this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2025
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I can't buy F1 TV anymore in my country, because the licenses are already sold or something
Anyway... Shitty time now, especially while being abroad and having no real possibility of watching, besides streaming - and those stupid local channels don't stream outside of our country (and even block VPNs)
I pretty outraged, because I'm forced to pay for this shit as well...
I know we hate Google here, but if you want to buy F1TV, you should be able to do so via Google Pay or Google Wallet or whatever. It obscures your country, so they won't know where you're buying from. Then, VPN to watch the races. I've done this since 2022 because F1TV isn't allowed in the UK. Never missed a race since π
Do have to deal with the occasional buffering though which sends me into a frustrated meltdown for five seconds or so but it's chill really. Β£6.99 a month isn't bad either!
Yep, also doing it via Google Pay from Germany. Sky has exclusive rights here which means a stupid price tag, a horrible app and I can't stand the German commentators. I don't need to use a VPN, however. I opened my account with one through the Netherlands but since then I can stream without one.
Worked flawless but in recent weeks the f1tv app has been kind of shit. Not opening for a couple of minutes, not buffering right. Kind of frustrating.
Ah okay, interesting! I have to hop VPNs, usually within Belgium (because it's close enough to be fast for streaming) but the F1TV website kicks me out occasionally, probably once or twice every three races or so. Usually totally fine once I get connected and stay connected for ten mins or so but I need to stay behind the VPN at all times!
Ah, it might be an EU thing. If I remember correctly, it's against EU law to restrict online content by region. You should come back. It's fun here, I swear!
I donβt think thatβs a law. Some EU countries donβt have f1tv and some do.
If you have a subscription from another EU country then it must work in every other EU country even if subscriptions aren't offered in that country.
For example, I'm in Ireland and Sky has exclusive broadcast rights for F1 here. So what I did was i used a VPN to create an F1TV account in Portugal. Once the Portugeuse subscription is active it just works as normal in Ireland and I don't need a VPN any more for normal use.
I did this about 2 years ago and just set the Portuguese subscription to auto-renew annually and I haven't had to use a VPN at all in those two years.
If i go travelling outside the EU I use my own VPN server at home. By connecting to my home network via VPN, F1TV thinks I'm watching from my home network, which means i can watch F1TV from anywhere in the world.
Of course you're right with that. Broadcasting and licensing is regulated by territorial copyright law. What I'm referring to is this:
Regulation (EU) 2017/1128 of the European Parliament
I assume they are either not allowed or willing to track how temporary my stay in my home country is which means I can watch without VPN.
Had that play with HBO Nordic, as they where in whole Europe at least, and you needed to be in Scandinavia.
After some time, they turned it off...
So, I'm currently not looking for hacky, but somehow stable solutions - as I'm even willing to pay for it.
Not so sure about the Google wallet idea either. I pretty much try to avoid everything Google and giving them this data just doesn't seem right.
But that's a personal preference...