•Written by Mark Elliott• ••Tuesday•, 09 •October• 2007 19:50•
Now with satellite and cable television, and increasingly, broadband, you can have access to virtually whatever language radio or television you want. And you don't necessarily have to pay for it.
The channels you can receive on one or two satellite dishes include British (BBC, ITV, Sky…), American (NPR, NBC, CNN, ABC, Discovery, National Geographic, ESPN…), German, Italian, Arabic, Russian, Polish, Chinese, Indian…In many cases, they're free-to-view (FTV). Pay-to-view (PTV) channels require cards or their own boxes and cards, notably Sky. Many viewers we know, however, do quite well thank you watching free-to-view channels only or, increasingly for news programming, internet podcasting. Terrestrial viewing is still available but rapidly going out of style.
Whether in Switzerland or France, and whether you receive Swiss or French channels or not, you need to pay an annual television tax. In France, this is now automatically included in your local tax return (Taxe d’habitation). If you have no TV, then it is up to you to inform the audio-visual authorities (in Lyons for the Lake Geneva region) who will send the necessary documentation to fill out.
However, you will have to be quite persuasive (don’t even mention that you have a monitor for your video as this is considered capable of receiving TV signals) and it may soon prove impossible to argue your case as France gets hooked up to broadband.
Off-the-shelf television and satellite systems are cheaper in Switzerland because of lower Value Added Tax (7.6% compared to the French 19.6%). However, you may have to pay the full French VAT if you declare it at the border or are caught smuggling it into France.
However, if you are keen on receiving UK, North American or Arabic channels, such as Sky TV, Dubai TV or Premiere, you might save yourself a lot of hassle by going directly to some of the satellite specialists operating out of Switzerland and France. They can install (or just sell you the equipment) and know what they are doing. Most are also specialized in dealing with expatriates. They will be aware of what is available as new channels are constantly coming on the market. Some, too, have highly competitive deals for satellite dishes/receivers plus all the mods and coms, such as adding additional points around the house for listening to radio. So it is worth shopping around or letting someone reliable deal with all the more complicated features.
France
You can still receive the six main French channels (TF1, France2, FR3, M6, etc. ) via a rooftop UHF aerial (terrestrial). They are also available free-to-air via the Atlantic Bird satellite. Canal-Plus is available free part of the day, but you will need a decoder for most of its programming, particularly cinema. Pay cable is also available in many cities. To receive French channels, however, you need the Secam system or a multi-system, such as PAL/Secam/NTSC.
Two rival pay digital satellite systems (Canal Satellite and TPS) are available in France, and you still have to watch the advertising. They rent out their own boxes and you must pay a monthly subscription fee on top for various types of ‘bouquets’ with family, cinema and sports viewing. They also provide some, but not many, English, German and Arabic language channels such as BBC World, CNN, and ARD.
Remember, too, that you can receive many French and foreign language radio programmes as well through your satellite and cable systems. These can be hooked up around your house for comfortable listening in your bedroom, bathroom or kitchen.
British Domestic Television (BBC, ITV…)
BBC World plus national and regional BBC and ITV channels plus Film4 and TrueMovies can be received free-to-air as well as through Digiboxes. There are also a lot of free shopping and travel channels. The main movie channels, however, can only be received through the pay-to-view Sky Digibox system.
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written by jonathanmarks, May 03, 2008
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written by Bob Evans, October 02, 2008
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