPN.

Right now, they are offering 3 months extra FREE if you sign up for a 12-month plan, and thanks to their 30-day money back guarantee, you can try it out and get a full refund if you're not happy.

ExpressVPN - Get 3 extra months FREE
30-day money-back guarantee

3. Set up the VPN

Once you’ve signed up for a VPN, you just need their software on your devices (they all have apps for PC/Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android).

All our recommended VPN’s offer straightforward software and easy to follow instructions.:

1. Get the app
2. With the details you used to register, sign in.
3. In the app you’ll find a list of servers to choose from (or a map). Choose one in the UK.
4. To UKTV it now appears you’re back in the UK.

Done! UKTV is now unblocked. What’s it to be? Classics from UK TV history or a comedy special. You decide!

(And, when you’ve had enough of that, you can take a look at all the other streaming possibilities now open to you thanks to your VPN)