carvoeiro

i think you are getting a bit carried away with this stealing channels idea
don't forget that most of the channels are broadcast for free - especially in their home countries
Also many of the commercial channels - including all of the independant UK stations - ie anything other than the bbc rely on advertising revenue
and that means the bigger the tv audience - paid for or not - the bigger the revenue

a different point of view - like many i still own property in the UK and pay a bbc licence - aren-t they in the same way stealing channels from me by making their tv channels unavailable - oddly they seem to have no issues with bbc radio being available worldwide
Not to mention the sky ripoffs of the past - selling free view and package deals into Europe and then switching the satellite off
definitely works both ways

Knoxy_UK

ummmmm, if the providers didn't get enough revenue, then it would revert back to free to air services. � They seemed to be fine using adverts to pay for coverage until the sports got hooked on the "sky drug" �

EMR

If you want all your TV broadcasting for nothing then you will get crap.
Remember UK tv before Sky , HBO, Fox, etcetc, 3 channels , 90% not worth watching but that was all you got.
Think of PT tv today.
If you were conned into buying a UK tv package then that was your fault.
That you could receive it outside of the UK was just a fortunate coincidence.
Nothing to do with the service providers.
Sky had nothing to do with that.

carvoeiro

actually the adage '99 channels and nothing on' is probably the most apt message of this 'entertainment' generation

i'm old enough to remember black and white - tellies you thumped when they didn't work and only 2 channels with the queen turning the lights off at 11 or was it 10 30- actually i remember quite enjoying it - at least the idea of endless repeats didn't exist then
i wasnt conned - sky sold tv packages to france - where i lived- then simply narrowed the satelite signal beam so you couldn't watch anymore
Sky sold packages and freeview boxes to France - the reason most people ignored this and used their UK boxes was because you had to pay a high premium for the service
i pay for a meo tv-phone-net package here - mainly for the internet - but its no better or worse than sky or any of the others

regarding free channels crap - atv managed to produce and buy to show quality programs without charging a penny for most of my life - still do i believe - as do some main channels in almost every country in the world certainly Europe
regarding Portuguese tv - yes - mostly awful

EMR

Free view is exclusively a UK digital . Non sat service.
Freesat was a competitor to Sky.
Sky do not operate or own the sats but rent space on them.
The beam was narrowed because that particular sat was moved reducing freesat access Sky is still available across much of Europe even in Portugal.
You may not like them but do you think mega series like Game of Thrones would be made if all TV was free, or the Premier league would exist, or the Ryder the cup reach tens of millions of households across the world.
You get what you pay for, if you believe in paying nothing then that is what you will end up with.

Knoxy_UK

i think the Ryder Cup existed before pay per view...... � the Premiership existed in the form of Division 1.....

Wimbledon exists without pay per view, so does the Grand National, and I'm pretty sure they're as big as the Ryder Cup et al.

i accept you 'Game of Thrones, quality didn't exist prior to pay per view, but was that due to the lack of PPV, or because shows like that didn't have the Internet following enabling the makers to sell it worldwide.?

The biggest bug bear I have, is paying for a premium service to still have to watch adverts.�
�

liveaboard

If they sold it here, I would pay for it.
As it is, they don't; I pay for MEO feed that I don't watch, and watch what I don't pay for, and I don't give a rat's *** about the morality of that.
If they want my money, the program owners have to make it possible for me to pay them for it. If they just tell me no, we don't want you dirty underclass Portugal residents watching our production; well, then I can't pay whether I watch it or not.
Usually Meo will show the programs after a while, with Portuguese show titles so it's hard to figure out when. So we did pay after all.

But then, I don't watch sports. Never did.
I don't know why other people find that so interesting. I think the majority of humans are weird, because I'm normal.

EMR

Ask the big sporting organisations if they want to give up their huge payments from subscription services and go back to the days of terrestrial TV.
You know what the answer will be and probably words containing more that two letters.
We want more and more from our media providers yet some think that it should all be for free .
They are probably the ones who complain loudest when their internet goes down or the network changes etc.

mfesharne

FWIW, Meo have changed their packages & now offer phone & internet, including fibre if available in the area without the next to useless TV packages.

We changed a few months ago.

Knoxy_UK

That's like asking any drug addict if they need more drugs.

mfesharne

Or a footballer if he wants another half million a week. lol!

carvoeiro

well another thread on the wayy to screwed
emr who clearly isn't a brexit and clearly doesn't hate all other expats based on thousands of other postings has decided to let a 'you must pay' bug turn him into one

i didn't pay in the UK - commercial tv has always been made without me paying and always will be - its only the 'spite and hatred inspired UK' that has any problem
the very idea that a German or French expat would be attacked by his own country for daring to watch tv in another is laughable - i think the UK needs to get a life - preferably without me

Can we please take this thread back where it started and give ideas of alternatives to filmon - formerly free offering many UK and other EU country programs and no-one minded in the slightest

i watch all of the premiership live - via Russia - if anyone wants to know how pm me

EMR

It's a new ECJ and UK court ruling.
Enjoy it while you can.
The world is changing and " Free " will become a word we once used to know and use.
There is just too much money to be made and lost, viewers are demending more and more not just access but quality and variety.
Why is Filmon charging because it has built up a customer base it now knows will pay rather than lose access.
It's capitalism, it's the world we live in.

It is about alternatives to filmon, but you will need to start paying if you want them.
If you do not want to pay then do not complain about what you end up with.

Knoxy_UK

So on with that theory, the next start up will be free, and better than FilmOn so it can build up its customer base pre IPO.

Lots of things are free, it Just depends how much you're willing to pay for them

What's App, msn, Facebook = free = loss of privacy

Itv = free = onslaught of adverts.

carvoeiro

the basis of delivery of tv - virtually since it started is that there has always been free tv
the change in my lifetime is that there is now an option - if you choose it to pay for more

by asking the original 'replacements for filmon'question it was simply the intention to retain the status quo
ie identify whats free - pay for more if you want to