Launched in 1955, iTV is the oldest commercial TV network there; and is home to Coronation Street and Emmerdale, the popular soap operas. It is also the most popular commercial television channel in the United Kingdom.
While the Coronation Street shows the daily life of people of Coronation Street in Weatherfield, a fictional town; Emmerdale is set in the fictional village farms of Emmerdale and its farms in Yorkshire Dales.
Also, shows such as Downton Abbey and Broadchurch have gained a worldwide fan base. Not only this, the popular reality shows such as The X Factor and America’s Got Talent are actually based on shows produced in the UK.
Like all popular channels, iTV also has an online streaming service, iTV Hub. It was earlier known as iTV Player. The service initially was known as iTV CatchUp and was rebranded as iTV Player and then later as iTV Hub.
ITV Hub
ITV Hub is the ITV’s on-demand online video service. It is the place to watch iTV live stream for free. The interface allows you to search for the shows you’d like to see either alphabetically or by genre. The service is available on PCs, mobiles and on smart televisions and gaming consoles too.
To use the services, first, you have to register an account with them. As mentioned above, the service is free, but you’ll need to give details like your date of birth, gender, and email address; and also a valid UK postcode.
Once the account is set up, you can stream movies, news, sports (football, in particular) and other contents offered by iTV, iTV2 and its other partner channels.
ITV Hub also lets you watch previous shows for a period of time of time. So, if you have missed any of the episodes, catch it up online. Not all shows are available permanently, but most of them are available for a considerable amount of time after the broadcast.
With the premium subscription iTV Hub+, you can download the contents you like. It would be possible to watch it again, your favourite iTV shows. From Coronation Street and Emmerdale to new shows – everything! For £3.99 a month, it gives you an ad-free experience and yes, the facility to download.
ITV Player is, no doubt a great service to use but like other great things, it too has a limitation. While the mainland British can use it pretty straightforward, the service is not available for users outside the geography of the UK.
Watch iTV Player from NZ
Although not official it is entirely possible to watch iTV Player outside the UK. For the fans of the iTV programmes here, in New Zealand, VPN (short for Virtual Private Network) is the most popular tool
All you need is to connect to a VPN server in the UK. When you log in to the VPN, the VPN service provider hides your real IP and provides you with an IP address of the country you want to be connected (the UK, in this case).
VPNs are a safe way to gain access to streaming services unavailable at your location and setting them up is easy. There are plenty of free VPN services which can do the job but successful, and quality streaming comes at a cost. Two of the best VPNs in NZ I personally recommend are ExpressVPN and NordVPN.
NordVPN
It has been available for quite some time and has made a good reputation. At $3.29 a month, speeds they provide are suitable for the streaming needs. They have some British servers. They are secured and don’t keep connection logs. You can read our detailed NordVPN review in an earlier post.
ExpressVPN
It is one of the best-known VPN providers around. At $6.67 per month, although it is more expensive it has a better quality of service. They too offer great speeds and are at times faster than NordVPN. The provider offers a high level of security and keeps minimal logs. You can read our detailed ExpressVPN review in an earlier post.
Both of the VPN mentioned above service providers offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. Take its advantage, in case you want to try their service first.
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