Last Updated on February 5, 2024

BBC iPlayer not Working with a VPN

It’s now been more than two years since BBC started blocking all our favorite BBC iPlayer VPN 2024 programs in earnest.  Previously they had finished off the simple proxy server access, which had worked from the release of the BBC iPlayer in December 2007.   It’s surprising the proxy access was allowed for so long; it was perhaps the last major media service which hadn’t blocked them.  Certainly, a simple proxy hasn’t worked on sites like Hulu, Netflix or any of the other TV channels for several years.  Next came the BBC iPlayer VPN workaround which in 2016 was also to targeted by the BBC technical and legal departments.

So, is the purge complete? Are the BBC iPlayer blocking VPN programmes from every supplier?   Do any still work with BBC iPlayer?  Well, it’s difficult to say for sure because it keeps changing, one thing for sure there are certain characteristics of the services which do remain:

• Focus on VPN Functionality (not TV Watching) – the majority of services which openly advertised the ability to bypass the BBC iPlayer Geo blocks have pretty much gone.  Seeing a copy of the BBC logo or anything similar on an iPlayer VPN site means it’s likely to be near the top of the hit list.
• Multiple Servers – many of the smaller VPN providers relied on a small number of UK servers.  Unfortunately, this meant that you’d get thousands of individual streams on a few IP addresses, easy to detect and simple to block.
• Securely Configured – a lot of the so-called secure VPNs where little more than simple proxies, these got wiped out pretty much en-masse last Summer.  Unfortunately, some of them still advertise the ability to watch BBC iPlayer from abroad just to grab your subscription money – try short trials or demos before buying a longer subscription.
• Residential Support – although the BBC haven’t yet tried to restrict access based on classification of IP address, it would be no great surprise if this happened soon.  Netflix were very successful in restricting access to only residential based IP addresses (those assigned by ISP to home customers).  The BBC may follow suit this year and your VPN service will need to have residential addresses in it’s infrastructure.

BBC iPlayer Blocking VPN – Which are the Survivors in 2024

There’s no doubt that things have got a lot tougher for the VPN services over the last few years although there’s still many of them still functioning well.   Although some people seem to think that BBC iPlayer detecting VPN programs automatically now, that’s simply not true.  There is no technology available for reliably detecting a well configured VPN connection, although the Chinese are working on it.  The BBC iPlayer blocking VPN efforts are based on detecting things like too many connections on specific IP addresses and simply manual detection via web sites.  Remember there’s a huge difference to advertising your VPN service to marketing a tool as a BBC iPlayer VPN 2024.  These companies are simple to take out of the game, especially if they’re stupid enough to use any of the BBC’s logos on their site!

Even though the BBC cannot automatically detect the presence of a VPN if it identifies the IP addresses of the servers, it’s a trivial matter to block access.   Most estimate that about 80-90% of the firms are now blocked and certainly the days of using proxies to watch BBC iPlayer from the Netherlands or anywhere abroad free through some sites are long gone.

Fortunately, my favourite one – Identity Cloaker still works perfectly with all the media sites including the BBC – here’s a video of it in action

As you can see it’s working perfectly and this year Identity Cloaker have expanded significantly to include many more UK servers and introduced a special network of residential based IP addresses. At the moment these have been restricted to use only when you try and connect to Netflix but hopefully, they can expand this to BBC iPlayer if the need arises.

So, from 2023 on, you can pretty much forget about proxy servers – unfortunately they don’t work anymore.  At the time of writing, Identity Cloaker is still working perfectly with the BBC iPlayer abroad and in fact all the major media sites.

Using NordVPN to Watch BBC iPlayer

There are a couple of reasons that Identity Cloaker is still working with BBC iPlayer.   One is that the team there have become a little obsessive in ensuring that their VPN still works with the BBC.  They spend a lot of time monitoring, rotating IP addresses and buying new UK addresses to make sure it does.

However the other important factor is that Identity Cloaker is a very small VPN service and is able to ‘fly under the radar’ to a large extent.  The way most large media companies like the BBC detect VPNs is by checking the number of connections on each individual IP address.  Normally there will only be a small number (often only one!) connections per IP address.

However, a shared VPN will often have hundreds or even thousands of individual connections on each shared IP address which makes it extremely easy to detect.  Smaller VPNs and those which don’t focus on BBC access won’t really be detected at all.

How NordVPN Makes Sure That Your VPN Doesn’t Stop Working with BBC iPlayer

Obviously, the larger VPNs like NordVPN can’t rely on this as they have millions of active users.   Even a very small proportion of these will set off the flags on the BBC and other media companies.  So NordVPN actually have a small segment of servers just for watching sites like the BBC.  They rotate the addresses and switch them out if too many people use them at the same time.  It’s almost impossible to do that for all their addresses bu manageable for a small sub-section.

Latest Discount Page for NordVPN BBC Servers here.

This means that currently these are the best NordVPN servers to use if you want BBC access.

UK# 1840-1847, 1850-1863, 1865, 1869, 1873, 1875-1878, 1880-1881, 1900-1901, 1903-1904, 1911, 1913, 1917, 1919-1920.

Put ‘United Kingdom #’ in the search bar  to get a list and save to favourites if you want to stream BBC iPlayer