It is well after dark in Mexico City, and the rainy season thunder is currently rattling the window frames of our Airbnb in Roma Norte. I am huddled on the sofa, desperately trying to stream the latest episode of University Challenge on the Apple TV without the video buffering mid-starter-for-ten. There is something uniquely soul-crushing about seeing that little spinning wheel just as Amol Rajan is about to reveal if someone actually knows the capital of Kyrgyzstan.
Before we get into the weeds of server locations and latency, a quick heads-up: I use affiliate links in this post. If you sign up for a VPN through these links, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend services like Surfshark that I have actually paid for and used while bouncing between places like Lisbon and Porto over the last few years. Full transparency is the only way to survive the nomad life without losing your mind.
Moving from London to Mexico City late last autumn meant bringing my trusty Apple TV along, but I quickly realized that geo-blocks are much stickier here than they were in Europe. It’s not just about the distance; it’s about the fact that my partner is usually hogging the bandwidth for late-night design syncs with clients in Sydney. When you have two people living out of suitcases with a combined total of about 12 devices—phones, laptops, tablets, and the TV—you start hitting connection ceilings you never knew existed.
The Great Device Ceiling of CDMX
One rainy evening in January, I hit a breaking point. I was using a very well-known VPN service—let’s call it the industry heavyweight—and I couldn't get the Apple TV to connect. It turned out we had hit our limit. Most services, including the very excellent ExpressVPN, have a simultaneous device limit of 8. That sounds like a lot until you realize that between two digital nomads, you’ve probably got eight devices just sitting on the desk charging.
This is where my experiment with different providers really kicked off. I needed something that wouldn't kick my laptop off the network just because I wanted to watch EastEnders on the big screen. After about two months in CDMX, I realized that for a couple on the move, the unlimited simultaneous device limit offered by Surfshark isn't just a marketing gimmick; it’s a necessity. It meant I could leave the VPN running on the Apple TV, both our phones, and our work machines without ever seeing a "too many connections" error message.
Native Apps vs. The Old Router Headache
If you’d asked me a year ago how to get a VPN on an Apple TV, I would have groaned. It used to involve setting up a complicated VPN on your router or using something called Smart DNS, which is about as fun as filing your own taxes in a foreign language. However, Apple finally released tvOS version 17, which introduced native VPN support. This was a massive game-changer for me.
The measurable tradeoff here is worth noting: native tvOS VPN applications provide significantly faster installation convenience than manual router-level configurations. You just download the app from the App Store, log in, and you’re done. The downside is that it only protects the TV, not every single device in your flat like a router setup would. But honestly, when it’s 2am and you just want to see the news from home, you want the path of least resistance. I've written before about why Surfshark is the best VPN for travel with multiple devices, and the Apple TV app is a huge part of that.
Why BBC iPlayer is the Ultimate Boss Level
Early June was particularly rough for streaming. The BBC seemed to have gone on a bit of a warpath, blocking a huge range of IP addresses associated with data centers. I’d be halfway through a documentary when a "This content is not available in your location" screen would pop up. It’s that specific look of the captcha—the one that asks you to click on all the chimneys—that really starts to grate after the third time in an hour.
What I found is that the dedicated Apple TV app for Surfshark handles the jump from Mexican ISPs to London servers surprisingly well. When one server gets flagged by the BBC, I can usually just swap to another UK location (like Manchester or Glasgow) and it clears right up. It’s much more reliable than Private Internet Access, which I found struggled a bit more with the aggressive detection used by British streaming services.
The Contenders for Your Living Room
While I've stuck with Surfshark for the long haul in Mexico, I have tried the others. NordVPN is great because it has those specialty servers labeled by use case, which is handy if you're in a rush. Then there’s CyberGhost VPN, which has a 45 days money-back guarantee—the longest I've seen—and is very beginner-friendly because it literally has a button that says "For BBC iPlayer."
However, when you're dealing with the specific latency of Mexico City—where the altitude and urban density can sometimes make the local internet feel a bit sluggish—you need a protocol that doesn't add too much overhead. I’ve found that Surfshark’s implementation of WireGuard keeps the 4K streams on the Apple TV crisp, whereas some other services caused noticeable pixelation during high-motion scenes (like football matches or frantic quiz show rounds).
If you're also trying to watch stuff from other regions while based in Mexico, you might find my guide on the easy way to unblock Netflix Japan for anime useful too. It’s the same principle, just different servers.
Final Thoughts from the Sofa
Living as a nomad for three years has taught me that the "perfect" tech setup doesn't exist, but a reliable one does. When you're thousands of miles from home, those little comforts—like being able to watch the same telly as your parents back in the UK—actually matter. It makes the world feel a bit smaller and the rainy nights in CDMX a bit cozier.
If you’re currently staring at a "not available" screen on your Apple TV, I’d highly recommend giving Surfshark a go. It’s the only way I’ve managed to keep our household of a dozen devices connected without a constant headache. And if you're planning your next move, don't forget that you can also use a VPN to find cheaper flights, which usually pays for the subscription itself after one booking.