Does anyone know which cable supplier has the BBC on it? On a recent vacation the BBC was on the television of my hotel and I found it to be really good and informative, much better than CNN. I read recently that only one cable supplier offers the BBC. Does anyone know which one and if so, do you possibly have a phone number. Many thanks in advance for anyone who knows this.
None, in Taipei, and even if one did, it wouldn’t matter, You can’t choose your cable provider as they have the areas divided up between them and there’s no competition as the companies are run by gangsters (literally).
Brian
Epicurean, i agree with you about the quality of the Beeb. Eastern TV has BBC World on their digital feed. You need to have a special box fitted to your TV, this costs NT$5,000 plus about NT$800 a month rental and gives you an extra 6 channels (more to come very soon apparently) mostly news from France, Germany, Aus. etc. I believe that you get all the usual channels, too. This service is only available in certain areas; Yangmingshan, Tien Mu, Shilin, Ta-An, Hsin-Yi as well as other areas on the island including Taichung and Tainan. You can call ETV on 23118000. If you have any success please let me know as i’m very interested in subscribing but currently in the process of moving (supposedly!)
If you buy a C-band satellite dish (at least 180 cm in diameter) and a digital receiver, then you can get the BBC for free! (Well, it’s free after you’ve paid for the dish and the receiver.) The BBC is on PAS 2 at 169 degrees. The west coast of Taiwan is at 120 degrees longitude, so PAS 2 is to the east, just slightly above the eastern horizon. But there can’t be any buildings or trees between the dish and the satellite, so if you can’t see to the east when you’re standing on your roof, then you won’t be able to receive PAS 2.
By the way, you can see this website to see a listing of all the satellites which are visible in Taiwan. The horizon is 60 degrees away, so that means all C-band satellites between 60 degrees and 180 degrees longitude are visible from Taiwan, as long as there isn’t anything blocking the signal.
However, usually only about 1/4 to 1/2 of the channels on each satellite are “free to air” (“FTA”). You can’t get the encrypted channels unless you pay for a decryption card that you stick in the receiver, and it’s a different card for each encrypted channel. But luckily, the BBC is FTA on PAS 2 (see the listing for PAS 2 here. The BBC is at 3744 MHz Vertical).
But I can’t guarantee that the BBC will always be FTA on PAS 2 because they used to also be FTA on another satellite (PAS 10 at 68.5 degrees), but just recently they became encrypted on that satellite. (Look here and look up 3836 MHz Horizontal. The channels that have the peach-colored background are encrypted, whereas the channels with the yellow background are FTA.)
Mark
Any update on this ?