I wish to make it VERY clear that these are the channels that I have decided to program into my
Digibox. It is only capable of storing 50 channels, so I have elected not to include a number of
German channels, etc.
There is a lot happening on Astra 19.2°E - more than this small selection! If,
however, you are like me and don't mind seeing a broad selection of what is available, then you
may find my selection useful to start off with.
If you would like to see a full list of channels, look for the Lyngsat list
for Astra 19.2°E (sorry, don't have the URL handy!). Alternatively, you
can look for yourself - read this for more.
| Example picture
| Channel name
| T?
| P?
| Language
| Notes
| Tuning details
|
Yet another conflict to solemnly report...
| CNN Int.
| 
| 
| 
| 24hr news
| 11778 V
27500 3/4
|
CNN International prides itself on balanced and in-depth coverage. While I have
grave suspicions about the 'unbiased' part, I cannot fault the range of programmes on
CNN... "The Music Room" showcased t.A.T.u. several months before anybody
else had heard of them, and it is often 'ahead of the game'. You're nobody if you have
never heard of Larry King; and for a look at some more eccentric things, news
anchorwomen such as Hala Goranni present programmes such as design 360 and
Global Challenges.
Their teletext service is a little on the terse side (this is to be expected from
teletext as it provides 40 columns by about 16 lines for content) however it is pretty
up to date and there is LOADS of stuff available on CNN text.
|
|
Home of the best ice cream in Rome, possibly the world...
| Travel
|
|
| 
| Holidays?
| 11778 V
27500 3/4
|
From what I've seen of this channel, it is a lot like an entire channel laid out in the
style of The Travel Programme. It is informative and takes you all sorts of
places, and doesn't ram the hard-sell down your throat.
The teletext programme guide is on p115 and refreshes itself quickly; however it appears
that the content is only updated on Friday.
|
|
|
If you like this Kumquat, gedda loada that one!
| FRANCE 5
encrypted??
|
|
| 
| General
| 12207 V
27500 3/4
|
This is one of the few French channels broadcast 'in the clear'.
[update Oct '04 - this channel appears to be encrypted and no longer FTA, can anybody
confirm this?]
It seems to show a range of medical and health related programmes, such as "Les
Maternelles", "Enceinte et en forme", "Recherche
Nounou Désespérément", "Le Journal De La
Santé ..... you get the idea!
|
|
Mmmm... If I jumped on the table and had wild sex with the microphone, these men wouldn't notice!
| LCP
(La Chaîne Parlementaire)
|
|
|
| ?
| 12207 V
27500 3/4
|
This probably makes a lot more sense to a French person. To me, it just seems amazingly
boring!
|
|
| (no pictures)
| SKYROCK
| -
| -
|
| RADIO
| 12207 V
27500 3/4
|
RADIO NOVA
| -
| -
|
| RADIO
|
FUN RADIO
| -
| -
|
| RADIO
|
CHERIE FM
(Chérie FM)
| -
| -
|
| RADIO
|
ALOUETTE
| -
| -
|
| RADIO
|
|
| (no picture available)
| CLEAR TV
|
|
| (dutch?)
| General entertainment?
| 12610 V
22000 5/6
|
| Dutch general entertainment? I think...
|
|
Scary movie? No - another day as a newsreader...
Say hello to Elisabeth Logean.
| TV5 Europe
|
|
|
| General?
| 12610 V
22000 5/6
|
This channel is sort-of related to France 5; and more-often-than-not is showing something
different to it's sister TV5 (lower down the list).
You'll find the TV schedule for this channel on teletext p315. If you can find
anything else of use on this peculiar and disorganised teletext service, either you are
better at French (than I am) or you have more patience...
Do not be surprised if the time shown in the news programmes are all wrong. The girl in
the picture is presenting a news programme. It says "19:30" on the wall behind
her, the on-screen clock reads "18:30", and the picture was actually
taken at half midnight.
TV5 europe re-broadcasts news programmes ('journal') nearly every two hours, maybe from
F3 or TSR and sometimes an African 'journal'.
|
|
| (no picture)
| BBC World Service
| -
| -
|
| RADIO
| 12610 V
22000 5/6
|
Having this available via satellite saves trying to find it on short wave - which has
always seemed to be a rather hit-and-miss affair.
|
|
No probs sport, we'll put 'er down on that funny shaped building, yeah?
| Liberty TV.com
|
|
|
| ?
| 12610 V
22000 5/6
|
This is a French version of The Travel Channel (and probably no relation) with slightly
more 'hard sell'.
|
|
Shannen Doherty, host of Scare Tactics, gets something pulled on her!
| MTV Central
|
|
| 
| Music
| 11739 V
27500 3/4
|
The German MTV network channels appear to be the only MTV channels broadcast in the
clear, which seems to be in keeping with the German philosophy of not encrypting
stuff.
This channel shows a number of US imports - Scare Tactics, Punk'd,
Jackass, Viva la BAM, The Osbournes (etc) - which are mainly
subtitled in German, but keep their English-language sound.
|
|
Vanilla Ninja - Don't go too fast
Like the Spice Girls with loads more attitude...
| MTV2 Pop Channel
|
|
|
| Music
| 12226 H
27500 3/4
|
This, the MTV 'pop' channel plays more music in a striped schedule, rather like Channel
5 in England. My only grudge with MTV Pop is the habit of cluttering the screen of some
programmes with daft SMS messages, but I guess if it brings in money to them they can
maybe do more (or send it to MTV central to purchase more American programmes?).
|
|
Honey, lose the hat. It makes you look stupid.
| Viva
|
|
|
| Music
| 12670 V
22000 5/6
|
|
Viva is very much like MTV...
|
|
Yvonne Catterfeld.
| VIVA PLUS
|
|
|
| Music
| 12552 V
22000 5/6
|
VivaPlus does a lot of programming in a 'the viewer votes' format. With this; the left
side of the screen shows the top three songs, the phone number instructions, and how long
you have left to vote (usually a few seconds short of the song duration). The bottom of
the screen is a scrolling list of songs that you can choose.
The song itself takes the upper/right, approx. 2/3 of the screen size. My only quibble
here is the garish colours used for the voting distract from the music video you're
supposed to be watching, however it is possibly the fairest way of choosing music to
play, and sometimes you can see the top two entries swap a number of times as people try
to vote their favourite song to be next - as recently happened with Evanescence's My
Immortal and Christina Aguilera's The Voice Within.
|
|
Where's Steve Irwin when you really need him?
| Sky News Intl
|
|
|
| 24hr news
| 11597 V
22000 5/6
|
Sky News is considered by some to be England's flagship news broadcaster, on par with
CNN. Now, I don't really expect the 'press RED button' stuff on a non-Sky satellite, but
there was no teletext, no nothing.
Incidentally, I find the Sky News DOG to be highly annoying, it's bright red and bright
blue and... it might as well be 'wavering' in a radioactive sort of way, it almost does
on an old TV hooked via UHF leads...
|
|
Oh, look! More evidence of Coca's master plan of world domination...
| EUROSPORTNEWS
|
|
| 
| Sporting news
| 11597 V
22000 5/6
|
|
Alla pasta dell'oro tagliatelle cuore punto...
| CNBC Europe
|
|
|
| Stock market info
| 11597 V
22000 5/6
|
CNBC Europe prides itself on being the stock information channel watched by the largest
number of European CEOs, and given the depth of their coverage - charting the major stock
markets' every move - I don't doubt this.
After hours, you may find boringly repetitive golf equipment adverts, or NBC's news
programming (which appears to be pandering to a person with a fifteen second attention
span and no intelligence, and is apparently the way things are over in the US:
come back ITV - all is forgiven!).
On weekends, the highlight: three episodes of Jay Leno and three episodes of Conan
O'Brien; which are essentially night time talk shows (Conan took over The Late Show from
David Letterman (thank god)). And then, more golf.
Given that Conan/Jay are nightly, I'd like to see more episodes shown on CNBC, and also
Saturday Night Live, if it is an NBC programme...
|
|
Oh cuuuute! It's Ally McBeal and her grandaddy!
| BBC WORLD
|
|
|
| News?
| 12285 V
27500 3/4
|
From the few times I've watched this, it seems to carry all sorts of programming (akin
to CNN). However since there is no teletext or any other form of information, I can't
look to see what this channel offers.
BBC, you're letting the side down here...
|
|
Note the thing protruding from the head - who is DUMB enough to wear that?
| FashionTV
|
|
|
| ?
| 12285 V
27500 3/4
|
|
Why, God, why!?!?!?
|
|
Pierce Brosnan does the Bond act better than this guy...
| TVC INT.
|
|
|
| General
| 11686 V
22000 5/6
|
|
Television Catalunya.
|
|
My God these girls speak quickly!
| ANDALUCÍA TV
|
|
|
| General
| 11686 V
22000 5/6
|
Andalucía is where all the Brits go on holiday - Málaga, Marbella,
basically the bit down the south.
|
|
A serious looking girl on a serious looking programme...
| EUSKADI TV
|
|
|
| General
| 11686 V
22000 5/6
|
Euskadi is the Basque region to the northern part of Spain around where the left
side of France joins, encompassing places such as St. Sébastian and Bilbao.
I think the logo 'etb' stands for euskaltelebiste while the web URL (eitb) stands
for euskadi irratia telebiste.
The girl pictured, I think, was a guest on the programme Políticamente in
correcto. This programme is hosted by Estibalitz Ruiz de Azua. How's that for
a name?
|
|
| No picture yet.
| TV GALICIA
|
|
|
| General
| 11686 V
22000 5/6
|
If I remember correctly, Galicia is the northwestern region of Spain.
I've only just found this channel (it appears to be new) and have
not had time to watch it much yet.
|
|
Guess what happens next...
| TV 5
|
|
|
|
| 11568 V
22000 5/6
|
|
Sometimes this shows the same as TV5 Europe, more often it is showing something different.
|
|
Eurovisione arrivare molto presto!
| RAI 1
|
|
| 
| General
| 11568 V
22000 5/6
|
This is the only Italian language channel. It appears to show a broad selection of
programmes and films; however it seems that music programmes with sets resembling
EuroVision-on-acid is something of an Italian speciality (I think this programme comes
from Rimini), rather like ice cream that tastes like ice cream should...
|
|
Only arte could have a forty-minute programme of a guy teaching the violin!
| ARTE
|
|
|
|
| 11568 V
22000 5/6
|
|
Goodness... How does one describe 'arte'? Email me!
|
|
Shouldn't she be wearing... more?
| Al Jazeera
|
|
| 
| 24hr news
| 11568 V
22000 5/6
|
I imagine this is put here for viewing by the Arabic speaking population in western
Europe. Al Jazeera was apparently started (not so long ago) to provide a more pro-Arabic
news service for Arabic people, who had until then been watching western news services that
were seen as being less than complimentary towards the Arabic peoples.
A number of western news services seemed to respond by having Arabic and Indian anchors,
and also by trying to provide a more 'balanced' view, while patting themselves on the back
for doing what they should have done in the first place.
Sadly, however, the western news has a way to go as we still hear them utter phrases
such as "Islamic terrorists". Trust me, I've never heard the likes of Radio Four
describe the IRA as "Catholic terrorists", or the Americans as "political
terrorists"...
By the way, if you wonder why the ticker bar is whizzing by 'backwards', it is because the
Arabs read right-to-left.
|
|
Two presenters, she's the pretty one. Don't ask about the other...
| TVEi
|
|
|
| General?
| 11568 V
22000 5/6
|
|
Television España internacíonal...
|
|
The talented Elena Sokolova is very happy with her performance in the Ladies Singles (2004).
| Eurosport
|
|
|
| Sports
| 11954 H
27500 3/4
|
|
I have absolutely nothing to add to this!
| RTL Television
|
|
|
| General
| 12188 H
27500 3/4
|
|
Budget sci-fi, dubbed; it's no wonder lots of Germans speak English...
| RTL2
|
|
|
| General
| 12188 H
27500 3/4
|
|
You did what with my bladder?
| SuperRTL
|
|
|
| General
| 12188 H
27500 3/4
|
|
The girl is happy, the guys... do they ever smile?
| EURONEWS
|
|
|
| 24hr news?
| 11817 V
27500 3/4
|
This is supposed to be available in a number of different languages, however it
appears to be available only in German on a Digibox... does anybody know how to alter the
audio channels so I can get this in English?
|
|
I don't get people that put their books in a glass-fronted cabinet...
| CCVALENCIANA - GONE?
|
|
|
| General?
| 11436 V
22000 5/6
|
This frequency appears to be only one channel called
'test_1016'.
Either CCVALENCIANA has ceased broadcasting, or it has moved someplace
and I've not found it yet...
There are only two large places on the Eastern coast of Spain. The first is Barcelona,
which is not so far from France. The next, Valencia, which is about halfway down.
This channel covers Valenciana, the area around Valencia...
|
|
# Hooooooold a chicken in the air, stick a deckchair up your nose...
| TV CANARIAS
(no URL available)
|
|
|
| General?
| 10979 V
22000 5/6
|
This channel was called CANAL CANARIAS...
The Canaries are a small set of islands lingering down off the southern coast of Morocco
(well, maybe a hundred miles?). Tenerife is one of the islands, and Las Palmas is the
capital. It is almost mind-boggling that the Astra satellite is actually capable of
broadcasting over such a large area.
Madeira (Portuguese) is a few hundred miles north of the Canaries.
The Azores (also Portuguese), known for bringing good weather on an 'Azores High' is in
line with Lisbon in Portugal, but is almost two-fifths of the way across the Atlantic
Ocean - a seriously long way from anything!
|