Traveling abroad on vacation often means missing out on local TV channels, shows, and movies that you took for granted back at home. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of geo-restricted TV channels, especially when talking about country-level channels like those from Germany.
Well, I guess it’s your lucky day today. In this article, I will show you a rather simple trick to unblock, access, and watch German TV outside of Germany and enjoy all of your favorite shows, series, and entertainment programs no matter your location.
How to Watch German TV Overseas?
Here’s a few-step guide to watching German TV channels overseas. Use NordVPN to unblock them thanks to over 240 servers in Germany, all with unlimited bandwidth and unbeatable speeds. Not sure how? Follow these steps:
- Get NordVPN.
- Set up the VPN on your device.
- Open the VPN and sign in.
- Connect to any German VPN server.
- Watch ZDF, ARD, Das Erste, and other channels anywhere.
German TV Outside of Germany – Why Is It Unavailable?
I feel like I need to start this guide by addressing the elephant in the room. Why are German TV channels not available abroad? As always, there’s a legal background behind these geo-restrictions and as you can probably guess, it has to do with licenses and broadcasting rights.
As we’re talking about the channels from Germany, they have the license to broadcast their content only in this country. Broadcasting it outside of Germany intentionally would violate this license and most likely get the channel in trouble.
This is actually a typical scenario. Each country has its local TV channels and they’re usually blocked for residents who don’t live in these particular countries. Recently, I did an article about watching UK TV live outside of the UK, and here, you can see the exact same situation.
To prove that what I’m saying is true, I tried watching several German TV channels abroad in my European location. Every time, I get a geo-restriction error in German, saying that I’m not located in this country.
So what can you do to watch German TV from anywhere? Can you somehow unblock these channels even though you’re on a different part of the globe? Yes!
How to Watch German TV Live Abroad?
The trick here is to make German TV channels believe that you’re located in Germany by changing your location by using a VPN. If you’re not sure what is a VPN, it’s a service that allows you to hide your IP address and replace it with one from another country.
In doing so, you get two benefits. One, you encrypt your connection and make it untraceable by your ISP, which gives you the ability to browse anonymously. Two, you change your online location to another country which lets you bypass geo-restrictions such as this one.
To be able to watch German TV outside of Germany, you need a VPN that can give you a German IP address, as well as be able to efficiently unblock geo-restricted websites. In this case, I will use NordVPN since it’s the most reliable choice.
Later on, I’ll present you with a cheaper (and inferior) alternative that will also work. Here are the 3 very simple steps to unblock and access German TV live abroad.
1. Subscribe to NordVPN
Okay, so the first step is to get your NordVPN subscription. I know, I know – this isn’t a free VPN and that might be a problem, but hear me out. NordVPN is the best provider for this purpose thanks to servers in 111 countries, with several server locations in Germany.
You get servers in Berlin and Frankfurt, allowing you to access any German content abroad. Not only that, but it offers the fastest speeds for streaming, plus a no-logging policy for preserving your privacy. Is there a special discount, though?
Indeed. There’s a 70%+ discount on the 2-year plans where you get 3 free months and a 30-day money-back guarantee that applies to all other plans. This means it’s easy to get it, watch German TV abroad on vacation, and then get a refund when you get home, as long as it’s in the first 30 days.
To get this deal, use the red button above and hurry up – it won’t last forever! Getting this deal allows you to install NordVPN’s applications by following the steps on its site and for this tutorial, I’m using my Windows PC where the installation process takes no more than 45-60 seconds.
NordVPN will look like this on both desktop and mobile platforms, so even if you’re a mobile user, you can follow these steps with no issues, as everything is identical.
2. Get a German IP Address
To watch German TV outside of Germany, you’ll need an IP address from this country. Get it by opening the server list, scrolling down, and finding Germany. Now click or tap once on the country and NordVPN will connect in a second or two.
Once it shows you “Connected” in green, you’ve got yourself an IP address from this country, so you’re ready for the final step.
3. Watch German TV Live Outside of Germany
With the new IP in place, it’s time to visit the website of any German TV channel and watch it no matter your location. You should know that the trick applies to ALL channels from this country.
If you encounter any problems, do not hesitate to :
- change your VPN server
- use another VPN protocol
- empty the cache and delete the cookies of your web browser
- open a new tab with the streaming platform you want to unblock.
Alternative: Watch German TV Anywhere With ExpressVPN!
Watching German TV channels outside of Germany can also be done by using ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN is one of the best cheap VPNs you can currently get (with a 49% discount + 3 free months for the 1-year plan) that is capable of unblocking geo-restricted content and keeping you safe and secure online.
It offers servers in 105 countries, with many of which are in Nuremberg and Frankfurt. In addition, it has excellent streaming optimization for watching a myriad of German TV channels and streaming platforms, which makes things much easier.
ExpressVPN successfully unblocked ZDF as well but I also tested it on the channel called ARD, which turned out to be pretty successful.
Overall, ExpressVPN is an excellent alternative to NordVPN, although it isn’t faster and it doesn’t offer Double VPN servers. Still, I recommend giving it a go because it currently offers a special discount for its long-term plans along with a 30-day money-back guarantee for them.
After all, ExpressVPN has 3 free months for its annual plan, which is discounted by 49%, which is a pretty good offer. If watching German TV live abroad is your primary goal, this provider will do just fine and will work with every German TV channel no matter your location.
Needless to say, you can get its cheapest deal and a 30-day money-back guarantee by using the button above. I’m sure you’ll be satisfied with its 8 simultaneous connections, great performance, and availability on all desktop/mobile platforms.
Will Free VPNs Unblock German TV Abroad?
Unfortunately, I can’t recommend using free VPNs for this purpose. For one, they don’t offer servers in Germany, which is a red flag from the get-go. This means you can’t get a German IP address, and as a result, you can’t access channels from this country no matter what you try.
TunnelBear, for example, has servers in Germany, but it offers only 2,000 MB of monthly bandwidth, so it’s not enough for watching for more than 15 minutes. The same applies to other free providers with limited bandwidth and slow speeds that simply aren’t up to par.
Not to mention dangerous free VPNs like Hola VPN, Betternet, and Hotspot Shield which are known for offering their services at the cost of your personal info. They violate your privacy every second you use them, yet, they don’t offer a quality service akin to NordVPN or ExpressVPN.
Thus, I strongly recommend avoiding free VPNs and using paid VPNs if you can, especially since you can get NordVPN or even ExpressVPN with large discounts at just a few dollars a month.
Conclusion
To sum things up, you learned that it’s quite easy to watch German TV channels live outside of Germany. With NordVPN and ExpressVPN, you can tune in to them in less than a minute.
Thanks to unlimited bandwidth, excellent speeds, and hundreds of servers in Germany, these providers will let you revel in unlimited binge-watching of your favorite TV channels.
In conjunction with the impenetrable security and privacy you get with them, I see no reason not to test any of these VPNs out. They’re risk-free and you can always get a refund in the first 30 days, so you don’t have to lose a single dollar or euro!
