Why doesn’t my VPN work with Channel 4 anymore?

Are you eager to watch a program on Channel 4 in England, but it doesn’t seem to work? Are you abroad and want to use a VPN, but it still doesn’t seem to work? We have had the same problem, but luckily, there seems to be a solution to the problem as well!

It is many years since we originally wrote our article on how to watch Channel 4 in England abroad. But, we always like to keep our articles up to date, and that is why we did a big rewrite of the article last week. Not only did we rewrite it, but we also made sure that the methods described in the article still work and function as promised.

During the tests, we discovered a strange problem. If you want to stream Channel 4 abroad, we recommend that you use the VPN services of either PureVPN or ExpressVPN. You can visit their respective websites with some great discounts by clicking the buttons beneath.

Now, what we did was simply to follow the instructions and connect to a server in the UK, but still we got the error message on Channel 4 telling us that we cannot stream the content. Now, that is annoying, especially if you have paid for a VPN subscription. Of course, no risk is really involved as both PureVPN and ExpressVPN have solid money back policies, but still – it would be nice to get things working straight away.

Do you get an error as you try to watch Channel 4 abroad using a VPN?
Error message as we tried to stream content on Channel 4 using a VPN

What is the solution to the problem? Which VPN to use for Channel 4 abroad?

We contacted the help-desks of both ExpressVPN and PureVPN and they were both eager and willing to help. But, it still didn’t solve the problems we had. That is when we discovered the real problem… the time zone of our computer!

Of course, you have to use one of the mentioned VPN providers that isn’t blocked by Channel 4. But, even if you use PureVPN or ExpressVPN, you will still need to set the time zone of your computer to GMT, that is, the time zone of England. For some reason, Channel 4 checks the time of your computer, and if it discovers that you are located somewhere else based on your region settings, they will give you the error message above, no matter if you use a VPN that works with Channel 4 or not. Do you get it?

So, once you have changed the regional settings on your computer or mobile devices to GMT (that is, England time zone), restart your browser or the Channel 4 app, and get ready to stream all your favorite content straight away.


And do not forget that you can use both ExpressVPN and PureVPN to stream ITV and BBC abroad as well, meaning that you do not have to limit yourself to Channel 4. And luckily, neither ITV nor BBC run with a time zone check, meaning that you do not have to change any settings at all on your computer for these streaming sites to work.

If you still have any comments or questions related to streaming Channel 4 abroad, write them down and I will do my best to answer and help you out!

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