[Magdalen] Just canceled landline.

[Roger Stokes]

On 22/07/2016 20:39, F von Prondzynski wrote:
>> Is there still a non-cable TV reality in Britain (analog antenna, what we
>> over here called [call?; does it still exist in some places?; went away here
>> years ago] "rabbit ears")?
> ‘Rabbit ears’ antennae were never really much of a thing in the British Isles. Rather there would be a rooftop aerial which would, until relatively recently, have got you 5 or 6 channels.
>
> Nowadays an aerial of that kind will get you a fairly large number of free-to-view channels, including the BBC and ITV. Many others have satellite TV, mostly provided by Rupert Murdoch’s Sky, with a large number of channels (including BBC etc.). A smaller number of subscribers have cable TV, usually in a select number of cities.

To amplify Ferdinand's reply, analogue transmissions were phased out a 
few years ago.  All TV broadcasrs are now digital which allows, as 
Ferdinand says, far more channels within the same bandwidth. (I will not 
go into the technicalities of this, partly because I am not up to the 
detail.)   Cable is being rolled out throughout the country and I 
suspect is now available in most English (I don't know about the other 3 
countries of the UK).  Earlier today I had a call at the door, after a 
number of mailshots, from a representative of the main cable supplier 
wanting me to sugn up for a deal with his firm. He mentioned broadband 
but would probably have wanted me to sugnup for a TV package as well. 
Perhaps they had heard that all residents in this development have, a 
day or two ago, been asked about whether they would want communal access 
to Sky channels, which can also be bought through the cable provider. 
the coincidence was interesting.

Roger