Island Viewing

Hello

Just out of curiosity. Are the various islands of the UK (IOM, Channel Islands etc) restricted to the mainland channels (BBC etc) or can more be received due to the proximity to other countries?

Many thanks.

The IOM and the Channel Islands are not part of the UK, they are British Crown Dependencies.

The CIs can receive French broadcasts, and I presume the IOM can pick up Irish terrestrial channels, but there are parts of mainland UK than can also receive foreign broadcasts.

I believe Holland can receive BBC channels too.

The main BBC channels are available in a fair few European countries via cable. In theory BBC Worldwide channels (formerly BBC Europe, the BBC Prime/World now Entertainment, Knowledge and World News ...) are the ones that are aimed at Europe. A lot of Benelux countries used to receive analogue BBC 1/2 simply because they could and it's still included in cable packages in Belgium and the Netherlands presumably because there's demand. They're on the Sky Ireland package too AIUI.
Quite why it's available on a cable provider in Switzerland though I'm not sure. Presumably this is as part of a paid-for package.

Reference Links
Switzerland : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_Switzerland#International_channels
Netherlands : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_the_Netherlands#Cable_and_satellite
Belgium : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_Belgium#Foreign_channels
RoI - this has a description of the agreements and arrangements for viewing of RTÉ in Northern Ireland and the BBC in the Republic, it would seem that originally it was supposed to have been freely available but since 2010 the BBC has expected it to be offered as paid-for channels: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_ireland#Cross-border_partnership

The wording of the memorandum of understanding was very hastily changed after it had already been published. UPC and Sky apparently raised very strong objections on the basis that without the BBC they would go out of business. Not true IMO (the days when the BBC was the primary reason people subscribed to pay TV in Ireland are long over and anyone who isn't restricted by their lease and can afford it can get the BBC free to air by satellite now), but it doesn't matter since the government believed it.

From what I recall, initially Sky and the Irish cable providers could only supply BBC1 and BBC2 (NI). BBC3, Four, CBBC, CBeebies and BBC News are finally on the Sky EPG in Ireland after an agreement with BBC Worldwide.

BBC 1 & 2 are FTA (in Dutch terminology part of the basic package - ie €12/month which goes towards paying for Ned channels) but BBC3 is a actually subscription channel. They also carry BBC1HD and BBC2 HD (well they did in January when I was last back there).

Before digital coverage, yes they were available in The Netherlands as I remember being able to watch Neighbours, on BBC1, on their TV sets in the department stores!!!!! But from what I remember it was part of a deal to carry these channels, via cable, ever since the end of the war and the rebuilding of the country and strengthening the ties between the two countries.

BBC One and BBC Two have been supplied since the outset (the 1960s) and in fact are the reason cable TV developed in Ireland several decades before the UK. It was usually NI but up till the advent of digital satellite providers in the south and east would have taken BBC Wales instead. Nowadays I think it is BBC NI everywhere except perhaps for the local cable company in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford which I think still takes BBC Wales.

It took a long time for BBC Three and BBC Four to become available on cable and satellite, but they've been available on cable quite a while but its been a lot more recent on satellite.

Some aspects of the distribution of BBC and ITV in other countries were discussed in this thread:

http://www.tvforum.co.uk/tvhome/english-tv-abroad-39309/