I have no wish to 'feel connected', I just want to watch some good TV occasionally. Yes, 95% of UK TV is shite like X-factor, but that doesn't mean the remaining 5% is not superior to anything you get here. Cos it is, by quite some margin.

a) We get most of the 5% here at some point or other.
b) You have seen everything here?

a) No you don't. There are plenty of shows that I watch that never make it here; and of those that do a fair chunk of them are edited down to make space for ads.
b) I haven't watched everything no, but I have looked at the schedules and that's enough to put me off.

I cannot think of any Canadian TV that I have set to PVR; there is Jon Stewart and new Simpsons episodes, but that amounts to about an hour a week once the ads and boring interviews have been removed (and that's US TV anyway).

The rest of my viewing is either the BBC or Channel 4. I don't bother with ITV cos that's as bad as the crap you get here.

I have downloaded Film on and can watch the programmes but am just a bit weary that im not being charged through my supplier, shaw in this case is it really for free??

You have the advantage on me. I generally have to watch a bit of a program before I can decide if it is any good or not.

I am not really interested in arguing the relative merits of national broadcasters. I will happily concede that if I was required to chose one broadcaster's output to watch for the rest of my life it would be the BBC.

The point is that there is plenty of intelligent, informative and entertaining TV available here, often without commercials, if you can be bothered to search it out. To suggest otherwise is VERY silly.

Intelliegent and informative shows may exist. But there are not plenty of them, a few maybe, but plenty, I don't think so.

Some PBS docs are ok (a step up from the discovery channel for sure), but not really good enough for me to go out of my way to watch them. Nature and Nova are good examples of the workmanlike stuff that you get can get here if you look for it. Good enough in a pinch, but not exactly david attenborough.

30 Rock??

It is free but eventually you might see a message asking you to subscribe. You need to keep an eye on the bandwidth you have used. I have Rogers for my ISP and I can log in and see how much bandwidth I have used. If I went over 60 GB I would be charged. I only use about 20GB a month though and I do lots of work on my computer.

I use the British Online Tv Access Account from here https://www.pc-streaming.com/store/. It really is good and gains access to everything available BBC, iplayer, ITV, ITV Player, CH4 On-Demand etc.
They have also just introduced an Ireland package for all those Irish ex-pats missing RTE.

For those interested, series 14 of Top Gear began last week (and hopefully it's better than the "low budget" series 13 ).

Yes, watched the first episode and judging by the cars, it certainly wasnt low budget

was it the one with the ice driving in Val Thorens??

No it was driving on "allegedly" the best road in the world in Romania. They did drive in tunnels under the peoples palace too. Fantastic cars!!
Tina

oh right -assume yr watching it on BBC then not BBC canada!

Yeah, sorry Carrie. We are watching it on iplayer. Watched this weeks last night. Different, but still entertaining.
Hope you're feeling better
Tina