I am brand new to this site, which I discovered surfing the internet. I like the advice, feedback, and posts that I have been reading over the past few days...
I have a question, or several really. I am interested in getting a TV, and it is my understanding that Swiss satellite is free.
1. Is this correct? What other options other than satellite are available in Switzerland?
2. If I go to Interdiscount, for instance, buy the satellite receiver and dish, set it up, and turn on the TV, will I technically have satellite, or do I need to purchase a card to insert into the receiver?
3. Since I live so close to France, if I buy the receiver there, will it work in CH?
4. How does Billag work? I went on their website to find out how much I would have to pay in annual taxes, but my French is not good enough to read the language on the site.
Swiss SRG SSR channels are not free. However, a VIAAccess card is available for 50 francs from www.sataccess.ch .
Swiss channels are on hotbird at 13 degrees east.
If you do get a satellite setup for Swiss tv, ask for a system with VIAAccess slot and also MONOBLOCK - this will allow you to use one dish to get the signal from hotbird and astra.
Between those two satellites, you can receive several hundred channels FREE. YMMV as to how watchable you find them
Any DVB-S system will work; ensure you don't get a FTA version - those won't take cards at all. Bar this, get the one that seems best value to you.
Billag used to have the website in English. Basically, you have to pay TV if you have a TV and radio if you have a radio (including one in a car you own). 112 francs 4x yearly I think is what you pay. You can't avoid this if you have any device that can receive and decode signals.
Have you thought about what you really want to watch?
Do you think you can install and align the dish yourself?
I doubt I could install the system myself. I can barely boil water. My wife does all the hard stuff.
Ideally, I would like to watch nothing other than English Premiership football, but my wife and I want to improve our French, thus we are hoping to get French channels such as TSR 1 and 2. Italian stations would be great too as my wife speaks Italian.
We already get SKY for free as it is on a common TV in our building (someone is paying for it), but we want to get our own private TV with French stations on it. If we get SKY, we will never focus on learning French.
So, if we buy this CHF 50 card from Sataccess.ch and figure out the Billag payment requirements, we should be good to go in terms of payment? We won't receive a suprise bill?
There are two other viewing options available that are none satellite. Firstly an analouge signal available over air free of charge. This service is offered from Swisscom but you need an aerial on your roof.
The other option is a cable connection to your house. I would watch out here. I guess that you will be renting your house/flat. In this case you are probably paying for the cable connection which will probably offer you 50 channels.
You will not be able to get out of this...
Watch out for Swiss building regulations and the regulations of the house owner. They can easily have a ban on you putting up a satellite. Read your contract and check this out before you go out and buy something you can't use
....if you're intent on having a dish up for this then monoblock is an excellent solution. If you're a bit of a hacker (and it seems you're NOT! ) then you could dig into CAMs and the like; failing that, plug your address into the Cablecom page and you'll find out if they serve you and what services you can get:
As Richard said, their base-package is available with 50-60 channels of varying quality; for Premiership you might want to see about the digital offerings or Premier
And Billag is available in French, German and Italian. It did used to also be in English. Call their hotline and you will be able to speak to someone who speaks English....0844 834 834.