Proxies will not work, unless you are extremely lucky to get one that is inside the BBC inclusion list.

The BBC content is only licensed in the UK, and they appear to be serious in blocking non-UK addresses.

The BBC has a list of all broadband IP addresses in the UK. If you are not on this list, you don't get in.

There are ways to beat the system, and if you have friends in the UK, you can setup a private proxy service on their computer, for the limited access of you or a very few of your friends, you can defeat geotargeting by BBC and ITV and the likes.

Now your friends in the UK would be liable for copyright infringement, for exporting the signal outside the UK, if they ever got caught.

Remember, in the UK you need a licence to own a TV, and they actually have TV police that actively drives around in VAN's with detection equipment, looking for illegal TV signals. Really, im serious !

So you see, the British authorities are rather sticky when it comes to their beloved BBC.

they actually have TV police that actively drives around in VAN's with detection equipment, looking for illegal TV signals.

Actually I think they have a list of houses which don't have a TV licence, a conviction that every house in the country has a TV and a scary marketing campaign ;)

According to their help files [iplayersupport.external.bbc.co.uk] the BBC uses Quova [quova.com] to geolocate, and implies this is something that UK ISPs have to register with, presumably guaranteeing that certain blocks are only available to UK subscribers.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure TV detector vans were a myth, or at least a gross exaggeration. As I recall, at one point they even claimed to be able to find a BBC signal from one TV in an individual flat in a whole block. Ahem.

Remember, in the UK you need a licence to own a TV, and they actually have TV police that actively drives around in VAN's with detection equipment, looking for illegal TV signals. Really, im serious !

I've never quite heard it described like that but when you put it that way it sounds really stupid. Welcome to rip off britain!

I will have to check with my Uncle as he doesn't have a TV. He has never told me that anyone from TV licencing has been round to see him.

They send various letters first, which will become more and more threatening until they actually pay a visit. You have to tell them in writing or on the phone that you don't have a TV to get them to stop, and even that doesn't work in many cases. OT, but TV-license politics aside, I'm not a fan of their collection methods at all, which I consider to be unnecessarily intimidating.

Here is the URL to the TV Police in the UK.

[tvlicensing.co.uk...]

Apparently, you need a TV license to watch TV on a laptop or mobile phone.

And I thought the Allies won World War II :)

Thankfully you can listen to BBC radio for free.

Probably the maddest bit of the whole thing:

The blind concession reduces the cost of your TV Licence by 50%. So a colour TV Licence will cost £67.75 and a black and white TV Licence will cost £22.75.

But the man in the shop told me it was black & white your honour!

<rant>This really annoys me. It is not a licence! It is a tax! Even if you only ever watch DVDs or you have a TV set that won't pick up the BBC channels you still have to pay this tax which is paid directly to and is the main source of funding for the BBC.

30 million homes at £135 per pop that's a staggering £4billion every year! What do they spend it all on?

It is long past the time when someone should have sorted out this inefficient and over manned quango. My solution; abandon the Tax, take advertising on all channels, allow sponsored programming and make some of the more specialist channels subscription only.

Before any bleeding heart Liberal BBC sympathiser bothers to tell me that advertising would ruin their fine programming can I answer by saying that they already have it! They are just advertising their own programs, their radio stations and a whole raft of BBC publications, CDs, DVDs etc. Their "station idents" are also becoming longer and more expensive to produce.

Consequently the ad breaks on BBC1 and BBC2 are usually longer than those on ITV1. Talk about unfair competition! If they had to pay for all this advertising I suppose they would be whinging for another huge increase in the "licence fee".</rant>

The BBC does already have advertising (for its own products) that's true. But they're not likely to lose that advertising if the slot is preceded or followed by some uncomfortable or controversial programming.

When advertisers say to you: "If you do a Panorama special about how much money the UK taxpayer has spent on the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq (GBP 20 billion by Joseph Stiglitz' estimate) and how many men, women and children are now dead (Brits, Iraqis, Afghans, soldiers, civilians, journalists and everyone else) instead of alive because the UK taxpayer's money has been spent in such a way, we're pulling our ads," you then have to make an editorial decision about whether you're even going to air the programme. Or make it in the first place. People might not feel like going out and treating themselves if they realised they've been legally forced to be financially complicit in state-sanctioned mass murder.

Not that the BBC actually does air very much uncomfortable or controversial programming, but - in theory at least - it has the option to as long as commercial advertisers aren't holding the purse-strings.

Anyone outside the UK manage to view stuff on BBC-i?

Going back to the topic (grin)

No, I haven't found anything that works and I've tried every web proxy site and tons of addresses..... oh well.. I guess it's just UK Nova for me then :)

Ronin

I don't want to get into a political debate as I understand it is not encouraged here.

To reverse your argument, the BBC are in a unique position where they can promulgate their own predominantly left wing viewpoint with no real sanctions. The possibility of interference from potential advertisers you cite could improve the quality and remove a lot of the bias. Not everyone shares the world view of the BBC.

Bit late in posting to this topic but here goes:-

The UK TV system originally had only one broadcaster, BBC. To fund the cost of providing not only TV but radio as well, the UK government decided to introduce licensing as a means of raising funds. This continues to this day but we now have loads of broadcasters, most of which are commercial and so don't need funding.

Yes, we had detector vans that could pinpoint anyone receiving a TV/radio signal and did not have a licence but it was a long and tedious process and was abandoned many years ago. Now, whenever you buy a TV from your favourite store, your name, address etc are taken by the store and passed on to the licensing authorities. No escape!
As for BBC's Iplayer, it's great 'cause you can download almost anything that has already been broadcast although there are time limitations before self destruct! You can also see previews of upcoming programmes.

Nobody outside the UK can access it so it's not worth wasting keyboard time trying it, they're too clever to fall for that! Worth knowing though that together with it's worldwide websites (not mirrors), it's up there as one of the largest websites in the world with well over 2m web pages last time I checked and all updated 24/7.

Lots of folk, here in Spain, watching both BBC and the independants, via sattelite.
One local company has an 'iffy' UK sattelite deal that he recieves here and then bounces it around locally, billing their clients for the honour!
As I understand it, they are in contravention of their contract, as regards the UK, but are not breaking laws here in Spain in recieving the signal.
They earn a lot of money.....
So yes, here in spain, you can recieve BBC satellite broadcasts, which cover most programmes.

Yes I have watched UK only BBC stuff through a proxy, it takes a bit off hunting to get one ith decent speed though. You may get lucky and hit a UK govt honeypot :)

As an example - there are sites like this [proxy4free.com] all over the place_

On the left side margin at that link is a list of several pages of Proxy Addresses with a location of where they are_

I haven't really gotten into watching streaming content from the UK as it's easier to browse the Torrent sites_ However - I do like to go out to the BBC and simply browse their programming sites and read back info on various shows or see what's going on with the next episode or whatever_

I wouldn't use the software that site recommends as it's costly - but there are plenty of open-source Apps out there to do the job_ I went thru a few UK labeled IP Addresses from those lists until I found one that worked_ Added it to Proxy Software and had no problem browsing the BBC Media Sites_ As far as the BBC Servers knew I was showing up form within the UK [all the way from the US]_

But without a Proxy IP running it blocks me and says for licensing purposes I cannot view BBC content outside the UK_ Which is BS and it sucks_

Summary:
- Proxy App
- Proxy IP running in App
- browse BBC blocked content outside UK
- the end