How to watch the US election in the UK online and on TV
After months of campaigning, debates and build-up, the US presidential election is finally here. The votes are continuing to be counted across 50 states to determine who will be the President of the United States for the next four years – the defending Republican Donald Trump, or the challenging Democrat,Joe Biden.
If you’d like to tune in on the action for yourself here in the UK, we’ve rounded up everything you need to know.
It’s worth noting that due to the mass increase of postal votes this year, there is a major delay in the official results. We still may not know who the President is by today – it could take days or weeks due to some states being delayed by counting votes.
How to watch the US election on UK TV
As the election is going on for longer than expected, some of the dedicated election programmes are no longer airing. However,CNN Internationalis still showing its Election Night in America coverage until 9pm GMT on Thursday, with real-time updates.
It’s worth noting that CNN is not available on all TV packages – consult your TV guide to see if its available. If its not, there are other options.
Whilst BBC One has now ended its dedicated programme, you can continue to learn regular updates from theBBC News Channel, as well asSky Newsthroughout today and tomorrow.
How to watch the US election online in the UK
If you need to stream the election, then there’s two major options to choose from. Firstly, there’sBBC iPlayer, which will allow you to stream the election on BBC News online. You’ll need an account with the website and be a valid TV licence holder.
You can also watch the election coverage live onCNN International– the livestream player is at the top of the page. For this website, you don’t need an account.
If you’re outside of the UK at the moment, you can still tune into both of these platforms through using a VPN such asNordVPNorExpressVPN. VPNs reroute your IP address so you can browse the internet as if you’re from another country. For tuning into BBC iPlayer, you would connect to a UK server.
You can find more detailed instructions in our guide to watchingBBC iPlayer from abroad.You can also use this method to tune into other popular British TV programmes such asThe Great British Bake OffandEastEndersfrom other countries.
Note that you should still have a valid TV licence if you’re watching iPlayer, and that both of these methods are against both streaming platforms’ terms of service.
Author: Hannah Cowton-Barnes, Entertainment Editor, Tech Advisor
As Tech Advisor’s Entertainment Editor, Hannah is the resident expert in all things streaming, film and TV. Before joining Tech Advisor in 2019, she studied Theatre and Performance at the University of Leeds and created a website dedicated to geek culture and lifestyle. She’s also reviewed a whole range of gadgets including flagship smartphones, wearables and styling tools. Outside of Foundry, she’s written freelance pieces for Polygon, Metro and Den of Geek, and is proud to be a Women Techmakers Ambassador for Google.
