Swiss TV broadcasts some of the films and series (Desperate Housewives, Dr.House, Gray's Anatomy, etc) in dual channel tone (dubbed on channel 1 and original on channel 2). You need a TV set with dual channel feature, to benefit. verify this before buying your TV.

If you just use a roof antenna, you are limited to the 3 or 4 digital Swiss TV channels. Note that there are no more analogue channels, so you need a TV with an inbuilt digital TV tuner, or an external digital TV tuner

But most people use cable TV, because it has more channels available - around 100 or so in most areas.

Good old analogue TV is still available on cable (around 20 to 30 channels), and almost every cable TV company (there are around 300) has a digital TV offering.
You will need to buy or rent a digital TV receiver for cable TV - either from a retail shop or from the cable TV operator - varies according to the area and the local operators policies.

You appear to be in Zurich, the local operator is cablecom, see their website: www.cablecom.ch (also in English).
With cablecom, digital TV receivers can be rented or bought, but you are required to use the cablecom receiver - 4 x different types available (SD or HD, with or without digital recorder).
You could also choose satellite TV, which is highly varied according to what satellite you point to, and what channels you want.

The majority of Swiss use cable TV, and the basic connection cost is generally included in the rent of the apartment (because the landlord pays for the building to be connected).

You only pay for extra services like a digital TV receiver and extra channel packages.

PS the term for Swiss Franc is sFr or CHF

Cablecom is looking nice:

http://www.cablecom.ch/en/index/tvra....htm?setlang=4

quote:

04 March 2009: The range of English channels will be expanded further on the 17. March 09
FIVE is a family channel that broadcasts films, serials, shows and lifestyle programmes.
The two private digital channels E4 and More 4 will augment the basic service with the best comedies, movies, serials and sport.
BBC Three, BBC Four, CBBC and CBeebies will complement the current range of public digital channels from Great Britain with an excellent selection of cultural programmes, documentations and much more. Fans of serials and sport can look forward to an exciting and comprehensive range of programmes with ITV 3 and ITV 4.

On thing to note on this.

This will probably only be available in the German part of Switzerland.

For some odd reason Cablecom have different channels in different parts of the country.

eg. in the German part you get Channel 4. Whilst in Swiss Romande we still get BBC Prime

I cannot know for sure whether this recent change announcement is just for the German part, but since it is under the German news section on Cablecoms website I guess so. We shall see. I also cannot comment on the Ticino region.

According to the site it is for Ticino too, but only for the modern networks.
I am not aware how much is modern, but some villages seem to be upgraded now.

It is ridiculous that they offer these channels everywhere except in Swiss Romande. Pushes me ever closer towards a change to Bluewin.

It's strange when I got here I was told Bluewin was awful and had a realy poor service etc. But in the last 6 months or so people are telling me the opposite. Seems like a good deal.

Still I have no time to watch TV now too many posts to write

Yeah, anyone I know who has it speaks really highly of it. You can also get Teleclub on it (Teleclub is also only on Cabelcom in German Switzerland) and they show English football (with English commentary), not to mention Italian, Spanish and German football too. The only thing Bluewin doesn't have that I want is ESPN America which I watch NFL on. I reckon for the next football season I'll change, unfortunately it would also mean changing my ISP.

It is really quite easy and simple:

You can get any Free-To-Air satellite receiver, and a dish with a diameter of 60CM. No need for Sky Digital or any Cable package!

In the UK, many channels are broadcasted Unencrypted via Freesat. (not Freesat from Sky !!!!!). You could use a Freesat decoder for this, but I wouldn't do that. Morever, you will need a bigger satellite dish than in the UK. You have to point it towards ASTRA 2D, 28,2 degrees east.

So, if you have the possibility to mount a Dish (with no obstackles to close in direction south/southeast (!).

This way you can get:
BBC One,
BBC Two,
BBC Three,
BBC Four,
CBBC,
Cbeebies,
ITV1
ITV2
ITV3
ITV4
Channel 4
E 4
More 3
Film 4
Five

http://www.lyngsat.com/28east.html

You do NOT need Cablecom for this, although, in German speaking Switzerland, Cablecom does offer all mentioned channels on their Digital package! Easy isn't it?? The Astra 2D beam on 28,2 degrees east, is originally and officially (!) meant for the British Isles, however the signal still reaches central Europe

What does it cost? It costs peanuts...you will only once need to buy a Free To Air Satellite decoder and 60 CM dish (if you live in de south of east - I would recommend 80 CM).

I find 2 main disadvantages of satellite:

1) some of the US series are shown earlier on the Swiss channels (in dual language). Some shows are not even on the FTA channels, and to get these shows, you need to get a Sky package, which is expensive. The alternative is to get the Swiss channels via satellite as well, but this is hotbird at 13 degrees, and setting this up with 28.2 at the same time is more complicated and costly.

2)If you are a football fan, even Sky cannot beat Teleclub's package! The alternative is premiere, but then you would need to point your dish at yet another satellite, i.e., the 19 degree east.

My cable provider is GGA. I got a cable digital box from Mediamarkt. I now get BBC1-4, ITV, BBC New 24. For no extra cost (except the box, of course). I still pay the same cable subscription as before. Funny thing was, I only found out when I visited their website on the offchance. They didn't do anything sensible like tell anyone or anything!

Or just download Zattoo. You get a few BBC channels and ITV streamed over the net. Quality is perfectly watchable.

Can someone advise which channel to tune to watch "Desperate Housewives" in English?
(I have cablecom standard pack and I know channel ITR1 or no. 29 shows it in German, but any way to watch it in English?)

If you have digital cable, one of the UK stations shows it, but I've never watched so I'm not sure which one and when. Take a look at the Cablecom site (they have English pages) and find the channel guide. You should be able to find it there.

Also, many Swiss channels offer dual language, so you can watch it in original language. Do a search here for threads about that.

Channel 4 on wednesdays 11pm. Also e4 shows the repeat on Sunday evenings followed by the next episode. We're quite close behind the us so you've not got many more episodes left of this season.

Which satellite company gives you ESPN? My hubby would be over the moon to finally get to watch it and his Patriots again.

Hi Everyone,

I am new to the English forum but have been living in Switzerland for 2 years now. I have normal cable TV with cablecom but I've seen on the website you can get a whole English programme package. Does anyone know how this works because I can't seem to just order the package. Do I need to order the media box or something? If anyone knows what to do, or already has English TV here I would be very grateful to know! Thanks

There's a heap of English channels included with the basic digital TV package. No extra package required.

So, can I clarify that if you have only an antenna - no cable, no satellite - all you get is the original Swiss channels, none of which is exclusively English unless you flick to the Dual option?

Our current sublease has CNBC, BBC and CNN and my husband insists that's it's not cable or satellite, they're part of the normal Swiss TV stations. I've tried to tell him otherwise. They're cable, right?

I guess they are. I must admit I do not care about TV reception. My TV is connected to a PC and a DVD player. I never watch regular TV. It's not worth my time. But as far as I know there are many areas where Swiss TV completely stopped airing anything.

Practically the entire country was cabled about 30 years ago, so who needs an antenna? You have to pay Billag anyway.

You can watch all US TV shows, plus news and documentaries over the Internet, on-demand, for free. PM me for the secret.