A Dutch Alien in Brazil - part 04
I write the following because i feel i have to… These Dutch Alien in Brazil series are all my personal experiences and feelings of my life in Brazil.
Let’s talk about TV…. television and a little Radio.
In Netherlands we watch a lot of television, this is not different from Brazil. When i arrived first here some years ago i started to discover the Brazilian Channels, TV Globo, Band, SBT, Rede TV and TV Cultura + some local channels in Santos. And i discovered… it is different…. very different than i was used too.
As you may know i work professionally for TV so i shall not talk these differences, just the programs. TV Globo starts the day with Ana Maria Braga’s breakfast show followed with some talkshows and than it is filled with so called Novela’s.. Soaps, and even a program about it (videoshow). The other channels try to keep up with also programming Novela’s. Or Crime programs like Brasil Urgente with a criminal looking presenter who talks and talks and talks about the live feeds from helicopters who are hanging above a crime scenes for at least 2 hours. At night we have a hardcopy of the American type of Talkshows with an old Brazilian presenter named Jô , mostly having TV Globo’s famous people as guests… very very interesting!
Brasil Urgente:
Programa do Jô:
Than on sunday it becomes better on TV Globo with… Faustão. A very… special … looking presenter who has about 40 beautiful girls dancing between the program subjects and smiling at the right moment… and it is all heavily sponsored by for example a Ham producer. Faustão weares ridiculous shirts and huge watches around his arm. I followed the program some time but i became bored within some months. At sunday night we have Fantástico, that program has sometimes some nice subjects as also Globo repórter has…… sometimes. But i cannot get used to all those talk programs where they… talk. It is for me totally not interesting at all. Same kind of programs on the other channels btw!
Faustão:
Fantástico:
The best Brazilian TV channel is by my opinion TV Cultura, my little 2 year old daughter can watch there non sponsored children programs in which is great. They bought a lot of international shows like Shaun the Sheep and Bubble Guppies. But they also have some Brazilian made programs for children like Quintal da Cultura and Que Monstro te Mordeu in which are very nice programs. They also show good docu’s, music programs and other culture stuff. I consider this channel as the BBC from Brazil. And we have Canal OFF from TV Globo, not bad at all also.
Quintal da Cultura:
Que Monstro te Mordeu:
Canal OFF:
But… i missed of course after some time my ‘own’ programs. I like to watch sports , in europe we the great channel Eurosport, in Brazil we have sporTV and ESPN. In Brazil we can watch great soccer games, Volleyball, Basketball and beach sports…. a lot. I wanted to watch my autosport evens like Blancpain GT, DTM, WTCC and the english BTCC races, but also the classic bicycle races and ice speed skating. Most of this is not transmitted by any Brazilian channel, even not commercial ones like SporTV or ESPN. Ofcourse i can watch races like Stockcar and Brazilian Porsche Cup, but it lacks the quality as TV program compared to Europe, i did not get connected with these autosport events. But dutch people who live in Brazil also like to watch “Boer zoekt vrouw” , “Wie is de Mol?” , “De wereld draait door” , “Flikken”. Or just watch the NOS Journaal.
NOS:
Let’s talk about the solutions i found past years.
Satellite.
With a dish and receiver you can receive the BVN satellite transmissions. I did not have the option to setup a satellite dish because my veranda was on the wrong side of the building where i lived. I could not reach any satellite from there. But check the solutions from Elbenk COM. They have very nice solutions for Satellite and IPTV in Brazil. I had to search for other options.
VPN solutions are a good solution to go around a so called Geoblock, but it also kills your available bandwidth. A geoblock is a block on IP adresses based on countries and areas. The server you visit checks you IP address and will block acces if your do not have a dutch IP address. Service like Hola, Cyberghost, Tunelbear and HotspotShield can trick the service so they think you are in The Netherlands. There are some doubts nowadays about Hola, check this link. But it is not the only solution i thought, it must be more easy….. by internet streams without VPN.
Ice speed skating.
It is very popular in The Netherlands, but not in Brazil. The Dutch broadcast NOS transmits most of the events live in the Netherlands, but adds a Geoblock on the livestreams because of rights. I tried to discuss this with them (NOS) , the sponsor (KPN) and also the main speed skating organisation, because why a Geoblock in Brazil…. only the Dutch people here will watch live ice-speedskating. Than i found the Live website of the ISU… they transmit some events live on the internet for free and no Geoblock. You can watch it in your browser but also by an Android or iOS app. ISU has no commentary audio. Solution: just open a second tab in your browser en open the live NOS radio stream like “Langs de lijn” with dutch commentary… it is mostly pretty in sync with the video stream from ISU. The only things that is weird that i watch it now in 35 degrees… but ok :)
ISU:
Autosport and Bicycle races.
Formula1 is transmitted live for free on TVGlobo, but i really dislike the Brazilian presenter screaming thru the team radio messages, besides that he is in love with himself. Other european autosport and bicycle races are not transmitted by any channel here. After some searching i could find livestreams of those events on several websites. Ustream, Streamhunter and the Russian Live TV website makes them al available. So now you can watch also Paris->Roubaix, Tour de France and all Winter sports live. And even watch the 24hours Le mans on Eurosport for… 24 hours…. great!
Eurosport:
The rest.
The app and website ‘NPO Uitzending gemist’ works great in Brazil if you have an internet connection from10 MBit or faster. On the latest AppleTV you can also install the ‘uitzending gemist’ AppleTV App. RTLXL gemist has a lot of blocked content and the streams stop a lot. Both services deliver on-demand programs you liked to watch back in The Netherlands. BVN has a livestream up as a test with Dutch and Belgian TV programs. I use NetFlix in Brazil on an Apple TV, also a lot of other channels on the AppleTV work great in Brazil like the RedBull channel, CNN, Sky-News and Yahoo. Than we have YouTube where more and more events are transmitted live for free. Other services like couchtuner and sopcast also work very well in Brazil.
BVN TV:
Watching.
Invest in a good internet connection to watch good quality HD streams. If you have problems just shut down all tabs of your browser. This wil safe bandwidth. If you use an Apple TV or Google Chromecast stick just shut down all other devices. Than all bandwidth will be available for those streaming solutions and you can watch in HD quality. In some browser ‘players’ you can choose also the bandwidth of the livestream itself. ISU and YouTube have these options for example. Than there are more and more apps to watch on-demand and live TV from all over the world. I will add those in the app list underneath this blog entry and it will be regular updated with new apps for all devices.
What you miss you must arrange.
Now i can watch Dutch and other European TV programs that i liked…… in Brazil, this is for me important to survive :) Besides TV i also listen often to dutch radio stations. I found a nice App called TuneIN. With the App you can add your own favourite channels like Radio1, 2 and 3.. Radio Veronica or 538, but i also added the great Rio MPB :) The culture difference between The Netherlands and Brazil is also on TV, I choose to watch what i like from both countries, be able watch a subject on Fántstico and follow the ice speed skating, listening to Radio veronica and Rio MPB is just great.
Thanks Leendert Bentschap Knook en Marc Vissers who gave me some tips about deliverers and services i did not know. If You have anything to add for this article, just reply underneath at the commentt area.
UPDATE 23-02-2016:
[DUTCH] Kabelaars dwingen NPO tot lage kwaliteit streams en gemist
Links:
TV Globo
Rede Bandeirantes
SBT
RedeTV
TV Cultura
Elbenk COM
BVN
Hola
HotspotShield
Cyberghost
Tunelbear
NOS
ISU
NPO Uitzending gemist
RTL XL gemist
Ustream
Streamhunter
Russian LiveTV
Netflix
Couchtuner
Sopcast
App list:
Uitzending gemist - Android - iOS
TuneIn - Android - iOS - Windows
Ustream - Android - iOS
YouTube - Android - iOS - Windows
Netflix - Android - iOS - Windows
Eurovision sports - Android - iOS
Live+ - Android - iOS