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How to Watch ABC in Ireland (Step-by-Step Guide)

When you think of ABC, you think of Shark Tank, you think of the Jimmy Kimmel Live show, you think of Grey’s anatomy. And with those in mind, it’s no wonder you want to access ABC in Ireland.

On our blog, we cover many different guides for Ireland such as about Disney Plus or BBC iPlayer, and the good news is that ABC is one of the easiest platforms to unblock out there...

...If you know the right tool which we share in this guide, but first, a little bit about why ABC is not currently available in Ireland.

Why ABC in Ireland Is Not Currently a Thing

ABC, unlike a lot of streaming services, does own a lot of its content as it is primarily a TV network.

Meanwhile, the main reason for why most streaming platforms never make it to Ireland is that if they did, they would need to pay a lot more money for rights to the content.

When it comes to ABC, the situation is a little bit different.

ABC, in contrast, has rights to a lot of content, but it sells it to other countries resulting in ABC not being able to show content in some other countries.

The result? 

ABC just is not in Ireland.

How to Watch ABC in Ireland in 2020

If you want to watch ABC in Ireland, you will need to go through these two steps:

  1. Making ABC think you are in the US.
  2. Tricking your app store into thinking your store is in the US so you can download the ABC app, depending on your device.

As far as making ABC think you are in the US to watch it in Ireland, as you might already think, a VPN is the solution.

You might have, in fact, already tried using a VPN for this.

...If you did, you noticed that just connecting to an American server in the US doesn’t automatically make ABC work.

On the other side, if you’ve never heard of VPN services, they are virtual private networks that allow you to change your location virtually while also allowing you to be safer on the internet with encryption and IP change.

So why does just connecting to an American VPN server does not work?

There are a few potential reasons for it:

  1. You used a free VPN. (Free VPN services don’t unblock streaming platforms.)
  2. You are using a VPN that doesn’t support ABC.

See, it’s not as easy as just using any VPN with a US server to watch ABC in the UK.

ABC has to make VPN blocks. That’s because just like other streaming platforms if they don’t, they are making it easy for people to use their service in other regions, and that might be breaking some of the contracts they signed.

As a result, the majority of VPN servers don’t work with ABC.

This is where PrivateVPN comes in as a service that doesn’t have thousands of servers like you might have seen when looking at other VPN services, but as a service that instead focuses on quality.

Having a lot of servers, due to block of streaming services does not guarantee working servers for streaming purposes.

And that’s one of the reasons why PrivateVPN supports the most Netflix regions on the market with less than 200 servers when there are services that have thousands of servers.

To set up ABC with it, sign-up for PrivateVPN with our 60-second registration that only asks for your email and password, download the app, and connect to an American server for ABC.

Of course, if you are just looking to try it out, there’s a 7-day free trial with no need for a card.

Is that it then? If you are watching from a computer, yes. But if not, you might also need to get the app that isn’t going to be available right away in your app store.

How to Get the ABC App in Ireland on Apple Devices

On Apple devices, you have two options.

You either download Google Chrome, press on the 3-dots on the right, and enable Desktop Site, or you change the location of your Apple App Store.

On Apple devices, to change the location of your store, you do actually need to create a new account. If you just changed it with your current account, you would lose everything.

  1. Sign out of your iCloud account.
  2. Create a new account based in the US.
  3. Download the ABC app.
  4. Sing back into your old account.

Getting the ABC App in Ireland on Android Devices

On Android devices, you have 3 options:

  1. Enable Desktop Site in Google Chrome and watch from browser.
  2. Change the location of your Play Store to be in the US.
  3. Download by searching for “ABC.APK” as long as it’s from a trusted source.

The first method? Go into Google Chrome, press on the 3-dots, and enable Desktop Site.

The second method:

  1. Connect to an American server using a VPN.
  2. Go to your Play Store.
  3. Press on the 3-bars on the left, and press on Account.
  4. You will be given an option to switch the location of your app store.
  5. Do so, and update your payment method.

You will now be given an option to download ABC.

As far as the third method goes, just make sure to download ABC from a trusted source.

ABC on a TV

Unfortunately, platforms like Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, and most smart TVs (unless it’s Android TV) and even consoles do not support VPN services.

That means that if you can get the ABC app on them, you can’t watch ABC.

There are some ways to go around this issue though...

Easiest? To connect your laptop to a TV via an HDMI cable.

Most practical? To get the Amazon Fire TV Stick, which does support VPN services.

The method that technically allows you to watch on the likes of Apple TV and others? Installing a VPN on a router which we made a guide about in the past, but do not recommend as most routers can’t handle it.

As far as the Amazon Fire TV Stick goes, if you just got one, right away, state that your location is in the US.

If you already have one, here’s what to do:

  1. Go to your current Amazon account in the web browser.
  2. Click on Accounts & Lists, and then go to Manage Your Account and Content.
  3. Select for your region to be in the US.
  4. Go to your Amazon Fire TV device. Press on Settings and My Account.
  5. Deregister and sign back into your Amazon account.
  6. Download ABC.

That’s How to Watch ABC in Ireland

This step-by-step guide showed you how to watch ABC in Ireland, but what we haven’t told you is that with this method, you will be able to unblock many other blocked services in Ireland, including the likes of BBC iPlayer.

And if you want to unblock more complex services like DAZN or Hulu, we have plenty of guides around that on our blog.

Written by Michael Smolski.

Disclaimer: While ABC works with PrivateVPN, just like any VPN service, PrivateVPN cannot guarantee that it will work at all given times, due to the nature of services like ABC trying to take down VPN services.