Want to watch F1 on BBC iPlayer from outside the UK? It’s not going to be easy
Live F1 is coming to BBC iPlayer in 2009
With F1 moving to the BBC in 2009, fans in the UK should be able to use the iPlayer to watch live F1 action next year.
But anyone trying to watch F1 on iPlayer from outside Britain may find it more difficult than when ITV first broadcast F1 online this year.
The BBC’s contract to show F1 only gives them the right to show it within Britain. That includes online broadcasts, and the iPlayer has restrictions built in to stop people overseas watching F1 and other programming on it.
Inevitably since iPlayer was launched (one year ago this week) it has been subject to repeated attempts to hack it. As F1 is not broadcast live in many other countries, and most have to watch it with frequent advertising interruptions, there is likely to be a great demand for iPlayer hacks among F1 fans next year.
Last year it was not difficult to find sites re-broadcasting ITV’s F1 coverage online for foreign viewers. But iPlayer seems to be a tougher proposition from a technical point of view – and that’s before one considers the legal and copyright implications which may make
How can I watch BBC F1 outside the UK?
British F1 fans heading abroad who want to be able to watch live F1 on the BBC have a couple of options.
The most dependable would be to purchase a Slingbox
Providing your home internet connection upload speed is fast enough (at least 256kbps) this is probably the most reliable solution available. It’s not free, of course, a basic Slingbox will set you back around £70.
There are dedicated services such as Thetelly which claim to offer subscription-based access to British television programmes from abroad. But I’ve no experience of using them so I can’t vouch for their quality or reliability.
How can I watch iPlayer outside the UK?
BBC’s iPlayer seems to be a much more sophisticated solution to whatever ITV were using to limit online F1 coverage to the UK only. But there are some ways around it.
Using remote access
If you’re a British fan heading abroad you could leave your home machine on and connect to it from abroad using a remote connection service such as LogMeIn or GoToMyPC.
Using a UK proxy
You can use a UK proxy to view iPlayer. Sites listing UK proxies can be found easily on Google, and you will then have to configure your internet connection to use the proxy – here’s how to configure a proxy using Internet Explorer. Here are some more details on how to achieve this using Firefox.
Dan D, who’s helped out on the Grand Prix Live Blogs this year, offered these thoughts on using UK proxies to watch iPlayer abroad:
UK proxy server sites (like this one) can be used but they appear to be pretty sketchy, in terms of the security risk you take on if you use them. Not only do most require membership and thus some degree of personally identifiable information, but potentially they will harvest more of your info once you are connected. Some are undoubtedly more trustworthy than others, but it’s hard to know which are which.
Free, smaller-scale sites (like this one) could also work in theory, but this one explicitly excludes the BBC iPlayer. It seems users used to be able to view iPlayer material but it consumed too much bandwidth so they cut it out. Likewise, this one is free and seems reputable but does not handle streaming content.
Any more?
Got any more tips for using iPlayer while abroad? Share them in the comments below.
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Read more: How can I watch, listen to and follow F1 live online?
Robert McKay said on 11th December 2008, 22:19
Yes – but Bernie wants to sell the rights locally, not globally. He doesn’t want people paying the BBC to watch coverage, he wants them to watch the coverage that their local broadcaster has paid for.
So BBC could do that for their programmes, but sport (not just F1) would not be part of that.
Alianora La Canta said on 24th January 2009, 15:50
The localisation issue is a problem, but Bernie could also use it to put pressure on broadcasters to improve their feeds (whether to include online streaming or to correct whatever else is losing them ratings) or lose the licence to a more pliable station. A lot would depend on how Bernie adapted to the situation.
But it’s worth saying that at the moment, the TV companies get virtually no ratings benefit from the people breaking the law. The proxies would show up as one viewer each to the online feed if I’ve understood correctly, and the home broadcaster gets nothing at all. That means that both broadcasters lose out from the presence of the UK-only online element. By providing it globally to those who pay, each individual will come through as a separate connection in the eyes of the online broadcaster (I’m hoping the BBC will be joined by other providers soon, if only for competitive purposes), so there would be the full ratings benefit to the online broadcaster. Meanwhile the home broadcaster has only lost as many ratings as it would have done anyway – and has an incentive to apply to Bernie to do its own service and/or to improve its coverage in a way to get its viewers back. Both earn Bernie money, even if the station never gets its viewers back. This means Bernie gets more money overall than he does in the present situation, which will make him happy and promote the long-term future of the system.
Sport could be part of the package if Bernie and his counterparts in other sports
speedrazor said on 11th December 2008, 22:35
Keith, thanks very much for posting this story– I really appreciate being able to follow the liveblog and watch F1 races live from America. I’d love to see a map overlay of visitors to your site to see how many different countries follow F1Fanatic. How much interest is there from the US?
@23 Jamey, I completely agree– the coverage of F1 in America is terrible. Try watching a race covered in any way by Martin Brundle and then compare it to Speed’s coverage. You’ll easily see why so many Americans turn to UK coverage.
@Dank – I’ll gladly pay a fee to watch the BBC coverage, just tell me where to sign up. To a true F1 fanatic, you will find any means necessary to watch a race. Just ask this guy who watched Hamilton pass Glock for the championship off of a Russian feed when the ITV feed was blocked. Be happy you are so lucky to be able to watch the best coverage in the world in so many different ways.
Internet said on 11th December 2008, 22:59
BBC iPlayer is a tough one to crack. Proxies DON’T work.
zerogee said on 11th December 2008, 23:25
If I could pay the licence fee and watch from Australia, I would. I’d rather I spent the money on the Beeb itself rather than a VPN provider. And given the exchange rate, that’s probably four months of cable TV (which I don’t have because it doesn’t have F1). Would that make you happy Dank? :-)
Pink Peril said on 12th December 2008, 1:31
It would be worth it to me to pay a subscription fee to watch iPlayer, rather than watch delayed Channel 10 with ad drivel inserted every ten minutes. Many other non-UK residents have stated the same thing Dank, but there is no option for us to do that.
So sneakily watching it – or stealing as you put it – is the only way left.
But then since Channel 10 obviously pays ITV/BBC for the feed, really, us Australians are paying to watch your F1 after all.
Kathryn S said on 12th December 2008, 3:00
Living in the US I pay to watch F1 on SpeedTV on cable…the problem I run into is that when I have to travel on race weekends, SpeedTV is seldom available at hotels…and I have watched hijacked streaming video from ITV. I guess I justify stealing the signal because I pay for it to be delivered to my home television…and it’s not my fault Bernie can’t do a better job scheduling races around my out of town commitments.
Jonesracing82 said on 12th December 2008, 6:36
ii live in OZ & hoped it wouldnt come to this!
Brett M said on 12th December 2008, 8:31
Dank
How does get over it sound???? How does it really effect your life if you have a TV where you can watch it live????
Pink & Jones
Is Ten in OZ going to broadcast in HD again next season (with the 1/2 hour delay)?
Dank said on 12th December 2008, 9:27
Can’t help but think some of you are missing my point. Nevermind.
Chalky said on 12th December 2008, 9:46
UK residents pay their license fee for all BBC services.
Some of these are already free to non-UK residents. (News radio)
ITV generated its revenue from adverts, like any other commercial station.
So if the BBC put in a service that is abused by non-paying viewers and that service is effected, then you’d understand that the license payers would be upset.
If the iPlayer is hacked for F1, it remains hacked for every other program. Then the BBC would have a choice of fixing it or removing it. If it becomes legal, they may just remove it. Then nobody gets it.
Personally I think Bernie should have a pay-per-view service with no adverts for all. Available via streaming on the F1 web site.
Mark said on 12th December 2008, 10:56
So Dank if you lived in a country where there was no F1 coverage you wouldn’t seek it out?
Dank said on 12th December 2008, 11:13
No I wouldn’t. I am an F1 fan through and through. But it’s hardly my fault if foreign networks can not see fit to purchase the rights from money-grabbing Bernie Ecclestone and his empire.
This argument that everybody has this mythical right to watch F1 through any means available doesn’t hold weight. Especially when it comes down to essentially leeching of a paid for service.
Robert McKay said on 12th December 2008, 11:23
Listen, here’s the Catch-22 problem.
If everyone in, say the US, is watching a cracked BBC broadcast then they’re not watching Speed, or whoever it is that do it. Then there’s poor ratings for Speed, and thus no incentive to pay more for better rights or use the existing rights better by having more live coverage or whatever. And so the coverage on the TV stays weak, and so the hardcore fans stay watching cracked internet feeds and the circle continues.
I’m not saying everyone should put up with guff feeds in the hope that their broadcaster will eventually improve upon it.
But I am saying that there will be something of an impasse if large swathes of people move to cracked feeds from other countries.
Like I say something has to be/should be done to ensure everyone can recieve a live feed of the race. That’s up to Bernie/FOM to sort, either by having the country themselves produce an online feed – or by doing it themselves.
Mark said on 12th December 2008, 11:26
@ Dank: Frankly I don’t believe you.
No it’s not your fault if Bernie won’t let your country broadcast it, which is why you shouldn’t be blamed for doing whatever you can to watch it.
If you have passable coverage in your country then watch that, if it’s terrible then watch ours.
I understand how people leeching off of iPlayer could slow it down and ruin it for other people watching it as well, but people in the UK will be watching it on their tv, not on the internet.
So if the service is there but not being used by those it was made for, why not let others use it?
Basically we shouldn’t be blaming desperate F1 fans, we should be blaming money-hungry Bernie for not taking the fans into consideration.
Chalky said on 12th December 2008, 13:50
Oh, because it doesn’t cost the BBC any money to stream a live feed? If every Tom, Dick and Harry could watch the Live feed from outside the UK, the BBC would have to start paying a bit more money to host the service.
And who in the end pays for that?
The license payer.
Yes, the following year the license fee goes up because of streaming costs.
Now that maybe fine for every UK F1 fan, but the BBC has a responsibility to provide broadcasting to a nation with value for money. Not everyone in the UK will watch F1 with a live stream feed. Not everyone in the UK will watch the F1. The BBC cannot justify streaming a feed to outside of the UK.
Poor old Granny Smith will not want an increase in her license fee to pay for it.
If this were ITV then go ahead. They have no obligation to ensure value for money to it’s viewers, but only to it’s shareholders. The BBC is very different.