And Breathe...

Well it looks as if Santa has come early for the ex-pats of Southern Spain with news that the proposed transition of the BBC and Freeview channels onto the new UK spot beam has hit problem. This is not to say that it won´t happen in the future, dates in March are now being bandied about, but for now Eastenders is safe.

The reason for this has been given as a faulty transponder, but this will not be the end of the matter and the satellite signal will eventually find its new home. There has been a kind of official word on the BBCblog, they even acknowledge the non UK views, but I am afraid not with good news.

So what are we to do? Future Lifestyle will continue to test various systems to find the best way to continue to get UK programming. We believe that this is a good thing the delay will enable people within the industry to find a good, reliable solution. We have been approached by several suppliers of IP solutions in the past couple of weeks. Some are viable solutions, some were chancers hoping to cash in on the hysteria of the people (how very Costa del Sol).  This rest bite will hopefully make the opportunists get bored and move on allowing us to do our jobs.

Another upside to the delay is that members of the team had notice an increase in Christmas party invitations in the last week or so, something we believe was linked directly to the impending changes. What better way to try and get the best deal than ply us with drink and mince pies!

So for now panic over, but rest assured that we will be working behind the scenes to make sure that when the transition happens (and it will happen) it is smooth and as painless as possible.

  

To keep up to date with this and other goings on of Future Lifestyle why not ´like´ our Facebook page (facebook.com/FutureLifestyleSpain) or follow us on Twitter (@FL_Spain)