The restrictions on subscriptions has resulted in all sorts of ingenious "work-arounds."
Many Brits moving to the sunnier parts of Europe decide to take their satellite TV equipment with them, but find that the companies won't send decoder cards outside the U.K. for "contractual reasons." People have to use friends and relatives addresses.
Even within the U.K. (which, after all, isn't that big to start with), Sky Co. will only allow viewers access to the appropriate regional variants of BBC/ITV, based upon the postal code to which the card is sent. Thanks to the crazy way our equivalent of the ZIP code works, that has resulted in some people being rather unhappy at the "region" to which they've been arbitrarily assigned.
So much for the wonderful ideal of 40 years ago that satellite TV would open the world and provide free access for all.
[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 03-03-2003).]
