Rainbow Satellites: August TV Newsletter

All is well at the Rainbow house, with the garden in its summer “hang on” state with the heat and the lack of water, although we do give it a weekly soak. We see so many people give their garden a daily quick spray round. That is no good for the plants and a total waste of water. Spend time once a week giving the ground around the plant a good soaking, although two exceptions are smaller pots and baskets that do need a daily soak, and succulents that really need very little. The Rainbow dogs are fine. Don’t forget to look at the charity we support on Facebook, Friends of Mazarrón Animals.

TV News

Watching TV from a country you are not living in is a legal nightmare, often with no clarity. We at Rainbow are certainly not legal experts, but there are a few guidelines we can outline. We will concentrate on internet TV, as satellite TV is generally not fully available in the area we cover.

Using a Firestick, Android or similar to watch live TV will require an app to be loaded on the device. These have generally been deemed to be illegal and are certainly not approved by the device manufacturer, many of which are actively closing and blocking them.

IPTV boxes are an absolute grey area and, apart from the UK, there have been many opportunities for countries to clarify the situation which have not been proceeded with. The EU have had several attempts to sort the situation but nothing has been finalised. So the majority of non nationals in a country use IPTV to watch their national TV.

Finally, there are the official internet TV boxes from both Sky and Freeview/Freesat, called Freely. Using these boxes outside the UK would definitely break the providers’ rules that are agreed on purchase, but would probably not be illegal. The issue with Sky is the extortionate fees charged. No one will pay those when they are offered much cheaper versions. Freely is excellent but has no subscription channels, however it is adequate for millions of Brits. It has catch up TV and access to the free channel streaming services. Ask us for more details.

We at Rainbow Satellites can probably assist with any TV viewing problems for any nationality. Initial chat is free of charge. A WhatsApp message is our preferred means of communication.

That’s it for August, more news in September 2026.