Dumb smart TV

[Demannu]

I've got a Sony kd-55XE8596. Trying to put itvx onto it. All I get is 'this app is not compatible yaddy yada!'
Pretty sure there is a way around this, but nafc how to do it! Managed to get iplayer on it a few years back, so I know the TV will cope.
I cant use a device and stream as I have to use a VPN to connect.
So, what are my options?

[KungFooBob]

Is it an Android TV?

My Sony OLED 4k is.

If the app isn't available for your version of Android then you'll either...

1. have to Chromecast it from a phone/tablet that can run the ITVX app.
2. get a firestick

[Demannu]

It is an android, but cant stream because of using a VPN on the tablet/phone
Dont know anything about fire sticks! I've used AFTVnews in the past but it seems to have stopped working.
Might lash out on a bedroom TV which hopefully be smarter than the sony

[KungFooBob]

A Kosher Firestick should allow you to install a VPN and the ITVX app, but you might need to side load the Play Store first.

Then there's the 'hooky' Firesticks that you can pay a yearly £60ish subscription to some crook on the internet and get every channel on the planet.

[DefTrap]

You can put some VPN apps onto a fire stick legitimately - ExpressVPN for example. And loads more if sideloaded (or if you piss about with your device settings ) and also hooky streaming apps like Kodi.

If you want to get the likes of iPlayer etc outside of the UK and onto a telly there aren't really any other ways than VPN
Casting causes additional problems, hence why a lot of people use vpn routers .

Most of these ways are still fraught with reliability issues though, and may drive you fecking mental, so unless you're happy watching stuff on your phone (which I find several degrees more reliable), I find easier to stick to subs services like netflix etc.

[Felix]

I can stream using my Android TV or firestick while running a VPN on the TV, Laptop or Firestick. I notice though the apps seem to work better when installed on the firestick rather than the TV. By better i mean more responsive when navigating the app.

[Felix]

Then there's the 'hooky' Firesticks that you can pay a yearly £60ish subscription to some crook on the internet and get every channel on the planet.

No need for a hooky firestick and i just paid £80 for the next five years.

[Ditchfinder]

As BT retire the old copper and move to fibre more people in the UK are ending up with a fixed ip address in the UK. We've set up a vpn on ours. So in France we have our normal Orange hub and plugged into the back a little travel router which connects to the vpn here in the UK and braodcasts a second wifi network for our UK TV stuff. Little travel router cost about £25 and I had to install openwrt onto it but he's been solid for over a year now.

I've started wondering (in case we move out to France permanently) whether it's possible to buy some cloud hosting purely to run openwrt on to provide a private vpn.
Wouldn't need to be on a high powered server but would need decent bandwidth and traffic allowances I guess.