Ireland has the best-value answer of any market in this guide and the easiest mistake to make in it. The programme most people want is here for €8.99 a month — sitting next to a different programme with almost the same name.
There is no NBC channel or subscription in Ireland, but the programmes are here. NOW carries the real NBC Saturday Night Live at season 51 behind an Entertainment Membership at €8.99 a month, and the Chicago and Law & Order dramas are on Sky Witness and NOW. Be careful which SNL you open: Saturday Night Live UK is a different, British show on the same service. A residential U.S. IP address is for something narrower — the free, sign-in-free part of NBC.com.
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Both shows are real, both are on the same service, and only one of them is the American original.
NOW Ireland carries the NBC Saturday Night Live. Not clips, not a compilation: season 51, more than twenty episodes listed, on demand, behind an Entertainment Membership. For anyone who has spent an evening failing to find SNL legally, that is the answer, and it costs less than most people expect.
The catch is on the same page. NOW also carries Saturday Night Live UK, a separately produced British format, and it appears in the recommendations right next to the original. The two are easy to confuse and completely different shows. If you want Lorne Michaels’ programme from New York, check that the title has no “UK” after it.
The dramas are on Sky Witness, which Sky Ireland includes with its Ultimate TV tier. Sky’s own channel page names Chicago P.D. and Law & Order in its listings and refers to the One Chicago franchise and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in its description. On NOW, Chicago Fire, Law & Order, Law & Order: Organized Crime and Law & Order: Criminal Intent are available on demand under the same Entertainment Membership.
Read on 26 September 2026
| What you are looking for | Where it is in Ireland | How this was checked |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday Night Live (the NBC one) | NOW — season 51, Entertainment Membership | NOW’s own page for the series |
| Saturday Night Live UK | NOW — a different, British show | Listed separately on the same service |
| Chicago P.D., Law & Order | Sky Witness, included with Ultimate TV | Sky Ireland’s own channel page |
| Chicago Fire, Law & Order: Organized Crime and Criminal Intent | NOW, on demand | NOW’s own series pages |
| Chicago Med, and current SVU seasons | Not established by name — the franchise is carried, these two were not separately confirmed | Stated rather than guessed |
| An NBC-branded channel | Does not exist in Ireland | NBCUniversal does not use the name outside America |
| Peacock | Not sold in Ireland — see below | Peacock’s own help page |
One limit stated rather than smoothed over. Chicago Med was not confirmed by name on either service, and no current season number was verified for SVU. The franchise is plainly carried; those two specifics were not checkable, so this page does not list them as though they were.
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Irish pricing is unusually easy to establish, and one widely repeated route no longer exists at all.
NOW publishes its prices plainly, which makes Ireland the only market in this guide where a first-party figure was available for everything that matters. Read on 26 September 2026:
NOW Ireland, from its own membership page
| Membership | Regular price | Promotional | Minimum term |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entertainment — the one with SNL and the dramas | €8.99/month | €5.99 | 6 months |
| Entertainment & HBO Max | €11.99/month | €7.99 | 6 months |
| Cinema (add-on) | €11.99/month after a 7-day trial | — | — |
| Boost (add-on) | €5.00/month after a 7-day trial | — | — |
| Sports | €38.99/month | €27 with Sports Extra | 12 months |
Entertainment is the membership that matters here: it is the one carrying Saturday Night Live and the Chicago and Law & Order dramas. Note the six-month minimum term — NOW is often described as contract-free, and for this membership that is not quite right.
Now the thing that no longer exists. For a couple of years there was a Peacock-branded area inside Sky and NOW in the UK and Ireland, and a great many pages about watching NBC content in Ireland still point at it. It closed on 9 January 2024. The dramas carried on through ordinary Sky licensing, which is why they are still on Sky Witness and NOW today; Peacock’s American sports never came to Europe at all.
That closure is reported by UK broadcast-trade coverage and a national outlet rather than announced on Sky’s own site, so it is dated and attributed here rather than presented as first-party. The underlying point does not depend on it, because Peacock itself is unambiguous about where it works:
“Peacock is currently available to stream within the United States and certain U.S. territories (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands).” — Peacock Help — where Peacock is available
And one NBCUniversal service that genuinely is here. Hayu is NBCUniversal’s own, active in Ireland and sold as an add-on through Sky and NOW. It is reality programming — it is not where the Chicago franchise lives, and anything suggesting otherwise is wrong. The E! channel, also NBCUniversal’s, closed in the UK and Ireland at the end of 2023.
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There is no NBC subscription to buy — not here, and not in America either. What there is instead is three layers, and only one of them is about money.
Start with the part nobody says clearly: NBC does not sell anything. Its own help centre puts it in six words.
“We do not charge for access to our sites or apps” — NBC Help Centre — NBC sites and apps are free to use
So the comparison every other guide on this site makes — the American price against the local one — does not exist here. What exists is three layers of access, each with a different gatekeeper.
The three NBC layers, from NBC’s own help centre
| Layer | What it costs | What it actually needs |
|---|---|---|
| Clips and recent full episodes on NBC.com and in the NBC app | Nothing | No account of any kind. This is the layer a network address reaches. |
| Locked full episodes | Nothing extra | A sign-in to a participating U.S. television provider. An address is not a credential. |
| The live NBC stream | Nothing extra | A U.S. provider sign-in and a billing address inside that station’s own viewing area. |
| Past seasons | Varies, and often elsewhere | Whoever holds the rights that year — frequently not NBC |
“Some video content (long-form full episodes and short-form clips) requires authentication – meaning you have to sign in to your TV service provider.” — NBC Help Centre — what needs a sign-in
The television-provider sign-in is the one people misread as a paywall. It is not NBC charging: it is NBC checking that somebody else already charged you. NBC names Xfinity, DirecTV Now, Dish, Sling, Spectrum and YouTube TV as examples. Every one of them bills a U.S. address, and none of them is something a network connection supplies.
And when a season you remember has simply gone, that is usually not a location problem at all:
“the streaming rights for past seasons were not available. In some cases, a studio or other rights holder may license past seasons to other streaming video services like Netflix, Hulu or Amazon.” — NBC Help Centre — why past seasons disappear
For an Irish reader the practical upshot is unusually tidy. The programme most people are chasing is legally available for €8.99 a month, the dramas come with a Sky tier many households already have, and nothing American needs to be arranged for either. A residential U.S. IP address is for the narrower case: the free part of NBC.com itself.
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What NBC publishes about where you are — and the thing it pointedly does not publish, which matters just as much.
This is the section worth reading twice, because almost every other page on the subject gets it the wrong way round.
NBC has never published a page saying NBC.com is United States-only. Its help centre has a whole “Watching Video” category, and there is no article about countries, travel or location in it. Compare ABC, which publishes exactly such a statement. NBC does not. This page therefore does not claim NBC says it.
What NBCUniversal does publish, in the eligibility clause of its Terms of Service, is more open than almost anything comparable — and it is worth reading closely, because it names people outside the United States on purpose:
“The NBCUniversal Services are for users who are 18 years of age or older and reside in the United States (including its territories and possessions), or those outside the United States who, to the maximum extent permissible under applicable law, consent to use the NBCUniversal Services in accordance with U.S. laws and these TOS.” — NBCUniversal Terms of Service, section 1.2 — Eligibility
Two groups, not one. Residents of the United States and its territories — and, separately, people outside the United States who consent to use the services under U.S. law. There is no clause forbidding you from being abroad.
That cuts both ways, and the second way matters more. Those terms turn on where you reside, which is a fact about your life rather than about your connection. No network address changes it, and nothing on this page suggests one does. What an address can affect is the technical layer underneath — and NBC documents that layer only for the live stream, where the rules are precise:
“The live stream always requires authorization from a TV provider.” — NBC Help Centre — the live stream
“The NBC website and apps will only show you the local NBC station where you are physically located.” — NBC Help Centre — how the station is chosen
“We can’t show you the NBC station from somewhere else in the country.” — NBC Help Centre — and what it will not do
“The billing address on file with your TV provider must be located within your local viewing area.” — NBC Help Centre — the requirement that decides it
Read those four together and the live stream resolves into something no connection can arrange on its own. NBC serves the station belonging to wherever you appear to be. It will not serve a different one on request. And it wants the billing address on your television-provider account to sit inside that same viewing area. Two separate facts have to agree, and only one of them is a network address.
NBC also warns that the map has holes in it:
“While streams are available in most markets, there are still occasional gaps in coverage.” — NBC Help Centre — coverage is not complete
The other half of the confusion is Peacock, which people reach for assuming it is the way round all of this. It is not sold here either, and Peacock is unusually clear about where it works:
“Peacock is currently available to stream within the United States and certain U.S. territories (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands).” — Peacock Help — where Peacock is available
Fifty states and American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Nothing else, and no country in this guide.
One last distinction, because it is the reason searching for “NBC” abroad turns up so little. NBCUniversal does not use the NBC name outside America. On its own Latin American site the Chicago franchise and the Law & Order titles are listed under Universal TV; in Europe its content travels through SkyShowtime and ordinary licensing deals; reality goes to Hayu. Four brands, none of them the three letters you searched for.
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One layer of the stack, described plainly, with the other layers left where they are.
USip sells the network part and nothing else. Every NBC rule above still applies in full.
Ireland’s version of the usual caution is about the shape of the subscription rather than the catalogue. NOW and Sky are Irish services with Irish licences, and an American network address changes nothing about what is in them, what they cost, or the six-month term on an Entertainment Membership.
The live NBC stream stays out of reach regardless. It wants a television-provider sign-in whose billing address sits inside an American station’s viewing area, and an Irish Sky or NOW account is not one.
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Each one is quick, and each one can save an evening of guessing which layer failed.
Sky Witness is included with that tier, and it is where Chicago P.D. and Law & Order are. If it is already on the bill, there is nothing to buy.
€8.99 a month regular, with a six-month minimum term, and season 51 of the actual NBC Saturday Night Live on it. Saturday Night Live UK is a different British show on the same service, recommended right beside it.
That area closed on 9 January 2024. Peacock’s own help page limits it to the United States and five US territories, so no Irish arrangement reaches it.
Connect the residential U.S. address, open a private desktop window, and play one ordinary unlocked clip on NBC.com. No sign-in, no live stream, no app. One result, one variable — and it is the one layer an address is supposed to fix.
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Four recordings, one per device. Start on a computer, where the detected country and the playback error are both visible, and move to the television last.
Connect first, confirm the public U.S. address, then open a private window and play one unlocked NBC clip before anything else.
Use a private Safari window or a current Chromium browser. If one browser plays and another does not, look at cookies, extensions, Private Relay and location permission before blaming the network.
Get the clean browser result first. Do not change an Apple Account country because an older recording shows that step — it is not what stops NBC.
Confirm the address and browser playback before opening the app. Google Play country and television support are separate questions from the network address.
What these recordings are good for, and what they are not. All four were made in December 2022, so they show the connection sequence on each device accurately and they show NBC as it looked then. Since filming, NBC’s site and apps have been redesigned, the list of participating television providers has changed, and Peacock’s prices and footprint have moved. Follow the videos for the network setup; take everything about accounts, plans, app stores and payment from NBC’s own current pages rather than from a four-year-old screen recording.
One Irish caveat. Sky Witness and NOW need none of this — they are Irish subscriptions on Irish apps, and Saturday Night Live plays on NOW without any of it. The four recordings below are for reaching NBC.com itself.
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A residential U.S. IP address, billed in euros, cancellable at any time. It is the network layer only. NBC itself is free, so there is no NBC subscription bundled here — and no plan on this page supplies a television-provider sign-in.
1 Month Pass
€9.99 each month after the 3-day trial.
6 Month Pass
€39 every six months after the 3-day trial.
12 Month Pass
€69 per year after the 3-day trial.
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There is nothing to subscribe to. NBC does not sell a subscription in Ireland, and it does not sell one in the United States either — its own help centre says “We do not charge for access to our sites or apps”. What some content asks for instead is a sign-in to an American television provider, which is a different thing from a price.
No. Peacock names its territories precisely: the United States plus American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Ireland is not among them, and there is no Peacock subscription sold there under any arrangement.
Not for on-demand video, no — and this is worth being exact about. NBC’s help centre has a “Watching Video” category with no article about countries or location in it at all. The US-location requirement NBC does publish is for the live stream: you must be physically in the United States, and your provider’s billing address must be inside that station’s viewing area. Pages that quote the live rule as though it covered everything are quoting the wrong paragraph.
No, and nobody can sell you that. NBC says its site and apps “will only show you the local NBC station where you are physically located” and that it cannot show a station from elsewhere in the country. USip sells a dedicated residential U.S. IP address, not a choice of city or market, so which station appears is not something this page can promise.
One layer: the public network address NBC reads. That layer is worth isolating because the free, unauthenticated part of NBC.com asks for nothing else — no account, no sign-in, no payment — so for that part there is no other layer to get wrong. Whether NBC then plays is NBC’s decision and not something this page can promise, which is why the three-day trial is the sensible way to find out. Everything above that layer — the provider sign-in, the live stream — is untouched.
No, and NBCUniversal is unusually explicit about it. Its Terms of Service name two groups: people who reside in the United States and its territories, and “those outside the United States who, to the maximum extent permissible under applicable law, consent to use the NBCUniversal Services in accordance with U.S. laws and these TOS”. Note what that turns on, though: where you reside. That is a fact about your life, not about your connection, and no network address alters it.
No. NBCUniversal does not use the NBC name outside America. Its own Latin American site lists the Chicago franchise and the Law & Order titles under Universal TV; in Europe the same content reaches viewers through SkyShowtime and ordinary licensing to local broadcasters, and its reality programming goes to Hayu. Searching for the three letters is why the answer feels hidden.
NOW, on an Entertainment Membership at €8.99 a month. Season 51 is there with more than twenty episodes. Check the title: NOW also carries Saturday Night Live UK, a separate British production, and it appears in the recommendations next to the original.
No. It is a British format produced separately, and it shares almost all of its name with the American original. Both are on NOW. If you want the New York programme, make sure the title has no “UK” on the end.
Sky Witness, which Sky Ireland includes with Ultimate TV — its own channel page names Chicago P.D. and Law & Order and refers to the One Chicago franchise and SVU. On NOW, Chicago Fire and two further Law & Order series are available on demand. Chicago Med was not separately confirmed, so this page does not list it.
No. The Peacock-branded area inside Sky and NOW closed on 9 January 2024. The dramas continued under ordinary Sky licensing, which is why they are still there, but Peacock itself is limited to the United States and American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
No. Hayu is NBCUniversal’s own service and it is active in Ireland through Sky and NOW, but it carries reality programming. The scripted dramas are on Sky Witness and NOW, not on Hayu.
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Rights, prices and carriage all move. Every factual claim on this page links to the page it came from.
NBC is a third-party service and is not affiliated with USip. NBCUniversal controls what its sites and apps show, which items need a TV-provider sign-in, which station a location is served, and all content rights — and all of them change.
Work out which layer is actually stopping you before you change anything else. Connect the residential U.S. address, open a private desktop window, and play one ordinary unlocked clip on NBC.com — not a locked episode, and not the live stream. If that plays, the network layer is solved and everything still missing is an account or a rights question. If it does not, nothing above it was ever going to work. That single result tells you more than an evening of retrying will.