I've heard a lot about finding English TV (via internet or satellite dish) in Switzerland, but are there shows out there that you actually like to watch the original (foreign) language?

Great question. I'm not in Switzerland myself yet so can't answer that question. I'd be very curious to see what other's answers are!

There's some, I guess. I watch documentaries in german/swiss-german, and local shows on SF like Tageschau. The TV fare is pretty crappy if you're used to a higher standard, I suppose. Then again, we watch very little TV, and most of that is downloaded from iTunes (Lost, for instance) and the BBC channels.

In short, I haven't looked hard enough yet.

Well, I know I'd probably watch some of Deutsche Welle or France24 to find out more about the continent I'll be living on. Since I'm uppity and like "culture" and stuff, I'd probably try to watch Arte France to see what the high-brow French are doing.

I know I'll be setting up satellite tv using Mark's "Dummies guide to satellite tv" and get me some German and French channels as well as Beebs broadcast.

Not to dissuade you from the satellite, but with Cablecom we have 3 or 4 BBC channels, plenty of french, high german, and italian channels as well. Everyone seems to hate Cablecom though, I guess I've been lucky so far.

But you have to subscribe to it. I don't see why I should have to pay good money when I can pull that stuff off the air...

That makes sense, I didn't realize you could get that stuff for free.

I've found Bully & Rick to be rather funny and watched some of it online after it was on TV last autumn -- it is either in the off season or done. One episode (part one -- the others are there) last fall made fun of the Brits and Germans at the same time -- a lot of English in it if you consider that this was on German TV without subtitles. They also had another short sketch making fun of the Osbournes in English. *Shrugs* I know that a lot of people here have seen the movies from them.

For those who like one-off payment for enless crap tv, check out Mark's guide at Dummies Guide: Satellite install for free to air channels. No monthly fees - cheap

I think the question is about original tv material from European sources, not dubbed US/UK shows?

There are quite a few - I assume you would want French given your location and I believe you will find a few shows most likely on French tv channels giving you what you seek - both fictional and factual programming.

i do not watch a great deal of television in general.

mike shiva is good for a laugh on that crazy u1 channel, haha.

i dont mind to watch who wants to be a millionaire in german... good host.

wetten das, the monthly show where people do crazy bets... i also like that and like the host.

meteo on SF1, always good to watch the weather.

krlock3

For a short time, I loved watching the Italian version of the 'Deal or no deal' game-show. I don't understand Italian, and didn't know what the game was about. So it was quite amusing trying to decipher what was going on while watching the highly entertaining, overly dramatic Italian host. We didn't even know what the English version of the show was called, so we just called it "The Box Game". It became less stimulating once we'd figured out how the game works, but the host was still fun to laugh at.

If you do not mind TV via Internet, you might also want to have a look at Zattoo. http://www.zattoo.com/
I am currently a beta user from UK (and have yet to find out how I would go through some kind of proxy to get the swiss options (please PM with tips if you know how to do that).

What is on offer for free in Switzerland seems to be quite interesting.