If the BBC & ITV were smarter

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Specialist Contributor
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There are many expats and others across europe trying to watch the BBC & ITV channels with many needing big dishes, rebroadcast equipment etc, etc.

What if they offered a NDS card for Europe wide use on the pan European beam on 28.2E?
You signed up for the card and had to pay a connection fee (equal to the yearly current licence fee)
You then pay a monthly charge (equal to at the licence fee per month). This would stop those in the UK claiming that those abroad are watching for free when they have to pay.


They could offer BBC 1,2,3,4,ITV,1,2,3&4 on one transponder. You would obviously pick up the other free channels on the pan euro beam, sly news etc so making a half decent fta package.

The channels would only show program's that they own the media rights to (Like BBC Prime does but on 28 East) Now most expats want the usual stuff - Eastenders, Corrie, downtown Abbey, News and all the decent stuff made by or for the BBC /ITV.
So then there wouldnt be out of area problems when say a Hollywood film is being shown. It just wouldn't be available just like some programming is not available in some regions in the UK.
But as its a subscription service with a definate number of subscribers when the Media rights are negotiated with say a Hollywood distributor they could decide if it was worth paying the extra to show on the European service.
Champions League football etc would be out as if you live in Spain the rights for there belong to Canal+ at the moment. Other program's might not be available as the BBC/ITV may only have deals for UK broadcast so just broadcast the not available screen.

So for instance a night on BBC might be:
6:00pm evening news (BBC owned)
6:30pm local news - use London (BBC owned)
7:00pm Eastenders (BBC owned)
7:30pm Hollywood made film - not BBC owned so screen shows "This program is not available in your area"
9:00pm News (BBC owned)
You get the idea

Personally I cannot see why a service like this could not be launched.

Obviously there would be costs for the providers but as the subscriber would be paying a years licence fee upfront it should generate money quite quickly.
If there were 50,000 paying £145 for a licence then that's £7.25 Million quid. Probably not much money in big business scales but should be enough to rent a transponder for a year and the cost of NDS scrambling!!!

Channel four could join the party with their own programming inc Film 4 etc

Just throwing this out there don't shoot me down in flames it's just an idea!!!!
 
The Beeb dont have transmission rights for many programmes outside the UK. So unlikely ever to happen.

They have just shut down a widebeam tp (11954) to save money, and are basically skint


Why dont the expats who want to watch UK tv move back here and get wet and cold like the rest of us and pay their taxes here. Or if they want to stay avbroad then perhaps they should learn a bit of Greek, Spanish, Bulgarian or Arabic or whatever is the native lingo of their adopted homes.????
 
There's already BBC World available for free and BBC Entertainment at modest cost.
 
If you are Swiss national you can buy a smart card and watch your home channels via Hotbird in Europe but it's a smaller country so rights issues might not be the same.

I miss the old days when we used to have BBC TV Europe. Seems we've lost out to the commercial side of BBC in Europe and their desire to sell newer programmes to other channels.
 
I suppose the idea of paying an 'equivalent licence fee' might seem a good solution......but I already pay a licence fee (included in my French Council Tax). Admittedly it's to receive French programming....though of course with the usual caveat that it's a licence to have equipment to receive transmissions, regardless of where they originate....so effectively I'd be paying two.....that's not to say I wouldn't but if you tried to sell the idea like that I can forsee a lot of very irate ex pats...

AS: Some of us live somewhere where it's just as cold and wet as the UK....and pay taxes in the UK.....and speak the native language of their adopted country (in various degrees of fluency).....but the fact remains that (in my case) the French programming is even direr than the UK....so ex pats use the TV as a sort of comfort blanket...If the 'fee' produced programmes one would want to watch (you know...entertain..educate...inform) that would be different...(soap box dismounted now)
 
It's the same with all the Russian speakers arriving in great numbers in UK these days from the Baltic/ex-USSR countries. All they want to watch is Russian TV and have no interest in learning English or even socialise with anyone but their own. I, myself, am a Russian ex-pat settled in Britain but I have been here since I was 12 years old so my attitude is quite different from someone who migrated when they are over 20.

I met many such people here and when asked why they hang around their own kind, they say they are just not interested in integrating into the society here. No real reasons were given but I am guessing it would be outside their comfort zone. I can see both sides of the picture so I can understand why people would buy 5 metre dishes to receive their homeland TV. Heck, if I had the space and money (and planning permission), I would not hesitate installing a dish of such size to receive the relatively mediocre offerings from Russia's native channels on Eutelsat 36A/B. As that's not possible, I make do with IPTV and it suits my needs.

Back on topic - as someone said, it's all to do with rights. There's a reason why Russia has a lot of butchered international versions of their channels on Hot Bird and elsewhere and none "real" ones - broadcast rights. As someone said, BBC already do it with BBC World and BBC Entertainment. There's also BBC HD on 1W part of C More package but not sure what version that is.
 
I totally agree with you there Captain. I live in a town with one of the largest immigration levels in the UK. There's almost as many Viasat & Cyfra dishes as there are Sky. Was even installing Platforma dishes at one point.
Have spoken to a few Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish & Russian folk, they told me they wanted to learn the English culture and language properly but now they don't care as they don't need to, they just speak their own language and don't integrate as much. Crime has shot right up as well.

There's 3 versions of BBC Entertainment. Europe, Polish & Nordic all showing different programmes.
 
I think it should be the other way around. All PSB and most national channels (available for exemple FTA over DVB-T) should also be available through satellites on pan european beams. After all, this is Europe, the continent where there is free travel of goods and persons, why not frequencies as well? So expats from either country could receive their own channels free of charge (with paying his taxes), whereas, a french guy, even if he wanted to Watch the portuguese channels could Watch them, but wouldn't understand them, so if wouldn't Watch them. But the option is there for him.
 
Unfortunately that's not the way that the content providers (basically the big studios in Hollywood) see it. They can sell the rights to a programme on a country by country basis and make more money that way.
 
blame charlie chaplin and mary pickford ,its the system they came up with when forming united artists
british OAPS (who are the majority of brits in spain ,and paid their taxs all their lifes,and go shot at to boot)
retire to spain and cant LEGALLY watch BBC/ITV ,so they watch it ILLEGALLY .the loss is to the young british tax payers
back home as they end up paying more taxs ..
just to mention a fact about ´´hollywood´´ you can watch US tv legally in europe with the latest shows more up to date then you
get on british TV by just using your US passport number on certain websites ,and ticking a box you are a US citizen ...
 
Hixxy1 said:
I totally agree with you there Captain. I live in a town with one of the largest immigration levels in the UK. There's almost as many Viasat & Cyfra dishes as there are Sky. Was even installing Platforma dishes at one point.
Have spoken to a few Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish & Russian folk, they told me they wanted to learn the English culture and language properly but now they don't care as they don't need to, they just speak their own language and don't integrate as much. Crime has shot right up as well.

There's 3 versions of BBC Entertainment. Europe, Polish & Nordic all showing different programmes.
Click to expand...

Cant pay for them in spain ,which has biggest ex pat population - go figure
 
TENERIFE-TV said:
Cant pay for them in spain ,which has biggest ex pat population - go figure
Click to expand...

You most definitely can in Spain & the Canaries.

You just need to buy a sub direct from BBC Entertainment and have a dish pointing at 9e for their Viacess service.
 
Hixxy1 said:
You most definitely can in Spain & the Canaries.

You just need to buy a sub direct from BBC Entertainment and have a dish pointing at 9e for their Viacess service.
Click to expand...
sorry i do not wish to continue on this subject
 
Hixxy1 said:
You most definitely can in Spain & the Canaries.

You just need to buy a sub direct from BBC Entertainment and have a dish pointing at 9e for their Viacess service.
Click to expand...


All there in black & white

_http://europe.bbcentertainment.com/get-the-channel/
 
Tivù said:
All there in black & white

_http://europe.bbcentertainment.com/get-the-channel/
Click to expand...

Thats fine but what else is there on 9E of any interest?
Then your gonna need a box with a card slot or cam etc
Then a dish to 9E
At least if they were on 28E and used NDS then more other channels available and sly boxes are ten a penny!!

Obviously never happen but just a thought

Cheers
 
I thought the BBC channels for Europe are no longer aimed at ex-pats but for Europeans who like British programmes? On many platforms many programmes subtitled into the local language. Programming wise they are more like Watch/Dave/Gold for Europe. It's better than nothing but hardly exciting for someone who can get the proper PSB channels.
 
NWW said:
I think it should be the other way around. All PSB and most national channels (available for exemple FTA over DVB-T) should also be available through satellites on pan european beams.
Click to expand...

Do YOU want to pay the millions of pounds in extra transmission rights every year for multiple channels? And why would ITV want to transmit to Spain anyway - all they are interested in is serving adverts to the regions.

At the end of the day the viewers wishes arent important.
 
Yes this would be a good idea for al,l even americans that want to watch these channels.
I was going to put something funny here but this topic has been going on for some time.
fi the signal was strong Sky would sell this to whome ever they want.
Germans could get sky germany in the uk and italy.Sky UK would be able be received in germany,italy or where ever.
Sky1 use to transmitt free back when they where in 19 degrees and there was no copy right worries back then.
One day there will one system and it will be receivable by all.
Ralph
 
I've got flashbacks to Betamax!
 
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