Italians pay for RaiPlay through their electricity bills, where the TV licence fee is added each month. As a result, Rai’s streaming service charges viewers nothing and requires only a free account for on-demand shows.
Rai 1, Rai Sport, Rai Movie, and years of dramas and documentaries are all there. Abroad, the same service turns most of it off. Rai buys the rights to films, series, and sports for Italian viewers, so RaiPlay checks where your connection comes from and blocks other countries.
That includes Italians living in the US and travelers on a two-week holiday. Getting it back from the US or anywhere else takes one change to your connection.
RaiPlay From the USA or Anywhere in Four Steps
- Subscribe to NordVPN and set it up on the screen you watch RaiPlay on.
- Connect to an Italian server, such as Milan or Rome.
- Open RaiPlay in a browser or the app, and sign in to a free Rai account for on-demand shows.
- Start a live channel or a replay. If a rights notice appears, clear RaiPlay’s cookies and switch to another Italian city.
Why RaiPlay Is Blocked Outside Italy
RaiPlay reads your IP address as soon as you start a stream. If it points outside Italy, live channels and most shows are replaced by a rights notice, and signing in to your Rai account makes no difference. Rai’s own help pages explain why: its streaming rights for most programs cover connections from Italy only.
There are exceptions. The Rai News 24 live stream works abroad, and so do on-demand titles for which Rai bought international rights, although that list varies by country. Rai’s help pages make no exception for travelers elsewhere in the EU either, since the EU’s portability rules are optional for free services.
Everything else requires an Italian IP address, which a VPN with servers in Italy assigns as soon as you connect. Viewers in the US can also pay for Rai Italia, Rai’s international channel, through cable and streaming add-ons.
Our guide to watching Italian TV from the United States compares those paid options with the free route.
How to Watch RaiPlay in the USA or Abroad
We used NordVPN for this method because it unblocked RaiPlay in our tests and kept speeds high at all times. First, subscribe on NordVPN’s website and install the app on your TV, stick, or computer.
Its apps cover Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, Android TV, Fire TV, and Apple TV, and every plan carries a 30-day money-back guarantee. Then open the app, search for Italy, and choose a city instead of Quick Connect, which selects a server near you. Milan or Rome works.
Once connected, RaiPlay sees an Italian IP address, so go to raiplay.it or open the RaiPlay app. The app is listed in the US App Store and Google Play, so you don’t have to change your store’s country to install it.
Live channels start without signing in. For full episodes and the seven-day replay, sign in to a Rai account, which you can create on a phone or computer, though not on a smart TV app. The same method works for any other Italian TV channel you want to watch live abroad, including Mediaset’s.
Is RaiPlay Free? Account, Apps, and Channels
Yes. RaiPlay costs nothing, and the Rai account it uses is free as well. You can register with an email address or with a Google, Facebook, Apple, or X login. A phone number is optional, and Rai accepts only Italian mobile numbers, which it uses for its digital voting service, so you can skip that field.
The live section lists 14 channels: Rai 1, Rai 2, Rai 3, Rai News 24, Rai Sport, Rai 4, Rai 5, Rai Movie, Rai Premium, Rai Storia, Rai Yoyo, Rai Gulp, Rai Radio 2, and Italiana. Italiana replaced Rai Scuola in October 2026, so older channel lists are out of date.
Beyond phones and computers, RaiPlay has apps for Android TV, Apple TV, Fire TV, Samsung and LG smart TVs, PlayStation, and Chromecast. That means a VPN on the TV, a streaming stick, or the router brings it to the living room. Rai’s audio app, RaiPlay Sound, uses the same account for live radio, podcasts, and audiobooks.
What You Can Watch on RaiPlay From Abroad
Drama is the core of the catalog. Il Commissario Montalbano, L’amica geniale, and Don Matteo are among the series fans look for, along with films on Rai Movie and documentaries on Rai Storia. Many programs offer Italian subtitles, which helps language learners.
Sport is narrower than many viewers expect. Rai doesn’t show Serie A matches live, since DAZN owns those rights, with Sky sharing some games. Instead, Rai has highlights on 90° Minuto and free-to-air rights to the Italy national team’s Nations League games.
Rai also has free-to-air rights to the Olympics through Brisbane 2032. The biggest event of the year is the Sanremo Music Festival, which airs on Rai 1 from February 16 to 20, 2027. It’s broadcast in the Italian evening, so viewers in the Americas can watch it live in the afternoon or stream the replay later.
RaiPlay Still Blocked? Five Fixes
- Clear RaiPlay’s cookies, or use a private browsing window. The site can remember your actual location from a visit before you connected.
- Switch to another Italian city. Rai can flag an individual server, so a second city usually works.
- Restart the app or TV after connecting. Smart TV apps often keep the location they saw at launch.
- Check your IP address. Open an IP lookup site, and if it doesn’t show Italy, the VPN isn’t covering that device.
- Create the account on your phone. RaiPlay doesn’t allow sign-ups in its TV apps, so register first and sign in on the TV afterward.
Best VPNs to Watch RaiPlay Outside Italy
The reputable free VPNs don’t offer Italian servers on their free plans, so these three are paid. Each has servers in more than one Italian city and apps for the TVs and streaming sticks RaiPlay supports.
9200 servers
128 covered countries
30 days money-back guarantee
10 simultaneous connections
9.4 /10
20396 servers
148 covered countries
30 days money-back guarantee
10 simultaneous connections
9.2 /10
3000 servers
105 covered countries
30 days money-back guarantee
10 simultaneous connections
9.1 /10
1. NordVPN: Best VPN for RaiPlay Overall
Pros
- Unblocked RaiPlay’s live and on-demand sections
- More than 60 Italian servers
- Native Apple TV and Android TV apps
- SmartPlay for streaming services
- Blocks ads and malware on the Complete plan
Con
- Busy app for first-time users
In my tests, NordVPN worked very well with RaiPlay, with Rai 1, Rai News 24, and Rai Sport streaming from its Milan and Rome servers. Its Italian servers span Milan, Rome, and Palermo, and its Milan server was about 6% slower than our connection.
SmartPlay, NordVPN’s built-in Smart DNS layer, is on by default, so streaming requires no extra setup. NordVPN’s apps cover phones, computers, Fire TV, Android TV, and Apple TV, so RaiPlay can go straight to the big screen.
The Basic plan is about $3.50 a month for a two-year subscription, and the Android app includes a three-day free trial. After that, you have 30 days to request a refund under its money-back guarantee.
2. Proton VPN: Best for Fast Italian Servers
Pros
- 92 servers in Milan and Palermo
- VPN Accelerator for distant connections
- No separate streaming servers to find
- Stealth disguises VPN traffic
- 10 devices on one plan
Cons
- No streaming on the free plan
- No Smart DNS
Proton VPN’s Milan server was the fastest Italian server in our tests, with a speed loss under 5%. It also unblocked RaiPlay’s live channels and replays. Proton VPN operates 92 Italian servers in two cities, Milan and Palermo.
In addition, VPN Accelerator, a Proton VPN setting for long-distance connections, keeps a stream steady across the Atlantic or the Pacific. That’s one reason it ranks among the fastest VPNs we’ve tested. Its apps cover Android TV, Fire TV, and Apple TV, and one VPN Plus subscription covers 10 devices.
VPN Plus comes to about $3 a month if you prepay two years, and Proton VPN refunds you in full if you cancel in the first 30 days. Its free plan has no Italian server, so RaiPlay requires a paid plan.
3. ExpressVPN: Best for Three Italian Cities
Pros
- Servers in Milan, Naples, and Cosenza
- Lightway connects in seconds
- Dedicated Apple TV app
- MediaStreamer for smart TVs
- Free trial on mobile
Cons
- No multi-hop servers
- Few advanced settings
ExpressVPN’s Italian servers are in Milan, Naples, and Cosenza, so if Rai flags one, two other cities are a tap away. RaiPlay worked on ExpressVPN in our tests too, and its Lightway protocol connected almost at once. On the Milan server, it lost under 7% of our speed, so Rai’s HD streams started without buffering.
Its apps are simple, with one list of countries and a single connect button, and there’s a dedicated Apple TV app. For older smart TVs, MediaStreamer, ExpressVPN’s Smart DNS, changes the location RaiPlay sees without an app.
The Basic plan is about $3 a month over two years, and new mobile users can start with a three-day ExpressVPN free trial, which requires a card.
Conclusion
Rai News 24 is the one part of RaiPlay you can count on abroad without help. For everything else, connect a VPN to Milan or Rome, and the live channels, replays, and on-demand catalog work as they do in Italy, still for free. Before the first evening in front of the TV, register your Rai account on a phone, since the TV apps won’t create one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is RaiPlay free outside Italy?
Yes. RaiPlay charges no fee anywhere, but most live channels and shows are limited to Italian IP addresses, so viewers abroad see a rights notice unless they connect from Italy.
Can you watch RaiPlay in the USA?
Yes. RaiPlay works in the US with an Italian IP address from a VPN, while the Rai News 24 live stream and some on-demand titles are available there without one.
Does RaiPlay block VPNs?
No, not as a policy. RaiPlay checks the country of each IP address, so an Italian VPN server usually works, while a flagged server shows the rights notice until the user switches cities.
Is RaiPlay available in English?
No. RaiPlay's menus and almost all programs are in Italian, though many shows include Italian subtitles, which makes the catalog useful for people learning the language.
Is it legal to watch RaiPlay with a VPN?
Yes, in most countries. Using a VPN is legal, although viewing outside a licensed region breaks RaiPlay's terms, and the usual result is a blocked server.