How to Watch Italian TV from Abroad: RaiPlay, Rai Italia and More (2026)

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You're learning Italian, you open RaiPlay to watch tonight's show on Rai 1, and you get "Rai detiene i diritti per lo streaming del contenuto esclusivamente per connessioni dall'Italia": Rai can only stream this to connections from Italy. If you live in the US, the UK or anywhere else outside Italy, you'll see that line a lot.

You still have good options. One Rai channel is free from anywhere, Rai's international channel reaches most English-speaking countries through pay TV, and a VPN covers most of the rest. Here's what you can watch from where you live, what it costs, and which programs help most when you're learning Italian.

What can you watch free from outside Italy?

Less than in Italy, but enough to start:

• RaiPlay, Rai's free streaming service, lets viewers abroad watch Rai News 24 live, plus the on-demand programs Rai has the rights to show in your country. Rai says that selection varies by country. Live channels play without an account, but you need a free Rai account for full programs on demand.
• RaiPlay Sound, Rai's radio and podcast service, is free too. Rai says some live radio and on-demand audio is limited to Italy, but much of it plays abroad.

When we checked from the US on November 14, 2026, Rai News 24 played, and every other Rai live channel, including Rai 1, Rai Yoyo and Italiana, came back as "video non disponibile". Sky TG24's live stream on YouTube was blocked too: it's limited to viewers in Italy.

Which Italian channels are blocked abroad?

Italy's two big broadcasters both block their live channels outside Italy, in different ways. Checked November 14, 2026:

How to watch blocked Italian TV from abroad

You have two real options: pay for an international channel or service, or use a VPN.

Option 1: Pay for Rai Italia or Mediaset International

Rai Italia is Rai's channel for viewers outside Italy, with news, entertainment and some sport picked from Rai's channels. You get it through a pay-TV provider in your country:

• In the US, Rai Italia's US site lists providers including Xfinity, Spectrum, Cox, DIRECTV, Optimum, Verizon and Fubo, which sells it as an add-on.
• In Canada, Rogers' Best of Italian pack costs $15 a month and includes Rai Italia, Rai News, Rai World Premium and Mediaset Italia.
• In Australia, Fetch's Italian Pack costs $15 a month with Rai Italia, Rai News 24, Rai World Premium and Mediaset Italia.
• In the UK, we couldn't find a provider that Rai confirms carries Rai Italia.

Mediaset International is Mediaset's on-demand service for viewers abroad, with TgCom24 and Mediaset Italia. It costs €3.99 a month or €39.90 a year, or €8.99 a month in the US and Canada, with 7 days free. It doesn't include the live Mediaset channels. Mediaset sends UK viewers here, because the UK isn't in the EU.

In the US, Sling's Panorama Italiano costs $5 a month for four channels, including La7 Italia and Padre Pio TV. It doesn't carry Rai, and it works only in the US.

Option 2: Use a VPN with Italian servers

A VPN sends your connection through a server in another country, so RaiPlay sees an Italian address and plays Rai 1 live. One subscription covers every Italian platform.

I use Proton VPN, and it's the one I recommend. It has 132 servers in Italy, its streaming guide lists Rai and Mediaset Infinity, and in Comparitech's live streaming tracker on November 14, 2026, Proton VPN was one of six VPNs out of eight that unblocked RaiPlay. Gizmodo's tests found the same.

Two things to know before you sign up:

• You need a paid plan. Proton's free plan has no servers in Italy, it picks your country at random, and Proton supports streaming only on paid plans.
• RaiPlay blocks VPN addresses from time to time. Earlier in 2026, a Proton user on Reddit reported that RaiPlay had stopped working on Italian servers, and Proton's support team suggested switching to a browser. Learners on Reddit have reported similar blocks with NordVPN and Mullvad, while others said Surfshark, ExpressVPN or Proton worked for them. Check the channels you care about within Proton's 30-day money-back window.

Proton VPN Plus cost $35.88 for the first year when we checked on November 14, 2026, a Black Friday price that renews at $83.88 a year. Proton's pricing page has the current offer.

Know the rules before you rely on one. Rai says its full RaiPlay offer is only for devices recognized as being in Italy, and that a VPN isn't a way around that. Mediaset Infinity says it doesn't allow VPN connections. Proton asks you to use a legal, official account with each streaming platform.

Can you watch the Azzurri, Sanremo and the Giro from abroad?

Not on RaiPlay without a VPN. Italy's national football team plays free on Rai 1, and Rai also covers the Sanremo music festival and the Giro d'Italia, but Rai blocks every live channel except Rai News 24 abroad. Rai Italia carries some events, though its own FAQ explains that some sport shown in Italy, such as Formula 1 and cycling, doesn't air on it.

Which Italian TV helps most when you're learning?

• Rai News 24 is the one live Rai channel you can watch free and legally from anywhere, and news repeats the same stories through the day, so you get several tries at each one.
• Subtitles in Italian let you read what you hear. RaiPlay's player has an "Audio e sottotitoli" menu when a program has them, and RaiPlay groups subtitled programs and series in its "Programmi sottotitolati" and "Fiction sottotitolate" collections.
• Scuola e Learning, RaiPlay's education section, includes language lessons and preschool programs.
• Rai Yoyo, Rai's preschool channel, is made for small children, so the language is simple. Its live stream is blocked abroad.

Watching trains your ear. To say what you hear, try our app, Copycat Cafe: you hear an everyday conversation, say each line aloud and get a 0–100 pronunciation score on every word, then use the same Italian with Copy, your AI conversation partner. Our Italian course has 200 conversations from A1 (beginner) to B2 (upper intermediate). In a B1 lesson called "Mom wants a call", a father warns his daughter when to phone her mother: Meglio prima delle otto, perché dopo guarda la sua serie ("Better before eight, because after that she watches her show").

Copycat Cafe's Personal plan costs $174 a year or $29 a month in the US, with a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee on your first payment.

For more listening, see our best podcasts to learn Italian. Our guide on how to learn Italian for free covers free courses, and our best apps to learn Italian compares more options.