Hi Fellow Ex-Pats.

Apparently here in Spain we will lose all UK Freetoview Channels as of next Sunday,16th.December due to the moving of Astra Broadcasting Satellites.

Rumours have it that you will need a new box which has to be linked to the Internet via Computer to receive the signal to receive UK Channels.

Others say a 3ft diameter dish will be required costing approx. 1000-2000 euros.

Can anyone enlighten me on any of the above?

Many Thanks in advance for any help and advice.

P:S: And before any of the "Forget UK TV and get a life"...remember there are many ex-pat pensioners who are ill and housebound and others who can,t afford to go out. (I don,t fall into these categories fortunately but I know people who do)

Sods law when I was over last month my tv packed up and I bought a new one! No way can I put a bigger dish on the side of my little house. Agh well when I get there full time just have to get tinternet sorted and go that route.

That'll be 3 metres. Our soon-to-be-redundant dish is already way bigger than 3 ft.

I wonder what effect 1/4 million Brits all suddenly starting to stream live TV through the webz will have upon the internet substructure on the Costas. Anyone any idea?

I live in the Canarie Isles and have internet TV for €30 a month..you can get ..FilmOn.com.. UK TV free. on your laptop..

What do you get for your 30 Euros tommy?

That thought crossed my mind re internet!

I should imagine that if you live in an area where there are a lot of Brits streaming TV though the web the local exchange won't be able to cope with the demand.

BBC1.2.3. ITV1.2.3.4. C4. 1.2 3.C5. and many more

YOU PAY

as someone who just relies on the Spanish Terrestial services only I find the level of commitment some people have to their new home exceedingly low.

especially when all across BE Europe people are complaining about the loss of a freebie as if it was a right of residing in a foreign land.

Fargin bastiges.

Don't they realise that nearly .00000000001% of their market is expats living in Spain?

and a couple of % of that for each of Italy, France, Portugal etc etc as Spain is the largest expat community.

just go to BE Europe and see the whinging, the questions about upgrading a 2 bed flat from a 1.2m to 3m or even 4m + dish. Even talk about "extensions".

and the sat authorities and their clients are still playing around with the new sats and channels.
heaven help them if they should take the transmissions outside the reception band of the current receivers.

I don't understand how whether you watch Spanish or English TV indicates a level of commitment to Spain.

FWIW I only watch Spanish TV for News broadcasts (various stations so as to filter out the political bias :-) ) and for the footie live results!

IMO 85% of Spanish TV is rubbish as for English TV I don't know what the level is nowadays as its over 20 years since I watched it!

How do you watch the rugby or the cricket?

not quite true

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=765412

There are some good series on UK TV that are worth watching, like Homeland and The Fear which was on last week. You don't even need to watch them on a computer:

I download the torrent streams from here, using this software.

Then if you want to watch them on TV rather than the PC, just save the file onto a USB drive and play the programmes on TV via a USB socket on the DVD player. (If your old DVD player doesn't have this you can get a new one for about €30).

It's a little bit of a faff, but the upside is - I could watch the whole of Downton Abbey with no adverts!!!