How to Watch South African TV Abroad in 2025

South Africa is filled with excellent TV content, such as from the SABC, DStv, e.tv and more. Unfortunately, if you happen to be abroad for whatever reason, whether because you’re an expat, on vacation or on a business trip, you’ll find that you can’t access South African TV content, even if you have a subscription.

That’s because there are restrictions on South African TV channels, allowing only viewers located within the country to access said content. In order to access SA TV from abroad, you have to have a South African IP address, which you won’t have if you’re outside South African borders.

Can a VPN Help Me Watch South African TV From Abroad?

Thankfully, there is a solution. By connecting to a Virtual Private Network (VPN), you can get access to a South African IP address, granting you access to the SA TV that you crave.

These days, it’s difficult and expensive for VPNs to grant access to geo-blocked content, and it’s getting tougher to find one that can. I’ve done the hard part for you, finding the best and most reliable VPN to bust through virtual roadblocks and get you access to SA TV content.

Why Do South African Streaming Services Ban International Viewers?

Even if you have a subscription to a South African TV service, you’ll be blocked from accessing their content if they detect that you’re outside of SA borders.

But this isn’t a purposely malicious move on the part of South African TV providers. They have to restrict your access because of the contracts they sign with TV and movie producers, which include the caveat that only viewers within South Africa can view the content.

The reason movie and TV studios include this clause is because they make more money that way. They can sell their content multiple times to streaming providers all over the world. Otherwise, anyone in the world could access that content in one location, limiting how much money the studios could make.

There’s another reason content is restricted. Oppressive governments like to control what their citizens can access, and by keeping content limited by geographical borders, they can achieve that end goal.

How Geo-Restrictions Work

When your device connects to the internet, it’s given an IP address.

IP addresses function as identifiers for devices, letting the internet know where a request came from and where a response needs to be sent to. This is similar to how a home address works to identify where snail mail came from and needs to go.

Unfortunately, because IP addresses vary by country, they also indicate where you’re physically located.

Streaming providers use this information to decide whether or not to grant a viewer access to their content. If the provider detects that you’re connecting from outside of South Africa, you’ll be blocked from accessing their content.

How Can I View South African TV If It’s Blocked?

It’s actually rather easy to access South African TV, even if you’re overseas. The way to do so is to use a Virtual Private Network.

A VPN is able to give you a new, temporary IP address from South Africa when you connect to their servers. You could be abroad in Algeria, India, France, the United States – it doesn’t matter, because all of the internet will think you’re in South Africa.

And once you have that SA IP address, you’ll be able to watch all of the South African TV that you want.

But a VPN isn’t just useful to unblock geographically-blocked TV streaming content. It has plenty of other uses, which I’d like to take the opportunity to tell you about now.

A VPN enables you to access other kinds of international content, such as other kinds of streaming content (like music streaming), gaming content and servers, financial services, and other sites and services.

A VPN also covers your internet connection with encryption, protecting it from the monitoring of any government, Internet Service Provider (ISP) or hacker who may want to take a look at what you’re up to and interfere with your online activities.

Public WiFi hotspots also won’t pose the kind of security threat that they ordinarily do. Public WiFi hotspots are usually a haven for hackers, who take advantage of the low level of security that the hotspot usually has. But with a VPN, your connection is encrypted, keeping hackers from accessing your data.

But wait, there’s more! A VPN’s encryption makes it impossible for an ISP to spy on your online activities, thereby preventing them from throttling your connection speeds because you’re doing something they may not approve of, like P2P torrenting or streaming from certain VPN service providers.

Which VPN Is the Best for Unblocking South African TV?

Opening access to geo-restricted content used to be a rather simple task for VPNs.

Sadly, that’s no longer the case. TV streaming services realized that users abroad were using VPNs to access their content and started restricting users with VPN-provided IP addresses from viewing their content.

As such, it takes a lot of resources and a desire on the part of the VPN to continue to provide access to international streaming content. Many VPN service providers don’t have the resources or willingness to keep replacing IP addresses as they’re blocked, and so don’t provide access to international streamers.

Thankfully, some providers decided that it’s still worth the time and energy (and resources) to fight the good fight and unblock access to geo-restricted content. The best of those VPN service providers is NordVPN.

NordVPN

Apr 2025

South African TV channels can be at your fingertips thanks to NordVPN’s reliable and quality VPN service.

NordVPN offers servers in South Africa and around the world. The provider also offers fast connection speeds on a multitude of devices, meaning you can watch HD and 4K streams on almost any of your devices. You’ll never have to worry about your security or privacy, and its customer support is always available.

Read the full NordVPN review here.

1. Connection Speed

Nowadays, we use our devices for almost everything: connecting with friends, working, entertaining ourselves and more. Fast download speeds are important for a satisfying experience.

NordVPN’s connection speeds are some of the best on the market, enabling you to watch South African and other kinds of content in HD or 4K. Those fast speeds are also useful for P2P file sharing and gaming.

You’ll also never have to worry about bandwidth restrictions or daily or monthly data caps ruining your fun. This is because NordVPN comes with unlimited bandwidth.

2. Multi-Platform App Support

Since we use our devices for almost everything, it also makes sense that we’d need many devices in order to go about our daily activities. That makes multi-platform support about equally as important as connection speeds.

Native apps for the iOS, Android, macOS (with native M1 Mac support), Linux, Windows, Amazon Fire, and Android TV devices are all available from NordVPN. You can also protect your browsing sessions with a Chrome, Edge or Firefox extension, and you can protect your router thanks to NordVPN’s extensive router compatibility.

Also available is the NordVPN SmartDNS service. The SmartDNS service enables the Apple TV, other set-top boxes, gaming consoles and other streaming platforms that are normally incompatible with VPN apps to access international content. (You should know, though, that it doesn’t encrypt your connection like the VPN service does.)

Up to 6 devices are allowed to connect to NordVPN’s international or African servers at one time on one account.

3. Customer Support

NordVPN’s customer service is exceptional and will likely mean that you won’t need to contact customer support, but just in case, you’ll want good options.

NordVPN’s live chat option is available 24/7. You can also contact the provider’s support via email, and there’s always the searchable support library to peruse.

4. Global Server Coverage

I know you only want to watch South African TV right now, but there’s a world of content out there. If you decide you want to be adventurous, you’ll want a VPN with good global server coverage.

NordVPN has 5,500+ servers stationed in 60 countries around the world (including more than 50 servers in South Africa), giving you plenty of options when it comes to international content.

5. Pricing

Happily, NordVPN charges a low price for its premium service. You’ll be able to access all of the South African TV you want, without having to pay an exorbitant amount.

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

Visit NordVPN.

Methodology for Assessing VPNs for Watching South African TV From Abroad

If you’re a South African expat or are traveling abroad, you can’t enjoy all of the online content from back home. A VPN can help, but only if it offers reliable access to geo-controlled content.

That’s why there are several key factors to consider when deciding upon which VPNs to recommend for viewing South African TV from abroad:

• Connection Speed: Connection speed is always an important factor, no matter your preferred online activity. When it comes to streaming your favorite TV shows and movies, fast speeds are essential. NordVPN provided “top five” speeds in my most recent connection speed tests.
• Server Network: If you’re going to watch South African TV from outside of the country, you’ll need a way to grab a South African IP address. A large global server network will also provide access to content in other areas of the globe. NordVPN has you covered there and has a high server count in most countries, meaning your online experience won’t suffer because servers are overloaded with too many users.
• Streaming: If you’re going to watch South African TV streams, the ability to unblock video streaming content in other countries is important. In addition to South African TV, NordVPN also offers reliable access to streaming services such as Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and more.
• Value: Always consider if the features and functionality of a VPN justify its asking price. NordVPN offers an excellent value, considering what they offer.
• Ease of Use: VPN providers should offer apps for a variety of platforms so that your favorite devices are covered. Also, simple apps make it easy to quickly connect. NordVPN offers easy-to-use apps for multiple popular device platforms.
• Security and Privacy: A VPN provider should always offer comprehensive digital security and privacy protections.At the very least, banking-level encryption, an automatic kill switch and DNS/IP leak protection need to be present and accounted for. Also, a VPN should never save logs of your online activities. NordVPN offers all of the above and more.

These are not the only factors I consider. They are just a small bit of my overall VPN testing methodology. This research-driven approach provides an excellent understanding of VPNs and their services, allowing me to recommend only those that are a good fit for your needs.

South African TV & Streaming FAQ