Costa Rica is a well-known country in Central America. It’s one of the most beautiful countries in this part of the world, sprawling with fantastic beaches and islands. While it is technically an American country, it isn’t a part of the United States.
This means that people can’t watch US TV channels in Costa Rica, which is a bummer given how awesome these channels are. ABC, NBC, MSNBC, Peacock, and many others are a wet dream of many people who want to get their entertainment to the highest possible level.
And if you live in Costa Rica or are just on vacation there, is there a way to watch US TV channels in Costa Rica? Yes! In my in-depth article, I will give you a guide on how to fix this issue and enjoy American TV channels in this, or any other country you find yourself in.
Watch US TV in Costa Rica With CyberGhost
To unblock US TV channels in Costa Rica, you need a US IP address. The good news is that you can get one from CyberGhost, a VPN with 1,400+ servers in America. For those in a hurry, we’ve prepared a short guide to watch US TV in Costa Rica.
- Subscribe to CyberGhost. Make sure you snatch a special time-limited discount below, with a 45-day money-back guarantee.
- Install CyberGhost on your device and sign in to the app.
- Connect to any US server.
- Visit your favorite US TV channel and start watching.
Why Can’t I Watch US TV in Costa Rica?
Of course, you’ll be curious to know why you can’t watch American TV channels in your country. Let’s start with the channels from Costa Rica. These TV channels are awesome as well, and while not on the level of their American counterparts, you can still access some great content.
However, once you venture abroad and you travel to another country, these channels will not be available either! Local TV channels in all countries have the same nature – they’re geo-restricted, which means they can only be accessed by people living in the countries where these channels operate.
If we’re talking about Costa Rican TV channels, you need to live in this country to watch them, and the same applies to US TV channels. You need to be in the United States to access them. Actually, I recently did an article on how to bet online abroad, explaining the same issue with online bookies.
Nevertheless, to prove my point, I tried to watch several US TV channels abroad. The results will tell you more than 1,000 words, so let’s check them out. Here’s my attempt at watching HBO Max:
As you can see, the channel doesn’t work for me because I’m outside of this country. But what if you want to watch US TV live in Costa Rica and try to watch ABC?
Unfortunately, you will see this error message saying that you’re outside of the US once again. Finally, if you try to watch Peacock, another popular channel, you’ll get the same treatment.
In all of these cases, all channels used the same method to block your access. They detected your IP address, saw that it doesn’t belong to America, and prevented you from accessing their content based on that. But what if you could somehow change your IP?
Well, you could. You can travel to the USA or simply use an IP-changing solution like a Virtual Private Network.
How to Watch US TV in Costa Rica (Full Tutorial)
If you’re not sure what a VPN is, know that it’s an abbreviation for Virtual Private Network, a term I mentioned a second ago. This tool lets you change your IP address to another country and in the process, encrypt your connection to make yourself anonymous online.
Changing your IP to another country has a crucial benefit – it lets you bypass geo-blocks online. Another benefit is online security, meaning that your ISP can’t track your online activities, which lets you browse the web in complete safety and anonymity.
Now, not all providers will offer these great benefits because we have some very poor VPNs on the market. That’s why it’s crucial to choose a quality one, and for this purpose, that choice MUST be able to bypass geo-blocks and unblock US TV channels in Costa Rica easily.
I’ve chosen one very reliable pick in the form of CyberGhost, one of the best VPNs for Costa Rica. It’s not only cheap but also works with a plethora of geo-restricted streaming platforms and TV channels. You can set it up and watch US TV in Costa Rica with it by following these three steps.
1. Get CyberGhost
Let’s start with the basics. First and foremost, you’ll need to get a subscription from CyberGhost. It’s not a free provider and that’s great because free providers will not work in this case. Thankfully, this provider offers a special discount at the moment, which you can get through the red button below.
Its longest plan comes at under $2.5 a month and you get a huge 45-day money-back guarantee that applies to ALL long-term plans. As such, this provider is extremely affordable and makes it a perfect choice for people living in a country like this, where living standards aren’t the highest.
On top of that, it offers nearly 1,400 servers in the United States, making it perfect for unblocking US TV in Costa Rica or enjoying other streaming platforms from this country. Simply click on the red button above to get it, subscribe, and follow the steps to install it on your device.
I’m using Windows and the app looks like the one above. However, CyberGhost is also a great VPN for Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android, so feel free to use it on all those platforms – even simultaneously because it offers 7 connections per subscription!
2. Connect to a US-Based VPN Server
Once you open the application, you need to connect to a server based in the United States. Now, CyberGhost offers servers for streaming, as you can see in the image above. And I strongly recommend using them if you want to watch US TV live in Costa Rica.
Streaming servers work perfectly with a myriad of US TV channels and the provider has servers especially optimized for many of them. For instance, there’s a server location for NBC, Paramount+, Fox, Sling TV, and dozens more.
Simply select a server according to the channel you need and connect to it by double-clicking on that server location.
Alternatively, you can use a “normal” server because it will work in some cases as well. If the channel you want isn’t on the list of dedicated streaming servers, don’t worry. CyberGhost will work with it with no issues thanks to great unblocking capabilities.
As soon as the connection button on the right turns yellow, your US IP address is in place and you’re ready to move to the final step.
3. Unblock US TV Channels in Costa Rica
The final step is simple. Just visit the channel you want and watch it with no issues. To show you that CyberGhost indeed works, I unblocked several US TV channels for you. The first one is NBC which works with no problems.
If you want to watch, let’s say, ABC, you can do it as well using CyberGhost and its American VPN servers.
Last but not least, if you want to unblock Peacock and watch it in Costa Rica, that will not be an issue with CyberGhost. Just remember to use a dedicated server for this channel.
And that’s pretty much it. CyberGhost will work with all US TV channels, although I only mentioned 3 of them. Even better is the fact that you can use this provider to watch US Netflix in Costa Rica too, so if you have a Netflix account, accessing this catalog will be a breeze.
As you can see, we’re talking about a pretty powerful VPN that’s cheap at the same time, making it a perfect choice to watch US TV live in Costa Rica.
Should I Use a Free VPN for Watching US TV in Costa Rica?
To be honest, I’m not a proponent of using free VPNs for streaming. There’s a good reason for that and it lies in the fact that they offer limited monthly bandwidth and very slow speeds, which is all but ideal for enjoying a buffer-free experience on streaming sites.
Above all, I want to warn you that free VPNs can’t unblock geo-restricted content efficiently (as we demonstrated in our article about free VPNs on Netflix). Yes, they do offer US servers always but the caveat is that these servers aren’t optimized for streaming. Thus, despite having a US IP from them, it will not be enough to unblock content restricted to the US.
Some free VPNs are somewhat decent for this purpose, such as Windscribe which I reviewed recently. However, this provider offers 10 GB of bandwidth and it’s very slow, so the streaming experience is not up to par.
The final nail in the coffin is that free providers aren’t safe and secure. They’re known for storing logs and selling your personal data to third parties, which puts your privacy in jeopardy. For a few dollars a month, you can get CyberGhost VPN instead.
Think about it – it’s almost as if you were using a free VPN! Will two dollars a month impact your monthly earnings and savings that much? Probably not.
Summary
Having said everything, I think you now know how to watch US TV in Costa Rica. It’s very easy, and if you use CyberGhost, you’ll just need to connect to a US server to achieve the effect you want. After that, it will work perfectly, letting you enjoy any channel from this country with no problems.
Keep in mind that CyberGhost is full of great benefits. Aside from unblocking content, it is highly secure, it lets you download torrents safely, and can even save you money on flight tickets by changing your IP address to another country.
Now, it’s up to you to test out the solution and see if it works for you. I doubt you’ll be dissatisfied!
FAQ
Still not sure how to watch US TV in Costa Rica? Let us answer a few more questions.
Is watching US TV abroad legal?
Yes, it’s legal and you won’t end up in jail. However, since these channels are geo-restricted, accessing them from a restricted country is against the terms and conditions of these channels. Luckily, this isn’t a crime and you can freely do that with a VPN.
Can I use other VPNs to watch US TV in Costa Rica?
Yes, you can. Our team opts for CyberGhost because it’s very affordable and won’t cost you a fortune. However, you can use a few other quality providers, such as ExpressVPN and NordVPN, both of which have blazing-fast US servers.
If you don’t mind paying a tad more, ExpressVPN is actually a better option. See our ExpressVPN vs CyberGhost comparison here.
Are US TV channels free?
Well, most of them are. Channels like ABC, NBC, and Peacock are free. They also have paid versions – at least some of them – where you get an ad-free experience, more content, and so on. Sports channels, unfortunately, tend to cost a small fortune.
Therefore, if you’re looking to unblock ESPN or Sling TV, expect to pay dozens of dollars a month.
