BBC iPlayer at a glance
- Cost
- Free, but you must be covered by a TV Licence (£180 a year from 1 April 2026)
- Account
- A BBC account is needed to watch
- Location
- Streams only in the UK; downloads made in the UK can be watched abroad
- Phone and tablet app
- Fire OS 6, Android 7.0 or iOS 17.6 and above
- Computers
- Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari on Windows, macOS, Linux or ChromeOS
From BBC iPlayer Help and GOV.UK, checked 1 October 2026.
What you need
- A TV Licence. GOV.UK lists using BBC iPlayer as one of the things that needs a licence, alongside watching or recording live TV on any channel or service. On iPlayer, that covers on-demand and downloads too. See do you need a TV Licence for IPTV.
- A BBC account. You sign in once on each device.
- A UK connection. The BBC checks where your internet connection is and only streams to UK addresses.
TVs, streaming sticks and consoles
The BBC certifies TV devices before supporting them, and publishes a list for each manufacturer, from Amazon, Apple, Google, LG, Panasonic, Philips, Roku, Samsung, Sony and TCL to dozens of smaller brands. The BBC says it only supports certified devices, and that you may run into problems on devices it hasn’t certified.
Fire TV: the BBC’s certified list includes the Fire TV Stick (2020), the Fire TV Cube (2nd generation), the Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2021) and many Fire TV smart TVs. The BBC notes that UHD is no longer available on the 2021 Fire TV Stick 4K Max because of playback issues after a firmware update. To install it, see Freeview channels on a Firestick.
Games consoles: the BBC’s help centre has install guides for Xbox and PlayStation.
If iPlayer isn’t available on your TV, or has been removed from an older model, the BBC’s advice is to plug in a supported streaming device. See smart TV apps or a streaming stick.
Phones and tablets
There are two ways to watch on a phone or tablet:
| App | Website | |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Fire tablets | Fire OS 6 or above, from the Amazon Appstore | – |
| Android | Android 7.0 or above, from Google Play | Android 9 or above |
| iPhone and iPad | iOS 17.6 or above, from the App Store | iOS 15.4 or above |
| Live channels and on demand | Yes | Yes |
| Downloads | Yes | No |
The BBC says the website may still open on older systems, but it doesn’t support them and won’t fix problems on them.
Computers
Use the iPlayer website in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox or Safari. The BBC tests these browsers on Windows 7, 8, 10 and 11, macOS 10.10 or later, the latest Linux and ChromeOS. Other browsers may work, but the BBC doesn’t support them.
Watching outside the UK
The BBC is direct about this: programmes can’t be streamed outside the UK, even on holiday, because of rights agreements. It also refuses to play programmes when it detects a VPN or proxy, because it can’t be confident where you are.
What does work is downloading before you travel. Download programmes to the iPlayer app on your phone or tablet while you’re in the UK, then watch them anywhere, offline. Downloads stay on the device they were downloaded to and expire at the same time as the online version. For other apps and IPTV subscriptions on holiday, see watching IPTV abroad.
“iPlayer thinks I’m outside the UK”
If you’re in the UK and still see the message, work through the BBC’s checklist:
- Turn off any VPN, proxy or web accelerator, then reload the programme.
- On a work, university, hospital or business network? It may route traffic outside the UK; ask the IT team.
- On a phone? Try the app instead of the browser, and turn off data-saving features, which can route traffic abroad.
- Check your IP address on an IP lookup site. If it shows the wrong country, contact your broadband provider: a newly issued address can take a few weeks to be recognised as UK-based.
If none of that helps, the BBC asks you to contact iPlayer support with your broadband provider’s name and the steps you’ve tried. For the same message in other apps, see VPN and IPTV.