BBC iPlayer Users in the UK Face IP Based Geo Blocking Woes UPDATE
Some people in the United Kingdom who may be trying to access the BBC’s popular online video streaming and catch-up TV service, iPlayer, may today be struggling to access the service due to a known issue with geographic blocking of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.
The BBC, much like other streaming platforms, uses a system that attempts to restrict geographic access for non-UK users via IP based blocking. But such systems aren’t perfect and can sometimes end up blocking legitimate UK users too (e.g. when a non-UK assignment of IP addresses are purchased and re-deployed for use in the UK, it can take a bit of time for the BBC and other UK services to adapt).
However, the BBC are today warning of a much more “widespread issue“, which is causing many more users than usual to be “recognised as being outside of the UK” and thus restricting their access to iPlayer. People in this boat may be seeing the error message “02066“.
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*** Monday 30 October ***
We are aware of a widespread issue where users are recognised as being outside of the UK. Some users are seeing error message 02066.
We are investigating and will update this page as soon as we know more.
In the meantime, using another network where possible may help.
The normal advice is to disable any Proxy Servers or Virtual Private Networks (VPN) you may be using, which often assign a non-UK IP address, and instead rely on those assigned by your home broadband ISP or mobile operator. But in this case, if you’re already doing that and getting this error, then it might actually be worth enabling a VPN and connecting via a UK based server (this may or may not work as VPN assigned IPs often end up being blocked).
UPDATE 31st Oct 2023 @ 4pm
The latest update from the BBC simply states: “We have investigated this issue and we believe this is now fixed.”
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Seems to be quite common with CG-NAT and some static IPs from newer ISPs
For CGNAT it will be worse when users behind it will be asked to pass captcha on each occasion. That hits me quite often in O2.
Worked fine on my iPad today over BT broadband and Vodafone 4G for a couple of hours in the kitchen.
This was affecting me since early yesterday but as of 7pm tonight it seems to have been fixed. It also affected Disney+ – my Sky Stream disney+ app kindly telling me it only works in the UK.
forgot to mention, as I can’t edit my post, although iPlayer is now working, Disney+ still doesn’t.
Oh well I managed to get through and saw some trollop walking into a pub.. so I would be glad to be blocked. My bank account was blocked years ago at my end for the BBC
Quickline are offering a year of Apple TV Netflix or Disney + for new customers until Thursday. Just letting you know
BBC never used to be this bad…I can’t even watch ANYTHING now.
You’re the lucky one, mate!
Channel 4 catch-up has been broken for a while via Giganet. I have to use a VPN to watch it, even though I am in the UK. C4 support have been useless and just told me not to use a VPN and they can’t white-list my ISP’s IP addresses.
What is shown for that allocation on RIPE?
So glad I don’t pay a TV licence (5 years and counting)
Three years and counting, here. Well done that man.
Im still blocked out. waiting on responses from isp