Live general election coverage outside the UK

[nw1]

Just discovered that the BBC iPlayer cannot be accessed outside of the UK even if you are a licence-paying UK resident, there appears to be no way of signing up with a TV licence number for example.

Is anyone aware of any alternative services whereby I could get live election coverage on the night, ideally TV or if not, radio? I will be in continental Europe.

BBC would be ideal but anything would do as long as it wasn't an overly biased station.

(How incidentally do people access BBC Radio overseas? I often hear people calling in from overseas saying they are listening to Radio 2, for example).

Thanks.

 

[Ediswan]

Just discovered that the BBC iPlayer cannot be accessed outside of the UK even if you are a licence-paying UK resident, there appears to be no way of signing up with a TV licence number for example.

Is anyone aware of any alternative services whereby I could get live election coverage on the night, ideally TV or if not, radio? I will be in continental Europe.

BBC would be ideal but anything would do as long as it wasn't an overly biased station.

(How incidentally do people access BBC Radio overseas? I often hear people calling in from overseas saying they are listening to Radio 2, for example).

Thanks.

BBC Sounds is available outside the UK.

 

[Darandio]

Just use a VPN. Fool iPlayer into thinking you are in the UK when you aren't.

 

[Bantamzen]

Just use a VPN. Fool iPlayer into thinking you are in the UK when you aren't.

Exactly this, they are not too expensive and allow access to all services available in the country you choose to connect through.

 

[nw1]

Just use a VPN. Fool iPlayer into thinking you are in the UK when you aren't.

I presume this is legal?

(I do have a TV licence, if that helps the legal situation...)

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Jun 2024 ==

BBC Sounds is available outside the UK.

OK - thanks.

 

[High Dyke]

Using a VPN can also act as a proxy, allowing you to surf the web anonymously from wherever you want.

Therefore, you can use one without any legality issues. As mentioned though, BBC Sounds is available.

BBC Sounds information here:

Can I use BBC Sounds when I travel outside the UK?
You can listen to most of our live and on-demand radio content from anywhere in the world.

 

[dosxuk]

There will probably be a world-accessible stream available from the BBC News homepage on the night. Many of the news streams do not have the geo-blocking that the iPlayer feeds have.

 

[Darandio]

I presume this is legal?

(I do have a TV licence, if that helps the legal situation...)

Yes. Unless you are in North Korea, Iraq, Belarus.......

 

[ainsworth74]

BBC News seems to be pretty ubiquetious in my experience of foreign hotels! Not sure I've ever come across one that doesn't have it somewhere in the channel list.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Also surely X formerly known as Twitter will be giving minute by minute updates.

 

[jfollows]

It doesn’t help answer the question I know, but I remember watching the entire live ITN election night coverage from the 1992 (John Major) election in the US. Probably C-SPAN I would guess.

 

[cb a1]

Exactly this, they are not too expensive and allow access to all services available in the country you choose to connect through.

I occasionally use the monthly free allowances on VPNs Windscribe and Tunnel Bear to access overseas streaming services.
I reckon I can get about 6 hours of live content a month (which is sufficient for my needs) before I would need to start paying for a VPN.
If using this approach, check the live stream settings. You can sometimes downgrade the quality to use less data. Not great if you're say watching sport, but for something like election coverage would be fine.

 

[scarby]

(How incidentally do people access BBC Radio overseas? I often hear people calling in from overseas saying they are listening to Radio 2, for example).

Thanks.

Because lots (if not all) of the BBC radio programmes are available overseas. I regularly listen to county cricket commentaries and some football commentaries (not all matches are available but non-league stuff is) from Sweden and I have also done it in France. I just randomly checked BBC Radio Nottingham and BBC Radio 4 and they both come on straightaway with no blocking.

So you should be able to follow it live through a BBC radio channel.

 

[Trackman]

Because lots (if not all) of the BBC radio programmes are available overseas. I regularly listen to county cricket commentaries and some football commentaries (not all matches are available but non-league stuff is) from Sweden and I have also done it in France. I just randomly checked BBC Radio Nottingham and BBC Radio 4 and they both come on straightaway with no blocking.

So you should be able to follow it live through a BBC radio channel.

Funny you should mention cricket, I was geo-blocked in the UK for listening to a test match on BBC sport iPlayer (Ashes???) so I had to use a VPN. I do this so I can listen to TMS whilst watching Sky sports with obviously no sound. Synching the both is a challenge within itself, but I've got it down to a fine art, bat and ball noise is when you know it's fully synched.

 

[DarloRich]

just get a VPN. Gets you round all sorts of geolocked content on, say, Amazon and netflix

 

[nw1]

Thanks for all the replies - looks like I have a number of options.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Jun 2024 ==

Yes. Unless you are in North Korea, Iraq, Belarus.......

Just asked as it sounds like it's "fooling" a site into allowing you access when you'd normally be blocked.

But it sounds like the situation is that it's not illegal to access iPlayer from abroad, they just make it difficult, to minimise the number of people with no TV licence accessing it.

 

[JamesT]

Just asked as it sounds like it's "fooling" a site into allowing you access when you'd normally be blocked.

But it sounds like the situation is that it's not illegal to access iPlayer from abroad, they just make it difficult, to minimise the number of people with no TV licence accessing it.

Also for many of their programmes they likely only have the rights to broadcast in the UK. But that’s less of a thing for their news coverage.