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The channels you don't watch ...

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    The channels you don't watch ...

    ... but discover by accident every so often, mucking around with the remote.

    On the NZ version of Freeview, there are a couple of Christian channels. Mostly they seem to have preachers, the shiny smiley kind, but now and then I stumble across a movie, and I'm reminded that there's this other world, a whole entertainment (sort of) industry with a Message. And the production values are pretty good, so it's watchable, if you don't mind limited plots ("boy meets girl and God"). Millions do watch, I suppose.

    Chinese is the main minority language catered for, 3 channels available. My only clue to their bias is in the writing: the PRC has simplified characters, Taiwan doesn't. So the sub-titles for soaps and costume dramas show where they originate. The travel documentaries are the only things I can get anything out of, mountains of Yunnan etc.

    There's an Indian channel that I could blob in front of for ages. Budget Bollywood, on a 24 hour loop, it seems.

    The shopping channels might have undiscovered gems, but I've never watched more than 10 seconds of those. And no, I haven't found the porn.

    #2
    There are subscription channels that I might pay for under certain circumstances: a cricket series in India*, a tennis tournament. I watched the Europa League semi-finals and some World Cup games on Spanish channels but do not speak the language.

    Indian channels can also have some gorgeous Bollywood choreography but as per the OP, I wouldn't make an effort to go looking for it.

    I don't understand the business model of cable porn when it's a click away on the web for the wankers who want it.

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      #3
      I got a god-bothering channel (Die Neue Zeit), the last time I retuned my TV. It lasted about four months; current whereabouts unknown.

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        #4
        BT sport

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          #5
          Way up towards the silly numbers on the Virgin Box is Forces TV, which seems to be the place to watch Knight Rider, the A Team, Streethawk, Airwolf and various other 80s TV shows. I watched an episode of the original Glen A Larson 'Battlestar Galactica' a few months back.

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            #6
            The Irish music channel is one station away from Sky sports (in Ireland anyway) it's the perfect place to see some of the worst music videos ever made.

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              #7
              There was a channel that popped up briefly on Freesat a year or two back that I forget the name of. Every time I saw it, it just seemed to be old concert recordings in a tiny screen window in absolutely abysmal quality - I'd guess about 240p. It made Showcase TV look like HBO.

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                #8
                Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                Way up towards the silly numbers on the Virgin Box is Forces TV, which seems to be the place to watch Knight Rider, the A Team, Streethawk, Airwolf and various other 80s TV shows. I watched an episode of the original Glen A Larson 'Battlestar Galactica' a few months back.
                I’ve found this one. It’s not like they’re selling “the forces” or those who support them as a load of military obsessed morons stuck in the 1980s, at all.

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                  #9
                  When do will “channels” as we know them cease to exist?

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                    When do will “channels” as we know them cease to exist?
                    Something like Pluto TV shows that a more traditional style of broadcasting could be sustainable as a streaming platform.

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by Rogin the Armchair fan View Post

                      I’ve found this one. It’s not like they’re selling “the forces” or those who support them as a load of military obsessed morons stuck in the 1980s, at all.
                      cf. Movies4Men (safe link).

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                        #12
                        Just discovered a channel called Drama. It's all the 80s and early 90s stuff. If you miss Bergerac, then it's the channel for you.

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                          #13
                          Great theme tune, Bergerac.
                          Drama is also good for old episodes of The Bill, which are difficult to follow as it was basically a soap in its later years.

                          Both programmes demonstrate improvements in acting and programme making in the past 30 years.

                          Although John Nettles has maintained the same standard throughout.

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                            #14
                            Originally posted by jwdd27 View Post
                            as it was basically a soap in its later years.
                            It was always a soap, surely.

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                              #15
                              Showcase - through the day a fairly gentle lineup programmes about walks in the UK, caravans and documentaries about Chinese culture. Then about 9pm it's three hours of minor league wrestling or boxing.

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                                #16
                                Watched a lot of Giro highlights on Quest recently.

                                Odd disconnect between the trailed programming (Aussie Gold Hunters...Swamp Truckers...) and the ads, which all seemed to be aimed at women

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                                  #17
                                  Originally posted by Rogin the Armchair fan View Post
                                  BT sport
                                  So how have you been following your club's glorious CL campaign?

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                                    #18
                                    Worth keeping an eye on Freesports (Freeview & BT channel 64,, different number on other platforms)
                                    Showing live matches from the Toulon Tournament, the U-20 World Cup, The CONCACAF Gold Cup & MLS throughout the summer.

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                                      #19
                                      I don't watch anything under HD quality. Which ludicrously rules out about 70% of channels on the sky box. Why isn't every channel HD yet?

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                                        #20
                                        Originally posted by 3 Colours Red View Post
                                        There was a channel that popped up briefly on Freesat a year or two back that I forget the name of. Every time I saw it, it just seemed to be old concert recordings in a tiny screen window in absolutely abysmal quality - I'd guess about 240p. It made Showcase TV look like HBO.
                                        Vintage TV, probably. They had a fine line in broadcasting a song over a completely different video or some old live footage.

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                                          #21
                                          No, it wasn't Vintage TV. That had something resembling a half-decent run on air, not to mention what could be considered production values. The channel I'm trying to remember was almost like the televisual equivalent of a pop-up shop; it lasted about a month, if that.

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                                            #22
                                            Maybe this will help?

                                            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ial_television

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                                              #23
                                              No, that list's only for Freeview. This was definitely Freesat as I've not had an aerial connected for about six years.

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                                                #24
                                                Channels I don't watch, wow so many. The Books channel I feel I should check out but never have. I have watched the Punjabi feed for Canucks Ice Hockey now and again. I don't understand a word but the intermissions appear to me much jollier than the fucking Don and Ron show.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Talking Pictures have a film on later called Take A Girl Like You. An adaptation of the Kingsley Amis novel, it stars Oliver Reed and Hayley Mills, with Jonathan Miller directing (his only such credit) from a screenplay by George Melly. It's such an unlikely collision of names that it is half tempting to watch. On the other hand, it may have languished in complete obscurity for half a century for a reason.

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