“Oops! It looks as if there’s a problem. Please refresh your page or check out our ITV Hub Help.” Are you seeing this message while trying to watch Coronation Street abroad? Don’t worry. It’s easily fixed. In this article, we’ll guide you through what you need to do to unblock ITV Hub when you’re outside the UK.
Why can’t I watch Coronation Street abroad (without a VPN)?
ITV Hub blocks all foreign IP addresses (internet connections) from accessing its content. The main reason for this is “licensing”. ITV only has a license to broadcast “free-to-air” content in the UK. So it blocks all foreign IPs by default.
How to watch Coronation Street abroad?
The workaround is pretty simple. All you need is a good VPN and you’ll be able to spoof your IP address to one inside the UK. Which will let you watch ITV Hub immediately.
ExpressVPN (£4.80/month) is the best VPN for watching Coronation Street and all UK TV channels outside the UK.
Note: Not all VPNs work with ITV Hub. This is because ITV (and BBC iPlayer, Netflix, All 4, etc) has started blacklisting IP addresses that are known to belong to VPNs.
The way ITV detects a VPN IP address is simple. The average IP address in the UK is a standard household where there are 1-8 internet connections. This creates the potential for 1-8 simultaneous connections to ITV Hub. VPNs have thousands of customers, which creates the potential for thousands of simultaneous connections to ITV Hub. Any IP address with an abnormal number (>8) of connections to ITV Hub will be automatically blacklisted.
Which VPN should I use to watch Coronation Street abroad
As explained above. Not all VPNs provide their customers with IP addresses that work with ITV Hub. Cheap VPNs that do not refresh their IP addresses after they’ve been blacklisted are to be avoided.
From our tests, ExpressVPN (£4.80/month), Ivacy (£1.74/month), and PureVPN (£2.49/month) are the best at providing working connections to UK TV websites.
1. ExpressVPN (£4.80/month)
This is the VPN we recommend to anyone looking to watch UK TV abroad or US Netflix.
The reason is simple. ExpressVPN is the BEST VPN. It’s also a service that plays Cat and Mouse with TV sites. If/when one of its 500+ UK IP addresses is blacklisted, ExpressVPN reacts instantly by creating a fresh (unblacklisted) IP. ExpressVPN is able to do this as they employ a full-time technical team to monitor their server’s connections to major TV streaming sites.
ExpressVPN also offers 24/7 Live Chat support. An invaluable feature for those who aren’t overly comfortable with tech or are new to VPNs.
Click here to get 15 months of ExpressVPN for the price of 12!
2. Ivacy
£1.74/month
Ivacy (£1.74/month) is my favourite low-cost VPN for streaming UK content. For less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks (per month), you can unlock hundreds of different streaming sites.
The difference between Ivacy and most other VPNs on the market is that Ivacy is set up primarily as a streaming VPN. This means you can easily pick the best server based on what service you want to watch. If, for example, you wanted to watch ITV Hub, you’d just need to go to the Purposes Menu and then select ITV Hub – the Ivacy app will then select the best server for streaming ITV Hub.
3. PureVPN (£2.49/month)
The next option we recommend is PureVPN with a dedicated IP. PureVPN is a little less established in the VPN market than NordVPN and ExpressVPN. But it’s closing the gap fast.
The normal VPN works with ITV Hub and UK TV sites the vast majority of the time. However, there are occasional dry spells. But we like PureVPN for a different reason.
You can buy a dedicated IP from PureVPN for $1.99/month (£1.50 approx). This means your IP address won’t be shared with any other customers. Which is important as (explained above) an IP with too many simultaneous connections to ITV Hub, BBC iPlayer or US Netflix will get blacklisted instantly.
Click here to get PureVPN for £2.49/month!
4. NordVPN (£2.04/month)
The final VPN we recommend is ExpressVPN.
This service shares a lot of features with ExpressVPN: Cat and Mouse tactics; A full-time technical team monitoring its connections; Live Chat support; and end-to-end encryption.
At £2.04/month, NordVPN is also one of the best-value VPNs on the market.
Click here to save 77% with NordVPN!
Read next: BBC iPlayer not working with VPN? Here’s how to fix that!
