This may have been discussed before but I noticed that when I checked European TV packages (e.g. of French, Belgian providers etc), they would offer national broadcast TV channels of neighbouring countries. Therefore Italians who live in Sweden, Germany or wherever can watch Rai1. You see them widely available in continental hotels too. When I was checking Sky, Virgin, and BT TV however, they would not offer even one national channel that belongs to a European country. If ever they do, it would be channels from Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian Subcontinent. The only exception is RTE and TG4 but only in Northern Ireland. Even in UK hotels you won't typically get to see foreign european national channels.
How come UK providers have been reluctant to carry France 2, Das Erste, Rai 1, and their ilk unlike their continental counterparts?
I don't know the reasons for it but mainly because of the different satellites used. Satellite customers in other countries can usually pick up channels from other countries without having to realign their dish.
This may have been discussed before but I noticed that when I checked European TV packages (e.g. of French, Belgian providers etc), they would offer national broadcast TV channels of neighbouring countries. Therefore Italians who live in Sweden, Germany or wherever can watch Rai1. You see them widely available in continental hotels too. When I was checking Sky, Virgin, and BT TV however, they would not offer even one national channel that belongs to a European country. If ever they do, it would be channels from Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian Subcontinent. The only exception is RTE and TG4 but only in Northern Ireland. Even in UK hotels you won't typically get to see foreign european national channels.
How come UK providers have been reluctant to carry France 2, Das Erste, Rai 1, and their ilk unlike their continental counterparts?
Rights have got to be a big problem, surely?
Das Erste, ZDF, the German regional channels and RTL all used to be freely-available on analogue Astra back in the day.
There was a big promotional push for TV5 Monde (half-owned by France Télévisions) about 12 years back, but that's not available in the UK any more.
I don't know the reasons for it but mainly because of the different satellites used. Satellite customers in other countries can usually pick up channels from other countries without having to realign their dish.
Yes, the popular de-facto orbital position for non UK satellite transmission is 19.2 degs East . It's what Sky used in the 90s for its analogue services, and that's why you could receive loads of German TV services on the dish and receiver.
When Sky Digital launched in 1998, they selected Astra's satellites at 28.2 degs, a different position in the sky, and only used by UK broadcasters. All Sky dishes therefore installed for digital, had to be pointed there. You can get dishes that will respond to more than one position, but it's not mass market stuff, and requires the user to be tech savvy to operate etc
It's the same reason why you don't find the likes of BBC One and Two, ITV, Channel 4 etc on television abroad, except where they are carried on local cable for example in Belgium and the Netherlands.
1. Pay-TV platforms offering broadcasters from other countries on their platforms. In some territories re-broadcasts of neighbouring countries' stations (NRK, DR, SVT etc. in each other's countries) takes place because of rights agreements. This can be helped particularly if the pay-TV operator operates in multiple territories - meaning rather than re-broadcasting, satellite platforms can just 'add' those broadcasters to specific pay-TV tiers. (The UK and Germany are unusual in having unencrypted broadcasts of their main public service stations - most other countries PSBs are encrypted on satellites aimed at domestic viewing)
2. Free-to-air broadcasts being receivable 'out of region' - where hotels can receive ZDF or RAI for instance and make them available on their hotel ring main TVs for foreign guests etc.
3. Minority language border overlap exceptions. In some cases - like the Swedish-speaking bits of Finland, SVT from Sweden is made available in those regions on a special basis.
BBC and ITV are also on a smaller satellite footprint covering the British Isles and a little bit of Continental Europe, so anywhere outside this zone will require not only a larger dish but also would require a dish pointing at Astra 2 (28.2°), elsewhere in Europe gets their channels from different satellite positions.
From what I remember, both BBC and ITV used to be soft-encrypted and required a viewing card for the purpose of accessing the free-to-view channels, but they moved to a small footprint to save encryption fees and as a way to make it harder for other countries to view the channels.
The UK PSBs are carried on cable in Belgium and Netherlands because they have agreements with them, historically, the channels can be picked up there, so they might as well be distributed on cable in exchange for a fee.
To add to Noggin's point 1 - In Denmark, Norway and Sweden it also helps that the languages are mostly mutually intelligible so Danish viewers aren't likely to find Swedish or Norwegian television a huge barrier because of the language, and therefore more likely to watch it, which is why they have the platform and rights structure they have.
It's similar to rights being sold on a UK and Ireland basis rather than just a UK basis. It's just there's little appetite for the Irish channels in the UK, unlike the opposite.
The UK PSBs are carried on cable in Belgium and Netherlands because they have agreements with them, historically, the channels can be picked up there, so they might as well be distributed on cable in exchange for a fee.
It's only BBC 1 and 2 that were readily available on Benelux cable systems. That stems from a receive station near Zeebrugge that used to receive signals from the Dover transmitter, and carry them onwards to the various cables cos. I've heard stories they also carried TVS and C4 for a very short while, but the commercial TV operators in Belgium and The Netherlands protested, and I think also the IBA took a dim view of the idea, so it soon became just BBC 1 and 2. That off air feed remained in place, with rather variable picture quality until 2003, when, as mentioned the BBC went FTA on Astra 28.2. Last time I was in The Netherlands (last year) BBC 1 and 2 HD were available in some places, as well as the (UK) News Channel and BBC 4
BBC 1 and 2 SD are also carried on one of the Dutch DTT muxes I think ?
It's similar to rights being sold on a UK and Ireland basis rather than just a UK basis. It's just there's little appetite for the Irish channels in the UK, unlike the opposite.
A point proved by the failure of Tara TV, which was set up to mainly show RTÉ stuff in Great Britain. Expect wider access to RTÉ Player covers that now.
It's similar to rights being sold on a UK and Ireland basis rather than just a UK basis. It's just there's little appetite for the Irish channels in the UK, unlike the opposite.
A point proved by the failure of Tara TV, which was set up to mainly show RTÉ stuff in Great Britain. Expect wider access to RTÉ Player covers that now.
We also had Irish TV and Sky Scottish attempt similar strategies, only to end up dying after a few years.
It's similar to rights being sold on a UK and Ireland basis rather than just a UK basis. It's just there's little appetite for the Irish channels in the UK, unlike the opposite.
A point proved by the failure of Tara TV, which was set up to mainly show RTÉ stuff in Great Britain. Expect wider access to RTÉ Player covers that now.
We also had Irish TV and Sky Scottish attempt similar strategies, only to end to dying after a few years.
Yes, and despite paying a fair amount of money to Sky and Freesat to carry all the variants in the EPG, the BBC
never
promote the fact that every other nation and region of theirs is available to all at Ch 9XX.
When they do mention local programmes nationally, they only mention they can be seen out of area on iplayer