alternatives to Virgin and Sky???

We're moving to a new house soon and I've just found out that the area isn't set up with fibre optics and Virgin cannot provide cable to us.  We have also been informed that a dish is not allowed since our house borders a park.  We won't be able to use freeview until November 2011, either.  Is there anything else we can do to watch tv?!  I know it's not the most important thing in the world, but I'm pregnant and hormonal and too tired to go out in the evenings and the thought of not being able to watch ANYTHING is so incredibly frustrating.  We live an hour from London!  How can there be no way to get cable???

Do you have internet at all?  All the freeview channels have an online player, actually Sky does as well.  I don't understand why you wouldn't get freeview though

A lot of areas don't have Freeview yet because of poor reception, and won't do until analogue is switched off in that area and the digital signal boosted.

Yes, our new town is due to get digital in November 2011, so after that we should get some or most of the freeview channels.  Until then, it sounds like online viewing may be the only option... I'm going to talk with BT again tomorrow, as they have some sort of on demand tv service, but they have super long contract lengths and are twice as expensive as what we pay now for Virgin, so I'm not sure that is worth it...

This move keeps getting worse and worse.  We have a spare room and Sky.

What about Slingboxing it through your mom?

Until then, it sounds like online viewing may be the only option...

If your town hasn't gone digital yet, surely you can still get the analogue terrestrial channels (BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5), even if you can't get freeview?

I lived the first 14 years of my life with only 4 TV channels (BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4... channel 5 wasn't launched until 1997), and apart from a few months in 1995, we didn't have cable/digital TV until 1999!

If you don't have a free view box you can get a cheapo at ASDA for about £14. We live in an area that hasn't gone digital yet (Feb 2011) and we still manage to get all the Freeview channels...so you may want to give it a shot anyway.

STOP!  We have a Freeview box!  It can record two channels at the same time.  D'oh!  I've only been staring at it for like 7 months under our sky box. 

Problem solved on that front. 

Unfortunately, seriously NOTHING comes in, even the analogue channels!  We did a quick test when we took some stuff over yesterday. I'm not sure if it's the whole town or just our specific area.  Even our internet options are fairly limited and much slower than I expected. 

I've lived without cable quite happily when I was in college, but I dunno, maybe it's the homesickness that makes me feel like I need the option to watch American shows??  I guess I have no excuse not to catch up on my reading now!

Well, unfortunately the only options for TV are

Sky (satellite)
Virgin (cable)

you've already said these aren't possible, so that leaves you with

BT Vision, lower number of channels, but I thought it was only a fiver a month or so. Would have to check if available in your area.
Freeview

failing all that you are stuck with 5 channels (4 if really unlucky as you may not even get channel 5), so sign up for Lovefilm DVD rental!

Lots of stuff is available online, and provided you aren't watching live telly online or elsewhere, at least you can save on your licence fee.  Not a great consolation, I know, but perhaps a slight silver lining.  As TykeMan mentions, Lovefilm is an option, and it streams films to computers, and starting next month, PS3s. 

Are you sure there's not an aerial on the roof?  I grew up in the mountains, and if you didn't have cable or a monstrous dish in your yard (this was before the mini-dishes), you used an aerial to boost signal.  I know they're still about here because we plugged our Free-view into one in our old flat.

You can get Broadband right?

What about watching sky via an xbox 360? You don't need a sky dish or a sky box, you get 32 live channels plus on demand stuff.

http://skyplayer.sky.com/watch/xbox360/?DCMP=KNC-XBOXPPC&HBX_PK=xbox_sky&HBX_OU=50&gclid=COmrmarLzaQCFWr92AodjlkkCg

You will need to spend £120 on an xbox 360, but hey, you get to play games and stuff as well, you could probably get a preowned 360 for sub £100

Channels are here - http://skyplayer.sky.com/vod/content/Home/content/l/l/content/default/allChannels.do

Yup, about £90 with a game http://www.game.co.uk/Consoles/Xbox-360/Pre-owned-Xbox-Arcade-Console-With-Tiger-Woods-PGA-Tour-11/~r351507/?d=1z13fvgZ1z13mmvZ1z13w71Z68k

Ohh, thanks for the xbox 360/Sky tip (wish it worked with a Wii, as we already have that)...that may be a much better option for us than BT Vision since BT would require an 18 month contract and there's a chance we may end up back in the US before then. 

I don't think there's an aerial on the roof, as we were told nothing at all was allowed on the roof due to council regulations. BT says our area should be able to get BBC through BT Vision but that's the only live channel that would come through (so basically, we'd be subscribing just for the ondemand content). 

Am starting to come around to the idea of no TV at all and just making do with lovefilm and dvds for a year or two.  I had to stay home sick from work today and there wasn't one thing on TV that I actually wanted to watch, anyways!

Could you fit an aerial in the loft space? Mine is in the loft and I can get freeview with it.

Could you fit an aerial in the loft space? Mine is in the loft and I can get freeview with it.

ahh thanks, didn't think of that...we may be able to do that!