So how does satellite TV work in the UK or Europe?

[Jag_Warrior]

I was complaining to a friend of mine over the holidays that while having hundreds of channels on DirecTV provides many viewing choices, there's really not the variety that one might expect to see. Other than LinkTV and maybe one or two others, very few channels here originate from other countries or provide (IMO) a true international perspective. For instance, every news channel today is providing coverage of the situation in Gaza. And that's great. But as I've joked with my buddy, if an Israeli stubs his toe while walking down the street in Tel Aviv, it'll get 20 hours of coverage on Fox, CNN, ABC, etc. But if a Canadian successfully flaps his arms and begins to fly or if 20 Mexicans are trampled to death by a rabid donkey, we'll hear nothing about it on American TV.

What is it like in Europe or the U.K.? If you're in Britain, do you get broad coverage of the happenings in France, Germany, Italy, etc.? How many channels do you get on satellite (or cable) and how much does it cost per month? Are you generally satisfied with the TV news coverage that is provided?

[Hondo]

Jag, speaking of tv, you know we are going digital very soon. I no longer use cable or Direct tv anymore because I seldom watch it anyway. I did the internet thing for a government coupon for a convertor box. They sent me 2, for $40.00 each to use towards the purchase of 2 convertor boxes. A qiuck price check showed that most of these boxes sell for $49.95. The deadline for issuing these coupons is sometime in Feb.

What do you want to bet that once the coupons are gone, the prices on the boxes will drop to $9.95?

[Jag_Warrior]

I wouldn't be surprised if that happened. The retailers know the angles.

My mother got one of those coupons and then got a box. Now she expects me to climb on her roof and reinstall her antenna. That ain't happenin'. I'd rather pay her DirecTV bill than risk killing myself.

[Tomi]

I wouldn't be surprised if that happened. The retailers know the angles.

My mother got one of those coupons and then got a box. Now she expects me to climb on her roof and reinstall her antenna. That ain't happenin'. I'd rather pay her DirecTV bill than risk killing myself.

Here at least terrectrial digital tv works ok with a simple indoor antenna.

[Drew]

What is it like in Europe or the U.K.? If you're in Britain, do you get broad coverage of the happenings in France, Germany, Italy, etc.? How many channels do you get on satellite (or cable) and how much does it cost per month? Are you generally satisfied with the TV news coverage that is provided?

In the UK we have SKY as the main (only?) satellite provider. We have far too many channels too and I always complain there's pretty much nothing to watch. I never watch the news channels, but from what I can remember off by heart we get Sky news, Fox News, CNN, CNBC, BBC news, Russia today, France 24, Euro news, Al jazeera and I'm sure there are more. But having said that should anything happen in Ireland, we'd hear very little of it...

[Jag_Warrior]

In the UK we have SKY as the main (only?) satellite provider. We have far too many channels too and I always complain there's pretty much nothing to watch. I never watch the news channels, but from what I can remember off by heart we get Sky news, Fox News, CNN, CNBC, BBC news, Russia today, France 24, Euro news, Al jazeera and I'm sure there are more. But having said that should anything happen in Ireland, we'd hear very little of it...

That's kind of what I was wondering about. So you're in the UK, but events in Ireland (or Scotland?) would receive little coverage?

DirecTV has certain country/region specific packages (for an added cost). But I don't know much about them.

By the way, isn't Sky owned by Rupert Murdoch? He owned DirecTV for a couple of years, but thankfully he's out now. Dow Jones is his target now. :(

[Daniel]

That's kind of what I was wondering about. So you're in the UK, but events in Ireland (or Scotland?) would receive little coverage?

DirecTV has certain country/region specific packages (for an added cost). But I don't know much about them.

By the way, isn't Sky owned by Rupert Murdoch? He owned DirecTV for a couple of years, but thankfully he's out now. Dow Jones is his target now. :(

Scotland is part of the UK so we get Scottish stories :)

In the UK you get BBC stations for individual regions also. So you get BBC 1 + 2 Wales, London, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Whether something gets screened nationwide is up to how major it is. When there were floods in Northern Ireland it was national. When there were floods locally it was on BBC 1 Wales and I suspect not on the other channels.

We would only get stories from other countries if they're considered international news. The riots in Athens got coverage here for instance. There have been some Irish stories but only when it was considered major news. I suspect perhaps that Northern Ireland might get more minor Irish stories than we do here in Wales though.

There is also some non-English programming on the country specific channels as well as language specific channels like S4C in Wales http://www.s4c.co.uk/ (yes that site is full of gibberish :p )

With Sky you don't get any pay to watch local coverage.

[SOD]

Jag, if you wanted a different opinion on the situation outside the USA, lobby your satellite/cable provider to give you Al jazeera news. it's available free of charge to any provider willing to take it up. Al Jazeera even broadcasts its news from Washington. Also France 24 would be another good 24h news station to have.

In regards to satellite TV, very few channels on the UK platform actually cater for cultural programming from other EU countries. Irish Tv channels are carried on SKY, but only available to viewers with an irish postal address. many irish bars around Europe show the sports programming from the UK and ireland because they purchase a subscription from an address in ireland.

[Daniel]

Jag, if you wanted a different opinion on the situation outside the USA, lobby your satellite/cable provider to give you Al jazeera news. it's available free of charge to any provider willing to take it up. Al Jazeera even broadcasts its news from Washington. Also France 24 would be another good 24h news station to have.

:up:

Al Jazeera is good. I like how they don't get silly guests in who give their narrowminded/emotionally clouded view of things. Don't let the name fool you, while they do give more coverage to arab/middle east stories the coverage really is qute objective compared to a lot of the other drivel we get.