Worldwide TV anywhere you are

A lot of people have been talking about getting good international TV (with sports coverage and new TV shows in particular) these days. With the opening up of a number of sports seasons in the southern hemisphere as well as new season premiers just around the corner for our favorite TV shows coupled with the limited coverage available in China—and in particular for those of us who don’t speak Chinese—the available choices have been quite slim.

 

Many people at these times have gone towards satellite TV, or have at least been thinking highly about it. After all, if you ever take the time to go through your junk main in your apartment/house’s mailbox you’ve probably seen a number of ads promoting the wide variety of channels available to viewers that can be available for a mere few hundred RMB.

 

Of course what they DON’T tell you in those ads is the fact that satellite TV is technically illegal in China (again, only technically, and mostly for regulation purposes) AND the fact that to keep your satellite TV up and running you’ll be needing to pay 200-400 RMB every 1-4 months on average for a new card to keep your decoder up-to-date. Even then there have been a number of people that need to purchase multiple cards each month to keep their satellite up to speed.

 

Thankfully there are some alternatives out there. With the advent of modern-day information technology we’ve been able to see faster information transfers and internet speeds all around the world. Shanghai, being one of the more developed cities in the world, has access to screaming bandwidth that could put most internet providers back in the US to shame. Of course all of this power left undirected is useless, so I’ve gone out and found some software programs that actually help turn laptops and desktop PCs into TV providers (all with varying costs):

 

12,000 TV channels and movies streamed to your PC for only $44.95 USD (one time payment, no recurring payments, approximately 305 RMB)

 

9,000 TV channels and movies streamed to your PC for only $39.95 USD (one time payment, no recurring payments, approximately 270 RMB)

 

5,000 TV channels and movies streamed to your PC for only $19.95 USD (one time payment, no recurring payments, approximately 135 RMB)

 

OR

 

Live satellite TV for your PC software for $19.99 (one time payment, no recurring payments, approximately 135 RMB)

 

(RMB values are based on RMB/USD conversion of 6.8:1)

 

Now I know these aren’t free, but compared to the prices you’d have to pay elsewhere and coupled with the fact that most PCs can stream pictures directly to most TVs these days they’re a useful alternative that can provide you with worldwide access to information no matter where you are at when you use it, just so long as you have an internet connection available. Personally I recommend the 9,000 channel one, as it’s the best value for the money and has CNN as well as other great channels for many different countries, but the choice is yours. There ARE also a number of free channel providers out there, but they generally have nowhere near the variety of channels available to these and typically don’t allow mainstream channel coverage.

 

Just do yourself a favor and don’t get caught in the satellite TV loop. It’s really just not worth it in today’s day and age.