S4C on Sky

[Anorak]

S4C the Welsh version of Channel 4 is now on all Sky cards, including ours!

[JDxtra]

Yes, so shhhhh (!).... before they realise it and remove it!

[Ger Roe]

Down the Wicklow way, S4C is one of the UK based terrestial services that we can pull in with our roof top aerials. Since it came on air both BBC Wales and HTV (our other UK based services) now fulfill their local cultural obligations by providing Welsh language progs for S4C and they are now both completely English language services. S4C however is probably about 75% Welsh with some of the mainstream English Channel 4 progs thrown in for diversity. In Wales S4C is the main service and Channel 4 is not available, unless you are living in border areas where overspill may be received from the nearest Channel 4 transmission site.

Because Welsh is widely spoken in the S4C franchise area, the local language takes priority and the English progs are usually limited to off peak slots in the schedule. As a result you need a video recorder, an all regions schedule magazine and a six year old's knowledge of programable timers to get to see Big Brother or Brookside.

Down these parts 'Telly Welly' is a way of life but I am not sure how popular it will be outside of Wales ... or Wicklow.

Ger Roe.
Phantom FM

[Mike]

Actually Its not just in Wicklow. below a line streaching from Wicklow to Limerick most people recieving UK channels directly or via Deflectors (and until recently even via cable) had to rely on "Telly Welly"

One of the few (only ?) selling points of MMDS in these areas is that it offered the English version of Ch 4

Apart from Welsh-speaking expat and the odd pan-celtic linguist most people would opt for English Ch4 given the choice.

Of course this brings up the whole issue of television without frontiers and English speakers being discriminated again. Speakers of most European languages can recieve most/all of their national channels (and in the case of Germans all their regional channels too) across most of Europe but anglophones come up against all sorts of restrictions with regard to what channels they can watch (RoI residents cant watch some UK channels and mainland UK residents cant get Irish ones, European mainland residents cant get either and even within the UK people cant watch TV from other regions)

I thought satellite TV was ment to bring down boundaries not reinforce them and create new ones

[Emerson]

Originally posted by Anorak
S4C the Welsh version of Channel 4 is now on all Sky cards, including ours!

It's actually nothing to do with what card you have..
S4C is now just free to air, meaning no card is required....

[Arnold]

Out of curiosity flicked on to S4C the other night to find Aled Jones presenting a talant show that looked more like karaoke night in the Braemore Rooms.
How the mighty have fallen. (well ok, not that far!)

(and yes I know he didn't sing the snowman)

[John Fleming]

As you can see i'm going through the tv section pruning old threads...and reading this one the impression may be got that the S4C that we all now receive via satellite is the same as the terrestrial version Ger receives down in the middle of nowhere via aerial :-)

The satellite version is a stripped-down version with the English language programmes removed because of rights restrictions.

I would hate anybody to sign up for a Sky receiver on the basis that they could get Ch4 programmes on S4C believing that only UTV is missing from what they receive on cable.