Obviously we have lost all our BBC and ITV related channels like everyone else. Below is a bit of background to why they have had to go (most of which you will probably know) - three non-technical reasons.
The unavoidable technical reason is the replacement of the dying Astra satellite.
1. Copyright issues i.e. BBC buys the right to show a film in the UK only.
2. Broadcast license issues. The EU needs to address this but probably won't. Each country licences broadcasters to send out radio transmissions to that country, but can't license them to broadcast to 'other' countries. Thus BBC & ITV have no legal right to broadcast to France or Germany. The German, and I believe the French, broadcast companies have taken the BBC & ITV to court over this for broadcasting from the UK to their subscribers - and there are a lot of UK expats in Germany & France - who thus do not pay those companies. By getting rid of the 'free to air' BBC & ITV satellite transmissions they stand to gain the income when those subscribers start paying to get the same programs via the French & German systems. Up till now the BBC & ITV had the defence that 'there is nothing we can do, that's the way the technology works'. The new narrow beam satellites have killed that argument and they have had no choice but to comply with the international law and go onto the narrow beam transducers.
3. I have heard, probably true but not confirmed, that the narrow beam transducers are cheaper to buy time on than the wide beam ones because they use less power. So they save money by complying with the law - a win-win solution for them.
Re the use of the Internet (IPTV) to receive UK TV here. Two points to bear in mind:
1. Some of the services use a technique often called 'IP Hiding', or sometimes 'proxy servers' which enable the user to appear on the Internet as having an ISP in a different country. e.g. I am with sapo and thus have an IP address looking like 85.24x.xxx.xxx where the x's are other digits - those first few digits identify me to any web-site anywhere as being on a Portugal Telecom system in Portugal.
Hence I can't use for example the BBC iplayer which checks the IP address to ensure only UK people have access. The use of these IP hiding / proxy servers is illegal in Portugal. I am told it is also illegal in several other countries. The use of them can be detected and blocked by the ISP if they care to. There is probably little chance of being caught and the fine is probably fairly small as it is an oldish law. The big problem is that if caught you can be permanently banned from having any Internet access at all (via any supplier) in Portugal. (i.e. if sapo catch me and I'm banned then Vodafone cannot supply me either). This ban would probably also include the use of a 4G mobile phone. You can verify this by looking at the very small print in your own ISP contract.
2. The other problem is capacity. For a decent picture IPTV needs a consistent download speed of about 4Mb/s, 2 will work OK but the
picture quality is poor. All Internet service in the Algarve runs over a single cable from Faro up to Lisbon (and from there to Madrid and hence to Paris and onward). This link to Lisbon is already quite close to capacity. (I have no information about the state of the Madrid and Paris links). If some 10,000 UK expat households in the Algarve should all decide to go onto IPTV this alone could demand an extra 40,000 Mb/s - the whole Internet structure for the Algarve could collapse under the strain. This may take several months to be apparent, but those who use IPTV now are already reporting noticing 'pauses' in reception during early evening. The link badly needs upgrading, but given the current financial problems in Portugal it is unlikely this very expensive (many millions) task will be undertaken any time soon - especially to benefit the expats.
Useful Links
A seemingly accurate diary of the changes and reception.
http://skyinmadrid.com/pages/news.html
Court decision (March 2013) on copyright issue of using IPTV streaming of programs
http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2013/03/08/ec-court-ruling-stops-tvcatchup
by Norman Crocker
A reader writes in response....
1. SURELY, THE BBC WOULD NOT HAVE BROADCASTED COPY-RIGHTED CONTENT OUTSIDE THE UK, WHETHER TO GERMANY, FRANCE AND ELSEWHERE?
2. I HAVE SEEN EU DOCUMENTATION REGARDING THE ABILITY OF MEMBER STATES TO FREELY BROADCAST CROSS-BORDER. THE FRENCH AND GERMAN SUIT PRESUMABLY RELATES TO COMMERCIAL STATIONS ONLY.
3. DOES MR CROCKER HAVE ANY INFORMATION REGARDING THE PRESENT SITUATION WITH THE KU BEAM, AS APPEARS BELOW?
Re the use of the Internet (IPTV) to receive UK TV here. Two points to bear in mind: SADLY, CORRECT. THANK YOU, MR CROCKER.
The free-to-air Astra 2A satellite continues to broadcast (to East Algarve at any rate) these channels:
CNN
Sky News (of course)
Viva, owned by Viacom International
Community Channel: Director-General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, and Sky's CEO James Murdoch agreed to a Joint Declaration of support for the Community Channel. On 17 October 2013 (i.e. when the imminent satellite change was underway), Community Channel joined the free-to-air satellite TV service Freesat
Pick , launched 1 November 2005, owned by British Sky Broadcasting, formerly called Sky3
One view expressing views via the European Broadcasting Union has a 13min video of his talk at the EBU Vision 2020 conference in Brussels, published 09 Jun 2013
see http://futuristgerd.com/2013/05/03...
I shall continue to seek the Eu broadcasting rights and sent to you, if found.
I also am sure that the monopoly of Sky and the UK broadcasting authority's service to parts only of Europe and Scandinavia, contrevene EU discrimination and monopoly/restraint of trade rules and/or directives. However, in view of the EU Commision's current president Mr Barroso's country already having been criticised by the EU for its service being under-funded and the furore over the privatisation of RTP, Mr Crocker's final comment is reinforced.
Many thanks 'ADN' for your coverage, which is most enlightening, if not optimistic.
Gini (OAP)
