There are few things that move people like watching sports, and when fans can't watch their favorite teams play, it can eat at their souls. A PCMag reader recently wrote to me, asking if it's possible to use a VPN service to restore the live sports channels that were part of a no-longer-accessible cable package. The question has been edited for brevity.
The Master of Unblocking
In their message, the reader mentions that they wish to access the channels that were previously available to them. That presents a problem, and I do not think a VPN will help. As I understand it, cable boxes communicate directly with the cable providers. The provider enables or disables specific channels for use on your box. The issue isn't that there is a geographic block, something a VPN could help you circumvent.
I mostly focus on privacy and security here at PCMag, but I know from our surveys that about 25 percent of readers use VPNs to access blocked streaming content online. Companies like Netflix sometimes offer different content depending on where customers live. The US might have shows that aren't available in the UK, and vice versa.
VPNs are great for accessing content that is region-blocked—that is, content on the internet that can only be accessed by people living in specific parts of the world. Companies are able to screen out your location by looking at your IP address. When you use a VPN, your data is routed through different locations, which changes your public IP address. By selecting a VPN server in the region with the content you want to watch, you can make it appear as if you are in the area approved for viewing.
This works in theory, but using a VPN to access blocked content is a tricky thing. First, you have to find a VPN that works with the specific service you want to access, which is usually by process of elimination. Even after you find a service that does what you need, it might not continue to do so. Streaming companies actively work to block VPNs, so a service that works today may not work tomorrow.
If, however, you've found an online stream of the sports program you can no longer access, a VPN might help! Friends have told me that the MLB offers online streaming of baseball games for free, but only if you live outside the US. Those same friends have used VPNs to get around that restriction, by making it appear that they are in a location that can access those free MLB streams.
My colleague Ben Moore has spent quite some time looking at sports streaming services and tells me there are some unusual caveats that sports fans should keep in mind. Notably, he says that these services are subject to the same coverage blackouts as cable and that some broadcasts are restricted to certain regions or local markets depending on distribution rights. He tells me that only national sports broadcasts (for the most part) are available to everyone. Depending on what you want to watch, and where you are located, your best bet might be to skip streaming all together and, unfortunately, explore what cable packages are available.
Using a VPN With Your TV
While a VPN is probably the wrong tool for tackling our reader's question, there are ways to use a VPN with a TV. You might want to spoof your location so the TV itself can accessing streaming content in other countries, or you may be very sensitive to the idea of an ISP or other third party monitoring your TV's web traffic.
For this, you'll need either a smart TV that can connect to your network and stream video directly via its own apps, or a connected streaming box such as a Roku or Apple TV.
One way is to try and run a VPN on your TV or streaming box directly. Some VPN service offer VPN apps for these devices that can be installed through the official apps stores. Just download, enter your credentials, and you should—in theory—be online. I haven't tested any of these apps so I'm hedging my bets as to whether they work.
Alternatively, you can install a VPN on your router, as our reader suggested. This provides VPN protection to all the devices on your network, and is especially useful for devices that can't run VPNs on their own, such as a smart bulb or some other IoT device. It also lets you spoof the location of all your devices, including a connected smart TV.
Most VPNs provide instructions on how to set up a VPN on your router, or will outright sell you a router preconfigured to work with a particular VPN. However, I don't recommend this approach for most people. Banks, streaming services, and other sites and services often block VPNs outright. If you encounter that, and the VPN is running on your router, toggling it on and off could be a pain. For ease of use, I prefer to simply run VPNs on individual devices, turning the services off when necessary.
One more note about VPNs and streaming: streaming from a computer to a Chromecast, or another streaming media device, isn't possible with a VPN. That's because these devices generally only work with other devices on the same Wi-Fi network. When the VPN is switched on, the data is encrypted and piped out of your network, meaning that you won't be able to connect to a local streaming device. Some VPNs have advanced settings that allow access to LAN devices, but a general rule of thumb is that you'll have to power down your VPN before you can cast content to your TV.
But Is It Moral?
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