well, the foreign tv/radio feeds in major chinese cities are provided via cable or satellite relays all under the thumb of the government. the government often censors cctv9's direct broadcasting of the government's own State Council press conference when some "foreign devil" dared asking some "embarrassing" questions. if you happen to be watching it, it is hilarious. so, is it worth getting it? hahahhaha
I think it is actually legal for some hotels to have those satellite systems, presumably for foreign guests. But yes people have hacked into the satellite systems, that's how some foreigners have been watching the pirated Dream Satellite TV. I think there's another one called Apstar out of Hong Kong that has mostly Chinese channels, but a handful of English ones like Cinemax, AXN and CNN. Presumably that system would still continue after Dream's satellite signal is lost.
Actually sometimes in Thailand hotels, flipping through the channels I do come across CCTV9. I quickly keep flipping! And watch some propaganda from some other countries for a change.
Have you heard of SlingBox? I use it in Kunming and it works great. You will need a internet connection in your home country. Just google slingbox and you will know what i mean.
I watch all my tv live from my home country-canada in kunming.
Satellite TV
Yunnan New Vision Technology
(kunming) Tel：15969460542
(1)(CNN)；(2)(HBO)；(3)CINEMAX；(4)CNBC Asia Pacific；(5)MTV Mandarin；(6)NGC Asia；(7)STAR MOVIE INT'L；(8)Channel〔V〕；(9)AXN；(10)DISCOVERY；(11)HALLMARK；(12)BBC WORLD；(13)NHK WORLD PREMIUM；(14)凤凰卫视电影台；(15)凤凰卫视中文台；(16)澳亚卫视中文台；(17)PHOENIX INFONEWS CHANNEL；(18)BLOOMBERG；(19)XING KONG WEI SHI；(20)EUROSPORTSNEWS；(21)CETV；(22)HORIZON CHANNEL；(23)香港阳光文化频道(阳光卫视)；(24)法国电视5台(TV5)；
(25)EAST TV；
More..Call me :15969460542
Here is info which I believe to be correct:
Dream is doing the satellite migration to KoreaSat5, not quite sure
how long it takes and how long the Agila 2 satellite feed will be alive.
In Kunming you have to use a bigger dish to receive KoreaSat5 signal,
It appears that a 0.75m dish will do in Kunming.
Thanks to all who responded. Looks like we have many alternatives to explore. - I copy here the basics from 2 emails: 1) On July 20, 2010, I sent to the Kunming?-government?-news?-website en.kunming.cn/ through their e-mail adddress enkminfo@gmail.com the following: " I have only one English language channel: CCTV9. Is there more English language programming in Kunming? - On July 27, 2010, I received the following reply, "Programme which comes from the cable and box have only one English language channel—CCTV9. There is more English channel which can be received by a satellite TV receiver, but I have to say it is illegal. Best regards, Ada Zhang"
If you can read a Chinese website, go to www.xunlei.com for recorded American TV. I have looked at the site, but all I saw was Chinese programming. Not knowing Chinese, I was unable to navigate to find English programming. I was told about this website by a Chinese guy who attends university in Pittsburg. He said he watches TV this way in Pittsburg during the university semesters, then returns home to Kunming for the summer, where he also watches it.
About the satellite signal you're seeing in nice hotels in Shanghai (Kunming too). They're part of a legal network set up for hotels and foreign expert dorms (functionally extinct) as well as certain organizations (Xinhua and the like). If you are a foreigner with a residence permit, not just a visa, you are technically entitled to use this signal, but you have to fill out a whole lot of paperwork, pay some hefty installation fees, get written permission from your apartment to install a dish, and then pay monthly fees. A friend tried to apply for it a long time ago, and then gave up and bought an illegal dish.
If you get an illegal dish, you probably won't get into any trouble, but you also don't have any guarantees that it won't stop working a few months down the road.
i am looking for the Angry Beavers dvd collection. any clue as to where one might pick up in Kunming?
If you can go online there is a site called 'UKTVaccess' after you sign up they give you an ip and password then you surf the internet as if you are in England, you get all the channels like 4od, itv player, bbc iplayer; if your connection is fast enough you may even watch stuff live... i've been using their service for quite a while now and it's pretty good...
