What’s the Best Way to Unblock NOW TV?

You’re not looking for a lengthy intro here, so we’ll get to the point – in this article, we’ll show you how to unblock NOW TV wherever you are, and take a quick look at which unblocking method is best.

We’ll also try to answer some questions that are relevant to this topic. So let’s get started:

Why Can’t You Watch NOW TV Outside the UK?

Because the site uses geo-blocking technology to blacklist your access. The site sees your geo-location when you connect to it (usually based on your IP address), so it knows what content you should and shouldn’t be able to access.

Now, it is true you can watch NOW TV in certain EU countries, but there’s a catch. You can only do it up to 30 days. When that period is over, you need to watch NOW TV in the UK before you can do it abroad again.

That’s hardly ideal for Brits going on extended vacations or working abroad, or people who don’t live in the UK. Not to mention the site only works in 28 countries. If you travel to non-EU countries in Europe or to a different continent, you’re on your own.

Why Does NOW TV Use Geo-Blocks?

It’s mostly due to licensing rights. Basically, NOW TV doesn’t own all the content on the platform. If the copyright holders sold the distribution rights to a different platform or TV network in your country, the site can’t make the show/movie available there.

So, they geo-block the content to respect copyright agreements.

Another reason why the platform probably uses geo-restrictions is the TV license tax. Many UK citizens have to pay it if they do certain things on NOW TV. Obviously, it wouldn’t be fair to them if people outside the country could watch the same content for free.

How to Unblock NOW TV (3 Options)

In our experience, these are the best ways to unblock this site:

1. VPNs

A VPN is an online service that masks your IP address. It doesn’t magically “hide” it, of course – here’s how it all works:

You download and install a VPN app on your device.
You use the app to connect to a VPN server. In this case, it’d be a server from the UK.
Once connected, the VPN server will route all your connection requests to any site you visit.
When you connect to NOW TV, it will see the requests coming from the VPN server, not your device. So it will only see the IP address of the server (a British IP address because the server is in the UK).

If you’re having trouble picturing all that, here’s how the connection would look like:

Device 🡪 ISP Network 🡪 VPN Server 🡪 NOW TV

The whole process sounds complicated, but it’s not. It happens in a few milliseconds in the background. All you’ll see on your end is the connection status in the app.

Just make sure you use a VPN that really unblocks NOW TV. The site can sometimes detect VPN IP addresses and block them, and not all VPN providers can keep up with that. But there’s no such problem with the 1337x service which you can access at u1337x.org

Luckily, ProPrivacy has a guide to the best VPNs that help you unblock NOW TV wherever you are. Just follow that link, and you should have a very easy time finding the right service for you.

2. Smart DNS Services

Like a VPN, this is also an online service that helps you unblock sites. However, it doesn’t do that by hiding your IP address. Instead, it changes your DNS settings and routes your traffic through different proxy servers (British servers, in this case).

A Smart DNS also intercepts your connection requests to NOW TV and replaces any data that might leak your geo-location with new information. Said info points to a whitelisted region (like the UK).

3. Proxies

A proxy server works just like a VPN when it comes to unblocking geo-restricted content. It acts as a middleman between you and NOW TV, so it hides your IP address too.

You just need to connect to a proxy server in the UK, and you’re good to go.

A lot of people try proxies first when trying to unblock NOW TV. It’s because they can use free proxies instantly. They just need to google them, copy the site’s URL into a field, and they’ll immediately unblock it.

Proxies also have a local caching ability which delivers faster loading times. Unfortunately, it can often deliver outdated content.

Which Service Should You Use?

Based on our testing and research, VPNs are the best option. Here’s why:

A VPN has strong encryption that protects your privacy. You get to binge NOW TV in peace without advertisers hearing about it or your ISP throttling your bandwidth because you use too much data.
Compared to a Smart DNS, a VPN can help you bypass firewalls to unblock NOW TV at school or work, or anywhere else where network admins blacklist it.
VPN encryption is much more powerful than proxy encryption. Also, VPN servers are faster. Why? Because free online proxies have limited bandwidth, overcrowded servers, and poor optimization.
Many VPN servers double as proxy servers. Also, many VPNs offer Smart DNSs as additional services. So you basically get an all-in-one solution with a VPN.

Can’t You Also Unblock NOW TV with Tor?

You can, but we wouldn’t recommend it.

Why?

Because you’ll likely get very bad speeds. There are roughly 6,000 Tor servers and over two million Tor users. Add to that the fact Tor traffic is encrypted multiple times, and you’ll get huge slowdowns.

In our experience, at least, watching NOW TV over Tor wasn’t worth it.