The main EU legislation that gives hope to expats is the TV Without Frontieres Directive but its purpose has been misconstrued by people desperate for signs that they'll soon have unfettered access to British TV. In fact, there is nothing in the Directive that says the broadcasters must transmit their signals across the whole of Europe. If the BBC and ITV wish to limit the spread of their channels beyond UK boundaries (and there are good reasons for doing so), no EU legislation holds any sway over them.

The good reasons incidentally are all about copyright and contractual rights to broadcast material - a programme commissioned for transmission in 1 country will carry smaller financial rewards to its suppliers than one intended for Europe-wide transmission. As the BBC is funded by UK licence holders, and the commercial broadcasters by UK-based advertisers, none of them can see any good reason to spend extra money for the rights to broadcast outside the UK. Indeed the sales of many American films and TV series are strictly conditional on transmission being restricted to only the UK.

Clearly satellite signals can't be made to stop at Dover and there will always be a certain amount of spread but the broadcasters are perfectly entitled to limit the overspill as best they can. The only issue on which the Directive could have any influence is over the use of Sky's proprietary encryption system which drives the need to acquire a Sky box rather than another make of the viewer's choice. Given that the main UK broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five) don't use that system, the issue doesn't arise.

As for Sky itself, its business plan relies on income from subscriptions and it would be an inept company indeed if it didn't take steps to protect that revenue stream. The only way it can do that is by encryption and forcing its customers to use its own proprietary software and equipment. To its credit it does the job extraordinarily well. Again there is nothing in European law that prevents Sky from protecting its business.

So the situation for expats is and will remain unchanged. You have a right under EU law to receive TV programmes from other countries. You don't have a right to demand that broadcasters make those programmes freely available outside the country for which they are intended. Therefore if you can install a dish large enough to pick up the BBC transmissions, the BBC can't stop you but it isn't required to make it easy.

The above mentioned expats association seems to think I support the broadcasters' actions. They're wrong; I have no axe to grind one way or the other. However I do understand the reasons for those actions and I see no point in raising false hopes by propagating misleading information under the guise of helpful lobbying.

Finally, it is legal under Spanish law to retransmit satellite signals using local networks, and in some parts of Spain there are companies operating a network of microwave transmissions providing access to a number of UK channels. I believe such a network exists in the Alicante/Benidorm area but the problem is that these companies come and go, and I don't know how reliable they are. Expats wishing to check them out should study the local English-language newspapers for up-to-date details; there's no point in asking me - the sum total of my knowledge on the subject is contained in the last 2 sentences!