British Expatriate Network

Full Version: television licence
You're currently viewing a stripped down version of our content. View the full version with proper formatting.
Just curious... what channels are "over the air" in the UK now? I keep reading about all these new BBC channels but not sure how many of them are cable/satellite/digital and therefore have to be paid for.

What exactly do you get on a basic telly for the basic licence fee?
It seems quite a lot is funded by the license fee. See the bottom of each column here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/channels/

*Edited for URLness :) *
My parents inherited one of those digital TV boxes when my Grandpa died a couple of years ago. They don't pay any subscription but they get about 10 more channels than the basic BBC/ITV/Channel 4/Channel 5 stuff.
Yes this is called Freeview - a digital decoder is needed, and they can be purchased for a one time only fee from electrical shops (eg. Dixons, Argos) for about 60 or 70 pounds. I was thinking of getting my mum one for her birthday in May.

More information here FreeView
Yes, that looks like it. The UK history channel and BBC News channels were interesting but I found the other extras were as rubbish as most channels on my cable TV.

kentgirl Wrote:
Just curious... what channels are "over the air" in the UK now? I keep reading about all these new BBC channels but not sure how many of them are cable/satellite/digital and therefore have to be paid for.

What exactly do you get on a basic telly for the basic licence fee?


As I understand it, none of the new channels are broadcast in the traditional analogue "over the airwaves" fashion. All are digital, so you need some form of digital receiver to get them -if you went back and watched on your old set, probably only channel 5 would be new to you.

There are links to websites for all UK TV stations here:

http://www.british-expats.com/index.php?...t&catid=14

If you come across any we don't have links to, please suggest them.

Reference URL's