You probably already know that ITV Hub is the online catch-up service for all things ITV, letting you stream content from all its channels either live or on-demand.
Of course, that means that this summer you can watch the latest season of Love Island here, but there’s one big downside: it’s only available in the UK, which means you can’t watch anything on ITV Hub if you live outside of the UK, or even if you’re just visiting somewhere else on holiday.
Fortunately there is a way around this, and it’s possible to watch ITV Hub from abroad easily enough, whether that’s on your PC, Mac, TV, iPhone or Android device.
It’s worth noting that previous account holders of ITV Hub+ used to be able to watch ITV content in Europe. Now that Britain has officially left the EU, this is no longer possible. ITV Hub+ only offers ad-free content in the UK.
Watch ITV Hub abroad with a VPN
If you want to watch the ITV Hub outside of the UK, the best thing to do is to get hold of a VPN.
VPN stands for ‘virtual private network’, and they let you browse the internet as if you were based in another country. Essentially it means that even if you’re outside of the UK, you can trick the ITV Hub website or app into thinking you’re in Britain.
There are countless VPNs on the market, but we’ve tested plenty to know which is best. NordVPN and SurfShark are our most recommended thanks to their speed, reliability and ease of use, but we have a full ranking of the best VPNs for streaming if you want more options.
Once you’ve subscribed to and installed your VPN of choice on the device you want to use to access ITV Hub, here’s what you need to do:
- Open your VPN and choose a server based in the UK
- If you haven’t done so already, make sure you sign up for an ITV Hub account to watch. You’ll need to put in a valid email address, date of birth and a UK postcode. Then you should be able to sign in as normal
If for some reason it doesn’t work, try switching to a different UK server on your VPN – streaming platforms like ITV Hub try to block known VPN IP addresses, so you might need to try a couple of different servers before you find one that works.
It’s also worth noting that if you have an ad blocker on, ITV Hub might block that – and since some VPNs have built-in ad-blocking, you might need to turn off that part of the software. Luckily there are other ways to skip ads on ITV Hub.
ITV Hub will be replaced later this year with ITVX, but don’t worry – this same approach should work when ITVX launches too.