Yes — you can watch The Hundred abroad, either the paid way or the free way. The tournament is split across two UK broadcasters: Sky Sports (or a NOW Sports membership) carries every match, and the BBC shows a selection live for free. Both block your connection the moment you travel — the reliable fix is a UK residential IP, which lets your own subscriptions stream abroad just as they do at home.
With the 2026 competition getting under way on 21 July, here's how to follow every ball wherever you are — and why ordering ahead matters when the start is only a few weeks off.
The Hundred is the ECB's short-form, city-based competition: eight teams, 100 balls an innings, with the men's and women's matches played back-to-back at the same grounds. It's fast, it's on prime-time telly, and it packs a full season into under a month.
The 2026 edition runs from 21 July to 16 August 2026, opening at the Kia Oval and building to the final on Sunday 16 August. In total there are 68 matches across the men's and women's draws — so if you're travelling this summer, there's plenty of cricket you won't want to miss.
The rights are shared, which gives you two routes:
So if you want every ball, that's Sky or NOW; if you're happy with the pick of the fixtures at no extra cost, the BBC has you covered. It's the same dual set-up you'll know from following England cricket abroad.
Both broadcasters license The Hundred for the UK only. Open the Sky, NOW or BBC iPlayer app overseas and it checks your IP address, sees you're outside the UK, and refuses to play. Reach for a mainstream VPN and you'll usually hit a second wall — Sky and iPlayer are among the most persistent UK services at spotting and blocking VPNs, and they keep their detection up to date.
The upshot: the subscriptions you already pay for — and even the free BBC coverage you're entitled to — simply won't stream on an ordinary connection abroad.
The reason ordinary VPNs get caught is the type of IP address they use. Most route through commercial data-centre IPs, which broadcasters recognise and block on sight.
Our SmartHub VPN routers connect through genuine UK residential broadband IPs — the same kind of address a real home in Britain uses. To Sky, NOW and BBC iPlayer, your device simply looks like an ordinary UK household, so your own subscriptions keep working while the data-centre VPNs get shut out. It's the same reason a residential IP is what still gets iPlayer playing when most VPNs don't. No method can be guaranteed, but a residential IP is the connection that stands the best chance.
Nothing to configure and no codes to enter — the router provides the UK connection, and the apps do the rest.
The Hundred runs on phones, tablets, laptops, streaming sticks and smart TVs — and once they're on the router's Wi-Fi, they all share the same UK IP. For a proper telly experience, the Netgem PLEIO Freely box is a neat pairing: it runs the NOW app and Freely's live UK channels including the BBC, so it covers both the paid and the free routes on a single box.
And because the router supplies the UK connection, every device on that network benefits — not just the cricket. The whole household can watch NOW, BBC iPlayer, ITVX and the rest at the same time, on TVs, phones, tablets and consoles, all appearing to be in the UK.
On the same UK services you'd use at home — Sky Sports (or a NOW Sports membership) for every match, and the BBC for the free selection. Both geo-block you overseas, so you need a UK residential IP that looks like an ordinary home connection.
Yes, for the matches the BBC shows live — around 16 games on BBC TV and iPlayer, plus every match on BBC Sounds radio and highlights on iPlayer. You'll need a UK residential IP. It's a genuinely free route, just limited to the selected BBC fixtures rather than all 68.
Yes. Sky Sports carries all 68 matches live, which you can watch through Sky or a NOW Sports membership. The BBC only shows a free selection, so Sky or NOW is the route if you want to follow every ball.
Usually not. Both detect and block the data-centre IPs that ordinary VPN apps use. A UK residential IP is a real home-broadband address, so the services tend to see a normal UK home instead of a VPN — though no method can be guaranteed.
The Hundred is one of the summer's easiest watches, and there's no reason to lose it the moment you travel. Whether you follow every ball on Sky or NOW, or stick to the free BBC games, a UK residential IP lets your own subscriptions stream abroad exactly as they do at home. With the first match on 21 July, get the router set up before you go and you'll be ready for the opening ball wherever you land.
