Cablecom.ch does not have the legal rights to broadcast ITV1 & 2, Film4 or any BBC Programme.

So i am wondering why Cablecom.ch are doing so.

It is not allowed for any UK Television Station to Broadcast outside of the UK or Ireland (film4). The Above TV Stations are Free To Air on Astra Satellite only for the Reception Area of UK or Ireland as they are on Astra2D which only has limited footprint reception area.

So, Cablecom.ch distributes the Signals from Astra Satellite into their Digital Cable Network and offers it to customers.

ITV, BBC, Film4 only do have the rights to show Programmes from America, for example, in the UK. They would now have to Pay the Licensing Rights for Switzerland also (English speaken).
There are Many movies on Film4 - it would be a bit on the Expensive Side for Channel4 to pay for outside England.

In Germany the KabelBW Company who offers Digital Cable in Baden-Württemberg had ORF 1 & 2 (Austrian TV) and TW1/ORF SPORT in their TV Package, and this week they announced that ORF will sue them over that, so Kabel BW will drop all ORF Programmes next week from their Digital Package.

I think this will happen to BBC, ITV 1&2 and especially Film4 on Cablecom.ch and all other Switzerland Cable Companies.

What makes you think Cablecom don't pay the copyright fees? They relayed BBC Prime for about 10 years, this is a subscription channel AFAIK and I guess they paid that.

Cablecom may be many nasty things, but IO doubt they are copyright pirates. Otherwise they could relay Sky Movies etc etc....

When I was using CC and film4 was made available, I couldn't view all movies. I wonder if that's a licensing issue or a broadcast f-up.

CCs broadcasting of the beeb must surely be a legitimate deal.

a) prove it
b) prove that the BBC etc are not culpable

FTA means exactly that. Astra 2D is not the solution. Security by obscurity.

And pray tell why the Dutch and Belgians can carry BBC on their cable tv and have been for years.

I await your proof

a) BBC Prime is for foreign language users only. BBC Prime is MADE to be re-carried by Local or Independent TV Broadcasters.

b) Cablecom is under the rights of the EBU, and is no pirate TV Company in South Africa. They have the same rights they have to take care of as German Kabel BW. Kabel BW can´t carry BBC One or Two, neither ITV or Film4. They are allowed to have "BBC Parliament". They even dont have BBC Prime, as this is in Germany on Kabel Deutschland only.

c) there is no legitimate deal with the BBC for BBC One and Two. There cannot be as BBC One and Two are not to be viewed outside the UK - Except for:

d) border countries. the dutch ppl are allowed thru some deal. it is in whole europe the same - border countries are allowed to carry the signal thru to the cities that are near the border. thats why Kabel BW can keep ORF in the analogue TV near the Austrian Borders.

FTA means exactly FTA - and that for the UK and Ireland only as Astra 2D was made to be viewed in UK and Ireland only.
Due to technical overspill they are on reception - even in switzerland.
in vienna you would need a 1,5 Meter Dish for even the slightest trace of the 2D Signals.

- I did get in touch with legals at BBC, ITV and Channel 4.
I will let you know what they will tell me.

As i haven´t found the right email adress on Cablecom.ch yet, i can´t tell what they have to say about it.

1. Proof? Or just trolling?

2. Who appointed you neighbourhood barrack room lawyer trying to piss on everyone's bonfire?

3. Say for example you're right.
Cablecom stop carrying these channels.
Oh shit. Bluewin stop carrying the UK channels as well.
Double oh shit. Every other continental provider stops carrying UK channels.

Marvellous.

4. Cablecom is owned by a US company anyway.

5. Go to the BBC Prime website, "country settings" or initial page. It has Switzerland in it's drop down...
I'm sure they know we're watching it...

Edit: Talk about making an entrance on first postings...

Cablecom has BBC since 2004. Everyone can read that on their website. Cablecom is the biggest cable company in Switzerland.

Do you realy think they would carry the signals without licence?
And I guess after 3 years the BBC should have found out.

Maybe the swiss law is diffrent then the EU law. We got channels here (also on bluewin) that are not in the cable in other countries.

You can get the stuff with a normal dish, so I don't see a problem. If Cablecom would not carry the channels I would have a dish.

And IF BBC should disappear you better never go in a British pub again LOL

you sound like someone who's tried banging on at Digitalspy but had no joy and is trying here.

The key point, I believe, for you to clarify is....because a country is closer, do rules change? Erm, no.

Television sans fontiers. Heard of that?
BBC thought long and hard about going FTA. Apparently they lost 24 because of it - but I don't think so.

German FTA on Astra1 will soon end because they are forced to go digital and Astra, allegedly, are forcing them to have some encryption (so I hear).

I believe BBC either gets money for retransmission - or because they're FTA, they don't. FTA means that - not "with conditions". Astra 2d can be received in Cyprus with a big dish.

So.......who cares? I have regionalised BBC x 2. Happy Birthday to me

If you ask me he’s got a point, I for one have been holding my breath ever since I managed to get all these FTA channels here in CH. I know that the copyright and broadcasting rights of all sports are sewn up tighter than a ducks a### BBC series have very strict broadcast rights and in theory BBC radio 5 cannot broadcast live premiership outside of the UK (try getting it on the internet, impossible)

I savor every moment and dread the day when they put it all to another sat and make the footprint even smaller.

Also the movie studios do not really lose anything. Who watches movies on Film4?
Most Swiss people don’t know enough English to understand a movie without subtitles. I just love to see stuff in English so I am happy I got 3 more channels on Cablecom. A tree is killing my 28.2


We are in Europe, so why should I do something illegal if I just want to see the news on BBC One or watch a documentary on France 5?

I think Switzerland has softer laws in "cable tv". Maybe because we got so many nations around here

He would have a point if it was FTA, however it is not, it is encrypted and through the encryption mechanism various licensing agreements are protected. It also enables CC to measure how many people are watching the respective channels and in this way they pay licensing money to the respective non-FTA channels. CC has agreements with many broadcasters for certain time spans. If for example there was a premium event broadcast on BBC 1 live and BBC wanted to have a premium paid then CC would be entitled to either pay or to block the signal for the duration of the event. Hence there may well be occassions in the relatively near future when there is a temporary block on broadcasting live. These licensing fees are one of the reasons why they have targeted packets similar in structure to sky apart from they are culture or language based.

To the claim that the BBC programmes are not "allowed" to broadcast outside of the UK - is simply not true as this was guaranteed by the European legislation of 89/552/EEC which has subsequently had numerous amendments and been accepted by the Council of Europe. A member of the council of Europe is Switzerland which has imposed that such services shall be encryped. Only UK and CH have imposed this restriction but it then applies vis a vis to services abroad. As such CC and for that matter BluwinTV can freely broadcast UK FTA services as long as they are encrypted. BBC Prime and BBC World are commercially produced channels to be broadcast abroad and are not counted under the legislation which is bascially restricted to TLCS and radio broadcast but from all EC member states and Council of Europe States, plus Australia, USA and a couple of others that I have forgotten.

To a comment made about whether the BBC gets money from the distribution of their FTA broadcasts in foreign countries, they generally do not however some of the content is classified as restricted even though it is available FTA in the UK. Such conent is even under the EU legislation chargeable but the exact mechanism of how this works is not clear to me.

Instead of getting in touch with legals in various companies, who by the way are not likely to respond, google for the relevant legislation and you can read it clearly in black and white... If you are not happy with this then I suggest you ask the OFCOM on applicability of TLCS within the EU and Switzerland. As a government body with a complaints responsibility they must respond.

So you mean as long CABLECOM encypts the channels its fine? Would they send it in FTA it would not be fine?

Another thing occurred to me.

Now, the original poster here is trying to point out an infringement of an imaginary rule that will annoy other people and show that many big companies are taking the piss.

With a name like Ruedi, the OP could be Swiss...

Forget the neighbour standing up to pee after 10pm, they have a chance of pissing off loads of people in one go... how could they resist?

Notice how "Ruedi" has only just joined and made only two posts (both in this thread)? I doubt he/she is Swiss, but comes rather from the land of trolls...

my guess is a suburb of Frankfurt a.M.

BBC and ITV are FTA; fact. C4 and five need a card so have protection in that sense.

BBC radio on the internet is protected by a basic IP check to try to protect "content" from being "viewed" abroad.

BBC and ITV FTA transmissions are "protected" by using the "tight beam" on Astra 2D - most likely to appease Hollywood and the like. That, coupled with English NOT being the majority language in Europe, means that complaints would likely fall on deaf ears.....after all, FTA is Free to receive if you can, right?

http://www.euractiv.com/en/infosocie...article-117550

thanks richard for that good description, there were some things that i did not know (yet)

and for the other guy, what are you talking here? i do not even want to discuss anything of the BS you are writing here....... i do live in germany and switzerland and i do even have a Sky Irish Subscription and a Card for Five and Channel4, so there´s really no need for me to be p**** off

i only want to get clarification for WHY those channels are available in switzerland and NOT in germany

why did you not say that originally then?

Ok, so maybe CC have some kind of deal with the UK stations, but I receive all this stuff with a dish and a decoder, I pay no subscriptions no license fee so I would think that the BBC would be hacked off about that, not that I’m complaining but I do think that there must be legalities involved with all this. That’s why they try to limit the satellite footprint to as smaller area as poss.
I think that there are restrictions to broadcasting outside of UK, for instance free podcasts from BBC radio do not have any music content(no copyright music can be played on a BBC podcast). I get Chris Evans podcast and Mark Kermode film reviews and all music and film soundtrack clips are taken out.
Radio Five live are only allowed to transmit premiership football on the internet to UK subscribers, if you log on from abroad you get the message that due to contractual reasons this broadcast cannot be listened to from overseas. This is because the FA impose this restriction on the BBC as part of their package.
There are definitely tight controls and restrictions on broadcasting packages .
Nick.

Maybe a reason is also that we get the movies on SF without (almost) any commercials anyway, so Pro7 doesn’t loose anything. BBC airs them about the same time as we do.
Most people here do not know enough English to understand a full movie without subtitles. So it would be a small fraction to watch the movie on BBC.

I saw the movies on Teleclub already anyway, so I would not care too much if they would have to block the movies. I watch BBC to improve my English (News, Talk and so on). For most of that BBC holds the rights anyway.

Switzerland is a country with many nations and so maybe the government also wants diversity on your TV. Don’t forget, we are a small market compared to Germany,

And again: BBC came to Cablecom in 2004. You seriously think that they would not notice that 150’000 digital TV customers can watch them?