But services in other countries are sometimes restricted as well. For the UK it is for instance most contents offered by the BBC iPlayer which is only accessible if the user connecting to the service has a British IP address. This does block expats and Brits on holiday from accessing the contents online. While it is possible to get access to TV and radio contents by connecting to a virtual private network (vpn) that assigns UK IP addresses, it is usually considered to be complicated to setup and not free as well.

Expat Shield is a free service by the makers of HotSpot Shield that simplifies the process greatly. In its core, the software creates a vpn connection that assigns a UK IP to the computer system, thus allowing the user to access UK-only TV and Radio contents from all over the world.

It works with all UK based services, including BBC iPlayer TV (offering access to BBC One to Four) and Radio, ITV Player, Channel 4 and others. And since it is a VPN connection it means that access is available through all programs, including web browsers but also standalone applications.

Expat Shield Download and Installation

Expat Shield is offered as a free download at the official website. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. Actually, the program is not downloaded directly from the website. A download manager is downloaded first, that then downloads the application to the local computer system. The application includes a custom toolbar that does not need to be installed, so make sure you disable it if you do not want it to be installed.

The program places an icon in the system tray that offers controls to start and stop the service. Starting it actually means that the following window is shown in Internet Explorer that initiates the connection. It is probably possible to copy the url into another browser as well to initiate the VPN connection.

From that moment on the system tray icon shows that the computer is connected to the VPN.

BBC iPlayer

Just visit the BBC iPlayer website and start watching the tv shows that you’d like to watch.

ITV Player

Visit the ITV homepage to watch all available tv shows online from any location in the world. Available are ITV1, ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 for online viewing.

Expat Shield offers all the additional benefits of running a VPN connection, including protection from network snooping, encryption and a new IP address for increased privacy.

The quality of the VPN solution has been excellent during testing. All tv shows that we watched in the time streamed without interruptions or buffering issues. All in all, an excellent free solution to access British TV and Radio contents as well as other UK-only services and sites. (via, thanks Maik for the tip)

Users who want to download radio and TV programmes from BBC iPlayer can use the portable software program iDownload to do so. The download manager has been programmed in Java and is accessed in a web browser. The interface provides access to a content search that includes all supported BBC radio and TV programmes.

Available radio and TV shows are shown and can be marked for download by either double-clicking them or using the download button. All selected TV and radio shows are moved to the Downloads section of the web interface. Users from the United Kingdom can start to download the TV and radio shows right away while users from other countries need to find an anonymous web proxy (or VPN from the UK) to do so.

Download BBC iPlayer TV and Radio programmes can be launched directly from within the web interface. The TV programmes are downloaded as Apple Quicktime files (.mov) and the radio shows as mp3. The iDownload software to download BBC iPlayer programmes is available from the developer’s website.

Recently, many websites have started to show shows free online but do so in a legal fashion, paying for the shows using advertisements.

Different websites seem to work in different jurisdiction but it is fair to say that a large amount is available to viewers from the United States only. Here are a few resources to watch tv shows online.

South Park Studios famously provided their shows online free of charge because the show’s creators were annoyed of people watching their shows illegally. Unfortunately, South Park Studios is not available in Great Britain; I suspect it is North America only.

Joost, the much hyped IPTV service which recently has recently made the transition from software to web-based, boasts a number of titles, both mainstream and online-only. In the UK, and possibly other countries, titles such as Babylon 5, Peep Show, Shameless and Robot Chicken.

YouTube has recently announced it will start ‘serving full-length TV dinners‘ including shows like Star Trek: The Original Series, MacGyver and Beverly Hills 90210. Unfortunately, this is unavailable in Europe.

Hulu is a site which offers free, ad-supported streaming video of TV shows and films from NBC and FOX, amongst others. This includes shows like The Simpsons, The Daily Show, Family Guy and even The Office! Predictably, this is also only for Americans.

BBC iPlayer is a free streaming video service kindly provided to people in the United Kingdom. iPlayer allows Brits to watch most shows broadcasted on a BBC channel in the past week on-demand. The BBC even admits that iPlayer technically does not require a licence fee, a type of tax which any British person with a TV set pays to help support the non-commercial BBC.