What's the best satellite to go with to get some decent English channels ? Would rather not pay a monthly fee. Any suggestions plse ?

Your choices without a subscription are either sky with a non subscription card. That will get you 3,5, news channels and channel 4 with HD box. If you are prepared to pay for a 3.1m dish then you'll get a load of channels.
Otherwise you can look at nilesat. This is arabic but they using just put arabic subtitles on stuff. They show a lot of the american series up to date, have a movies channel and a news channel.

we have a mixture of Astra 2 and Nilsat. Fox movies etc plus itv, five, fiver, fiver usa. no monthly and no big dish. Contacted Pete and Pam 928 177 898. Auzzie guy, nice, chats a lot.

Thanks for both replies - don't mind paying for a dish upfront, just didn't want a monthly fee !

Astra2 and nilsat sounds best, do you get BBC with these ?

i believe for BBC you need to have either a 3 meter dish ( which they wont put on a roof) that can be put in the garden. Or 2 meg broadband. We have 1 meg broadband which is what they class as rural. Also you cannot watch i players here. There is a way that you can pay monthly and look like you are still on uk network. Have a look on this website they have lots of good information http://www.lanzaroteinformation.com/

A 3 metre dish is going to cost a four digit sum. A smaller dish won't get you BBC. You can do it with a computer by running www.filmon.com, but that is pretty flakey, or you can pay a site to give you a UK IP address, which will let you watch all the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 players. Some people just use download sites to download programmes the day afte they are broadcat.

you can get a uk ip for free using expat shield. It's a free virtual private network http://expatshield.com/

I've tried it and it does work / change your IP and will give you access to iplayer, itv player etc. You can also watch live uk tv on tvcatchup.com

For just about anything to do with sport (and some tv) then I'd look at myp2p.eu (that's the full URL)

A cautionary note:
Needless to say that if you mask your IP address you will be in breach of your contract with your ISP. Also if you access BBC etc by masking your IP you are in breach of their worldwide copyright - this is why BBC is only available in the UK over the internet. And, as far as I know, most of what is on myp2p is technically copyright protected

However, I am yet to find anyone actually taken to task over this.

Finally, I am not recommending anything here, just stating a few facts

If the mods think this post is without the posting guidelines then please feel free to remove. I have no vested interest - I just don't like to see people spend their hard earned needlessly!

Yes contact UKTV you can either have the basic channels of BBC1/BBC2/ITV1/C4 & C5 & Film 4 and RTE 1 broadcast from there transmitters to you TV via a digibox and normal aeriel, if you are not far from the beam of the transmitters or if you do not want an aeriel, you can have HD Box with alot more channels such as BBC1/BBC2/BBC3/ITV1/ITV2/ITV3/C4 & C5 & CBBC,CBEEBIES,Chart show,CBS Drama CBS Action, E4 EMore,Movies for men,BBC News,and much more all you need is a 3mg internet connection, and you have crystal clear TV with all your fave programmes and on this system you can watch catch up tv, so if you missed corrie you can watch up to 5 days later.Plug and watch, no messing with internet or IP addresses, or computer downloads.... is simples Tel 928548558. 9am -5pm