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English TV Abroad

(June 2013)

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NL
Ne1L C
RB posted:
Steve in Pudsey posted:
One consequence of the move to DTT is that hotel operators are starting to simply distribute an aerial feed to each room and use integrated digital sets rather than using satellite. This means that often only local programmes are available rather than the usual selection of satellite channels. At one time you could usually rely on having BBC World and CNNi in English, but that is no longer guaranteed.


On the other hand, some hotels carry domestic British television. When we stayed in Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands last year, our television included three domestic British channels, BBC1 Scotland, ITV Meridian (South) and Channel 4 (with audio description).
An eclectic mix.
The hotel bar showed a bit of BBC1 Scotland too.
I'm assuming they were picking it up from satellite and rebroadcasting it on the hotel's network.

Is it possible to hoodwink Sky by paying for a package with a UK address and simply moving the box and the card abroad?



Interesting selection of stations Smile
AM
amosc100
Now this is odd but there is a bar on the main road from Centraal Station, in Amsterdam (heading towards Dam) that has a Sky box with a Channel Island viewing card - can't be many of them around!
RD
rdd Founding member
amosc100 posted:
Now this is odd but there is a bar on the main road from Centraal Station, in Amsterdam (heading towards Dam) that has a Sky box with a Channel Island viewing card - can't be many of them around!


I was in a hotel in Galway not too long ago that had Channel tuned in, which needless to say I was extremely surprised to see! The vast majority of Irish hotels I have been to would have UTV tuned in and it would be extremely rare to see a region other than UTV or Wales, though I have oddly seen Central a few times.
DA
David
rdd posted:
The vast majority of Irish hotels I have been to would have UTV tuned in and it would be extremely rare to see a region other than UTV or Wales, though I have oddly seen Central a few times.


Isn't Central the default region if you don't have a card in the box?
JO
Jon
David posted:
rdd posted:
The vast majority of Irish hotels I have been to would have UTV tuned in and it would be extremely rare to see a region other than UTV or Wales, though I have oddly seen Central a few times.


Isn't Central the default region if you don't have a card in the box?

Yes it is.
:-(
A former member
623058 posted:
WW Update posted:
623058 posted:
Not every thing has been legal....

In the Autumn of 1977, a commercial Dutch Television company was recording Anglia television signals and transmitting its English programmes, including Coronation street and Survival, to its viewers in Amsterdam. The Dutch government did not believe it was a violation of Dutch copyright law - EBU legal advisers held discussions about to how resolve the matter.


Was it a pirate company? The Netherlands didn't have (legally licensed) commercial television at the time.


Let me dig out the newspaper clipping about that, Get back to you about that.


*
RI
Richard
Gavin Scott posted:
Maarten1 posted:
It's funny to see that we in Holland can receive as much BBC channels as the British without paying a license fee Razz
I can receive BBC1, 2, Entertainment and World News, and with a subscription-only for 3, 4 and HD on my tv, but also on the internet service of my provider, so iPlayer without a rewatch possibility.

All BBC Radio channels are also provided here.

British tv is very popular in this country, many people watch the BBC for their documentaries and television series.

My provider had a quite amusing television ad announcing BBC would come to their bouquet.

"Due to some circumstances, KPN added BBC to its packages"


How vile.


I wonder would the BBC have issues with them damaging their brand?!
RI
Richard
623058 posted:



*


Very interesting. Surprising that the Dutch TV were pirating coverage of the TUC, however.
GM
Gary McEwan
Well I know that Channel 5 Is actually carried by UPC Cablecom and Swisscom in Switzerland, and also you can pick the Central feed from STV in Spain...
WW
WW Update
623058 posted:
623058 posted:
WW Update posted:
623058 posted:
Not every thing has been legal....

In the Autumn of 1977, a commercial Dutch Television company was recording Anglia television signals and transmitting its English programmes, including Coronation street and Survival, to its viewers in Amsterdam. The Dutch government did not believe it was a violation of Dutch copyright law - EBU legal advisers held discussions about to how resolve the matter.


Was it a pirate company? The Netherlands didn't have (legally licensed) commercial television at the time.


Let me dig out the newspaper clipping about that, Get back to you about that.


*


Interesting! Thanks for the clipping. The article doesn't mention what station it was, but I guess it must have been a semi-tolerated pirate operation.

I'm almost certain it couldn't have been a legal commercial TV station because:

1.) At the time, the Netherlands did not allow any commercial television. While various "pillar"-based Dutch broadcasters (VARA, AVRO, TROS, KRO, etc.) shared time on the two Dutch public channels, there was no official TV broadcasting outside of this framework.

2.) A legitimate commercial TV station would have been unlikely to resort to blatant piracy in a generally law-abiding country such as the Netherlands.

And it couldn't have been the famous offshore TV Noordzee, because this article is from the '70s, whereas TV Noordzee operated in the '60s (it had become legalized as TROS by this point).

Perhaps Maarten1 can shed more light on this?
Last edited by WW Update on 1 July 2013 10:20pm - 3 times in total
IS
Inspector Sands
noggin posted:
deejay posted:
On another note, I distinctly remember viewers from Benelux countries occasionally entering competitions or writing to Swap Shop/Saturday Superstore. I've a vague memory of an OB from Holland or Belgium as part of one of those shows too...


Yep - and the weather maps used to have symbols over that part of the coast as well ISTR.

In the days when Children in Need didn't have a national phone number, Belgian and Dutch phone numbers were given out in the South East, along with ones in Chatham, Guildford, London etc.
GO
gottago
Maarten1 posted:
It's funny to see that we in Holland can receive as much BBC channels as the British without paying a license fee Razz
I can receive BBC1, 2, Entertainment and World News, and with a subscription-only for 3, 4 and HD on my tv, but also on the internet service of my provider, so iPlayer without a rewatch possibility.

All BBC Radio channels are also provided here.

British tv is very popular in this country, many people watch the BBC for their documentaries and television series.

My provider had a quite amusing television ad announcing BBC would come to their bouquet.

"Due to some circumstances, KPN added BBC to its packages"

If that advert were realistic they would have been chanting for Sky Sports and they would have glassed the receptionist.

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