The BBC has just put up a paywall. It now costs to view BBC articles if you’re outside the UK. I’m going to give it a bit of time to see if they change their mind, and if they don’t, I’ll remove the BBC from the news feeds. I’m not paying them and I doubt any of you will either.
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I just went to the BBC website to read the latest article about the hostilities in the Middle East. I was not asked to pay and the article was 38 minutes old.
I just Google BBC and the website pops up and I click news. Lead story is Hamas says it will disarm and join the Peace Board and Israel has no comment.
interesting, apparently this paywall is only for north america (or at least for now) :
Yes, according to the official BBC Help Guidelines, they explicitly state there are no plans to introduce this pay model outside of North America. [1]
The paywall is strictly limited to the United States (which launched in mid-2025) and Canada (which launched in mid-2026). [1, 2]
Why People Outside North America Sometimes See It
If someone living in Europe, Australia, or elsewhere sees the paywall, it is usually due to one of three technical reasons:
- VPN Usage: If you have a VPN running on your device and it is set to a US or Canadian server, the BBC website reads your IP address as North American and blocks the page. [1]
- Corporate Routing: Some large global companies route all of their office internet traffic through corporate data hubs based in the United States.
- Satellite Internet: Providers like Starlink occasionally assign IP addresses to users that geolocation databases mistakenly register as being in the US or Canada. [1, 2]
I just went to the BBC website and the lead story was about Infantino not delivering on his promises after 10 years. Never have encountered a paywall.