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Anonymous User
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Can I watch Now Tv abroad?

I do a lot of traveling and was wondering if I can view Now TV away from the UK?

36 REPLIES 36
Anonymous User
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@Anonymous User unfortunately that's not the case Sky only have the license to show the content to people within the UK.

Anonymous User
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@Anonymous User Spotify is a worldwide service and so has the rights to content in lots of different countries, although there are some slight differences in their catalogue in some places. NOW TV is only available in the UK, so only has licenses for the UK.

 

The way both companies work is by buying the rights to provide a set catalogue of content, then charging customers to access that (or providing it free but with adverts in the case of a standard Spotify account).

Spotify have customers all around the world, so can justify paying for the rights to provide that catalogue all around the world too.

NOW TV on the other hand is only available in the UK, so it wouldn't be affordable for us to buy the rights to show content in any country, if we only have customers in the UK.

I have no idea how much more a monthly subscription would cost if we were to do that, but would conservatively guess it'd be at least ten times what it is now, which obviously people wouldn't want to pay.

 

Thanks,

 

Tom

Anonymous User
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Thanks. It all makes sense.

 

@Anonymous User So would a download option fall under the same licence restrictions? How do services like All4 manage that?

Anonymous User
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@Anonymous User they're always time limited, so it must be part of the agreement they have. I don't know exactly, but I'd guess the offline play services are only really meant for use in this country, but there's no technical way of preventing them being used abroad. I know the last time I went on holiday that I downloaded a load of episodes of something from Sky Go, but they only remained available for eight days before disappearing.

 

Thanks,

 

Tom

SeeMoreDigital
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@Anonymous User wrote:

@Anonymous User So would a download option fall under the same licence restrictions? How do services like All4 manage that?


As far as I'm aware they don't... Not legally anyway. And not for all their content!

 

By-the-way, having licencing restrictions is the main reason why UK DVB-S/S2 satellite broadcasts have now been changed to spot-beam transmissions, for being received primarily over just the UK, instead of the previous wide-beam transmissions that could be received as far south as southern Spain and as far west as Poland (ie: most of Europe).

 

Cheers

Andy
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For anyone interested, NOW TV is now available to watch while you are temporarily abroad in EU member states. More information about how it works here

 

https://help.nowtv.com/article/can-i-watch-now-tv-abroad

Anonymous User
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Andy,

Thanks for this but for your information it doesn't work in Italy, I still receive a message saying 'NOW TV isn't available in this country. The content you're trying to watch on NOW TV isn't supported in this region.
regards,

G.

Andy
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@Anonymous User Should work in Italy. The other conditions are you have a valid UK payment card on your account and you've watched NOW TV in the UK within the last 30 days, do these apply to you? Also did you buy your pass before you left the UK, as you can't purchase new passes abroad?

Anonymous User
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Yes, was watching The Accused on Sky Cinema before I left, have active passes and credit card is used for paying. Sky Go is working fine as well, just the NOW tv box is giving the wrong country message.

Andy
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@Anonymous User Whilst I can't do anything for you myself I can tag a couple of the NOW TV team to pass it on to be looked at. @Tony-D @Anonymous User

 

If you are using a tablet/phone/laptop to watch Sky Go on you could also try using those devices to watch NOW TV on as well.