Hotel Cable Report: Grand Hotel Metropol; Portoroz, Slovenia

[TVWorldwide]

We've had several hotel cable reports here, so I decided to do an overseas one just for fun.

Below is the channel lineup at a hotel on the Slovenian coast where I stayed this week. The TV was a 32'' LG LCD.

Non-Slovenian channels with Slovenian subtitles are marked with an asterisk. The actual lineup is given; the printed in-room channel guide was slightly different.

1. E! Entertainment Televison
2. TV Slovenia 3
3. RAI 3 (Italy)
4. Italia 1 (Italy)
5. Rete 4 (Italy)
6. Canale 5 (Italy)
7. Investigation Discovery *
8. HRT 2 (Croatia)
9. RAI 2 (Italy)
10. Cable lineup information
11. TV Slovenia 2
12. TV Slovenia 1
13. HRT 1 (Croatia)
14. TV Koper (Slovenia)
15. Tourist information
16. RAI 1 (Italy)
17. INFO TV (Slovenia)
18. Cartoon Network (daytime) / Turner Classic Movies (evenings)
19. Eurosport
20. MTV *
21. TV Pika (Slovenia)
22. National Geographic Channel *
23. Discovery Channel *
24. POP TV (Slovenia)
25. RTS (Serbia)
26. Kanal A (Slovenia)
27. Sponka TV (Slovenia)
28. Pink Plus (Serbia)
29. Sport TV 1 (Slovenia)
30. Viasat History *
31. TV 1000 *
32. SportKlub (Slovenian version)
33. TV3 (Slovenia)
34. Animal Planet*
38. Russia 24
39. Pro 7 (Germany)
40. TV Primorka (Slovenia)
41. Eurosport 2
42. Zone Reality *
43. Zone Romantica *
44. Travel Channel *
45. MGM Channel
46. Sport TV 2 (Slovenia)
47. Golica TV (Slovenia)
49. VH1
50. CNN International
51. Net TV (Slovenia)
52. Hallmark Channel *
53. RTL (Germany)
54. Sat 1 (Germany)
55. Nova TV (Croatia)
59. Live fortune-telling service

 

[TheRob]

Did you call the fortune tellers on channel 59? ;D

 

[TVWorldwide]

Did you call the fortune tellers on channel 59? ;D

I didn't (and I guess I'll never know what I missed ;D), but I did notice that at certain times of the day, they had a live card game going instead (some gambling rather instead of fortune telling, in other words).

 

[BRNout]

That's a surprisingly good lineup! Far better than the offerings in ANY hotel in which I have stayed in the UK.

 

[azumanga]

That's a surprisingly good lineup! Far better than the offerings in ANY hotel in which I have stayed in the UK.

...or the US.

 

[compubit]

The small mom-and-pop hotel I stayed at in Nice, France had the full cable lineup (TNT?) - the channels matched the TV Guide-like magazine I picked up along the way. (No premiums - Canal+ [Channel 4 in the lineup] went scrambled at parts of the day, but a full selection). Unfortunately, I don't have the full lineup :-(.

The small hotel in Paris had about 12 channels, IIRC - (French + ZDF Germany, 1 from Italy, and BBC World, and the obligatory CNN International). Nice 12" TV with built-in bright clock above the foot of the bed

The Hotel Metropole in Rome didn't have a wide selection, but small array of Italian channels, plus Pro-Sieben from Germany, BBC World and CNN-I - may have been others - I didn't get to watch much TV then. When I take my trip this spring, I'll definitely be more observant...

Jim

 

[BRNout]

The small mom-and-pop hotel I stayed at in Nice, France had the full cable lineup (TNT?) - the channels matched the TV Guide-like magazine I picked up along the way. (No premiums - Canal+ [Channel 4 in the lineup] went scrambled at parts of the day, but a full selection). Unfortunately, I don't have the full lineup :-(.

The small hotel in Paris had about 12 channels, IIRC - (French + ZDF Germany, 1 from Italy, and BBC World, and the obligatory CNN International). Nice 12" TV with built-in bright clock above the foot of the bed

The Hotel Metropole in Rome didn't have a wide selection, but small array of Italian channels, plus Pro-Sieben from Germany, BBC World and CNN-I - may have been others - I didn't get to watch much TV then. When I take my trip this spring, I'll definitely be more observant...

Jim

Did the French systems have a bunch of unscambled porn on cable? ;D ;D

Now, don't take me wrong - I am not being a perv here.....but when I've stayed in local 'mom and pop' (non chain) hotels in Quebec, they all had one or two channels of it, so I suspect it's cultural. Just wondering if that cultural quirk is reflected in the cable offerings at hotels in France as well.

 

[azumanga]

Did the French systems have a bunch of unscambled porn on cable? ;D ;D

Now, don't take me wrong - I am not being a perv here.....but when I've stayed in local 'mom and pop' (non chain) hotels in Quebec, they all had one or two channels of it, so I suspect it's cultural. Just wondering if that cultural quirk is reflected in the cable offerings at hotels in France as well.

It's not just a Quebecois thing -- when I stayed at an independently-owned-and-branded motel in Mississauga, Ontario (west of Toronto) in 1999, they carried what looked to be the full analog lineup -- including a channel with porn. Being the prude that I was (and still am), I had to find ways to avoid that channel while "just passing through" to see what's on (it was at the end of the dial, though, starting over, was right next to TVO on channel 2).

 

[compubit]

Did the French systems have a bunch of unscambled porn on cable? ;D ;D

Now, don't take me wrong - I am not being a perv here.....but when I've stayed in local 'mom and pop' (non chain) hotels in Quebec, they all had one or two channels of it, so I suspect it's cultural. Just wondering if that cultural quirk is reflected in the cable offerings at hotels in France as well.

I don't know. The one in Paris was only a few channels, so I'm guessing unless it was on one of the public channels, no. In Nice, I think I was in the room long enough to catch a little of La Roue de la Fortune and a little of France 3 News 19|20.

Again, in Rome, wasn't in the room long enough other than the initial "turn on" after checking in...

Jim

 

[TVWorldwide]

By the way, one of the local Slovenian channels in the lineup above -- POP TV on Channel 24 -- made the Fail Blog this week with this clip of a news anchor not wearing any pants:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrLoZnPZNEQ