BBC iPlayer have been improving their game lately.
More and more VPNs have been reporting this past month (May, 2018), that they would no longer be able to give support to BBC iPlayer.
What this means, is that many VPNs can no longer unblock iPlayer.
The method VPNs use to unblock websites, is by rerouting your connection through different encrypted servers.
In the process, you are given a new IP address, dedicated to the Geolocation of the server you connected through.
In order to unblock BBC iPlayer, all you needed to is connected to a UK server, and iPlayer would identify you as local.
This would grant you access to the iPlayer library.
How does iPlayer block VPNs?
The iPlayer, like other streaming services, fight this is by identifying and blacklisting the IP addresses used by the different VPN services.
They have additional ways to identify VPN traffic that is trying to get in, such as seeing changes in your IP address or looking for extra security layers which in many cases point towards a VPN.
Once a VPN user has been identified, iPlayer pings the user’s browser to get its IP address.
This IP address will then be added to their blacklist.
With thousands of users using a VPN are entering iPlayer each day, they are basically doing the job for them.
This way, iPlayer are able to detect and block hundreds of VPN related IP addresses each day.
Which VPNs unblock BBC iPlayer
During May, 2018 ExpressVPN reported that they would no longer be able to support unblocking iPlayer, until further notice.
About a week later, they reported again that they are once more able to unblock BBC iPlayer.
This goes to show the extreme efforts taken by both the VPNs and the streaming services.
List of VPNs the support iPlayer
- ExpressVPN
- NordVPN
- PrivateVPN
- PureVPN
- VyprVPN
Find the best VPN to watch BBC iPlayer or ITV anywhere in the world
VPNs that do not support iPlayer
- Cyberghost (reported to no longer support iPlayer during May, 2018)
- IPVanish
- TunnelBear
- Cactus VPN
- SaferVPN
These lists are limited only to popular VPNs, and since this changes on a daily basis I will update it accordingly.
