Do you want to watch BBC iPlayer in Ireland in 2020? For some, it’s just a 5-minute drive to Nothern Ireland, and that is the difference between whether they can watch BBC iPlayer in Ireland or not. Even though the BBC TV channels are available in Ireland as it is.
There is a way to make BBC iPlayer work in Ireland, and frankly, it’s one of the easiest services to unblock, but first, let’s dive into why BBC iPlayer is not available in Ireland in the first place.
BBC claims that it’s because you don’t pay a TV license.
In theory, that would make sense, but would what if you live in the UK and do, in fact, pay a TV license and are just visiting Ireland and want to watch a show or an event on BBC?
That’s where this cause doesn’t fit in.
There real reason why you can’t access BBC iPlayer in Ireland?
As BBC doesn’t own all of the content it shows, has contracts signed that give exclusive rights for certain content it owns to be shown in different countries and has contracts signed to show some content it doesn’t own, just in the UK.
Let’s give football as an example.
If BBC has the rights to show EURO 2020, and it lets people in Ireland watch it through their platform, RTE then misses out on ad revenue and whatnot, as people are watching from BBC iPlayer. Of course, RTE won’t be happy about that.
That’s the real reason why BBC iPlayer isn’t in Ireland.
This was the case in 2019, 2018, and all the years prior, just like it’s the case going into 2020.
There are only three steps between you watching BBC in Ireland in 2020 or not.
Firstly, let’s make BBC iPlayer see you as in the UK.
For that, you need to connect to a VPN that supports BBC iPlayer.
A lot of VPN services focus on American services with American Netflix in particular, so not all of them will work with BBC iPlayer, especially since BBC takes measures against VPN users as it has to, as otherwise, they are breaking their agreements.
PrivateVPN? It works with BBC iPlayer and many other platforms such as ESPN+, but we offer a 7-day risk-free trial that doesn’t ask for a card, making it a true risk-free trial.
Just sign up in under a minute, install the app, and connect to a BBC iPlayer location and that will allow you to trick BBC iPlayer in Ireland.
Creating a BBC iPlayer account in Ireland? Since BBC iPlayer is overall free, it’s simple. Just sign up like on any other website, but provide a UK location which you can get by using a UK Post Code Generator on Google, and select whether you pay the UK TV license. If you press that you do, BBC iPlayer will let you in.
And for many, that is it as far as watching BBC iPlayer in Ireland in 2020.
But you might want to get the BBC iPlayer app which won’t be available in your Irish app store, and we’ll walk you through that now:
There are two options if you want to watch BBC iPlayer on your iPhone in Ireland.
To change your App Store region, you need to sign out of your iCloud account and create a new account with your location in the UK.
Then you’ll be able to download BBC iPlayer in Ireland.
By creating a new account, you won’t lose anything that’s already installed, and if you wish to switch back to your old account, you can do that after you download BBC iPlayer, and BBC iPlayer will also still be there.
What you for sure don’t want to do is to change your region with your current account. That would result in you losing everything.
On Android devices, you need to apply a different method if you want to watch BBC iPlayer.
Of course, you can watch from your web browser, but if you want to get the BBC iPlayer, here’s how to do it:
Or you can always just download BBC iPlayer outside of the Google Play Store.
This is where it gets complicated.
See, most smart TV’s aren’t smart enough to support VPN services.
The same applies to services such as Apple TV, Chromecast, and even Roku.
The solution? Either an HDMI cable and a laptop, or one of the Amazon Fire TV devices as they support VPN services.
Here’s how to get BBC iPlayer on a Fire TV:
Ready to start watching BBC iPlayer in Ireland? Sign up for the 7-day risk-free trial to get started with BBC and many other blocked streaming services such as DAZN or Hulu.
Written by Michael Smolski.
Disclaimer: Based on reading this article, you know that BBC iPlayer takes measures against VPN services. As a result, PrivateVPN cannot guarantee that BBC iPlayer will work with PrivateVPN, non-stop, at all times.