Is it worth buying a satellite dish for Portugal?

[brissle]

Planning ahead for possible 2+ months in the Algarve next winter in pur caravan.
Articles about whether we can get BBC TV down there are confusing.
We do not have any SKY or other subscription at home, but can we get something like that just for a couple of months?
As far as I can tell, Freeview programmes aren't available by satellite that far south.
Would be grateful for any advice.

 

[Woodentop]

The answer is no - you would need a dish of well over a metre diameter and still have difficulty.

Find yourself a good mobile or wi-fi data deal that allows a large amount of or unlimiteddata. Then find a UK based proxy server (there are many free but unreliable, pay ones (not expensive) are much better) and log in through it on your laptop or mi-fi unit. Anything you access - such as iPlayer - will think you are in the UK and allow you to watch UK progs.

 

[brissle]

OK thanks - that's the answer I was expecting.

I did a Google seach for paid for Proxy servers and found, for example, Liberty Shield (ukproxyserver.com) - I assume that's the sort of thing you are talking about.
As WiFi is pretty limited where will probably be staying, I'd have to go down the mobile contract data route as you suggest. Am a bit new to all this, so don't quite understand how I can use a mobile signal to get pictures on the TV.
Would I need to also get a special "decoder" box or whatever they are called?
We do have a pretty old small laptop that we generally just take to the nearest WiFi point for emails. Might be tricky trying to watch TV on that. I was planning to take our kitchen flat screen TV.

 

[Woodentop]

You would be watching it on laptop or tablet. However most laptops have some sort of external video coonection, often though a docking station, for most types of which you can get an HDMI convertor to plug into your TV.

 

[TonyG]

You would be watching it on laptop or tablet. However most laptops have some sort of external video coonection, often though a docking station, for most types of which you can get an HDMI convertor to plug into your TV.

or treat yourself to a smart TV