I've been here for a few months now and can hand on heart say that the public free channels in Switzerland are sorely lacking in quality.

The German language channels appear to have the better films. When football is on it appears on about 8 channels at the same time. The music channels play the same stuff again and again. Nearly all channels seem to rely on US imports. I do like that House is called Dr House as if people cannot work out the environment of that show!

The trashy part of me likes seeing Millionaire in different languages and channels. Same for Deal or No deal. One channel has shown some classic Hichcock movies which was rather nice. hard what to make of the soft porn nonsense on Friday nights. The wildlife shows on Planete and Cartoon network are ok for my daughter

The best thing about the tv is that it makes me want to do something else ...anything else

You are right to the point on the last sentence.

TV is a waste of time.

I only watch sports on it. It is better to go out and do something interesting with your free time.

I'm married with a young daughter so free time is an alien concept. God knows what appropiate smiley I could put here

They're public, but not free. See this thread.


The public German and Austrian stations can be recieved here, but Swiss TV isn't widely available abroad. Therefor the same program is on several channels at events of international interest.


Maybe Pay TV is for you?

If I was on your shoes I'd say that the most beautiful way to spend my free time would be to be with my little daughter and witness her grow up beautiful and healthy

Couldn't have put it better

Thanks for the info. I was subtly trying to say that no tv is actaully a good thing and makes you look for other more interesting rewarding things to do

Like spending more time on the internet?

I find television very educational. Every time someone turns it on, I go into the other room and read a book.

Ha ha ha . Got me there. Though in its defense the net is far far more interactive

The BBC television is blessed when it comes to Wimbledon. They transmit entire event from one time slot to another. It goes from BBC1 to BBC2 without interruption. The local TV especially Eurosport is dissapointing because they recap old EURO2008 matches and limit the tennis content.
Hail glory to BBC!!!

The only reasonable thing you can do with a TV is throw it out.

The licence fees are extortionate and TV is a total and utter waste of time. The number of channels is furthermore decreasing as they switch more and more of them to digital.

I threw my TV out some years ago. Of course the licence people didn't believe me and harrassed me a bit after that but I got my own back poking fun at them - and mostly they didn't get the joke. I haven't seen them for about a year now so maybe they've given up on me.

Not having a TV gives me a totally different concept of free time. I get to do so many things I was never able to do before. Really, its worth the try.

TV is not always waste of time. It depends on what you watch. If you plant your back side in front of the TV all day long then yes you are wasting your life.
Recently I watched a docu on Prairie dogs and it was time very well spent in my opinion.