On January 3rd if you were located in South West Montana, you may have noticed that just about all the TV stations disappeared. CBS, ABC,Fox and PBS to name but a few all them unavailable at least over direct TV signals. It was quite a shock to me as I’m pretty much housebound at the moment and the internet, TV and books play rather a big part in my life at the moment.
The problem apparently was a fibre line which failed. These lines are used to transmit the TV signals from the various satellite networks. The problem was described as vaguely as possible and that include the resolution date – ’we are aware of the problem and are looking at a resolution” say the companies. Then the ordinary programmes stopped and on came the adverts and sales videos, which obviously doesn’t hold the attention for long.
MontanaIn my boredom I switched to the internet and actually looked to see if I could get some of the TV channels online. What I discovered was a relative bonanza of channels to watch, pretty much all the major stations like NBC and ABC broadcast over the web. You can also visit a site called Hulu which rebroadcasts loads of popular shows from a variety of networks, they have a free version and a premium service.
It was then I started looking further abroad for different options. I had heard that the BBC in the UK was broadcasting a new natural history programme with David Attenborough, which was something I was desperate to see. This is where my lucky run halted and the BBC website told me that as I wasn’t in the UK I couldn’t watch the show !! Of course this is the internet and I know nothing is impossible so after a little searching I found this website which showed me how to watch UK TV online in USA – the link is about BBC but works just the same for all other channels. All I needed was a little program that hid my location and I was able to watch other stations across the world.
I picked up some Canadian TV including the excellent History Channel with shows like Ice Pilots. I then decided to check out some other European sites such as a channel called M6 Replay in France which is great if you’re learning French as you can watch the Simpsons dubbed. Australia, Germany and Ireland also had lots of channels to watch online and you could switch country using the program I found called Identity Cloaker.
So I lost my TV channels but discovered a whole new world of them online. So thanks guys, and don’t rush with the repairs!