You got yourself an Amazon Fire TV Stick because you heard that it could make smart TV’s even smarter but yet you wanted to watch BBC iPlayer in the US on the Amazon Fire TV stick and couldn’t. How is that? If a device is so great having gotten over 160 thousand reviews with an average of 4.5 stars out 5 on the American Amazon then how does it not work with BBC iPlayer but yet works with about every single app out there while most smart TV’s only offer a certain amount of apps?
See, BBC iPlayer is available on the Amazon Fire TV Stick. Just not for everybody. But you don’t have to be that “everybody.”
BBC might buy licenses that allow them to show whatever it is that you and other people seek to watch on their channels and platforms. But BBC is a British broadcaster, and that’s the demographic that they are after. Nobody else matters outside of that area. The more countries you want to show something in, the more it costs. BBC won’t really profit from showing content in the US. An ad that applies to the UK market is of no benefit in the US so clients that are paying for ads won’t be benefitting from this kind of arrangement, so it’s just of no help at all in any way at all.
If BBC were to show content in the US or in any other country for that matter, they would have to spend extra money on licenses that allow you to watch something but that does not benefit BBC at all. They are losing money that way.
Online platforms can easily be accessed which is great, but that’s why geographical blocks are placed. With a geographical block, you cannot access content provided by the BBC if you are not in the UK as otherwise BBC might get in trouble. So if you want to watch BBC iPlayer in the US on the Amazon Fire TV Stick, you need to convince BBC that you are in the UK. And that’s hard to do without being there.
Not impossible though.
This is the first step to take if you want to watch BBC iPlayer in the US on the Amazon Fire TV Stick. You need the app, and in order to get the app, the Amazon Appstore must see you as somebody that is in the UK. In order to do that, you need two things. You need to change the country in the Amazon Appstore, and you need you need to be in the UK virtually. Otherwise, you will get see that the app is “unavailable.”
Click on Manage Your Content and Devices link we just provided. You can also find it on your account on Amazon. Go to the Settings tab, and select Country Settings follow by Change. Then provide with a new address that is in the UK. You can find plenty of address & postcodes generators on the internet so just use one of them to get a UK address and most importantly a UK postcode as that’s necessary for you to proceed if you want to watch BBC iPlayer in the US on the Amazon Fire TV Stick.
After you are finished with that, select Update and you should be asked to update your default store. You will be asked to re-register your device on your Fire TV Stick again once you do all of this.
See it’s not always just as easy as changing an address. You also need to be in the UK. Virtually at least. To do that you need a VPN. And PrivateVPN provides a working VPN when it comes to watching BBC iPlayer and using Amazon Appstore. To use PrivateVPN, you need to first make an account which you can do on by pressing the Buy button on the top-right of the screen. It’s a 3-step process, and you can get a full refund within 30-days if you find that our service does not work. We don’t offer a free service, but instead, we do offer speed that free servers don’t provide. And that’s essential if you want to watch BBC iPlayer. And we do also have a post about why Free VPN services are bad.
After you make your account, you need to search for PrivateVPN on the Fire TV. You can do so by pressing the microphone button on the Fire TV remote and calling out PrivateVPN, or you can simply search for it the normal way you search for apps on the Amazon Fire TV.
Install it and provide your details that you made your account with followed by connecting to a British server. You then need to give it a minute or two and search for the BBC iPlayer. Lastly, you need to download it.
To watch BBC iPlayer in the US, you need to be connected to the right server at all times. We offer a special BBC server, and our UK - BBC server also work with BBC. You simply connect to one of these, and you should be able to watch BBC iPlayer in the US on the Amazon Fire TV Stick, and to be frank, not just in the US, but worldwide provided that you have PrivateVPN.
If you want to use BBC iPlayer, get it now, or go to the UK instead. As that’s the only two options.
Written by Michael Smolski.