English TV in France/Spain
We are going to France - Spain - Portugal later this year for the first time in our caravan. We use virgin tv at home. What is the best way to get english tv whilst abroad?
thank you
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Perhaps you meant British TV?
If so, the the British Broadcasting Corporation purvey much of their wares through the Internet using the iPlayer application.
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If you mean BBC/ITV then it very much depends where you are. Some people manage to get such programmes in Spain in certain areas but the signal is far from reliable. If you are staying for a reasonable amount of time some sites rent out large dishes but
if you are touring I suspect that might not be an option. As for Portugal I am not sure. It seems to be well outside the footprint but others might be able to help. We have a roof mounted 85cms automatic dish and we have got BBC/ITV as far south as Carcassonne
but have not ventured ant further to put it to the test.David
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We managed to get some english speaking channels using our 85cm free standing dish and FreeSat at Salamanca, a few more channels using the Sky box (no subscription) no BBC/ITV channels though, just things like, Challenge, Pick, Yesterday, Movies4Men and
Sky news. Some more of the news channels and quite a lot of the music channels including radio channels.0 -
Even if you get a wifi connection good enough for video streaming, bbc iplayer and itv equivalents won't let you play their content outside the uk. Use filmon.com and select uk tv chanels.
You will be able to listen to bbc radio via the internet, so you'll be able to keep up with the Archers!
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We tuned our DTV to the local stations in Catalonia and...Drew Pritchard,Wheeler Dealers,Outback Truckers etc came up on one channel.They were the programmes which we get on Quest in the UK and in English with Spanish subtitles-quite what the Catalans make
of Drew and T. I cannot speculate upon.0 -
I have no idea why anyone would want to watch tv when touring / on holiday. ????
seems to me to defeat the object you may as well stop at hone.
no offence intended just my opinion.
Well sometimes the weather isn't all blue skies and sunshine
we've had a fair bit of rain this trip, also OH has been poorly so we've not
been doing the usual walking/cycling and sight seeing that we normally do. Having something to watch while he just rested in bed has been a blessing.On our Autumn/Winter trips having tv is nice for those long dark evenings, when you are away for 10 - 12 weeks.
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I am sorry to here hubby has been unwell, I can see your point.
my apologies as I said I meant no offence. Hope he feels better soon and the sun shines
No offence taken spk
used to think the same thing myself when we were working and trying to cram everything into a couple of weeks. Now
we have all the time in the world to sit round and take our time.Thanks for the good wishes he's on the mend and the weather is warm.
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I don't normally watch much if any tv when touring France but take some DVDs in case of bad weather but this trip to help my sick brother as a last minute thought I put in the set top box. Thank goodness as I arrived with a nasty virus and lay low for several
days. Freed up some space on the machine too!0 -
I tune in to the local TV for the weather.When in France I sometimes watch French TV to try to improve my listening French -I can read and speak French quite well but I am less good when trying to take in French spoken to me at the speed of the native speakers,watching
the news and their football commentary/ game shows is quite challenging and pushes my limits.I learn new expressions every time we go over there.0 -
I use and have used for many years a Maxview free to air (no subscription) satallite digital HD receiver approx £100 with excellent results through France North to South with both a 65cm manual and 85cm auto satallite dishes ground mounted and now on the
caravan roof.Most English channels are available incl. 5 and many other shopping channels also other foreign satallites are available.We did have problems last year in the south due to the satallite companies moving the satellite positions but Maxview offered a free software upgrade which helped to correct it.
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The further South you go generally the bigger the dish you will need. This is often not always a feasible proposition due to storage needs. So here is a possible way of solving the issue. When on site look around for English speaking campers next to you.
Often there is a someone with a big dish. If they have a double (or more) LNB (the bit that faces the dish) they may let you connect up to it. I did this in France and it worked very well and did not have any effect on the host's picture.0
