British television

No, it's illegal.
British laws on the subject are really daft, stopping you watching programs you can see legally on other stations.
If I was in the US, I could watch Dr Who legally, but I can't here.
If I was a naughty boy, I'd suggest the BBC's mummy and daddy weren't married.

You may be able to use a VPN service which basically gives you a British IP address on your computer which may then allow you to access BBC iplayer etc. However I think they charge you a monthly fee and I'm not sure of the legalities.
If you also have a UK residence with broadband you may be able to configure your UK router to share a VPN connection, which basically would allow you to access iplayer etc as if you were using your internet connection within the UK.  Also there's something called Slingbox which does a similar thing to access your UK TV from abroad but less technical knowledge is needed I think.

mas fred wrote:

No, it's illegal.
British laws on the subject are really daft, stopping you watching programs you can see legally on other stations.
If I was in the US, I could watch Dr Who legally, but I can't here.
If I was a naughty boy, I'd suggest the BBC's mummy and daddy weren't married.

Regardless of the legality, it's perfectly possible to watch British TV.  It's been covered here in this forum many times.

Forget the satellite, just use a VPN to the UK Internet, pay by Paypal then you can watch most of the UK public TV channels live over the Internet. It costs me £6.50 a month for both USA and UK VPNs.  I was watching BBC1 this morning from Budapest.  It's not the best way but it works pretty good most of the time but it's not HD.  The main bad thing is that the programmes have really gone downhill.  It's all cooking, dancing and reality TV shows of dubious quality.  On the upside, there's Dr Who, Top Gear and the extremely high quality wildlife programmes.

gazamataz wrote:

If you also have a UK residence with broadband you may be able to configure your UK router to share a VPN connection, which basically would allow you to access iplayer etc as if you were using your internet connection within the UK.  Also there's something called Slingbox which does a similar thing to access your UK TV from abroad but less technical knowledge is needed I think.

Forget all that, it's completely unnecessary and the legaility proves the law is an ass in this area.   

I've been receiving British TV for 20 years in various countries in Eastern Europe including many years here in HU, and I've tried it all, satellite, Slingbox etc. Now I do it all via VPN.  My satellite receiver has been in a box for 5 years and I scrapped my Sky subscription years ago.  Anything special you can get on downloads or Youtube.

BTW, anyone wanting to VPN to the UK on their own router will probably find their cheap router over there does not support incoming VPN connections. Most support outgoing VPNs for telecommuters but inbuilt incoming VPN servers only appear in the higher end routers.

fluffy2560 wrote:

cooking, dancing and reality TV shows of dubious quality

If I were to write a book about the first decades of the 21st century, that would be the title....

Thank you all. I will look in to your answers and see what can be a good solution for us. Ellen.