Why can't I watch free TV like they do down the valley?
It's just as well I don't watch much TV these days because in my part of Yorkshire there's not much of it to watch.
A few miles up the road, they can pop into Argos and carry away a Freeview box that picks up exotic channels with names like Dave and (for all I know) Tom, Dick and Harry. They can not only watch programmes but also record them just by picking them off a list on the screen.
But Freeview doesn't extend this far up Wharfedale. There's a great big hill between us and Emley Moor. (Damn fool place to put a transmitter, if you ask me).
So our viewing is confined largely to the four terrestrial channels. I say largely because we get a few others via a free-to-view card in the Sky box - but there's no convenient way of recording them unless we choose to pay Rupert Murdoch a monthly fee. And we choose not to - on the very sound principle that if they don't have to a few miles up the road, why should we?
Freeview - far too good an idea to have had inside the public sector, said its creator Greg Dyke - is terrific for the two-thirds of the country who can get it; a source of envy for the rest of us.
Which is why I'm holding my breath for the launch this spring of its sister service, Freesat. For the first time, BBC Four-deprived viewers such as I will be able to watch and record Dave and all the other free channels on our choice of subscription-free satellite receiver.
But that's just the half of it. Because, have you noticed, all the TV sets in the shops these days are sold as HD-ready: sophisticated tubes that can receive programmes in fabulous, glittering high definition. Except there are no high definition programmes. Unless you pay Virgin or Sky a subscription and another subscription on top.
That's because Freeview doesn't have enough capacity to transmit in HD. But Freesat will have. So for the first time, you'll be able to put your new box to its intended purpose without having to pay for it all over again.
Freesat boxes are due in the shops in a few weeks' time. Information is thin on the ground at the moment but if you're as TV-deprived as me, there's speculation aplenty on this forum.
A few miles up the road, they can pop into Argos and carry away a Freeview box that picks up exotic channels with names like Dave and (for all I know) Tom, Dick and Harry. They can not only watch programmes but also record them just by picking them off a list on the screen.
But Freeview doesn't extend this far up Wharfedale. There's a great big hill between us and Emley Moor. (Damn fool place to put a transmitter, if you ask me).
So our viewing is confined largely to the four terrestrial channels. I say largely because we get a few others via a free-to-view card in the Sky box - but there's no convenient way of recording them unless we choose to pay Rupert Murdoch a monthly fee. And we choose not to - on the very sound principle that if they don't have to a few miles up the road, why should we?
Freeview - far too good an idea to have had inside the public sector, said its creator Greg Dyke - is terrific for the two-thirds of the country who can get it; a source of envy for the rest of us.
Which is why I'm holding my breath for the launch this spring of its sister service, Freesat. For the first time, BBC Four-deprived viewers such as I will be able to watch and record Dave and all the other free channels on our choice of subscription-free satellite receiver.
But that's just the half of it. Because, have you noticed, all the TV sets in the shops these days are sold as HD-ready: sophisticated tubes that can receive programmes in fabulous, glittering high definition. Except there are no high definition programmes. Unless you pay Virgin or Sky a subscription and another subscription on top.
That's because Freeview doesn't have enough capacity to transmit in HD. But Freesat will have. So for the first time, you'll be able to put your new box to its intended purpose without having to pay for it all over again.
Freesat boxes are due in the shops in a few weeks' time. Information is thin on the ground at the moment but if you're as TV-deprived as me, there's speculation aplenty on this forum.
posted by David Behrens at 19:27
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