Why Do We Have Time To Put Together Web Pages ?....
Sometimes, these pages can come across as being sarcastic .... although
they are not meant that way -- instead they should be viewed as just good,
clean fun. But this -- no doubt -- is one of those times. These pages come
from the considerable time that used to be spent in front of the tube -- 7
tubes, in fact (our British friends think we are slightly wacky). Actually,
TV here isn't bad, thanks to Sky TV. Sports, on the other hand -- well,
we'll get to that later....
General Comments:
To legally watch TV here, you will need a TV license -- it's about 100 GBP a year, and can be purchased at the post office -- this helps to fund the BBC, which is government-owned. Luckily for us, it's one per household, not one per TV, because ....
We were not kidding about the 7 TVs.... we do have 7.... but 2 are U.S. games and tapes only.... 3 are connected to Sky TV (1 digital, 2 satellite)....the other 2 are ....uh ....worthless ?? (connected to BBC only).
Another important note, before you bring your TV(s).... the UK uses a completely different format to broadcast signals (called PAL)....we use NTSC in the US. The result is that US TVs do not receive local programming, either terrestrial or satellite. This also means that US VCRs or video game sets also don't work with rented media, and that UK TVs will not play US tapes or game software. But before storing your VCR or game library, consider bringing a US TV, VCR and game set and "dedicate" it to the US format. Hey, you won't be able to watch BBC, but that could almost be considered a blessing....
Effectively, sports programming here is soccer -- We gained an appreciation for this during the World Cup -- but Club games, for us, don't have the same passion .... kinda like the difference between college and pro basketball. You also get an occassional car race (Yawn....), cricket (fun to play, but boring to watch .... kinda like baseball), snooker (pool) , darts
(really good .... these guys are great), boxing (pretty good here), golf, some UK basketball, US football playoffs--late on Sundays, and some rugby.
TV movie premiers are the same as US, but several months later .... good viewing though. Heck, just the other night, we watched The Lost World on pay TV.
Speaking of pay TV .... about $5.00 a movie .... some run all day (pick your time, or watch it twice).
Rental movies are about the same -- titles and price -- but several months later.
Wrestling pay-per-views, too !! Wrestling is fairly popular here .... we get the US shows (WCW, WWF and ECW) just about all on Friday night, from the previous week. Our "boys (of all ages) " love that stuff. Some wrestling pay-per-view in the US are free here, late at night -- get the tape machines rolling.
Satellite TV is common -- but with older homes, the dish must not be in plain view. Ours is well hidden, triple receivers for 3 TVs. Trying now to justify digital .... a few more months on analog though, to fully "recover" the installation costs. NEWS FLASH: We now have digital as of June 11 .... not exactly justified, but what the heck.... it's wonderful .... on-line TV guide, lots of movies .... significantly more choices .... oh, fun
Thank Heavens For ......... Sky TV |
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| No. | Channel Name | Type of Programming | Hours | Favorite Shows and Comments | ||
| 01 | Sky One | Entertainment | 24 hours | Movies, Star Trek, The Simpson's, America's Dumbest Criminals, Beat The Crusher (Wrong answers put your car into a junkyard crusher) | ||
| 02 | Sky News | News | 24 hours | U.K.'s CNN | ||
| 03 | Sky MovieMax | Free Movies | 24 hours | |||
| 04 | Sky Premier | Free Movies | 24 hours | |||
| 05 | Disney Channel | Kids | 0600-2400 | Boy Meets World, Teen Angel | ||
| 06 | Sky Sports 1 | Sports | 0700-Varies |  |
||
| 07 | Nickelodeon | Kids | 0600-1900 | |||
| ComedyChannel | Comedy | 1900-0400 | Frasier, Mad About You | |||
| 08 | Trouble | Kids | 0700-2000 | USA High, Saved by the Bell, Sweet Valley High, Fresh Prince |  |
|
| Bravo | Adult Mens | 2000-0600 | An amazing channel....... the logo is a circle .... that grows horns. |  |
||
| 09 | Discovery Home & Leisure | Lifestyle | 0600-1600 |  |
||
| Discovery | Learning | 1600-0200 | ||||
| 10 | Travel | ????-1700 | ||||
| Challenge TV | Entertainment | 1700-0500 | Crystal Maze, 100 Percent | |||
| 11 | UK Gold | Entertainment | 0700-Varies | Fawlty Towers, Monty Python | ||
| 12 | QVC | Shopping | 24 hours | |||
| 13 | living.... | Leisure | 0600-2400 | Jerry Springer | ||
| 14 | MTV | Music | 24 hours |  |
||
| 15 | VH1 | |||||
| 16 | Sky Sports 2 | Sports | 0700-Varies |  |
||
| 17 | Sky Sports 3 | Sports | 1200-Varies |  |
||
| 18 | Fox Kids | Kids | 0600-1900 |  |
National Geographic is, simply, GREAT | |
| National Geographic | Learning | 1900-0100 | ||||
| 19 | Granada Plus | Entertainment | 0600-2300 |
|
||
| Granada Men & Motors | Entertainment | 2300-0200 | ||||
| 20 | SkyBoxOffice 2 | Pay Movies | 1800-0600 | |||
| 21 | FilmFour | Pay Movies | 1800-0600 | |||
| 22 | GranadaBreeze | Lifestyle | 0600-1800 |  |
||
| [.tv] | Computers | 1800-2000 | ||||
| SkyBoxOffice 4 | Pay Movies | 2000-0600 | ||||
| 23 | UK Horizons | Learning | 0700-0100 | "The best of BBC's factual entertainment" | ||
| 24 | Animal Planet | Learning | 1200-2400 |  |
||
| SkyBoxOffice 1 | Pay Movies | 2400-0600 | ||||
| 25 | Channel 5 | Entertainment | 24 hours | UK Terrestrial Station with limited local transmission | ||
| 26 | Sky Soap | Entertainment | 1100-1600 | Gotta love that History Channel |  |
|
| TheHistoryChannel | Learning | 1600-2000 | ||||
| Sci-Fi | Entertainment | 2000-2400 | ||||
| 27 | Sky Travel | Travel | 1100-1600 | |||
| Sky Cinema | Free Movies | 1600-Varies | "Big screen classics .... best directors and stars" | |||
| 28 | CNBC | Business | 24 hours | |||
| 29 | Cartoon Network | Kids |   |
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| TNT | Entertainment | |||||
| SkyBoxOffice 3 | Pay Movies | |||||
| 30 | Eurosport | Sports | ||||
| 31 | CNN | News | 24 hours | Find out who's winning which war today !! | ||
| 41 | Blomberg | Business | ||||
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[Hits Since 03/06/99 24:00 GMT -- {or, English Style, 06/03/99}]
