UKTV Channels in Europe

With Britain officially leaving the EU today, I thought this'd be appropriate.

For years, I thought BBC World Service Television/Prime/Entertainment were the only way British expats could get their daily dose of the BBC abroad. However, years ago I spoke to a former British expat who lived in the Dutch-speaking area of Belgium as a kid between 1995 and 2003, and they told me they were able to get BBC One and Two from their analogue receiver.

Turns out, when my Mum and I went on a city break to Bruges for my birthday back in May 2017, the TV in our hotel room was able to receive BBC One and Two perfectly. I don't suppose other EU countries have the same luxury?

I do know that BBC channels, alongside channels from other British broadcasters are also available in Switzerland https://zattoo.com/ch/en/channels They almost have the entirety of Freeview!

Short version: In Belgium and the Netherlands the BBC intervened after ‘unofficial’ relays (via cable) of off air reception began in the 70s / 80s. They then became legitimate.

Local laws in Switzerland allow cable companies there to relay any broadcast that can be received via satellite. So UK channels are often available.

Not forgetting the overspill into Republic of Ireland that has been carried in various unofficial, and eventually official, means in to areas that couldn’t receive it with their own antenna.

When I stayed in Brussels a few years ago there were loads of channels from EU countries available in the hotel. I presumed it was the local cable service providing these for EU officials so they could keep in contact with home.

BBC 1 and 2 have been available in Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg (by off air reception of the Dover transmitter, then satellite from 2003) since the 1980s.

It's a long standing agreement between the BBC and the cable companies in those countries

Yes - it's a contractual agreement that has been running for decades. Many BBC artists and rights contracts include a 'cable supplement' which is a small additional fee to cover non-UK/Republic of Ireland viewing (which the basic BBC contract already covers)

BBC One and Two are also on many Swiss cable networks - but I think this may be via their 'retransmission' rules that allow any FTA service that can be received in Switzerland to be redistributed. (I may be wrong. I know Brits working at the EBU in Geneva are very grateful that they can watch BBC One and Two!)

Swiss cable networks and the OTT providers such as Zattoo, Teleboy and Wilmaa provide a wide selection of FTA channels from the UK from 28E in addition to BBC World News and CNN Money Switzerland, an English language business channel based in Zurich.

They also have channels from Germany (Some are Swiss variants), Italy, Austria and France where the DTT signal overspills into Switzerland which Swiss law allows them to rebroadcast.

You will also find that in the Benelux cable operators also black out some programmes wich are not covered by the 'cable supliment'. Mostly the Olympics and Football, like the World Cup and Euros.

And in Geneva they get a lot more than just BBC 1 and 2:
https://www.upc.ch/pdf/channels/A144630_upc_Sendertabelle_TV_Box_fr_LR.pdf

Also take a look at the 800+ Channel numbers at the very end. That is pretty much everything you can find FTA on satellite in Europe and then some.

Teleboy has 55 English channels including Dave, Drama, Pick and Challenge in addition to the main PSB channels. However the OTT providers only offer Channel 4 in 1920x1080, while the other HD channels are downscaled to 720p.

Its called SER. Simultaneous relay rights ..defined in
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/site/bbc-general-terms-august-2018.pdf
And the cable fees are fairly lucrative to the BBC .....
When BBC south east at Tunbridge Wells opened a lot if work was done to reinforce The feeds to Dover Transmitter as it had more viewers than Crystal Palace...
but if course they got Kent / East Sussex local news not London!!!
As soon as DSAT became available....getting London news accelerated the migration from analogue.... and they got their own CEEFAX Listings etc