How to Watch Austrian TV Abroad in 2025

At a Glance

There are plenty of Austrian TV channels to watch, including ORF 1 and 2, ZDF, RTL, VOX, and more. However, you can’t watch any of these digital channels if you’re outside of Austria. It doesn’t matter if you’re away on business, on a vacation, or living abroad as an expat – if your device doesn’t have an Austrian IP address (which it doesn’t if you’re outside of the country), you can’t watch Austrian TV.

However, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) can give you an Austrian IP address no matter where you’re really located, allowing you to watch Austrian television channels.

How Can a VPN Help Me Watch Austrian TV Abroad?

But not every VPN is up to the task. You need a VPN provider with servers in Austria and one that’s adept at accessing Austrian TV. You’re in luck – I know the best VPN service provider for the job.

In this article, I’ll explain how and why streaming services block users outside of the country in question from accessing their online content. I’ll also let you in on the not-so-secret secret of which VPN is best to access Austrian TV (spoiler: It’s NordVPN).

Why Do Austrian Streaming Services Ban International Viewers?

You would think that having a subscription to an Austrian video streaming service would allow you to watch from anywhere, but you’d think wrong.

In fact, you can only watch Austrian TV from inside the country. That’s because streaming services have to sign contracts with TV and movie producers in order to have the right to show their TV shows and movies, and those contracts come with a catch.

The catch is this: Streaming providers can only allow users within Austria to watch their content, but not those outside of Austria.

This actually makes fiscal sense. Instead of selling their content once in one country, allowing the whole world to watch that content there, TV and movie studios make more money by selling and reselling their content to streaming providers in other countries.

The ultimate result is that users abroad have to try to find the content they want in whichever country they’re currently in, even if that means subscribing to multiple providers in that country.

Restrictive governments also have to be taken into account. Oppressive governments don’t necessarily want their citizens accessing potentially “subversive” content from other countries, and streaming providers can avoid legal issues with these regimes by restricting access only to users within their country.

How Geo-Restrictions Work

The way that streaming providers and other internet sites and services decide whether or not you can access their content is by taking a peek at your IP address.

Every internet-connected device has an IP address. It’s what lets the internet know where a request came from and where a response needs to go. In that way, it’s like a home address, which lets the post office know where mail came from and needs to be sent.

Like a home address, though, an IP address reveals your physical location.

Since you’ll have a foreign IP address if you’re outside of Austria, you won’t be able to access Austria-specific streaming content.

How Can I View Austrian TV If It’s Blocked?

You can get back to watching your favorite Austrian TV show by obtaining an Austrian IP address, which you can get by using a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

A VPN’s servers in Austria will hide your real IP address and give you a local IP address in Austria, which means Austrian streaming providers will believe you’re located in Austria and allow you to watch their content.

Here’s a step-by-step mini-guide of the process:

1. Subscribe to a reputable VPN provider (I strongly recommend NordVPN).
2. Install its app(s) onto your device(s).
3. Open up the app and connect to a VPN server located in Austria.
4. Visit your favorite Austrian TV streaming service. Should you run into any problems, be sure to clear your browser cache of cookies.
5. Enjoy the show!

VPN service providers are also good at other things, not just accessing video streaming content.

They can also access other kinds of content, such as music streaming services, gaming servers and content, and financial services.

A VPN also doesn’t just give you a new IP address – it covers your internet connection in a healthy coating of encryption. This keeps anyone, whether it be a government, your Internet Service Provider (ISP), or a hacker, from spying on and stealing your personal information.

Public WiFi hotspots will then be safe to use. Ordinarily, public WiFi hotspots are not encrypted, meaning your activities on the hotspot are wide open to hacking. However, a VPN’s encryption keeps any potential hackers from monitoring your online activities or stealing your personal, financial, and business information.

Another good thing a VPN does is prevent your ISP from throttling your connection speeds. ISPs will often try to throttle your connection speeds if you do something they don’t like, like streaming from “unapproved” services or sharing files. A VPN’s encryption prevents this from happening.

Which VPN Is the Best for Accessing Austrian TV?

It used to be the case that any VPN provider could easily access streaming content from anywhere around the globe.

Unfortunately, that’s changed.

Nowadays, video streaming providers have caught onto the VPN trick and now know how to block a VPN’s IP addresses from accessing their services. This requires VPNs to quickly replace their IP addresses as they’re blocked.

But, video streaming services just block those new ones, and the virtual game of whack-a-mole goes on and on.

To have access to Austrian TV, you need a VPN service provider that keeps up with streaming providers, continually replacing IP addresses as they’re blocked. Not every VPN makes this a priority.

But a handful of VPNs out there still fight the good fight and continue to provide their users with access to international streaming services. The best of these is NordVPN.

WANT TO TRY THE TOP VPN RISK-FREE?

Want to try the VPN rated #1 for watching Austrian TV from abroad for free with no restrictions for a full month? NordVPN offers a risk-free 30-day trial of all of its features if you sign up on this page. There are no hidden catches – if you decide NordVPN doesn’t fit your needs, simply contact support before the 30-day free trial expires and they’ll give you a full refund. Start your NordVPN trial here.

NordVPN

NordVPN is the top VPN for accessing Austrian TV from abroad.

The VPN provider not only protects your internet connection with complete security and privacy protections, but also offers extensive app support and extremely fast speeds, meaning you can watch HD and 4K video content on almost any device.

Read the full NordVPN review here.

1. Connection Speed

Connection speeds are an important aspect to consider for any VPN provider. You don’t want to have to wait through long buffering times, and watching in HD and 4K is quite enticing.

NordVPN’s connection speeds are some of the fastest on the market today, easily handling streaming content in HD and 4K. If you’re a gamer or torrenter, NordVPN is up to those activities, too.

NordVPN offers unlimited bandwidth to its customers and never limits your activities with data caps.

2. Multi-Platform App Support

Streaming video providers offer their services on a multitude of devices these days, making it important for a VPN provider to offer apps for as many devices as possible.

NordVPN offers native apps for iOS, macOS (with native M1/M2 Mac support), Linux, Windows, Android, Amazon Fire, and Android TV device platforms. You can watch your favorite Austrian TV shows via your browser thanks to extensions for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, and you can also take advantage of the provider’s extensive router support.

NordVPN also offers something called “SmartDNS.” This service allows you to watch international streaming content on devices that are incompatible with VPN apps, such as gaming consoles, some smart TVs, and other set-top boxes. However, the service doesn’t encrypt your connection.

Up to six devices can connect to the VPN’s servers at once on one account.

3. Security and Privacy

All NordVPN-provided connections are protected by government-grade encryption, in addition to offering an automatic kill switch, DNS leak, and IPv6 leak protection, as well as ad and malware blocking.

The provider never saves any logs of its customers’ online travels. A Bitcoin subscription payment option is available to keep your payment information undercover.

The provider’s owned-and-operated servers keep outside contractors away from your personal information. All NordVPN servers are run 100% from RAM, writing no information of any kind to a physical hard drive or SSD. This ensures that all data is securely wiped from a NordVPN server whenever it is rebooted or powered off.

4. Customer Support

Responsive customer support is valuable in a VPN provider, as problems do arise occasionally, and you’ll want to have fast access to help when necessary.

NordVPN customer support agents are available 24/7 via live chat. Email support and a searchable support library are also available.

5. Global Server Coverage

NordVPN definitely provides servers in Austria, no doubt about that. However, you may one day find yourself eager to try streaming services in other countries, in which case, you’ll want a VPN with a large global server network.

NordVPN’s 5,700+ servers are available in 60+ countries, Austria included. There are 33+ server locations in Austria alone.

6. Pricing

You’ll be happy to know that you don’t have to pay much for NordVPN’s quality service. The provider offers its services at a reasonably low price for its multi-year subscription.

NordVPN offers a no-risk, 30-day money-back guarantee.

Visit NordVPN.

Methodology for Assessing VPNs to Watch Austrian TV from Abroad

Internet users around the globe are not only limited in what content they can access, but they also face various online dangers.

This means that there are several features to consider before deciding on a VPN to watch Austrian TV from abroad while also keeping your online activities undercover:

• Global server network: The larger a provider’s global server network, the better access it provides IP addresses and geo-fenced content in Austria and around the globe. Also, a provider with multiple servers in the countries it serves reduces the chances that a server will be overloaded by too many users at once.
• Connection speeds: Whatever your favorite online activity, a fast internet connection is your best friend. The VPNs on this list provide connections that can easily handle any of your online pastimes.
• Value: You can determine a VPN’s true value by comparing its subscription price to the services it offers. The VPNs on my list offer excellent value.
• Ease of use: A VPN should provide intuitive apps for popular device platforms. The VPNs on my list offer easy-to-use app support for popular connected devices.
• Security and privacy: A VPN should protect its users’ connections by using military-grade encryption, a kill switch, and DNS/IP leak prevention. A no-user logs policy is also a requirement. The providers on my list provide top-notch security and privacy for all of your online activities.
• Streaming: Streaming is one of the most popular online activities today. Most of the VPNs on my list offer access to multiple popular streaming sites, including streaming services in Austria, as well as Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and many others.

The above list makes up just a bit of my overall VPN testing methodology. My research is not limited to the list above. This data-driven approach allows me to rank these VPNs, allowing my readers to make a well-informed VPN buying decision.

How to Stream Austrian TV FAQs