Unblock NOW TV and Sky Go Abroad Quick & Easy

Bummed out you can’t enjoy your favorite series on NOW TV and Sky Go whenever you travel abroad?

We know how annoying that is, but don’t worry – you don’t need to put up with that anymore! We’ll show you how to unblock them with the best VPNs to get access to UK streaming services in this 5-minute article.

How to Unblock NOW TV & Sky Go with a VPN

If you’re new to VPNs, here’s a quick intro – they’re online services that spoof your geo-location by “hiding” your IP address. They also encrypt your traffic.

By “hiding” your IP, we just mean the service routes your traffic to and from the web through a VPN server. So it basically acts as a middleman between you and NOW TV and/or Sky Go.

So instead of this path:

Device 🡪 ISP Network 🡪 NOW TV / Sky Go

Your connection takes this route:

Device 🡪 ISP Network 🡪 VPN Server 🡪 NOW TV / Sky Go

NOW TV and/or Sky Go think your connection requests are coming from the VPN server, not your device. Due to that, they will only see the server’s IP address.

As long as you use a VPN server in the UK or ROI (for Sky Go), those sites will think you’re connecting from those countries.

Can All VPNs Unblock NOW TV and Sky Go?

Unfortunately, no. NOW TV and Sky Go actually use some detection methods that can block VPN IP addresses. Or some VPNs just suffer IP leaks which leave your geo-location exposed.

To successfully unblock those sites, you need a VPN that doesn’t suffer any leaks, and refreshes its IP pool regularly to bypass IP bans. Instead of spending hours testing different providers, we recommend using ProPrivacy’s guide to the best VPNs to get access to UK streaming services. You should be able to find the right VPN for you in minutes.

5 Ways to Optimize VPN Speeds

VPNs are great unblockers, but they have one drawback – they will lower your original speeds. We never experienced huge slowdowns, but it can be noticeable sometimes.

If you’re dealing with that issue, here are five things you can do to improve your VPN speeds:

1. Use a server that’s close to your location. If you’re in France, a server in London is a much better choice than one in Glasgow.
2. Use lightweight protocols like IKEv2, WireGuard, and L2TP/IPsec.
3. If you’re stuck with OpenVPN, use it over UDP instead of TCP.
4. Use split tunneling to only encrypt traffic from and to the NOW TV & Sky Go apps and sites.
5. If possible, use wired connections instead of WiFi.

Wait – Don’t NOW TV and Sky Go Work Abroad?

That’s actually a common misconception. Yes, both sites work abroad, but only in certain EU countries, and only if you meet specific requirements.

You can see the full list of countries where Sky Go works right here, and the list of supported countries for NOW TV here. The lists are pretty lengthy, true, but if you’re travelling outside the EU, you’re out of luck. Sky Go and NOW TV content isn’t available in Asia, the US, or South America, for example.

What’s more, here’s another requirement you need to meet:

• NOW TV – You need to have watched NOW TV content in the UK within the last 30 days.
• Sky Go – You need to have watched Sky Go content in the UK or ROI within the last 37 days.

Those restrictions might not be too bad if you’re only travelling for a short period. But if you’re planning an extended trip (over one month) or moving away for work for a few months, you won’t get to enjoy your favorite entertainment.

Why Do NOW TV and Sky Go Use Geo-Blocks?

It’s mainly due to licensing rights.

Here’s the thing – Sky Go and NOW TV don’t own all the content on display. A lot of it is owned by third parties. And they sold the distribution rights for their shows only in the UK (and ROI) to NOW TV and Sky Go. The rights in other countries were sold to other streaming platforms or TV networks.

So if you’re travelling to Japan, you can’t binge shows on NOW TV because the site doesn’t have the legal right to stream them there.

Besides licensing rights, there’s also the TV licence tax. People in the UK have to pay it if they watch NOW TV or Sky Go. So the law probably forces these sites to use geo-restrictions. Otherwise, it wouldn’t really be fair to UK citizens that people outside the country would be able to use the sites without paying anything.

Can I Unblock NOW TV and Sky Go with Tor?

You should be able to do it since Tor hides your IP address (so it spoofs your geo-location). We were able to do it at least.

But here’s the problem – the speeds aren’t worth it. We barely got 1 Mbps, so our connections were really laggy and dropped often. Not to mention the endless buffering. 

Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do to improve those speeds. Tor only has a network of roughly 6,000 servers, and a user base of over two million. 

Plus, changing the exit server’s location isn’t very convenient. Here’s how you do it:

1. You download and install the Tor browser.
2. When you’re on NOW TV or Sky Go, hit the SSL icon near the URL bar (the green padlock icon).
3. Under Tor Circuit, you’ll see your current connection path.
4. Keep clicking New Circuit for this Site until the exit server is from the UK. In our case, it took us about 20 tries.

What’s Your Experience with Unblocking NOW TV & Sky Go?

When did you have to unblock them, and did using a VPN work? Or did you try other unblocking methods?

Please let us know in the comments or on social media.