Compare The Meerkat.... (Top Ten TV Channels)

Member Name: NinjaBaz

Product:	Top Ten TV Channels
Date:	12/03/09 (166 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Many channels are free to view

Disadvantages: Subscription TV costs money

A selection of the channels that get the most air-time in our household...although half the time the TV's just on for background noise!

BBC1

This seems to be the channel that gets put on in the background of an evening if nothing else is on, or if we're busy doing something else. It has a lot of programmes that we don't particularly tune in for, but can tolerate watching them. We do however make sure BBC1 is on if there are new series of 'Old Tricks', 'Silent Witness' or 'Waking The Dead'. I'm also currently enjoying 'High Altitude', the series where ex downhill skier Graham Bell, and snowboarder Ed Leigh attempt to complete a number of mountain/winter based challenges. We also love to laugh our socks off at 'Not Going Out', as Lee Mack and Tim Vine dish out the double-entendres and one liners.


BBC2

We mainly watch BBC2 for its fine selection of comedy panel shows, sit-coms and sketch shows. Our favourites are 'QI', 'That Mitchell & Webb Look', 'Mock The Week', 'Gavin & Stacey' and 'Never Mind The Buzzcocks' although we've gone off the latter recently as it just seems to be a stage for Simon Amstell to take the proverbial out of everyone...Which gets very boring, very quickly.


Sky Sports 1/2/3

As a massive sport fan, I can usually find something to watch amongst this group of channels. It'll either be English Premier League, Spanish La Liga or Champions League Football. I also watch England International matches and International Test Match Cricket whenever they are televised. There are however, a number of other sports screened regularly including more obscure sports such as Sailing, Pool and Poker all the way through to Boxing, Rugby and Motorsport. The only problem is, it can be quite pricey as they are all subscription channels.


Sky Sports News

This is my saviour on a Saturday afternoon as I usually watch Soccer Saturday presented by Jeff Stelling (Also host of Countdown on C4!). This programme features a panel of footballing 'greats' including Paul Merson, Matt Le Tissier, Phil Thompson, Charlie Nicholas and Alan McInally. The panel all watch a match and are invited to comment on the action whenever anything of note occurs. They also have reporters live at other grounds including Chris Kamara, Tony Cottee, Tony Gale and Alan Smith. They provide a great service and the programme is also very comedic with Chris Kamara's constant cries of 'Unbelievable Jeff!', and Paul Merson being unable to cope with any player names over 2 syllables!


UKTV Style/Food/Gardens

I had to include this one although it's the other half that watches it. I don't mind the cooking, housing and DIY programmes, it's when you've seen them for the 5th time I start to get annoyed! This channel shows a variety of programmes including 'DIY SOS', 'Under The Hammer', 'To Buy or Not To Buy', 'Market Kitchen', 'Saturday Morning Cooks' and 'Masterchef'.


Dave/Dave ja vu

This is also a subscription channel that used to go under the name of UK Gold 2 or UK G2. This channel shows a lot of repeats of BBC entertainment programs and is aimed I guess at Men, judging by the name? A typical sample of programmes include, 'Top Gear', 'A Question of Sport', 'Dragons Den' and 'Never Mind The Buzzcocks'. We watch this in bed after 10pm for our 2 favourites 'Mock the Week' and 'QI' repeats.


G.O.L.D.

We usually put this one on before 10pm as it shows a lot of old BBC sit-coms. Early evening you're likely to see 'My Family', 'Only Fools and Horses', 'The Vicar of Dibley' and 'Open All Hours'. A bit later on you will sometimes find my favourite sit-com of all time, 'Men Behaving Badly'!


Alibi

We love psychological and detective drama's so Alibi is a brilliant channel for us, although strangely we always seem to find something else to watch?! This shows repeats of 'New Tricks', 'Rebus', 'Silent Witness' and 'Waking The Dead'. As well as older stuff we don't watch like 'Taggart' and 'Maisie Raine'!!


ITV

Suppose I better include ITV as it does show Champions League Football and also won the license to show FA Cup games this season. Apart from the sport, it's usually stuff on a weekend that we'll watch like 'Harry Hill's TV Burp', 'Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway' and 'Al Murray's Multiple Personalities'. ITV is also responsible for my first views of a couple of favorite adverts. The Dairy Milk advert where the 2 kids raise their eyebrows in time to the young boys watch alarm. I can never stop myself raising my eyebrows along to that one! The other is comparethemeerkat.com...classic!


Channel 4

Another one for the missus here I'm afraid! Lots of lifestyle programmes suited to the ladies such as '10 Years Younger', 'A place In The Sun', 'Grand Designs' (If only we had the money.....), and 'Supersize v Superskinny'. Channel 4 does have redeeming features for me though as some of my favourite comedy originated from here, 'Father Ted', 'Spaced', 'Max & Paddy Road To Nowhere', 'Phoenix Nights', 'Peep Show' and 'IT Crowd'.


There you have it. A mix of Sport, Lifestyle and Comedy rule our TV, but to be honest I'm getting a bit bored of watching repeats and would like some original programming for a change!

Summary: This is what we watch on TV