Menu

FAQs

Thank you for visiting our website. Below is a list of questions frequently asked by our viewers.

Where can I buy DVDs or merchandise related to BBC programmes?

It is not possible to buy DVDs, Blu-ray discs, toys, games or other BBC related products directly from the BBC.

We will continue to publish DVDs and Blu-ray discs which can be bought from a wide range of local and online retailers.

We will also continue to work with external organisations to create great BBC merchandise related to popular shows and, again, you will be able to buy these products from many high street and internet stores.

Can I licence a clip from a BBC programme?

For information about licensing clips from BBC programmes please refer to the BBC Motion Gallery

I am experiencing problems watching the channels – what can I do?

If you are experiencing technical problems with any of our channels, please contact your operator first. If they are unable to help, please get in touch with us.

In order to investigate the problem for you fully, we will need details of the dates and times at which the problem occurred, the name of the programme if possible and the channel and country in which you are watching. If you can also tell us through which operator you receive the channel, this would be really helpful.

How can I receive the BBC Entertainment Europe channel?

You can find out information about subscribing to BBC Entertainment Europe here.

What subtitles are available on BBC Entertainment Europe?

Depending upon the region in which you’re watching, it is possible to receive Dutch and Hebrew subtitles on BBC Entertainment. We don’t currently offer English subtitles, but we regularly review our services and we welcome feedback about these.

If you have any comments about our subtitles, and you would like us to investigate, please do get in touch. We would need details of programme title, transmission date, and specific examples of the translation/s in order to look into this for you. If you are not receiving subtitles and you think you should be, please contact your operator.

Are your channels available online through this website or elsewhere?

Our international channels are not currently available online. We continue to investigate the possibility of making our channels available online and suggest that you continue to check the website from time to time for more information.

The schedule on my programme guide does not match what is broadcasting on BBC Entertainment – can you help?

Although BBC Entertainment distributes schedules to our partners, electronic programme guides (EPGs) are provided by operators and they are responsible for updating and sharing this information with their subscribers. All enquiries about the information available via this service should be directed to operators in the first instance. A useful way to check whether we can help with the problem is to check our TV schedule. If this corresponds with what you are seeing on the channel then the problem is local and your operator should be made aware.

If you do report this to your operator and they are unable to help, please get in touch with us telling us the country in which you are watching, the name of your operator, and as many details as possible about the problem. We can then endeavour to help you resolve the issue if it is possible to do so.

What is the reason for including older programmes in the schedule?

For many of our viewers, this is the first chance to see these programmes, and often the only way to view them. British people currently overseas may have already seen some of our series, but there is also plenty of fresh and recent programming on the channel.

Why aren't all your programmes in widescreen?

BBC Entertainment Europe became available in widescreen (16:9 aspect ratio) in 2013. Please note that while the channel has converted to widescreen, some of your favourite shows will remain in the old format known as 4:3, as this is how these shows were originally shot.

I am having problems viewing programmes in the widescreen aspect ratio – do you have any technical advice?

As some of our content was filmed in 4:3, these shows will remain in that format now that we have converted to widescreen, and may appear with black bars at the sides of the picture. This is so the content is not stretched or squashed.

If your satellite or cable receiver is connected to a widescreen television, we would recommend setting the output to widescreen/16:9 so that the picture is the correct shape without the appearance of being stretched horizontally or squashed vertically. If your satellite or cable receiver is connected to a 4:3 television, we would recommend setting the output to either ‘4:3 Centre Cut Out’ or ‘letterbox’ mode, which will ensure the picture is the correct shape with either the middle of the widescreen picture shown filling the non-widescreen television, or as a letterbox (black bars at top and bottom), allowing you to see all of the widescreen picture.

In addition, some television sets also have options to zoom or auto-stretch pictures. We recommend selection widescreen/16:9 for widescreen television sets to preserve the correct picture shape. You may choose to stretch or zoom that picture to fill the whole screen, according to your personal preference.

Can you explain your repeat pattern?

Like all commercial channels in a multi-channel environment, our channels will normally repeat programmes at a different time of the day and/or at weekends. This allows for people coming to the channel at different times of the day to still see a selection of our great programmes, or to catch up on shows that they might have missed. We schedule the first run of programmes at key times, usually in the evenings.

We have made a considerable investment in programming for our Europe channels, there are thousands of hours of fresh content planned in the first year alone. Even with all those hours, it is necessary to run series more than once. As the channels grow, we hope to bring an even higher percentage of new material every month.

Can you give me more information about the BBC Entertainment closure in Central & Eastern Europe in January 2016?

BBC Entertainment closed across Central & Eastern Europe on 1 January 2016.

We would like to thank the BBC Entertainment audience for their support, but as the roll-out of our new BBC channels gathers pace and certain carriage agreements come to an end in some markets, the channel is not sustainable across CEE markets. Our focus is on our new genre brands - BBC First, BBC Earth and BBC Brit.

Central and Eastern Europe remains a priority market for us. We are continuing to invest in our presence across the region and recently launched our premium factual brand BBC Earth as a linear channel in Romania, Hungary and Slovenia.

We have strong partnerships with local free to air broadcasters, Pay TV networks and digital platforms in the region. Many BBC programmes will continue to be seen through these providers in Central & Eastern Europe.

The channel has closed in the following regions: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine. Viewing of BBC Entertainment in Turkey, Israel and Western Europe remains unaffected.

Can I obtain a DVD of a programme for educational or training purposes?

Possibly, it depends on many things, including copyright restrictions, but it is sometimes possible to arrange for legitimate educational establishments to obtain a copy. For more information, please refer to the BBC Active website.

I would really like to work for the BBC. How do I find out about employment opportunities? Can I send you my CV?

We can't help with enquiries about working at the BBC. When there are vacancies they are advertised in the most relevant newspapers and on the BBC's main website. For general information, advice and the latest vacancies, please visit BBC Careers.

Why can’t I watch programme clips on the bbc.co.uk website?

Much of the content on the bbc.co.uk website is aimed at UK users, so we negotiate rights to include video, audio, images and other types of content for the UK only. World rights are much more expensive, but we are hoping to make more audio and visual content available to our international audiences.

How can I submit a programme/TV format?

We work with the BBC and independent producers to develop commercial opportunities from their programmes and TV formats. We regret we are unable to consider or comment on unsolicited programme ideas.

If you wish to pitch your idea to the BBC please visit the BBC Commissioning website.

If you wish to contact an independent production company with your idea you could contact PACT, the industry association, for a list of companies to approach.

Can't find what you're looking for? Please send us a message via the Contact page.
https://www.bbcchannels.com/bbc-europe/faqs/
www.bbcchannels.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2018-39
23491
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:57NAL2VGZU4EA6QW5J6ET5Z7ID3MWOY4
<urn:uuid:471e618b-e50d-4ba6-8412-241ff5a5f14a>
2018-09-25T02:04:57Z
173.223.238.243
text/html
sha1:GOOWYM5RK7PLTAUYKRW3DHGZCSKLN756
<urn:uuid:18d24c2d-1a1e-460b-a7f1-3e2d55f368c6>
https://www.bbcchannels.com/bbc-europe/faqs/
response
<urn:uuid:3bf97aaf-6a84-436e-8c9f-13920870bb4b>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-39
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for September 2018
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-63-206-104.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/