That is unless you are the supplier we know of who is having contacts cancelled as the internet speed required to provide a reliable service is not available to his customers.
We know of one couple who are trying their third IPTV product.
As you say its money for old rope.
The new " double glazing ".

Really, I was using my casual interest in the UKTV-over-IP business model as an illustration of how others are raking it in from the perception of "complete loss" of UK TV.

People ask about it constantly. Even around here, where you can buy perfectly adequate satellite kit for a few hundred Euros. Granted, the local "satellite services", however, charge as much as €1200 for that kit. I don't know how they do it, because their nearest competitor offers it for €600 or €800. And the little guys will do it for €400 or €500.

I know the pieces alone cost under €400, because that's what I paid (for the dish and multiple receivers). Neil successfully installed it all using instructions found on the internet, and it runs forever without any problems.

Anyway, that's one of the problems with IPTV. Internet inadequacy is "nobody's fault". Especially the suppliers of the equipment and services. Besides, the internet infrastructure that's available today would be brought to its knees if everybody were using IPTV. Luckily, it's only a few hundred thousand.

And even those that provide the whole package - Equipment, streaming AND internet don't assume much responsibility if it doesn't work. We had Telefonica's TV for a year - it never worked well enough to use, but we had a "contract" so we had to pay for it until it expired. Live and learn.

With all those happily tossing €300-€500 out for IPTV solutions that cost a mere fraction of fraction of that to supply, it just seems like it's probably a good opportunity while it lasts.

Since the switchover in Feb last year, I have not found ONE person who has reliable UK tv through a dish im afraid. It is possible but you need a HUGE dish, 1.8m is far too small, and even then you can loose reception with something as trivial as bad weather, this is worse the further south you go as well.

I have been using internet Tv in one form or another for a few years now and can tell you that, no, its not perfect but its certainly better than laying out €1000 on a sat' system that still wont be 100%. For that money, you can buy one hell of a PC and high speed broadband and you can take it with you.

All depends where you are in Spain.

I use the Intelsat satellite system and the picture quality and reception is 100% reliable. Astra satellite reception here in Southern Spain is almost impossible but in other areas of Spain it can still be 100%.

Yes, the encryption codes need changing every few months but that only results in about 3 hours downtime.

True - I can get decent stable signals (right on the limit mind!) on my 80x85cm dish, no margin for rain though... - where I am...:-) although a larger dish is recommended for a much more stable signals - so it does, like above, all depend where in Spain you are....

And note that for the previous 15 years, 1.8 and 2.4m dishes were very popular here on the Valencia and costa blanca, easily more popular than pirate rebroadcasted and internet systems... ok iptv did not kick off really until the changes last year, but even now I am installing dishes for people fed up with their iptv systems...

Yes, IPTV or simply streaming online can never be 100% reliable and it's true to say that your area has a huge effect on the final solution. The is simply no right or wrong answer here. All I can really comment on is my own situation. I am in the Costa Del Sol and pay Vodafone 39€ for my high speed internet and phone, plus another €5 to subscribe to a VPN service that allows me to access region dependant sites like iPlayer. It works well for me, is very economical and I see it as very reasonable, especially when you cons the cost of a large dish install and tha fact that most of us will be paying for internet anyway. The reality is that I pay 5 quid a month to have UK tv in our apartment, I'm happy to put up with the odd bit of buffering for that.

Why don't you get an android xbmc box and add to by downloading the FTV Guide as a programming add on very easy to use especially if you use a wireless mouse to control your box. Plus of course you can watch any number of films and TV series / box sets, all for a one off payment of £35/40 from eBay.