I might be preaching to the converted. Just got back from a very enjoyable 17 days in Carvoeiro. Our TV reception is a bit dodgy but I was speaking to my son in China & he told me that he uses a VPN to access British TV. The one he uses is VPN Fire but there are others. I signed up and was able to get BBC iplayer and the other on-demand services - great for an evening in when the weather was a bit chilly during the first week. Was also able to access my daughter's Netflix but sadly the access ran out and I didn't have her password.

The major TV networks in the UK and US are starting to take action to stop this practice.
Sites that re broadcast UK TV and othersthat offer you a phony IP address ( pretending you are n the UK ) may have a limited future.

I've been using Witopia VPN for a couple of years both in the Middle East & Far East to get roound ridiculous censorship (Skype banned, podcasts unavailable etc.) and it is worth every penny. Can't see how this is ever going to be unavailable as the VPN providers are always miles ahead of the government censorship clods.

It has nothing to do with governments it simply the program producesr protecting their commercial and intellectual rights.
The nternet is still in its infancy and as it develops the copywrite rules that apply to most of the medial will eventually apply to internet broadcasts as well.

Quote from a more informed source;

VPNs are here to stay

Of course, those are small numbers, which might explain why NBC doesn’t care about the money VPN providers are making with the circumvention of its pay TV authentication wall. (AnchorFree’s offering is ad-supported, but many other companies are charging between $5 and $15 for access to their servers.) Even if tens of thousands of viewers were paying for VPN services, it would still be a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of millions NBC makes with retrans fees they’re charging cable providers.

The same is true for foreign rights, which is why territorial restrictions for services like Hulu and Netflix aren’t going to go away anytime soon. Of course, that also means that people who are tech-savvy enough are going to use VPNs to access foreign video providers. And the Olympics likely helped to introduce a whole bunch of new users to this idea.

Filmon is just one of the big providers that is being taken to court, rather like the music download industry legal actions will eventually close down many of those who operate outside of the law.
Currently the internet and expat publications are full of operations that will happily take your money for a service that they cannot legally provide or maintain.

EMM wrote:Filmon is just one of the big providers that is being taken to court, rather like the music download industry legal actions will eventually close down many of those who operate outside of the law.
Currently the internet and expat publications are full of operations that will happily take your money for a service that they cannot legally provide or maintain.

you're saying that Filmon is a VPN?

Am I the only one who doesn't have a clue what a VPN is?

dennisg wrote:Am I the only one who doesn't have a clue what a VPN is?

NO!

Receiving TV via the internet is in a state of rapid growth with many opportunists only too eager to take money off you if they can.
Broadcasters like the BBC are limited by treaty to the UK but there are sites which can disguise your locaton so that the BBC thinks your computer is still in the UK.
Some sites charge you for this.
Other sites such as Film on, catch up TV blatently steal the programs of the BBC etc and re broadcast them via the internet without permission from the program makers and original broadcasters.

These sites offer varying degrees of programming and subscripton packages.

It is this area where the lawyers are hard at work to stop them stealing the products of others.

There are also now companies/individuals who were will sell you equipment and subscriptions that they say enable you to access these third party re broadcasters.

Internet TV is a bit like the early days of music downloads before the courts got involved and shut down those who would not pay royalties etc.

Howevever you access internet TV there is one thing few will tell you and that is the speed of connection you need to mantan a decent signal, 3mps seems to be the agreed minimum which I doubt many of us in Carvoeiro receive.

As has been said time and time again do not fall for any of the promises , buy any equipment , take up any subscriptions etc until we know what is going to happen.

dennisg wrote:Am I the only one who doesn't have a clue what a VPN is?

A VPN, (virtual private network) is a way to present your computer in a place that it actually isn't.

it's taken off in Asia, particularly China, where internet streams are highly restricted, e.g. Facebook is blocked all together; so my friends in China subscribe to a VPN which presents to the world as though they're logged on in the UK & then they can get on Facebook etc. to connect with their friends, AND the nice by product is that BBC iplayer & ITVplayer and the like will allow them to watch their broadcasts which is all good news as their wives can keep up with Corrie & they can watch MOTD etc.,

so, as the OP was saying; if you're on holiday in Carvoeiro & don't have access to a TV you can log onto your VPN & watch all the TV streams available to computer users in the UK, or elsewhere depending on where your VPN is based.

Only you have a good enough internet signal.
Out of interest we tried a couple when in Carvoeiro and gave up. It was impossible to watch a live broadcast without constant buffering and delays.
Some site constantly plague you with pop up adds.
Eventually this sector will be controlled with " Free to Air " becomming a thing of the past as the broadcasters will want paying for their product.

you can download your favourite programmes on iplayer onto your computer, you then have a leisurely 30 days to watch them before they're scrubbed

and for folks that have never watched it, here's the link to the BBC, ITV has similar, hundreds of programmes, plays & movies, a lifeline to expats around the world who would otherwise be condemned to CNN & BBC World

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/

Our Samsung TV in Portugal has a usb port, we record to memory stick in the UK and watch in Portugal. Simples

Oh, and I edit out the adverts, especially those comparison website ones.