A VPN reroutes every request through its own exit server, so your device shows up with a different IP address than the one your account normally logs in from. Streaming portals often score connections from shared or datacenter-range IPs as higher risk than a normal home IP, because thousands of other VPN users exit from that same address. On top of that, the VPN's encryption wraps every packet in extra data, which can shrink the usable packet size (MTU) below what the path expects and cause live video segments to arrive broken or late.

These three fail for different reasons, so test them separately instead of guessing. If you can't even log in with the VPN on, that points at the exit IP being flagged before any video ever starts, since the server is rejecting the connection before it reaches playback. If login succeeds but playback freezes every few seconds, that points at overhead from the tunnel breaking up segments rather than anything wrong with your account. If both work fine for a while and then the picture goes black and never recovers on its own, that points at the VPN having switched servers mid-session, which drops your authenticated connection along with the old IP it was tied to.

Yes, and it's the fastest, most discriminating test available before you touch any other setting. Disconnect ExpressVPN completely, then log in and play the exact channel that was failing. If it works right away, the VPN is confirmed as the fault, not your account or the app, and you can move on to picking the right fix. If it still fails with the VPN off, the problem sits somewhere else entirely, and reconnecting the VPN or changing its settings won't touch it. This single check tells you which of the three mechanisms above you're actually dealing with, so run it first.

Split tunneling lets you pick which apps route through the VPN tunnel and which go out over your normal internet connection instead. Excluding your IPTV app from the tunnel means its login and video traffic leave your device the same way they always did, using your regular home IP, while everything else you've chosen still gets full VPN protection. It removes both the flagged-IP problem at login and the added tunnel overhead that breaks up live segments, in one step, without turning the VPN off for anything else you're running. Most VPN apps, including ExpressVPN, list this setting under connection or network options rather than the main toggle.

It does, more than most people expect. A server picked for raw speed against a VPN's own speed-test tool isn't necessarily on a short path to your streaming service's servers. Connecting through a server in a different region can add hops between you and the stream, and each extra hop is another point where packets can queue up, slow down, or drop before they reach your device. Picking a server in your own country, or one close to it, rather than whichever one the app labels fastest for general browsing, usually shortens that path and clears buffering the VPN itself introduced. Test one channel before and after switching to compare directly.