Blogging from the Highlands of Scotland
'From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step' - Diderot

Wednesday 1 June 2005

Top Up TV bye bye

I started subscribing to Top Up TV in early January this year as I had just acquired a new digital set-top box equipped with the card slot necessary to receive Top Up TV. I already had a couple of other digital set-top boxes, but these were suitable to receive only Freeview transmmissions (I'd had them for over a year, and found some of the additional channels very watchable). I decided that I would quite like to watch E4, however, and for that it was necessary either to go to satellite broadcasting or to Top Up TV. Frankly there are not enough hours in the day to make sensible use of all the channels available on satellite, added to which I have made the decision years ago to buy no product or service I can avoid from 'The Digger', as Rupert Murdoch is sometimes called and Sky is one of his vehicles; I stopped taking The Times years ago for this reason.

Anyway, last week E4 transmissions became available on Freeview and as I hardly ever watch any of the other Top Up TV channels I was already considering saying 'bye bye' to Top Up TV. However, the website said that from today, 1st June, there would be a new channel on Top Up TV, but they were remarkably coy about revealing what it would be - even until late yesterday evening the website didn't have details. This morning, however, the website revealed (finally) that the new channel would be British Eurosport, a channel I have seen occasionally in the past when staying in hotels in the UK or elsewhere in Europe. Apart from having almost no interest in many of the most popular sports (e.g. football), I knew that some of the weird sports broadcast on that channel from time to time would hold absolutely no interest for me, so I made the decision to cancel - and I just returned from mailing the appropriate letters to my bank, copied to Top Up TV, to cancel the mandate. I still have the three set-top boxes, of course, to watch Freeview. It'll save me GBP7.99 a month - these funds can usefully be diverted to buying an additional bottle of wine from time to time. So, Top Up TV bye bye ...

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