What channels am I actually going to watch?

October 19, 2006 12:32 PM

UKTVFilter: Help me pick the channels I’ll actually watch!

I am about to move into my first UK apartment, having most recently lived in New York, and I need to arrange for TV service. I gather that Sky is my best bet (although I welcome comments on that assumption, too); I understand that the apartment is already wired (if that’s the right word) for Sky.

When I go to the Sky website, I am faced with a dizzying array of channels and packages, including digital and HD – but I don’t know enough about most of them to know what I’ll want. So, dear hive mind, please tell me your thoughts as to what I should be picking, and particularly whether the HD option is going to give me additional channels that I’ll watch.

To help with this question: I will be buying a new TV that is HD-ready, and I would like to watch movies and mainstream TV shows in HD wherever possible. I definitely want digital TV. Back in New York (when I didn’t have much time to watch TV), I mostly watched NY1, the major networks, BBC America, Showtime and Logo. I like documentaries and dramas and shows like Lost.

(Yes, I know I need a TV license as well.)

Thanks in advance.

posted by sueinnyc to media & arts (9 comments total)

Hmm. HD-capable Sky receivers ain't cheap (and there's not a lot of programming yet). You may want to look at Telewest cable if it's available.

Broadly speaking, Sky and cable are identical in terms of which channels you get. Freeview (digital terrestrial TV) has no ongoing fees once you've dropped about fifty nicker on a receiver. HD's not coming to Freeview soon, though, and the number of channels is bandwidth-limited to a couple dozen.

You'll get all the BBC offerings no matter which way you go. Ditto C4/E4/More4/Film4.

"Lost", I hear today, is moving to Sky One - which is also very big on other current SF-ish shows. It also runs Star Treks, Stargates, Battlestars. You'll probably want that (and it's not on Freeview).

Also running the better US imports: Channel 5 (available even on regular UHF), LivingTV, Paramount Comedy. Also running the better parts of the UK archives: UKTV Gold/G2/History/Documentary.

That pretty much covers everything we ever watch(*)... cable/Sky would call this Entertainment plus News/Docs in terms of which 'packs' you're after.

I've left out the sport and film packages because you did. They're always extra, and come in huge monolithic packs of channels.

(* Probably not relevant but I'm actually watching these same channels on cable in Ireland. 'S all the same save for the four extra Irish networks you won't be seeing. Unfortunately for you... Lost, West Wing and CSI $city all air(ed) here for free and some months before any UK channel. They have to do something to survive among the sea of stuff from next door.)
posted by genghis at 12:51 PM on October 19, 2006

I know bugger all about HDTV... but I'll chuck my two penn'orth in anyway.

How much telly are you actually going to watch? Normal free TV through the aerial (well, if you don't count the the licence fee) gives plenty of channels. - all the BBCs and ITVs, C5 and all the Channel 4 variations plus loads of extra rubbish thrown in - music, shopping and daft rip-off quiz channels. And some radio.

Sky gives you a lot more channels, and presumably some channels with HD goodness as well. But it can be quite expensive. Unless you plan on watching a shitload of footy (which will likely always be on in a nearby pub) then you're probably just better getting the cheapest Sky package you can and rent DVDs or go to the pictures. The BBCs and ITVs and Film 4 have plenty of films on and BBC4's good for documentaries. They do repeat stuff a lot though.

Sky One can be a decent enough channel (very American though) but the rest is just thousands and thousands of channels of utter, utter shite. There's never, ever, anything on worth watching. My parents have Sky. I end up insome sort of hellish circular flick trying and failing to find something to watch.

Have a look at digiguide - I don't know if they have a free trial thing but a subscription is only something like 8 or 9 quid a year. Gives you listings for pretty much all the channels so you can see which ones show the sort of thing you like to watch and buy (or not) those.
posted by ComfySofa at 1:54 PM on October 19, 2006

HDTV only launched in the UK a couple of months a go and is still expensive and pretty pointless. Digital SDTV looks very good, even on a big screen, because we have a much better SDTV system to begin with.

Sky have a very simple system where they've divided all their channels into "mixes" (categories), and there's no overlap between them, so you just get whatever mixes include any of the channels you want. For Drama you want the Variety Mix (especially for Sky One, More 4, E4 and LivingTV).

A lot of new stuff is shown on the free-to-air channels first (esp. BBC, Channel 4 and Five), so you don't need to stick with subscription channels.

Oh and Sky don't do anything else but Digital (with HD as an optional extra), so you don't need to worry there.
posted by cillit bang at 2:20 PM on October 19, 2006

On Sky channel 165 is Bonanza TV. Does exactly what it says. Non-stop Bonanza.

"Dun-da-da-da da-da-da da-da-da da-da-daaaa-da..."

*stamps out burning map*
posted by essexjan at 3:02 PM on October 19, 2006

Oh, if you're looking for a web-based listings guide, the Radio Times site is free and good. And feeds the eponymous uk_rt grabber in XMLTV.
posted by genghis at 3:27 PM on October 19, 2006

Just on the HD thing - there is currently very, very little HD programming available in this country - Sky One, Sky Movies and Sky Sports are all available in an HD flavour and there is a BBC HD channel, which (I gather) just shows clips and Planet Earth.

This I have learnt from Charlie Brooker, who says about HD: "If I'd paid for it, I'd be disappointed. It'd be like spending a fortune on a flying car, only to discover that under current regulations you're only allowed to fly it to Gwent and back. On Sundays."

There will be more to come (of course), but the picture will probably seem a little disappointing for a while if you're used to HD in New York. And you might wonder why you shelled out for an HDTV you're not using to its full potential.
posted by featherboa at 3:35 PM on October 19, 2006

We've had Sky for years, and there's never anything worth watching (in our opinion, at least); there are occasionally programmes on things like Sky One or E4 that we would watch, but it worked out at 3-4 programmes per week. Everything else we watched was free-to-air (i.e. Sky box/dish but no subscription) or on terrestrial broadcasts.

Sky movies are expensive, and are repeated frequently - you can easily watch all the movies you want to see, and then have to wait a month or so until they change them around... and even then, only a few new ones are added. It's much cheaper to pop online and buy DVDs, especially in the numerous Amazon/HMV/Play/whatever sales.

I've recently had an *extremely* bad customer service experience that has meant that I will never return as a paying customer to Sky. They don't seem to care about individual customers, they don't believe their customers or take complaints seriously, and use the "inertia" technique of continuing a subscription - even if you've tried to cancel, but somehow they think otherwise. Grr.
Their customer service people are awful, and the support line is just one huge telephone queue that costs a fortune.
More info is available on request!

If you're in an area that can get Freeview, then that may be worth it, but Sky? Never again, and I would strongly discourage anyone I can from using them.
If only they had some competition...
posted by Chunder at 2:14 AM on October 20, 2006

Assuming you are moving into an apartment which lets you choose which Sky bundle you want, you might want to take a look at the various Sky packages.

Based on what you said you prefer, I'd imagine that the Variety mix is a must for you, as perhaps would be the Knowledge mix. Although if you want your American-y CNN/MSNBC/Fox (*spit) News, you may also want the News package.

Lost is now on Sky One.
BBC America showcases all UK programming, so you'll find your favourite BBC America programmes on most of the domestic free-to-air channels (BBC, ITV, Channel 4).

If you tell us which programmes you do want to watch, we can probably tell you which Sky channel it's airing on. We're huge fans of US TV in this country - hell, Channel 5 have just launched a channel dedicated to US TV programmes.

Bear in mind that your apartment may be part of the Sky In Flats scheme which may restrict your choice to all or nothing.

As has been previously pointed out, HDTV just enables better-technical quality programming. You won't actually get more programmes. All the HDTV services in the UK as far as I know just rebroadcast certain programmes in HDTV.
posted by badlydubbedboy at 2:41 AM on October 20, 2006

Thank you for the very helpful answers and comments. Based on advice offered here about the current state of HDTV, I am not going to buy any HD package at this point. I am going to start out with just "regular" TV and Freeview, and then get Sky as soon as I feel a need for it.
posted by sueinnyc at 3:17 PM on October 28, 2006