Cable and Internet television providers

I understand that by law my vermieter/hauswerwalter have to provide access to at least one TV station in my native tongue if I so request. I bought a sky dish, decoder and freeview card last May and after a pathetically obstructive battle with my hauswerwalter (there are multiple landlords in this building) they have now flat out refused to let me put my dish on the roof (despite four of my neighbours - all German - already having dishes up there). I have been told that the only way I can have English TV is by paying them an extra 15 euros per month which will give me access to CNN.

Personally I would rather stick pins in my eyes that watch the goldfish news that passes for CNN. The whole point of me getting the dish was so that I could supplement the godawful German TV with some quality broadcasting from the UK.

However, it does not look like this is going to be possible.

Now, the question I have is does anyoen know if there are cable services that include real UK stations (and not the truly dreadful BBC prime or News 24)? If there were I could try and negotiate this with the hauswerwalter.

Failing that, does anyone know about internet TV? Is there a way of getting Channel 4 or BBC2 over the internet?

Appreciate any help I can get as I have been trying to do this for 10 months now and it is utterly soul-destroying.

http://www.liveuk.tv/

There are a few of these about, but a friend of mine uses this one and says its superb - Price is damn steep though, but it might be of use

Kabel Digital have a pretty poor selection of English language programming in their international package. Apart from dubious internet streaming services, that's your only chance. Mainstream UK stations will shortly offer re-runs of many programmes over the internet (Channel 4 offers them for 99p per programme), but they restrict access to UK residents to protect the licensing which inhibits their offering these services live outside the UK in any case.

just checked out http://www.liveuk.tv/

seems good enough for access although it would be £25 more per month than I would be paying for freeview which seems pretty rotten. And is there any way round having to watch it viw WMP which makes the picture look like the dog has chewed it. Would slingbox manage to put it on my TV or does it not work in reverse?

Bittorrent? Better than tv, get to pick and choose...and no ads.

Give up TV. Will change your perspective on life. You can get the news you need from radio, newspapers and internet, you can get entertainment from DVDs, theatre, friends and cinema. You can get information from books. TV is overrated.

I can see why an American might say that

I have spent 18 months 'giving up' TV. I occasionally watch the news on ZDF, I listen to internet radio and I watch DVDs.

What I miss, is the quality programming from the UK in particular programmes like Channel 4 News, Newsnight, Horizon and some of the one of dramas. I do not see anything of the same standard coming out of the pap cable offerings that are out there.

I know I can survive without it as I have been doing so for a good long time. I can also survive without beer. But the ting is I enjoy both. And it seems absurd to me that having paid for a service which is easily qaccessible here in Germany, some auslander-hating German bureaucrat has decided to ban me and me alone from using it.

uggghhh. people actually watch this muck?

No, TV is overrated in every country, even what you think is "quality" programming.

i beg to disagree. When I was in the UK, I had a Tivo. I worked quite late hours often and had an active social life but the Tivo allowed me to select only those programmes that I was keen to watch. This meant that I could choose when to watch, what to watch and how often. The result was that on the rare evenings where I cold unwind in front of the box, I could choose from some of the best programming in the world.

Is it wrong of me to miss that just a little after spending 18 months without it? It is not as if I have square eyes ...

Eh? I don't get it, you watch tv, but you think that watching tv downloaded off the internet, ad free, to watch when you decide is muck? Curious

all I saw on that site was puerile adolescent programming but I give you maybe that just reflects the predominant users rather than what is possible to download

Depends on what sites you visit. There are very good sites which cover virtually all UK & US tv

send a pm to Grinner, he's the expert! he'll also know the legal side as to whether the Hausverwaltung are allowed to forbid you to put your dish up on the roof.

well Grinner has actually already scoped out my flat and showed that it would be entirely possible to use my preferred option. However the hauswewalter has said they do not approve of Bavarian Satellite. I was required to be reassessed by a German engineer, which has resulted in the refusal.

Such as:
Sopranos
CSI
Deadwood
Life on Mars
Top Gear
Rome
etc.

Sopranos, I grant you, is superb. The rest (especially Rome and Top Gear) is tosh.

Look it is all personal taste in the end. The programming I particularly like is the science, current affairs and documentary broadcasting that the four main UK broadcasters excel at and that I cannot access by cable here in Munich.

have you spoke to Grinner since? think it's sometimes also possible for Grinner to work alongside the Hausverwaltung-approved engineer. this was eventually an option for us.

You'll find more of that than you could ever watch on bit torrent...without ads...and it's free.

If you're entitled to English-language TV but the landlord is refusing to provide it to you, then you should speak to the Mieterverein.

Otherwise, programmes such as Newsnight and Question Time can be watched again from the respective pages on the BBC website.

my landlord is actually fine about this and in favour of me having the dish. But he only owns my flat so I am at the mercy of the managing agent for the whole block of buildings who is the one being obstructive.

May I suggest that you move house? Why are you putting up with that crap?