TV, or not TV

I realise that it's been a while since I've written anything constructive, or helpful. Or anything nice, come to think of it. I'll have a crack at that now, but don't go holding out for high expectations. Today, my experience with Swedish television options. That's viewing options, not buying options. Buying a TV is frickin expensive in Sweden. Twice the price of the same model in NZ. And a 42 inch flat screen TV does NOT fit into the back of a Volvo V70. Word to the wise. Anyway, if you want to watch telly in Sweden, you have a few choices to make about who you buy the service from. There are about half a dozen suppliers, all essentially offering different combinations of the same 100 (ish) TV channels. Which makes them all pretty much the same. Some suppliers also offer internet and telephone services when buying a tv package. There are some savings to be made that way, but the other suppliers generally wise up to this and adjust their prices to match. So what are the options. Generally a supplier will offer 3 packages for sale, being Small, Medium and Large. The Small package will have about a dozen channels, and the Large package about 70. The channels included within each package are chosen by the supplier, not by the customer. But you can often buy additional individual extra channels if you like. So you could buy the Small package, and then also choose to buy, say, the BBC channel. As an extra. The 3 packages are offered by each supplier, but the make up of the channels within each package can vary a little between suppliers. So that could be the defining factor that determines who you choose. If you take a Large package, you get all the Tv shows, news, kids, music, and documentary channels that are on offer. About 70 channels. Sitting outside these packages, for some reason, are the dedicated sports and movies channels. The big suppliers of these are "Canal" and "Viasat". It's those channels that show live football, and the latest movies. Without advertisement breaks. If you want either of these groups, you have to buy them as a separate package from your programme supplier. All suppliers will offer these. If you are an absolute TV nut, and you sign up for the Large package, plus the "Canal" package, plus the "Viasat" package, you have somewhere around 100 to 110 channels. If you're that way inclined. We're not done quite yet, because Canal also has a number of package options to choose from. You can buy the Movies package, or the Sports package. Or the lot, if you can't be bothered deciding. Overly complicated ? Yup. What did you expect ? So, where to start. Well, if you are renting an apartment, or you buy a apartment, it's quite likely that a basic (Small) television rental package is included in your monthly building cost. And you'll pay for that whether you use it or not. So it might make sense to stick with that supplier if you want to buy more channels. Cabling can be another determining factor. Some suppliers, such as Com Hem, have their own cable system entering the building. Which stops at a normal TV aerial wall socket. Telia, on the other hand, uses their telephone cables to transmit television. Which requires that you purchase a modem to plug into the main telephone outlet in your house. Note, it must be to the main telephone outlet in the house. It won't work if plugged in to any of the other phone outlets. You will then have to connect to your TV with the use of a modem cord. Or, as we did, through the use of a wireless transmitter. Which works well, I have to say. When I say connect to the TV, I mean the cable TV decoder box. Which sits near to your TV. Some TVs have an inbuilt cable TV decoder box. I haven't had personal experience with these but I've heard stories of people having problems trying to record television programmes using this system. So check that out. So there you have the start guide to Swedish Tv. Good to note that English programmes are generally shown in English. With Swedish subtitles to help your language training. Unlike many other European countries which choose to voice over dub everything. Oh, and ( at least, I've heard ) there's good porn on the TV. So money saved at the video shop there. You heard it here first.