LondonSatelliteTelevisionFilter

May 29, 2005 6:28 AM

She's from Ukraine. I'm from the States. We'll be living in London, UK for the foreseeable future. Are there any satellite television options that will allow us to view programs broadcast from our respective home countries?

Judging from Google, Sky has a pretty solid lock on Satellite TV in the UK but the the packages that they offer do not fit our needs. Is there a roll-your-own solution?

posted by Optamystic to Technology (7 answers total)

Satellite TV techies hang out here, and might provide the answer, if MeFiers don't know.
posted by essexjan at 6:56 AM on May 29, 2005

Here is a list of Ukrainian TV available on satellite. Sadly not all of them are from the same satellite, so you'd need a motorised dish to receive them all. A Sky box and dish can technically receive all these channels, but you'd have to point the dish at different parts of the sky to the Sky transmitter. I'd recommend contacting a dealer (eg) and asking them to pick you out the right equipment.
posted by cillit bang at 7:53 AM on May 29, 2005

(Oh, rereading the question, here's the US page, same details apply, though bear in mind all major American shows are available on British TV, one way or another)
posted by cillit bang at 7:56 AM on May 29, 2005

The closest I can think of to a "roll your own" solution would be something like Orb, Snapstream or Clearphone. You'll need a computer and high speed internet connection at each point from which you wish to "broadcast" your cable TV shows, mind...
posted by skylar at 11:15 AM on May 29, 2005

I'm under the impression that pretty much all of the good US shows are available in the UK, at least on SKY satalite TV, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch.
posted by delmoi at 11:33 AM on May 29, 2005

Also, you can download quite many american tv-shows using bittorrent, including cable-tv shows. And you can choose when you want to watch them and they're better quality than normal tv as well. Of course, I cannot recommend that you do this since it is frowned upon by copyright holders, but it would be an easy way to watch your favorite shows in the UK, provided you're going to get broadband.
posted by lazy-ville at 8:09 AM on May 30, 2005

Okay, I've found it - what you need is this: Slingbox
posted by skylar at 8:24 AM on June 6, 2005