The Unofficial Guide to Watching Big Brother Canada from Outside Canada
Revised 2023For over a decade, Big Brother Canada has delighted Canadian Big Brother fans and frustrated American Big Brother fans. Free in Canada, the Big Brother Canada Live Feeds plus the Global TV broadcast episodes blocked for fans south of the border. Here is an unofficial guide to how to watch the episodes and live feeds from outside Canada.
Big Brother Canada airs on the Global TV network in Canada. While you might be able to catch an off-air signal near the Canadian border, for most outside of Canada, the only option is to stream the Global TV and Big Brother Canada Live Feeds, which are geo-blocked outside of Canada. This means that anyone outside of Canada will not be allowed to view the video streams from outside of Canada. This not only applies to live streams but viewing on-demand videos as well.
Geo-blocking is typically accomplished checking your internet connection's IP address to determine your location. This geo-blocking must be bypassed by using an IP address that is seen as being from inside Canada before you can watch blocked content.
Using a VPN to Bypass Geo-Blocking
One way to bypass geo-blocking is to use a VPN.
A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is software that creates a tunnel between you and your internet destination. Instead of looking like you are from your home location based on your internet service provider (ISP)’s assigned IP address, the VPN assigns you an IP address local to your destination on the other side of the tunnel. The connection is also encrypted for privacy, so content is passed through the tunnel securely.
VPNs are commonly used by companies to offer secured remote access to business information systems, and by individuals concerned about hackers or external intrusion into their internet activities. There are hundreds of VPN providers, from freemium to paid services, working on the Windows, Mac, iDevice and Android platforms as apps or browser extensions. Most of them will serve your purpose provided they include Canada as a VPN location.
A word of caution: Free VPN’s are not usually recommended. You often get what you pay for – they tend to be limited in bandwidth, unstable and data or time capped. And when you’re watching the Big Brother Canada episodes and/or live feeds, you can count on consuming a lot of data and burning a lot of hours.
And there is a reason they are free - they may be using your internet connection to operate their VPN network for other users, which can look to your ISP like you are using your internet connection for illegal/illicit activity in violation of your service agreement. Consequently, legitimate paid VPN services are generally not cheap.
One last thought. When using a VPN that runs on your device, all internet activity is funneled through that tunnel to the destination location. That includes your email, cloud applications, other browser activity, etc. You also cannot use a second VPN while using a primary VPN for work. For that reason, a browser-extension VPN, in which VPN activity is localized to your browser, is often preferred.
Reviews of VPN Options
As noted above, there are hundreds of VPN services available, and rather than review them all and make recommendations, here are some computer and tech publications that have already done the legwork. You are on your own from here.
If your still set on a free VPN despite the warnings, here are a couple of reviews of the best VPNs for 2022:
https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-free-vpns
https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-vpn-services
https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/best-vpn/
https://www.tomsguide.com/best-picks/best-vpn
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-vpn/
If you are looking for a VPN service that operates as a browser extension, there are two types: browsers that come with a VPN extension and browsers for which you can install a VPN extension from an app store. Here are a couple of general reviews for VPN browsers:
https://privacycrypts.com/vpn/guide/best-vpn-browsers/
https://www.vpnranks.com/best-vpn/browsers/
And here are reviews for browser extensions for popular browsers:
https://www.privateproxyguide.com/best-vpn-for-microsoft-edge-browser/
https://www.techradar.com/vpn/best-chrome-vpn
https://pixelprivacy.com/vpn/browsers/best-vpn-firefox/
https://earthweb.com/vpns-for-safari/
If a VPN service rates well on multiple review sites, they are probably a good choice. Remember, when choosing a free or paid VPN service for Big Brother Canada, it is key to make sure that Canada is one of the supported VPN locations.
Watching Episodes and Live Feeds
Once you have your VPN set up and connected to a server in Canada, you are ready to use the Big Brother Canada site just if you were a genuine Canadian. The official website for Big Brother Canada is:
Full episodes are usually posted a few hours after they air and can be found under the FULL EPISODES tab. The live feeds will be available under the LIVE FEEDS tab. You can also watch HG Interviews and content under the HOUSEGUESTS tab.
Global TV in America
Global TV has a live stream, but unfortunately you need to have a companion account with a Canadian cable provider, which means a VPN won’t help; you still must be Canadian and a subscriber to a Canadian cable service.
The BBViewer App
But hope is not lost. The BBViewer app from Liquid8 has been helping Big Brother fans stream the live feeds and live streaming broadcast episodes. The app is feature rich - you can open multiple windows to view different feeds at the same time, adjust the quality/volume of each individually, pan the audio to listen to the left or right “scenes” in quad cam, etc.
In addition, the BBViewer app offers access to past seasons of Big Brother and other shows from around the world. The BBViewer is a free download available here, and if you like it, be sure to pitch the creator (@liquid8d on Twitter) a few bucks on his Donation Page, because he makes this amazing program available for free every year!
Sounds amazing, you say, and it is. But there’s a catch.
Depending on Global TV’s cyber protections, the BBViewer can sometimes be used without a VPN, but sometimes this feature stops working temporarily, and its status could change at any time.
It may also be possible to live stream the Global TV broadcast, with or without a VPN. However, users won’t know how, or even if, the BBViewer app can support Big Brother Canada until after the season begins.
VPN-Free Alternatives
There are websites hosted outside the USA to avoid the long arm of the law, that promise to simulstream the Global TV and Live Feed streams. They often come with annoying pop-ups, so it is strongly recommended to use an ad-blocker to protect your system from viruses and malware. As with the VPNs, these have not been researched nor endorsed. In other words, use at your own risk.
Follow the instructions on the website to be able to watch the streams cleanly and never click on any ads that pop up during a live stream, and. In addition to the live streams, you may also find archive recordings of previously aired episodes, as well as streams and archives for other versions of Big Brother around the world.
These sites are fairly reliable but could also be here today, gone tomorrow, though they have been around for many years so far.
Video Sharing Sites
Lastly, broadcast episodes are often posted on video sharing sites like YouTube, DailyMotion, etc. They often take a while to be uploaded, and are quickly pulled down due to copywrite claims, thus are usually hard to find. If you find one, watch it quickly, because it may not be available next time you look. Additionally, fake accounts claim they offer episode videos but are in fact spam, attempting to lure you to a less than savory website.
Final Thought
This information is offered without apology or assumption of liability and may be updated with changes for the current season, so check back if you are having issues.