First BBC and then Al-Jazeera disappeared from my cable box, it's a conspiracy

[dessa_dangerous 13,315]

Has it happened to anyone else?  First one, then, a few weeks later, the other one.  Is it an evil plot by CNN and EuroNews to get me to watch more of their networks?  Because it's working, and I'm so not happy about it.  The CNN anchors are just way too sassy for me, I realize I have been away from the US for a long time but I could have sworn there was a time when CNN was halfway professional.  Now they basically remind me of FOX News except with a heavy Democratic (but not necessarily leftist) bias.  Fareed is good, I set aside time to watch GPS.  The rest of them truly upset me.   

 

Anyway, HALP.  Does anyone know what I can do to get those stations back, or why they have gone, or if they are simply gone forever in Berlin/Germany?

 

Thanks.

[Guest]

We have an Amazon Firestick and our television has USB ports to plug it in.   

 

If you have something similar and can get youtube on your television, you can watch BBC, Deutsche Welle, France24, and various others either on livestream or you can watch the reports you find interesting.   

 

Hope that helps. 

[dessa_dangerous 13,315]

Thanks.  I just have a regular TV and a newish cable box.  The TV has USB ports but I don't have any Firestick thingies or anything similar.  The cable is connected with a cord to the house cable.  I primarily watch the news during/after working out, so it's not that I don't know how to access the news sources I want online, but it's not very convenient or desired when I'm on the elliptical or on the floor.  I just want to turn on the TV and flip around every once in a while to skip commercials but otherwise not have to put too much thought into it.

[dessa_dangerous 13,315]

Maybe a better question is, does anyone else still have these channels on their basic cable?  If everybody else still has it and I'm the only one that lost them, then maybe it's a problem with the receiver.

[yesterday 2,041]

Depends on how much you want to spend !!! Firestick about 40 euros

 

It will not be as easy to control as as your cable box, more hassle to change channels etc, but can be done

 

I do not think you will get a Live feed from the BBC for free, but there are other ways to get it, without paying too much.

 

Your TV will need an HDMI socket.

 

Sorry I no nothing about cable, if you are friends with anybosy else in the building or local area, maybe you could ask to use there cable box for 1/2 hour, try it out in your living area. This will tell you if its the cable box or not.

 

[yourkeau 7,723]

Why would you pay to a TV company to watch a government propaganda network (AL Jazeera) or tax payer funded public TV station (BBC, ARD/ZDF)? These you can live stream totally for free...

[LeonG 14,857]

I haven't had cable in forever but it seems that joyn has neither and zattoo only has Al Jazeera (but for how long?) So I suspect it's no coincidence.

 

[yesterday 2,041]

BBC is country locked to the UK, almost always, getting the BBC in Germany normally requires  a get a round the checks payment, 

 

but it may happen, I am not familiar with the cable TV channels

[dessa_dangerous 13,315]

23 minutes ago, yesterday said:

Depends on how much you want to spend

 

Thanks for the suggestions.  I don't want to spend anything.  When I watch shows for entertainment I stream online.  When I am seriously interested in news I usually read it, also online.  The TV news is honestly just a distraction while I'm working out.  I can and do easily replace it with anything else that happens to be on.  If it is a big hassle to chase down either of those stations, I will simply leave it be, I will definitely not pay money to access them and in my free time I don't seek them out either.  But I'll still tune in for GPS.

[dessa_dangerous 13,315]

5 minutes ago, yesterday said:

BBC is country locked to the UK, almost always, getting the BBC in Germany normally requires  a get a round the checks payment, 

 

but it may happen, I am not familiar with the cable TV channels

 

so, I had BBC through my regular cable box for years, and then it was suddenly just gone.

 

If I really wanted to stream it online I have a VPN, but again, like I said, I also won't go to any great lengths to access it.  It was just nice to have while it was there.  

[dessa_dangerous 13,315]

17 minutes ago, yourkeau said:

 a government propaganda network (AL Jazeera) 

 

Do you actually watch Al Jazeera?  I know that they sometimes take a critical view of Israel's policies.  But calling Al-Jazeera English a propaganda network is a bit much.  They often report things the other stations don't pick up.  RT does the same but is very obviously propaganda.  Although I have found them interesting from time to time.

 

And it's a funny term to throw around.  In general I found both BBC and Al Jazeera to at least *present* in a somewhat professional, objective, journalistic manner.  But for example CNN is too extreme for me.  Even when we're supposed to be on the same "side", they are just too much editorial, speculation, opinion and downright gossip to take seriously anymore.  And they are definitely propaganda.  They talk about Republicans the way FOX talks about everybody else.  That's why nobody takes FOX seriously, because they make themselves look like idiots.  Both are propaganda networks.  But Al-Jazeera, if they were, then they did a good job of concealing it.  They always made a pretty professional impression to me and they reported on interesting things in corners of the world the Western networks don't seem to give much of a shit about.

[yesterday 2,041]

11 minutes ago, dessa_dangerous said:

 

so, I had BBC through my regular cable box for years, and then it was suddenly just gone.

 

If I really wanted to stream it online I have a VPN, but again, like I said, I also won't go to any great lengths to access it.  It was just nice to have while it was there.  

 

 

yeah, I normally go skiing in Gurgl over the wintertime, they have the BBC and Sky news in the hotel I stop in, and could never understand how they got it. I remember the BBC was on the cable network I had during the first Gulf war  1991 ?, but it disappeared soon after. BBC do not normally allow their shows/news to be shown anywhere else apart from the UK, ok in USA at the moment, with some TV re-runs - called BRIT-BOX I think

 

Normally I watch SKY, which is I think part of the FOX network, their format is not so stuffy, as the BBC, more friendly. Sky wins alot of awards for great and accurate news production, but I know a lot of people do not like it.

 

 Have watch   Al Jazeer a couple of times, but I always wanted more local news to me, same for CNN, but I do know plenty of Brits that love   Al Jazeera

[dessa_dangerous 13,315]

I have heard both of those things about Sky but never really checked them out too much because their format didn't appeal to me.  And of course, on my TV set at home I have both Sky Sports News HD and Sky News Arabia  but nothing in English.  Conspiracy!  

 

I do watch the local news in German, actually, most of my news is watched in German, except on weekends, and during the commercials.

[pappnase 2,654]

Dunno who provides your cable @dessa_dangerous but sometimes on ours(vodafone, was KD) they change the channel order and I need to rescan to pick up the missing ones. It might be worth a try?

 

edit: I think the vodafone in Berlin used to be unitymedia so the content might be different to mine, but if not then BBC-World and AlJazeer are both included.

Also I just did a search and if your cable is from PYUR, then this is the channel list:- https://www.pyur.com/content/dam/pyur/download/Senderliste.pdf 

and you should get BBC-world, but Al Jazeera is not available everywhere.

 

 

[dessa_dangerous 13,315]

Thank you, I did do a rescan and changed my settings to auto-update which is often a pain.  I keep waiting for either channel to reemerge, but nope, it's always bad radio stations, infomercial/spam channels, and oddly, an unseemly amount of Christian programming  have considered resetting everything again, which takes a bit, but worth a try.

[dessa_dangerous 13,315]

@pappnase thanks for the edit.  Yes, it's PYUR, they recently sent us some spam about paying for their shit but I didn't pay it much mind.  I have all those channels except the pay ones.  I guess I must have this CI+Module because I have all those channels too.  Just not BBC.  Thanks very much, I think you've solved it!  I guess I need to fiddle around with my receiver again.  

[fraufruit 42,673]

We get BBC news from our house cable which comes from satellite.

 

My fav CNN show is Christiane Amanpour. She and her cohorts are excellent interviewers and not only on the latest political topics but with authors and others.

[dessa_dangerous 13,315]

@fraufruit I like her too.

[ooch 133]

3 hours ago, pappnase said:

Dunno who provides your cable @dessa_dangerous but sometimes on ours(vodafone, was KD)

Hi Dessa, a year or two ago vodafone (in my case) changed their techno stuff.

HD for all off us. All but the public stations were gone. If I want them back I have to pay 5€ extra a month.

Well ... not worth that money was/is my decision.

I fear you have to pay or say bye bye.

[skinnypuppy 95]

FWIW, our apartment block in T'Hof has cable serviced by Vodafone. We get all the basic cable channels including BBC World and Al Jazeera with no receiver, just plugged into the back of the TV, which has a built-in tuner. Checked again yesterday, no problems with the Beeb or AJ.