The Winter Olympics attract viewers from around the world, with strong interest from UK audiences following events such as skiing, snowboarding, curling and ice hockey. Many people travelling or living abroad want to continue watching familiar UK coverage rather than switching to local broadcasters.
When you leave the UK, however, access to UK streaming services is blocked. This guide explains how to watch the Winter Olympics abroad reliably, why VPN apps often struggle, and how to set things up properly on a TV rather than relying on a laptop or phone.
In the UK, Winter Olympics coverage is split across:
Together, these provide comprehensive UK coverage of the Winter Olympics. Both services are geo-blocked outside the UK.
When you try to stream UK coverage from abroad, streaming services check your IP address to confirm your location. If your connection does not appear to be in the UK, access is blocked automatically.
This applies whether you are:
Even UK residents with valid subscriptions are affected.
Large international events like the Winter Olympics place extra strain on VPN services. Blocks are more aggressive, and VPN apps are often unreliable.
Common problems include:
Most VPN apps use shared or commercial IP addresses, which are easy for broadcasters to detect and block.
The most reliable way to watch the Winter Olympics abroad is to use a VPN router with a UK residential IP address.
A VPN router handles the connection at network level, so every device connected to it appears to be in the UK. A residential IP behaves like a normal UK home broadband connection and is far less likely to be blocked.
This approach provides a stable solution for watching UK Winter Olympics coverage from countries such as:
A VPN router allows you to watch UK Winter Olympics coverage on:
This provides a proper TV-based viewing experience, rather than relying on smaller screens.
Freely is a new way to watch free-to-air UK television entirely over the internet, without the need for an aerial or satellite dish. It brings together live BBC channels alongside full catch-up and on-demand services in one simple interface.
For the Winter Olympics, Freely is useful for accessing BBC coverage, including highlights and selected live events, without switching between multiple apps. When used with a VPN router and a UK residential IP, Freely works abroad in the same way it does in the UK.
Freely is now built into a growing number of new UK televisions. For existing TVs, the Netgem PLEIO Freely TV box connects via HDMI and provides the same fully internet-based viewing experience.
A typical setup looks like this:
Once set up, you can watch Winter Olympics coverage live or on catch-up, just as if you were in the UK.
The Winter Olympics are a major global event, and streaming problems can easily spoil live coverage when you are abroad.
If you want reliable access to UK Winter Olympics coverage, a VPN router using a UK residential IP provides the most stable solution, particularly when watching on a TV. This avoids the common issues seen with VPN apps during live events.
At Stream UK TV Abroad, we supply pre-configured VPN routers and Netgem PLEIO Freely TV boxes designed to work together, giving you a straightforward way to watch UK Winter Olympics coverage from anywhere in the world.
