Watching BBC iPlayer on Amazon Fire Stick with VPN

November 15, 2022 3:42 PM

HI... I'm in the U.S. and trying to watch BBC iPlayer on my Sony TV with Amazon Fire Stick. I've got Nord VPN installed and set to the UK; also installed the 'Downloader' app. But when I go to Amazon store to try to download the app, it shows the logo, but says 'unavailable' when I try to do it. I can watch this no problem on my laptop, but trying to get it to the TV and having trouble, not sure if anyone's got a successful workaround...
posted by dearleader to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

What a coincidence! I was having the exact same issue on my laptop earlier this evening. Clearing my cookies resolved it, but I'm not sure if there's an equivalent process for the Fire Stick.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:02 PM on November 15, 2022

My guess would be that if you don't have an Amazon account set for the UK, you can't download iPlayer to a Fire TV Stick.
posted by theory at 6:06 PM on November 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

Just to double check because you didn't explicitly say it-- when you say you have Nord VPN installed, you mean the VPN is configured on your wireless router, right? Because if it's only installed on your laptop then only the laptop's connection is tunneled through the VPN and appears like it's from the UK.
posted by bluecore at 6:22 PM on November 15, 2022

You can install a web browser on your Fire Stick and then navigate to the web site for your streaming service and try to play from there. Instructions here.

That might bypass your specific problem but also it might give more verbose & specific error messages that may help to troubleshoot whatever problem you are having.
posted by flug at 6:25 PM on November 15, 2022

I use my Fire Stick for this exact thing. It’s fiddly, but I:

1) connect NordVPN
2) load the Silk Browser
3) navigate to IPlayer
4) toggle the “use desktop website” option in silk

Iplayer/all4 just work for me at that point.

You can’t download the player apps for bbc/channel 4 without getting into much more work than I’m prepared to figure out, as the App Store still thinks you’re in your Amazon account’s location.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 10:46 PM on November 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

I have only a tiny bit of VPN knowledge and experience, but I'll add that I've never had any luck trying to watch BBC documentaries. I had heard some years ago the the big players like the Beeb locate the in-country servers of the VPN companies and block them directly. OTOH, this is pretty much contrary to the claims of the big VPN suppliers.

But I think you can assume that the BBC will work hard to protect their intellectual property. However a show I really, really wanted to see showed up a year later as an apparently authorized YouTube video.
posted by SemiSalt at 4:57 AM on November 16, 2022

Assuming it still works as it used to, and in the other direction...

I've been able to log in and automatically create a regional account on Amazon FR, US, DE and IT all using the same email /password I originally set up my UK account with. You should thus be able to log into amazon.co.uk via laptop to create an account.

I've used this over the years for all sorts of purchases in and around the EU that are cheaper in different locales, and to benefit from Audible's introductory offers a load of extra times.

I regularly switch between my French and UK accounts to access titles across those respective libraries on the Android audible app.

How fiddly / worth the effort it it is to switch your Fire Stick to a different regional store to try to download the BBC app, and will you need to stay connected to that region for the app to work... I don't know.
posted by protorp at 8:59 AM on November 16, 2022

My workaround for this is plugging the laptop into the TV via HDMI cable.

You can also download episodes on the iPlayer for smoothest playback. (Great British Sewing Bee is a delight!)
posted by tomboko at 9:26 AM on November 16, 2022 [1 favorite]