daddyofthree

Sorry but perhaps some of us need to consider why we want to go to Aus. I can't believe we are having a conversation about tv. This has been the last thing on my mind. I have returned from work at about 6pm each night and caught my kids stuck in watching TV because of the rain and / or cold weather. Aus offers me more than TV (I Hope!!) and that is why I'm going. Advice: Go down under to have a life and forget about tv. Eg how much tv do you watch when you go to Spain, France, Greece and Italy etc and how much do you miss it? BBC TV sadly though is the best. Not having a go just suggeting go to Aus and adapt and don't live up to the typical Pom reputation - Whinging Poms!!!!!!!

bcworld

I guess you're talking about being on holiday though? You won't be on holiday when you're living in Aus - you'll be living a normal life. I don't watch much TV here....because generally I do find it woeful....however I do spend far too much time on this website instead!!

If you go to Aus and 'adapt' - then being sofa bound of an evening will be par for the course - Aussies are no different from Brits in that respect - despite this idea people seem to have of never ending outdoor pursuits & nightly trips to the beach after work (in the dark!).

bigAPE

I have actually found this to be true also.

We don't veg in front of the TV any more like we used to in Cornwall in the evenings (being pretty isolated and having no real social life). We socialise with our new Australian friends probably 3-4 evenings a week and we all get involved in the sports (Footy for us, Under 9's and Auskick coaching) 4-5 days a week.

The Aussies certainly play more sport than we do (it's just the culture here) but when the post-school Footy training is over, the after session drinks and socialising in the club house are done and the kids are all worn out from running around outside, most families go home at around 7:30pm-8pm. Your kids go to bed and your stuck with a good book, Cluedo or the TV.

This is a template for most evenings here, in fact it's exactly what happened last night, which followed a Liver swelling Parma and Pot night for the Dads Footy team the night before. This morning we have Auskick Coaching followed by a combined training session with the other Dads Footy team and then going to the Telstra Dome to watch the Saints slay North Melbourne tonight. Tomorrow it's a U9's league game bright and early in the crispy morning dew followed by our Dads training session, by which point my 38 year old "dad bones" are so bruised, my fractured finger (from training a few weeks back) so swollen and my ankles so sore that I collapse for a few nights. If you can keep up this kind of punishment then your super-human.

So when your bones are healing you do have some free time to just "switch off" your brain and watch some dredge, this is when the question of what do we watch and were do we get it from. For us it's a mixture of the odd decent Aussie shows The Footy Show, Rove and Good News Week with a good dash of the best the US has to offer from BitTorrent.

I also can't get the obsession with UK television. I have worked in Broadcasting for 20 years and still find the UK shows (mostly) crap. There are some decent examples but they are rare in my book. The soaps (Eastenders, etc) are about as appealing to me as an acid enema, but I can appreciate how people can get sucked in. So if people want to continue watching the show they have for 15 odd years then why not. Being able to download your TV is the ultimate Video On Demand system.

On the legal side, I don't personally see downloading TV Shows as theft. The actors and production crews are still paid the shows are still bought by the broadcasters and the buying agencies still buy the airtime for the advertising, thus the world still revolves and ITV can continue to pay those pricks Ant & Dec a million pounds a month (or whatever their talentless shat is currently netting them). Films ar a different matter because the revenue is primarily from inflated box office and sell through figures which will only happen if you watch it in the cinema or buy the DVDs, so there is an imbalance in morality there. That said the amount of money the film industry makes is obscene and perhaps the people who do download films figure that that can afford to lose the revenue from my cinema visit if they can afford to pay George Clooney $20m a film.

Sorry for rambling...

Al

MartinLuther

No matter how much you redistribute the wealth people will always find ways of or get suckered into transfering their money back to the rich, be it: movies, music, football, other sports, cookery, fame, etc...

1jemma1

Hi,
Can anyone tell me is it possible to buy anything so i can watch UK tv in Australia. My mum loves the ITV3 programme Loose Women, can you watch this over there?

Thanks
Jemma

bridie

Dont know, watch hardly anything on the commercial channels anymore other than Channel 7 news...... mostly watch ABC or SBS..... Top Gear anyone?!

Hutch

You don't come home from work and then spend the next three hours before sunset down at the beach seven days a week though, do you? Our lives are considerably more active here - but at the end of it all, there's still something nice about curling up on the sofa with a glass of something alcoholic and watching a show or movie you like. It's called unwinding ...

Ever since I got broadband I've just watched the shows I like, when I like, from wherever they originate on the planet. I'd say two thirds of the stuff I like is from the states - maily output from HBO - Deadwood, The Sopranos, Dexter - stuff like that. From the beeb I like Top Gear, Dr Who and Life on Mars, the missus likes romantic/real life stuff and costume dramas and for my son I get him You've Been Framed and MI High. We can all work the media PCs we have in the house and we never, ever, just channel hop and watch what the broadcasters have chosen to shove out the door at that hour.

Easiest way is to get her set up on one of the torrent sites (UK Nova, or The Box) and download it. I believe I've seen it on both ...

moneypenny20

Never been convinced by the argument that Aus tv is worse than UK and having spent two weeks in the UK - didn't watch much tv granted but what I saw briefly confirmed to me that there is absolutely nothing in it. I have never seen so much drivel, thank god for a busy round of visiting people (even the mother) and eating.

I had the unfortunate 'pleasure' of seeing a few minutes of some total crap with Denise van Outen and a male pillock encouraging tone deaf morons to sing in public. A Current Affair is better tv than that and that is saying a great deal.

From what I can see, the good stuff that is produced over there is already shown on Aus tv anyway.

worzel

The only thing I ever watch on terrestrial now is the odd footie match. Even then I tend to get fed up with an advert after every goal. In fact I hardly watch Foxtel either apart from sport. 95% of the "TV" I watch is downloaded off www.thebox.bz.

Hutch

Yep - it's true - the ABC or SBS show the better beeb/ITV shows. And if you're desperate for a bit of Relocation Relocation (which my missus bizarrely loves watching despite the fact that we've relocated relocated to another hemisphere) then there's the UK TV channels on the Austar.

northernbird

I am like Mrs Hutch, I love all that naff UKTV. My fave show of the moment though is Kingdom with Steven Fry. Fantastic show with some great views of the Norfolk countryside.

ourjane211284

Cbeebies is good for the kids if you needed 20mins tidy up time, and the bed tie hour is great!