We used this company last year when we decided to cancel Sky Italia and just have a dish/decoder just for RAI

L'Antennista di Torresi Alberto, via Picenca 78, no 74, 62020 Passo Ripe San Ginesio.

Mobile Number : 338 276 2123.

This was recommended by an Italian friend of ours, and he did what he said he was going to do very efficiently.

If you put Astra 2D into google you will bring up the satellite footprint which shows a 2M dish is required in Le Marche.

My neighbours use a 0.8M dish to get Sky near Visso and so this may be an option for you. Otherwise stream if your internet connection is good enough or iPlayer. 

For further reading there are plenty of threads on the forum on this issue.

Sorry.

C

I use Eurobird on 28.5E. You get a lot of programs in English and did not need to change dish, just redirected. Good for watching the rugby, F1, Grand National on the BBC feeds.

http://www.lyngsat.com/eb1.html

http://info.international-satellite.com/articles/bbc_europe.html

For other UK progs, may be worth trying to get a free VPN from this site:

http://www.hideipvpn.com/free-vpn/

Lots of posts on this previously,

I am here in Le Marche using wireless Fidoka (4mb - 23Euro/month) and a VPN supplier (My Private Network - £5/month) since mid 2008, I'd rate it 8/10 which is probably a little harsh, but will not be changing in the near future which says a lot?

Get all BBC & ITV, Sky News live plus Ch4, ITV etc etc, early named channels received better than others

S

1. I absolutely didn't beleive this would work for us, but it does.  We are at the end of the Telecom Italia line with I would guess v standard broadband.  You'll need a laptop and the appropriate leads to plug into your TV, but if you subscribe to http://www.getconnected.com.cy/ you'll be able to watch TV via iplayer or itv equivalent as if you are in the UK (though of course the live tv will be an hour later...or is it earlier???)

Anyway, they do a month's trial for about E13.  We experienced a bit of buffering on starting up, but otherwise it was very smooth.  There's no guarantee that you won't have the odd glitch but I have to say I was v sceptical but was amazed at the result.

You'll probably need someone with a certain amount of pc/tv techie knowledge, but not much.   We got an extended lead for the modem so the laptop could reach teh tv and then a special lead (??SCART??) to plug laptop into tv.  Actually the lead we got didn't do audio so we also had to rig up speakers and the whoel thing looked like Spaghetti Junction but if we were living there permanently we'd get that all sorted.

I appreciate some may have even worse broadband than we do but it's worth a go for E13

Just seen Sprostoni's post - yes what I'm talking about is also a VPN - there's lots of them about

Don't suppose any of this would work using a chiavetta for internet rather than a phone line?

It could work. I have friends who use a "3" chiavetta and they can stream even 'live' iPlayer stuff (using the iportal VPN). You can test this - log onto www.speedtest.net and if they report better than 3MBps (sorry if that isn't exactly correct - just see if the first number is 3!)

Then you have to 'pretend' that you are in the UK. the site www.iportal.me does this for you at a cost of £5 per month. (The pain is that you absolutely have to own a Paypal account) (There are other proxy or also VPN sites which are 'free', but I'm just offering personally tested advice).

Getting this stuff from your PC to your TV is likely to be the most tricky stage - but once done it is seamless.

Recap: decent broadband (landline or chiavetta). Subscription to (my recommendation) www.iportal.me

Satellite dishes are somewhat passé secondo me!

'Getting this stuff from your PC to your TV is likely to be the most tricky stage'

This is just a single cable (HDMI the best), just check your slots(PC & TV)

S

You are absolutely right - HDMI does make it all childs' play - but how do "they" justify fleecing me something like 16 euro for a cable!  

(And then I'm so neanderthal and vain, with my beautiful analog designer telly that I really can't face positioning the Samsung in the living room - so trust me, getting vidj to the geriatric Brionvega is a mega challenge - audio is easier. And I want it wireless....!)

Many thanks to everyone for replies and comments. If there is anyone else out there who has experience of getting any BBC channels, please do let us know. The official response seems to be that it is not possible, then I keep hearing of 'someone' who gets it with a 90cm dish (!) but that person can never be found...

HI

 You will need a dish minimum 1.85 Diameter.

Most Italians will charge around €1000 but that's the Italians.

If you drive back to the UK then "maplin" do a 1.85 dish for £99 made up of 6 sections which you bolt together, plus a special LNB £50.

We are in Bagni di Lucca area and get all the stations except on a really bad stormy day.

PM me idf you want more details.

Ciao ciao

Yes it can be done - google"expat shield" and download the program. This is free but there are adverts appearing at intervals - click the X and they will go away. Works well with quite slow broadband  and if it doesn't work simply uninstall.

I accept no responsibility for this suggestion making your beloved PC fall ill and die but you might like to give it a try