RTBF is a Belgium-based streaming platform that has quite a lot to offer. Along with this platform, you can watch Formula 1, Moto GP, and many other international sports events for free. But it should be frustrating to know that all of these opportunities are only available on Belgium’s territory.
When you try to access RTBF outside Belgium, you will face a geo-restriction issue and the platform will prevent you from streaming any on-demand or live events. Therefore, it is likely that you will be missing your favorite sports events such as Formula 1, Moto GP, or even maybe Belgium’s national team matches in FIFA 2022 Qatar games.
Yet, do not feel helpless. I will teach you how to watch RTBF outside Belgium. By using a professional VPN service, we will change our virtual location to Belgium and stream RTBF from anywhere in the world.
Analysis: RTBF is well-known for its free streamings of the Formula 1 and Moto GP races, FIFA, etc… The service has free-to-air rights to such sports events for the Belgium territory only. Therefore, when you try to access the platform outside Belgium (with a non-Belgian IP) address, you will face a geo-restriction embargo and are unable to watch RTBF.
Solution: VPNs are excellent tools for increasing your online privacy. A VPN may also help you encrypt your online traffic and offer you a new IP address while doing so. If we use a VPN server from Belgium to encrypt our internet traffic, we will also be connected to a Belgium IP address. This will shift our virtual location to Belgium, allowing us to stream RTBF from anywhere in the world.
A quick guide to streaming RTBF outside Belgium with a VPN:
- Visit Surfshark VPN -It has fast VPN servers in Belgium.
- Hit the “Get Surfshark now” button and choose a plan. (The longer period you choose, the more discount you get up to %83)
- Enter your e-mail address and make the payment with a preferred method. ( Surfshark will send you the login details to your e-mail)
- Navigate to the Surfshark portal and log in with your username and password.
- Click on the “Apps and Extensions” menu on the left; download and install the VPN app compatible with your device.
- Launch the Surfshark VPN, log in with the same credentials, navigate to the “Locations” section, search for “Belgium” and connect to one of the available servers from Antwerp or Brussels.
If you follow these instructions correctly, Surfshark will assign you an IP address from Belgium and allow you to watch RTBF from your current location. As seen below…
If you are unfamiliar with VPN services and how they work to circumvent geo-restrictions, let me walk you through the process thoroughly. We shall learn about the RTBF geo-restrictions and the logic for the need for a VPN service in this case.
Let’s get started!
Understanding RTBF geo-restriction
Before getting into the details of how to use a VPN, we should find out why RTBF only works in Belgium.
In terms of licensing and copyright requirements, providers such as RTBF are required to air online content in specific territories. Taking Formula 1 or Moto GP as an example, RTBF has the license for these sports events only for the Belgian territory.
This is why you get the following geo-restriction warning when you try to access RTBF outside of Belgium:
- …Ce contenu est visible uniquement en Belgique…
or we can translate it as “This content can only be viewed in Belgium.”
As a result, whether you are a Belgian who is now outside of Belgium on business or a Frenchman seeking to watch Formula 1 for free on RTBF, none of the materials will be accessible to you due to the copyright agreements.
But! Don’t be alarmed. We will work together to resolve this problem using simple procedures.
How to watch RTBF outside Belgium with a VPN
VPNs are an excellent tool to improve online privacy and evade internet limitations. They operate straightforwardly. You just choose a protocol to encrypt your internet traffic and a server location where you want the encryption to take place.
Because RTBG needs us to be in Belgium, we should connect to a VPN server in that country. Only in this way will encryption take place in a Belgian data center, and we will be assigned a new Belgian IP address.
This kind of virtual location substitution will also allow us to watch RTBF regardless of where we are currently.
Let’s get started without further ado.
Choosing the best VPN for RTBF
I wish I could provide a list of free VPNs for RTBF. However, since RTBF is so concerned about copyrights and EU legislation, it will go to any length to restrict VPN services and confine its service to Belgian territory.
On the other hand, there are several professional VPN companies on the market with a large number of servers in Belgium datacenters ready to give us direct access to RTBF.
Surfshark stands out as one of the top VPN providers for RTBF because of its extensive streaming expertise. Its servers in Antwerp and Brussell may easily bypass the RTBF blockade. Please follow the instructions below to use this service:
- Visit Surfshark’s official website.
- Hit the “Get Surfshark VPN” button and choose a plan (to grab the %80 discount deal, make sure to choose a longer period)
- Enter your details and complete the purchase with a preferred payment method.
Upon a successful purchase, your credentials will be sent to your e-mail address.
VPN app installation
With the given login details, we should be now downloading the VPN app that is compatible with our devices where we want to watch RTBF. To do so, please follow the instructions below:
- Visit the Surfshark official website.
- Click on the “Log in” button on the upper left of the page and enter your credentials.
- Once you are logged in, navigate “Apps and Extensions”, download the VPN app compatible with your device, and install it.
During the installation process, make sure to grant all required permission to Surfshark VPN app for seamless connectivity.
Connecting to the Belgium server
If you have come this far without any warnings, then it means Surfshark is ready to use. Let’s connect to a Belgium server and get a Belgian IP address.
- Launch Surfshark VPN app.
- Navigate to the “Locations” on the VPN interface.
- Search for “Belgium” and connect to the available servers from Antwerp or Brussels.
When you connect successfully, the Surfshark button will turn green, indicating that you now have a Belgian IP address and that your internet traffic is encrypted with a safe protocol.
To verify your VPN connection, use an IP analysis tool to determine your new IP address or Google “What is my IP?”
Here’s what I have.
Creating RTBF account
Now that we have a Belgium IP address, we can sign up for RTBF and begin streaming geo-restricted content.
The account creation procedure with RTBF is fairly simple.
- Navigate to www.rtbf.be/auvio/direct#/ official website and click the “S’inscrire (Sign up)” button.
The following popup will welcome you…
Fill out the registration form’s mandatory fields, which include your e-mail, password, password confirmation, name, surname, age, and postal code.
If you’re unsure what to put in the postal code, go to https://www.fakexy.com/be-fake-address-generator-brussels and generate a random one. It will be accepted by the system.
Check that all of the boxes are filled out before clicking “S’inscrire (Sign up).” The system will then send a confirmation link to your e-mail address.
To finish the RTBF registration, confirm your e-mail address; you are now set to watch RTBF from wherever.
Note: You may also register with Facebook and Google to make things simpler and quicker. It is all up to you.
Streaming RTBF
We are all set now! It is time to stream our favorite events with RTBF. To make that happen,
- make sure you are connected to Surfshark’s Belgium server.
- visit: https://www.rtbf.be/auvio/direct#/ and choose a channel that airs your demanded content.
As an example, I want to move forward with the Formula 1 races…
Formula One is just a geo-restricted example here. With the given method, you can watch any other sports events such as Moto GP, FIFA World Cup, etc…
RTBF VPNs (3 working alternatives)
It is difficult to find reputable VPN providers that properly integrate with RTBF. The streaming platform performs well in terms of monitoring and blocking VPN traffic. As a result, there is a chance that our existing VPN provider might be unable to assist you in streaming RTBF.
To ensure an uninterrupted streaming experience, I decided to present three different VPN companies with Belgium servers capable of unblocking RTBF. You may then continue watching your favorite events from where you left off.
I also made sure that these VPN companies had enough performance to provide a smooth and high-quality streaming experience.
Cyberghost
Cyberghost is a VPN company established in Romania that specializes in online privacy and streaming services. Currently, the corporation has over 8,900 servers in 91 countries, with Belgium being one of them.
The ultra-fast servers of CyberGhost will allow you to stream RTBF outside of Belgium with the excellent video quality. What’s more, Cyberghost maintains roughly 200+ dedicated VPN servers in Belgium datacenters and can handle the whole load throughout the live event period. My most recent test confirmed the speed performance at 147.23 Mbps.
There is one key point to make. The normal VPN servers of CyberGhost are not the same as the streaming servers. As a result, after connecting to the VPN app, go to the “For streaming” area, search for “RTBF,” and connect to the RTBF-Streaming-Friendly VPN server.
All of these features are reasonably priced. Cyberghost, fortunately, likes to make its pricing strategy as simple as possible. You may use the service on 7 different devices at the same time with a single account, and it just costs $2.25 per month.
AtlasVPN
Here is a relatively new VPN service provider on the market. AtlasVPN is NordVPN’s sibling firm, and it provides a promising solution for streaming platforms. AtlasVPN currently provides very limited coverage, with just 43 countries. Nonetheless, it allows you to utilize Belgium as a location for both online privacy and streaming.
Being a new VPN provides some additional benefits. AtlasVPN’s servers are not overwhelmed since it has few users. That’s also how my latest test gave a download speed of 176.89 Mbps. With such exceptional performance comes Full HD (1080p) streaming with RTBF.
We’re not done with the benefits yet. New businesses demand attention to their products. The most effective approach to do this is to keep their service fees as cheap as possible. AtlasVPN features a simple price policy and its best value is USD 1.99/month. A single account allows for an unlimited number of simultaneous connections!
VeePN
Here comes another new VPN provider. VeePN started its VPN service in 2017, and it has come quite a long way since then. Currently, VeePN’s server coverage reaches out to 60 different countries around the world, and Belgium is one of them.
Similar to other VPN services, VeePN also uses M247 data centers in Belgium, granting us a Belgian IP address and an average download speed of 181.70 Mbps.
With the given performance, you can stream RTBF live events as well as any other TV series or movies with the finest quality possible.
Last but not least, VeePN is the most affordable VPN service for unblocking RTBF outside of Belgium. A single account can be used on up to ten different devices at the same time, and the most affordable plan begins at only 1.67$ per month.
Summing up RTBF streaming
Feeling trapped by geo-restrictions and copyrights? It must be frustrating, particularly if you are unable to watch your favorite sporting events or on-demand content. Such restrictions are unfortunate and often arise while you are outside of a certain country.
The RTBF has the same issue. Because of the copyright agreements, whether you are a resident or an outsider attempting to access RTBF outside of Belgium, you will encounter geo-restriction issues.
Platforms implement such restrictions after analyzing your IP address. Simply said, if you visit RTBF with a non-Belgian IP address, you will be denied access to its contents.
As a workaround, we may use VPN services to circumvent the geo-restrictions. Such services not only improve our online privacy but also provide us with the IP address of the VPN server.
In other words, by connecting to a VPN server located in Belgium datacenters, we may get a Belgian IP address and stream RTBF regardless of where we are.
I’m a part-time traveler on a mission: to explore the world and uncover the intricate demands of VPN usage. Fueled by curiosity, I meticulously navigate the realms of privacy, streaming, and unblocking needs in every destination I visit. With a keen eye, I analyze the local and global VPN demands of each country, translating my findings into informative articles about VPN-related topics.