Accessing local TV channels is one of the main benefits when you’re located in your country. However, once you cross the border and leave on a vacation abroad, you lose access to your favorite TV channels that you could watch at home.
French TV channels offer some of the best content online, giving you a chance to enjoy numerous shows, documentaries, movies, sports live streams, and entertainment programs. Unfortunately, if you don’t live in this country, you can’t access TF1, France TV, and other popular channels.
People are, thus, very interested in how to watch French TV outside of France, and today, I’m here to give them a solution. With the trick that I’m going to show you, you can easily unblock and access French TV live abroad and enjoy your favorite content no matter your location.
Why Are French TV Channels Blocked Outside of France?
When browsing online, you’ll come across restricted, or in this case, geo-restricted websites and streaming platforms. Geo-restrictions usually happen because the site or TV channel doesn’t have the right to show its content in particular countries.
In the case of French TV channels, they’re licensed to broadcast their content only in France. This means that, if you’re located abroad and you try to watch some of these channels live, you’re going to be met with a geo-restriction message.
This legal background is quite complex but as said, the main “culprit” is a licensing agreement that each channel must adhere to. To prove that what I’m talking about is true, I will show you an example.
For instance, here’s what happens when I try to watch TF1, the most popular French TV channel:
The message is in French but you get the point (translation: “This video is not available in your area”) – I’m not located in this country, which is why the live stream won’t start. You see, websites and TV channels online can see your IP address and once they do, they automatically check the country it belongs to.
If your IP is located outside of this country, you’re blocked, which is why you can’t watch French TV outside of France. However, if the IP is located in France, you can access all the TV channels from this country.
The goal then is to change your IP address to France, which will allow you to access the content you want.
How to Watch French TV Outside of France (Full Tutorial)
This can be done in two ways. You can either travel to Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Strasbourg, or any other city in this country, or you can simply use a VPN to change your online location. A VPN will hide your original IP address and replace it with a new IP address from the country you want.
As a result, it will make every website and TV channel you visit see you as if you’re located somewhere else. In this case, we’re looking to change our location to France and that can be done by using a VPN like ExpressVPN.
It has 3,000 servers in 160+ locations, out of which, you get several locations in this country. This makes it a perfect choice for this purpose. Let’s see how to use it in 3 simple steps and unblock the channels you want.
1. Subscribe to ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN requires a subscription to be used. Beware that this is a paid VPN and I’m using it because free VPNs offer no French servers, so they’re useless if this is your goal. On the flip side, ExpressVPN comes with a big 49% discount and 3 free months for the annual plan, which reduces its price a lot.
In addition, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee for all plans, letting you get a full refund in the first 30 days of your purchase. If you’re on a vacation abroad, you can get it, watch French TV outside of France, and get a refund if you’re back in France in one month.
Either way, click on the red button to get this deal and follow the steps to complete this 1-minute process. After that, download ExpressVPN for your device. It offers apps for all platforms, including Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android.
Simply download the app, install it, and sign in using the credentials provided upon purchase.
The dashboard will then look like this, which brings us to the simplest part of the tutorial.
2. Get a French IP
To get an IP address from this country, you’ll need to connect to a VPN server based in France. Do that by opening the server list, clicking on All Locations, and selecting Europe. You’ll find this country underneath, so double-click on it to connect.
If you’re on Android/iOS, tap once on France to achieve the same effect. In any case, ExpressVPN will turn green when the connection is successful, which brings us to the final step.
3. Unblock and Watch French TV Live Abroad
All you have to do now is open your browser, search for any French TV channel, and enjoy watching. I’ll use the channel mentioned before, but rest assured, the solution will work on any other French TV channel.
Here’s my attempt:
As you can see, instead of a geo-restriction message, the channel now works and I can watch it live with no problem.
Why Use ExpressVPN?
One thing I want to point out is that ExpressVPN’s capabilities aren’t limited to unblocking geo-restricted channels and TV platforms. I know it sounds silly to get a VPN just to watch geo-restricted TV channels but this provider actually has much more to offer.
Aside from watching French TV outside of France, it’s here to protect your privacy and keep away hackers and snoopers on public WiFi networks. This is useful if you’re planning your trip to another country and connect to public WiFi in the tourist zone where hackers often lurk around the corner.
ExpressVPN uses 256-bit encryption to secure your connection, and thanks to its Lightway VPN protocol, you can be sure you’re getting the fastest VPN speeds on the market. Another perk is that ExpressVPN has a no-logging policy, so it’s great for keeping your online activities private.
Not only that, but the provider is a perfect streaming solution. It works with several Netflix catalogs, including ones from the US, France, the UK, Japan, and Canada, so it’s great if you’re into movies and shows. Also, ExpressVPN allows for anonymous torrenting.
This means you can use it for safe and secure P2P activities without your ISP or anyone else snooping around. Even better is that ExpressVPN allows you to place bets online abroad, so if you’re into gambling sites (like Stake Casino) and bookmakers, this is a solid choice that’ll let you bet online worldwide.
Other than that, a provider like this will let you save money on online purchases by changing your IP and you’ll get benefits for low-ping gaming. It offers numerous benefits, as you can see, which is why people often go for its 49% discount and 3 free months for the annual plan.
For such an affordable price of a few dollars per month, you simply can’t get a better choice if you want to watch French TV channels live outside of France.
Will a Free VPN Let Me Unblock French TV Live Abroad?
I don’t recommend using free VPNs to watch French TV outside of France. The reason behind that is that free providers have no French VPN servers, which prevents you from getting an IP address from this country. And as you’ve learned, this is necessary to unblock these channels.
In addition, it’s worth mentioning that free providers limit your monthly bandwidth, and with a few gigabytes each month, it’s tough to enjoy watching anything for more than an hour or two. Not to mention that many free VPNs present security weaknesses as well.
Providers like Betternet VPN and Hola VPN are known for storing logs of users’ browsing activities and personal data, as well as selling this information to third parties. Simply put, free VPNs aren’t functional enough and they’re not great for anything except short-term browsing.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I think it’s safe to say you’ve learned how to watch French TV live outside of France. The only sensible way is to get a French IP and watch TF1, France TV, and other channels anywhere. However, as not every provider will work, I recommend ExpressVPN.
Having in mind its unlimited bandwidth, excellent speeds, and dozens of servers in this country, it’s a great solution to this issue. Besides, it does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, so if you need it for a limited time on a vacation abroad, getting a refund is always an option in the first 30 days.
Though, if I’m honest since you can use it for many other purposes, I don’t think you’ll want to get a refund after getting used to it.
