It’s simple to use a VPN to watch your favorite shows. The following is a tutorial for US expats who want to watch American TV online while living in another country.
Here’s how to watch US TV from another country:
- Join the VPN service of your choice. NordVPN comes highly recommended.
- From the VPN provider’s website or an official app store, download the appropriate app for your device.
- Install the app and log in with your new username and password.
- Connect to a server in the United States to get a US IP address. Unless you wish to unblock streaming websites restricted to a specific US region, the exact server location doesn’t important.
- Navigate to the stream you want to watch and start watching!
If you have any problems, you can contact your VPN’s customer service team for help.
How do I obtain satellite television in a different country?
Expats and vacationers in Europe have long opted to have a satellite dish erected on their property, similar to how they would in the UK, and then connect it to a satellite receiver. This may be a Freesat box, or you could connect a Sky box to watch Sky Sports and Movies, among other things. People who have second homes in Spain, for example, used to bring their Sky box with them and attach it to their satellite dishes so they could watch Sky even while they were out of the country. Because this could be a bit of a hassle, many customers instead carried their Sky smart card with them. The issue is that the Sky card must be used in conjunction with the Sky box, and I’m not sure if the satellite provider wants you to use their services outside of the UK. This is what the telephone line connection was all about. Here are a few pointers to help you use satellite to watch English television when traveling:
1- Unless you wish to watch Sky, English TV does not utilize encryption, thus any old satellite receiver will suffice if you only want to watch BBC/ITV shows.
A Freesat box, rather than a generic FTA receiver, is recommended for this activity since it uses the Logical Channel Number to store the services on the relevant channel. A basic satellite receiver will store channels on all kinds of strange numbers, so you might have to dial 431 for BBC1 and 696 for BBC2. Or having to spend hours organizing the channels into the correct numbers only to have to do it all over again when the equipment is re-tuned!
2- Because we reside on an island, we don’t have to worry about TV service encryption like other countries do.
Instead, the UK receives a large portion of the signals meant for it.
This means that while a small satellite dish can be used to see English TV in North France, the larger the satellite dish required the further you are from the UK. If you wanted to watch British TV in Italy through satellite, for example, which worked fine until recently, you’d need a very huge dish.
Finally, if you live in France or Spain, a satellite dish may be a practical option for watching English television outside of the UK. Once set up, the TV will function exactly as if you were in the United Kingdom. If you are not in this region, such as outside of Europe, one of the other ways listed below should suffice.
In the United Kingdom, how can I watch satellite television?
Your choices are as follows:
- Over 250 channels are available with a Sky subscription (starting at 21.50 per month). There is no charge for the box and dish.
- Freesat130 channels are available without a subscription. Boxes start at $50, with installation costing an additional $80.
- Consider Sky’s Freesat, which includes 220 free-to-air channels as well as a box and a dish.
- With a satellite kit, you can build your own dish.
Which satellites can I receive in the United Kingdom?
The vast majority of satellite dishes in the UK are for Sky TV and Freesat, which are also known by other names such as Sky+, Sky+HD, Sky Q, and Freetime. The same satellites are used for each of these services. The Astra 2 satellites are located at 28.2E, whereas the Eurobird satellite is located at 28.5E. The 28.2E position is currently occupied by four satellites, although this may change over time.
Sky and Freesat recommend a minimum dish size of 45cm in the south and 60cm in the north of the UK. A Zone 1 satellite dish is a 45cm Sky mini-dish style satellite dish, and a Zone 2 satellite dish is a 60cm Sky mini-dish style satellite dish.
What is the best way for me to view US television channels?
Most cable and satellite bundles include USA Network, including:
- Channel 1125 on AT&T U-verse HD
- Channel 760 on Charter Spectrum HD
- Channel 823 on Comcast XFINITY TV HD
- Channel 1028 on Cox Communication HD
- Channel 242 on DirecTV HD
- Channel 105 on DISH Network HD
- Channels 55 and 101 on Time Warner Cable HD
- Channel 550 on Verizon FiOS
Channel listings may differ by market and may be changed at any time by the provider to a different channel.
The USA Network can also be found on most streaming sites, such as:
Sling TV is a streaming service that allows you to watch (Blue package)
Is it possible to stream Freesat in Europe?
It is possible to receive Freesat outside of the UK and Ireland, but with a larger dish, because the UK beams of Astra 2E, Astra 2F, and Astra 2G (which transmit the majority of channels from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5) have footprints firmly focused on the UK and Ireland. Furthermore, outside of the UK, Freesat receivers are not commonly or easily available, making the full Freesat EPG unavailable.
Is it possible to take your Sky box with you when you travel?
You won’t be able to stream Sky outside of the UK using your Sky Go, Sky Kids, Sky Sports, or Sky Sports Box Office apps after January 1, 2021. Some Sky apps allow you to download your favorite episodes and movies through WiFi before leaving home so you can enjoy them offline while traveling.
According to certain rules, EU citizens can stream content from any EU country. Because the UK will no longer be a member of the EU on January 1, 2021, we will no longer be able to provide this service in the same way.
Not only Sky, but many other online video, music, and entertainment services are affected by this shift.
Is Freesat being phased out?
Humax’s partnership with Freesat has come to an end. Humax will no longer be making and manufacturing Freesat-branded satellite receivers and PVRs after an 11-year partnership.