How to Watch Sky Go Abroad with the Best VPNs

We used ExpressVPN to stream Sky Go from countries like the US, Spain, or Greece, and never experienced any issues.

At every attempt, the Sky Go app loaded without delay or interruptions, and allowed us to stream live content or watch on-demand films and TV series.

We found that ExpressVPN’s Ireland servers were equally effective at unblocking Sky Go, but that our connection was more stable on its UK servers.

That said, we didn’t experience any buffering or deterioration in video quality while using any of ExpressVPN’s servers.

This was much better than our experience with Mullvad, which took almost a minute to load a live Premier League game.

ExpressVPN offers its customers the most user-friendly apps for desktop, smartphones, tablets, and even Apple TV.

They’re all very easy to install, but we still suggest setting them up on your device before you travel, as the country you’re visiting may block VPN downloads (e.g. China).

What really sets ExpressVPN apart is how easy it is to use across all Sky Go-compatible devices, including game consoles and Smart TVs.

For example, we used MediaStreamer to watch Sky Go on our Xbox Series X while visiting a friend abroad.

Unlike most Smart DNS proxies, MediaStreamer is included with ExpressVPN’s subscription, and it unblocks Sky Go without issue.

If you’ll be staying in a house, with access to the router, then ExpressVPN’s own VPN router with dedicated app will come in very handy to use your Sky Stream puck outside the UK.

The only pain point was using ExpressVPN to fake our GPS location on Android: we had to install a third-party GPS spoofing app and get that to match ExpressVPN’s UK server location.

While it wasn’t too complicated, we found it much easier using Surfshark’s built-in GPS spoofer.

We conducted several speed tests while connected to an ExpressVPN UK server and recorded an average speed loss of 7%.

This is more than fast enough to fulfill Sky Go’s minimum broadband requirement of 2Mbps, regardless of where you’re located.

To contextualize this, we’ve compared ExpressVPN’s UK speeds to some of the leading VPNs on the market:

As you can clearly see in the chart above, ExpressVPN is faster than all its competitors specifically when connecting into the UK from abroad.

Such outstanding streaming speeds resulted in a crisp picture while watching live sporting events like Premier League matches, F1 races, and the PGA Tour.

This consistency carried over to other British platforms as well; we found the same flawless streaming quality using the VPN with BBC iPlayer, ITVX, and Channel 4.

Sky Go’s mobile apps use both your IP address and your GPS coordinates to figure out where you are.

On iPhone and iPad, there’s nothing you can do to get around this, but on Android handheld devices there is.

Usually, you’d have to use your VPN alongside a third-party “mock GPS” app, but Surfshark comes with GPS spoofing already built into it.

Its Override GPS location setting allows you to sync your device’s GPS and IP location, tricking Sky Go to think you’re in the UK or in Ireland.

Setup requires a few steps, which we’ve explained below, but we eventually got around Sky’s GPS restrictions.

Not having to install a second GPS spoofing app was also very convenient.

Surfshark’s 7-day free trial is where the VPN service has a clear, practical advantage over ExpressVPN.

That’s because the free trial is available directly through the App Store, Google Play, or Surfshark’s website, with no workarounds needed to get it working on desktop.

ExpressVPN’s trial, by contrast, requires signing up through mobile first before being able to use it on other devices.

If you want to properly test a VPN with Sky Go before committing to a subscription, Surfshark makes that significantly easier.

The free trial isn’t available on month-to-month plans, though, so remember to cancel to avoid being charged.

Connecting to UK servers from nearby countries, Surfshark is as quick as most top-tier VPNs. Our download speed slowed down by a negligible 12%, which you won’t even notice.

That said, things change the further you are from the UK. From countries like Australia, Thailand, or the US, our average speed loss was 17% and therefore worse than ExpressVPN’s 15% slowdown.

Regardless of distance, connections were generally stable with very little fluctuation even during popular live events on Sky Sports.

One thing worth highlighting is that connecting to servers on mobile was rather slow compared to ExpressVPN. Not massively, but enough for us to notice it.

Due to its low monthly price, Mullvad is a great choice of VPN when you only need to access Sky Go for a short period of time, for instance to stream a live Premier League game or F1 race.

Its monthly pricing plan is one of the cheapest available at $5.50, and we also discovered that you can get a further 10% off by using cryptocurrency.

To put it in perspective, Mullvad is 50% cheaper than both ExpressVPN and NordVPN’s monthly subscriptions.

While we had no issues watching Sky Go on Mullvad’s UK and Ireland servers, we found its London and Glasgow server locations to be the most consistent.

Unfortunately, Mullvad’s limited device compatibility can be frustrating; it doesn’t offer apps for Apple TV or routers, nor does it provide a Smart DNS proxy.

If you need a VPN that works with a wider range of devices, ExpressVPN is the right choice for you.

PrivadoVPN has become our chosen free VPN to stream Sky Go from abroad for three reasons.

Firstly, its free UK server located in London successfully bypassed Sky’s geo-restrictions on every attempt.

Each British server connected quickly, and remained connected without unexpected drops.

Secondly, the VPN’s Android app has a built-in GPS spoofer (similar to Surfshark’s) that allows you to use the Sky Go mobile app on your smartphone or tablet.

And finally, we were very pleased with PrivadoVPN’s speeds on its free servers in the UK: only 11% slowdown connecting from countries like Australia, France, and the US.

Like most safe free VPNs, PrivadoVPN also restricts free bandwidth to 10GB a month.

It’s better than nothing, but it only gives you around four hours of HD streaming time.

To bypass this restriction, we recommend downloading Sky content you want to watch before traveling as watching downloaded content doesn’t use any data.

If you want to stream live content on a regular basis, then we suggest using a VPN with unlimited data instead like ExpressVPN.