The UK’s public service broadcaster has announced changes for those living outside the UK to access BBC content. Here’s how this affects people living in Spain.
It’s common for Brits living in Spain to like to listen to the BBC from time to time, but access to this is changing.
What does this affect?
The BBC’s announcement refers only to audio content – radio programmes and podcasts.
The situation for accessing BBC TV content will not change – in most case people living outside the UK are required to subscribe to a satellite package in order to get BBC TV programmes. The BBC’s iPlayer website – which offers both archived and live TV content – cannot be accessed with a non-UK IP address.
What changes?
The BBC Sounds app, currently used to access BBC radio programmes and podcasts, will become a UK-only service that cannot be accessed by those in another country.
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Instead listeners outside the UK will be required to use the new BBC app or the BBC.com website – you will need to register (for free) to use these, and it will not save any subscribed or bookmarked content that you had set up in BBC sounds.
When does the change happen?
BBC Sounds will close to listeners outside the UK on Monday, July 21st. According to the BBC, subscribers in the UK will still be able to use BBC Sounds on trips to another country ‘for about a month’.
What’s available on the new BBC.com?
Not all of the BBC’s audio content will be available on the new app and website, which the BBC says is due to rights issues.
BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service can be streamed via the new site – for other radio stations such as Radio 1, Radio 2 and local BBC radio stations on-demand versions will be on the new site, and not all stations will be available.
Find full details for each radio station here.
The new site and app also contains around 1,000 current and archived podcasts – it’s worth pointing out that many BBC podcasts are also available on other platforms such as Spotify or Apple, which are not affected by the change.
Why is the BBC making these changes?
Here’s what they say: “BBC Studios is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC and is focused on bringing our trusted, world class journalism and storytelling to international audiences. Earlier this year, BBC Studios launched a new audio section on bbc.com/the BBC app (a commercial service) outside the UK.
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“Revenue generated by these services is returned to the BBC to support its public purpose in the UK.
“As part of this announcement, we said we would close BBC Sounds outside the UK – and make it exclusively available to listeners in the UK.”
Can I use a VPN to watch/listen to BBC content in Spain?
The BBC says that its content is only available to people in the UK, adding: “Due to rights agreements, you need to be in the UK to stream and download programmes or watch BBC TV channels on BBC iPlayer.
“While we are interested in being able to allow UK licence fee payers to access BBC iPlayer when they are abroad, there are complex technical issues to resolve which we are investigating, and it will be dependent on what legislation is in effect in the UK in the future.”
The BBC is funded by the TV licence, which is paid for by residents of the UK.
The BBC’s site can be fooled by the use of a VPN (virtual private network) which hides your non-UK IP address, although the BBC itself says: “You cannot play a programme if we detect you might be using a VPN or proxy. This is because we will not be confident of your location.”
Some VPNs market themselves specifically as giving you access to the BBC outside the UK (which is a compliment to BBC content, when you think about it) but even these can be blocked from time to time and the BBC is always working to try and block access to VPN users.
