Can I use a UK purchased Now TV stick with an Irish subscription?

[SweetBlitz]

I am in Ireland for a week in August and would like to watch a football game while I am there.  Can I use a now stick I bought in UK with an Irish subscription?  

[RoyB]

@SweetBlitz 

According to this, no; unless it’s Northern Ireland, rather than Eire, you can’t use your Now Stick abroad at all.

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

But I wonder if Rokus and Firesticks are similarly limited?

[SweetBlitz]

@RoyB That is memberships not sticks.

I will be purchasing the membership when I arrive in Ireland, I need to know if the stick will work.

Weirdly Now TV sticks are on sale in Ireland…

[SweetBlitz]

Also if I bought a membership in Ireland, could I use it elsewhere in EU? I suspect I can.  Is there an Irish community.nowtv ?

[SweetBlitz]

Interesting.  I guess I ask someone I know in Ireland to watch something and then I can freely watch Now TV in France…

You may only access the content and some services in the Republic of Ireland and in addition, within the European Union where you are eligible for EU Portability - see https://help.nowtv.com/ie/article/can-i-watch-now-tv-abroad for more information.

[SweetBlitz]

Might just buy this when I get there https://www.currys.ie/ieen/tv-and-home-entertainment/digital-and-smart-tv/set-top-boxes/now-tv-smart...

[RoyB]

@SweetBlitz 

I don’t think you can buy an Eire membership on a UK account.

But I am guessing that you intend to create an IE account to buy your IE membership on?

The question then becomes whether the Stick itself is geo-restricted.

You could ask Live Chat, but I don’t much fancy your chances of getting a definitive answer.

Also, even with that Curry’s IE offer, which gets over a lot of the hurdles, is it going to need an IE address (not hard to solve) and an IE debit or credit card tied to it (a bit trickier to arrange)?

I have a euros currency card, with which I can buy things in euros from the Zone, but it’s still tied to a UK address,

[SweetBlitz]

@RoyB @My brother in law has an address and debit/credit card if my revolut card doesn't work, though no idea how they would know which country/address that is associated with. Never had an issue in France with RTL Sport

I am guessing that a factory reset now stick would be the same as the stick on sale in Ireland.  I just want to know if anyone has tried it.

[schnapps]

Hi @SweetBlitz 

The older NOW boxes was geo blocked to the market region that they was sold in.

Here's a link thread with an official reply from Eddie who used to be a NOW Staff Member.

https://community.nowtv.com/t5/Off-Topic-Chat/How-to-send-mail-to-NowTV/m-p/430281/highlight/true#M8... 

I believe the NOW Sticks are the same (even if you tried a factory reset on a UK spec Stick when over in ROI).

Ideally you need somebody on the forum who was living in the UK using a UK Stick and moved to ROI to confirm if their UK spec Stick worked or not when they created a NOW ROI account.

There was another couple of threads a while back where Tesco Ebay sold Republic of Ireland spec NOW Sticks to UK Ebay customers and the UK based Ebay customers had to send the ROI Sticks back to Tesco Ebay because they was geo locked to NOW ROI and didn't work

If it's only one particular football match wouldn't be less hassle watching it in an local Irish pub that offers Sky Sports.

Should you want to watch a full week of Sky Sports over in Ireland then the pub route might get too expensive.

[SweetBlitz]

@schnapps  Going to the pub to watch one game would be more expensive😄

I wonder then as @RoyB  alluded to if Chromecast or Fire sticks would do the job.  €11.99 for 24 hours is all I really need. That's two pints.

Will bring a Chromecast as it is probably the most likely to work if any do.