Good news for Love Island fans abroad: every episode lands on ITVX the same evening it airs, so you can stay completely current from wherever you are. You'll need a VPN and a free ITVX account to access it, and this guide covers both.

The catch with watching Love Island abroad

Love Island isn't a show you can fall a week behind on. There's a new episode every night during its run, seven nights a week for the duration of the series. Every recoupling, every dramatic exit, every Casa Amor twist happens in real time, and by the morning after it's already been discussed everywhere. If your VPN isn't reliable, you're not just missing a show, you're in spoiler territory.

The reassuring part is that ITVX, the free ITV streaming service that carries Love Island, is one of the easier British platforms to unblock. A decent VPN with working UK servers is usually all you need.

What you need

  • A free ITVX account. Sign up with an email address and a password. No UK address, no payment details, and no TV licence required for the free tier. The whole series is included with adverts.
  • A VPN with UK servers that work reliably with ITVX. ExpressVPN is our top recommendation for ITVX: it refreshes its UK server IP addresses regularly, which means fewer blocked connections. NordVPN is a solid alternative. Free VPNs are usually blocked, and getting cut off mid-episode is not something you want when you're deep into a series.

How to watch Love Island from abroad

  1. Connect your VPN to a UK server before opening ITVX. If you open the site first, ITVX may store your real location for that session. Start with the VPN already running.
  2. Open ITVX in a private or incognito window. Cookies from previous sessions can reveal your real location even when your IP shows a UK address. A private window clears those.
  3. Sign in to your ITVX account. ITVX won't play anything without a signed-in account.
  4. If it blocks you, switch to a different UK server. ITVX blocks known VPN IP addresses, and a different server in the same country usually gives you one that isn't on the list yet.

Watching live versus on catch-up

Love Island typically airs at 9pm UK time on ITV2. The same episode goes up on ITVX shortly after broadcast. ITV sometimes puts episodes on ITVX before they air on TV too, so if you're in a time zone ahead of the UK, it's worth checking ITVX early.

If you're behind the UK time zone, catch-up is always available. Every episode stays on ITVX throughout the run. Make sure your VPN connection is stable before you start watching. A mid-stream disconnection will stop the episode, and you'll need to reconnect and reload. If drops are a recurring problem, switching to the WireGuard protocol in your VPN app's settings tends to give the most stable streaming connection.

Watching on the ITVX app and smart TVs

ITVX has apps for iPhone, Android, and a wide range of smart TV platforms. On a phone or tablet, make sure you're using the full VPN app rather than a browser extension: a browser extension only protects traffic inside the browser, not the ITVX app running separately. Connect the VPN first, then open the app.

Amazon Fire TV Stick: the simplest smart TV option. ITVX is available directly from Amazon's app store. Install your VPN from the same store, connect to a UK server, and open ITVX.

Samsung and LG smart TVs: ITVX has a native app on both platforms. These TVs don't support VPN apps directly, so set up the VPN on your router to cover every device on your network, or share a VPN connection from your laptop as a wi-fi hotspot and connect the TV to it.

Apple TV: some VPN providers, including NordVPN and ExpressVPN, have tvOS apps available in the Apple TV App Store. Check there first. If your VPN doesn't have a tvOS app, the router or hotspot method works just as well.