People love their talent shows, and the British are no exception to the rule. Thankfully, a good laptop and a fast Internet connection are more than enough to watch entertaining streaming content these days, although ‘netizens’ also have to fight geo-blocking restrictions to enjoy international shows.
American Idol, America’s Got Talent, The Voice, The X Factor, you name it. People are continually captivated by these kinds of productions, and they follow them from beginning to end to find out if their preferred candidates can win it all, or just for the entertainment that it provides.
One of the most widely spread shows in recent memory is Britain’s Got Talent. In a similar mold of America’s Got Talent, producers wanted to highlight and showcase people in the British area who have some aptitude and flair for a specific task. The show is a fascinating display of passion, skill, and training, and audiences have it at the top of their list of favorite productions.
However, as we have mentioned already in this piece, it is often not easy for international viewers to gain access to a stable streaming signal or feed. Because of rights and geographical restrictions applying for the channel that broadcasts the series, Britain’s Got Talent is often unavailable for foreign fans that don’t implement an external tool, such as a VPN.
With a Virtual Private Network or VPN, people can mask their real locations and make the system believe they are physically in the United Kingdom, thus unblocking the streaming site and making them able to see Britain’s Got Talent and all the shows produced in the United Kingdom that they desire.
Britain’s Got Talent: UK’s favorite skills show
In the same mold as America’s Got Talent, Britain’s edition shows the world the amazing things that the country can offer as entertainment options. From beatboxing, singing, dancing, comedy, and virtually anything you can imagine, this show is open to anything you got, provided you are a master at it!
BGT, as the show is often abbreviated, can be defined and qualified as a talent show competition, and is an active part of the Got Talent franchise. Simon Cowell, among others, created the program and gave it life, serving as a judge from season 1 through twelve, the one that is about to start on April 14.
Britain’s Got Talent has been on the air since June 2007, and from that moment, it earned and kept a place among British people’s hearts and TV grids. ITV, one of the country’s most renowned channels, holds broadcasting rights.
The show allows contestants of all ages, thus adding a very enticing youth / old element that helps people from all backgrounds to compete and win. Currently, the judges are Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon, and David Walliams. Some of the notable winners are Paul Potts, Diversity, Attraction, Jules O’Dwyer & Matisse, and Richard Jones.
People looking to participate have to make it through the auditions, compete against other acts in live semi-finals and then the final. A cash prize and an opportunity to perform at the Royal Variety Performance in front of the British Royal Family are given to the winner or winners.
Up until now, there have been eleven winners. Among them are musicians, singers, magicians, dancers, and others. The show is firmly entrenched in the British’s preferences, as it tops the X Factor and The Voice UK viewership. In fact, the live final in the third series brought a record 17.3 million viewers, a 64.6% audience share at the time of its broadcast.
Past winners
| Series | Winner | Runner-up | Third place |
| 1 | Paul Potts | Connie Talbot | Damon Scott |
| 2 | George Sampson | Signature | Andrew Johnston |
| 3 | Diversity | Susan Boyle | Julian Smith |
| 4 | Spelbound | Twist and Pulse | Kieran Gaffney |
| 5 | Jai McDowall | Ronan Parke | New Bounce |
| 6 | Ashleigh and Pudsey | Jonathan and Charlotte | Only Boys Aloud |
| 7 | Attraction | Jack Carroll | Richard & Adam |
| 8 | Collabro | Lucy Kay | Bars & Melody |
| 9 | Jules O’Dwyer & Matisse | Jamie Raven | Côr Glanaethwy |
| 10 | Richard Jones | Wayne Woodward | Boogie Storm |
| 11 | Tokio Myers | Issy Simpson | Daliso Chaponda |
The challenge of geo-restrictions
Watching Britain’s Got Talent from a country that is not one of the United Kingdom’s states would be very hard because of geographical restrictions. The ITV channel, as it happens with most TV services around the world, does not allow foreign connections, and licensing and rights reasons are behind that.
If you try to open ITV’s streaming site from, say, Thailand, you will see a message telling you that the content is not available in your country, because the system didn’t recognize your IP address as an English one.
The challenge is, thus, making the system believe you are connecting with a British IP to watch the 2018 series of Britain’s Got Talent from abroad. That may sound tricky and incredibly intricate, but it is a very straightforward process if you use a VPN brand.
Use the right tool: VPN
VPN is the short version of saying Virtual Private Networks. They are web services that offer users encryption of their content and online identity, with the intention of achieving specific things while they connect to the Internet.
VPN technology implements encryption thanks to protocols, which are the means and conditions under which the content and the user’s IP address are protected. OpenVPN is the most widely spread in our current reality, although IKEv2, SSTP, and L2TP/IPSec are also reliable alternatives.
Virtual Private Networks offer privacy and security, because they can hide the customer’s IP address as well as all of their generated traffic. The mentioned process maintains the data and online identity off-limits to external Internet agents, such as hackers, cybercriminals, illegal crypto miners, virus programmers, Internet Service Providers (ISPs,) governmental agencies, mapping and tracking apps, and web advertisers.
How to watch the 2018 season of Britain’s Got Talent from abroad
- Carefully assess the VPN market and select a brand of your liking. To watch the 2018 season of Britain’s Got Talent from abroad, you need one with servers in the United Kingdom, high encryption, and privacy measures.
- Access your VPN website.
- Register for the VPN service, providing your name, email, and a payment method, among other information bits.
- Download the client compatible with your device.
- Install the VPN app on your device and execute it.
- Sign in to the VPN app with the credentials and details you previously provided in the registration phase (the third step of the present guide.)
- Establish a connection to a United Kingdom server.
- After connecting, open the ITV streaming site.
- Open the streaming and enjoy watching Britain’s Got Talent from abroad!
Best VPN to watch the 2018 season of Britain’s Got Talent from abroad
- TorGuard: With several servers in the United Kingdom area and the best encryption and security measures of the market, TorGuard is the perfect package for those wanting to watch the 2018 season of Britain’s Got Talent from abroad. For only $9.99 per month, you would have access to the most prominent encryption protocols – including OpenVPN – as well as more than 3,000 servers in 55 nations around the globe.
- IPVanish: While the server network may not seem significant at first sight (“only” 750,) IPVanish is one of the most efficient and highly configurable VPN brands in the industry. It offers numerous servers in Great Britain, it has extraordinary security measures such as a kill switch and DNS leak protection, and it can connect users to content from more than 60 countries around the globe for just $10 per month.
- Private Internet Access: PIA offers one of the best price/value ratios in the VPN field, with unique encryption and comparable features to TorGuard and IPVanish. It costs just $6.95 per month, and the fee can go down for a two-year plan, all the way to $2.91. PIA has a sizable network of more than 3,000 servers and content from 28 nations, encrypted Wi-Fi, P2P activity, ad blocking and five simultaneous devices.
- GhostVPN: With exciting features and 1,600 servers in a total of 51 nations (including England, which allows users to watch the 2018 series of Britain’s Got Talent online for free from abroad,) GhostVPN is shaping up as a significant competitor for the top VPN brands. Compatible with Linux, Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, GhostVPN offers stealth VPN, a 15-day money-back guarantee, a free plan, a zero log policy, AES 256-bit encryption (the best in the business,) and 24/7 customer support.
In conclusion, Britain’s Got Talent new season, the twelfth, will begin on April 14, and you should make sure you are ready to enjoy the best acts, stunts, tricks, and performances that people have to offer.
Watching the show outside the British area can be hard without a VPN client. There are numerous options in the market, but TorGuard, IPVanish, Private Internet Access, and GhostVPN are by far the most efficient to perform the task.
