TV in a house with no aerial or cable?

girl_withno_name

I'm hoping for some creative thinking here... I've obviously left my thinking cap at home today!

There's a covenant on the property we're purchasing (imposed in 1979) [FONT=&quot]that clearly prohibit aerials etc. and hence no TV aerials or Sky dish could be affixed to the building. The property is also not in a Virgin cable area ....

So - any ideas how we get TV to the property??
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N79

Aerial in the loft space will probably work provided the signal strength is reasonable and you use a good aerial.

googler

How are the other neighbours in the block getting their TV?

girl_withno_name

The neighbours appear to have ignored the covenant... even at the property we're buying there's already a Sky dish installed. This makes me slightly nervous because, although I'd like to think that the Council wouldn't call us up on this I'mnot sure the extent of punishment if they do!

Rikki

Is the covenant still current or has it been updated? Sometime these are only placed on for a certain time. Ask you solicitor.

girl_withno_name

I asked the solicitor, because I thought this to be silly, along with other covenants about erecting boundary fences, which seem to have been aimed at the property developer. The response was:

"The covenants clearly prohibit aerials etc and were imposed against the property by "The Council" in the transfer of the land by them in 1979. This and the other covenants remain with the land forever unless the Council enter into a deed to withdraw them which is not likely. The Council could take action against for any breach of these covenants."

MX5huggy

In that case just go with the flow, use the Sky dish with a freesat box if you don't want to subscribe or put up an aerial. My HUMAX Foxsat PVR is absolutely excellent.

The worst case is you are asked to remove it this is unlikely as councils have bigger worries like 9 year olds taking pictures of their school lunches.

Mrs_Imp

Do you have broadband?

Watch through your computer. This means that if you only watch programmes that are not broadcast live you don't need a tv licence. It works a treat for us, but then we don't watch soaps or sports. I don't miss any programmes, and I'm quite glad that the goggle box in the corner only gets used when we really want to watch something. Obviously this won't work for everyone, but it might see you through until you can sort out the covenant.

ToasterScheme

I live in a Conservation area with a "no dishes" restriction and no cable. Unfortunately Freeview is very poor in our town, with the result that everyone has massively tall hi gain aerials installed - which IMHO look much worse than a nicely concealed, colour-matched satellite dish.

A year ago, I counted 8 dishes in view within 50 yards despite this violation. Fortunately I'm at the edge of the zone and my back yard isn't restricted, so I just put mine up there.

I doubt the punishment would be anything more than "take that nasty dish down".

googler

The obvious flipside solution to your question would be to do away with the TV, and spend the time on more creative pursuits....

Read.
Listen to the radio instead.
Learn a musical instrument.
Learn to paint.
Study to improve your job prospects and/or knowledge, so that you can move even sooner to somewhere without covenants.....
etc
etc

Elsewhere

So long as you have a clear view of the right part of the sky a satellite dish can be at ground level - it doesn't need to be attached to a building. Tell the council it's a garden ornamnet!