Television coverage out at the beach is a serious issue, and one that we hadn’t tackled. We haven’t had any TV service since we’ve lived here, and it was time to get serious about getting some on-couch entertainment installed.

When we first lived here, during our first couple of months at the fantastic Suites Del Sol, we had basic cable in our apartment there. Sunday morning television was amazing, provided you like sexiness and loud, colorful party games combined with your morning news, which I do. The English channels were quite limited, though we did become quite addicted to Law and Order: SVU, as it was one of the few reliable English shows available. We eventually ran through those, and have nothing left to show for it but a dog named Det. Olivia Benson. We knew that when we finally did set up television service, the variety of English programming was going to be a major requirement, though I knew I would come to miss Amanda from Telehit.

Our first option was to go with setting up a big, 1.5 meter dish and getting the DirecTV feed from the East Coast in the United States. This was an attractive option, because it would give us access to the same programming in America, and the surreal bonus points earned from watching Katie Couric while sitting in Chelem with a cup of coffee in the morning, were quite tempting. We were even told, by the installer we spoke to, that we could choose to pay him for our monthly subscription fee, or, for a flat rate, pirate the signal and never pay again.

The real downside to this solution was that the setup and equipment costs would have been between $500 and $600 USD, with no guarantee (had we opted for the pirated service) that we wouldn’t have to be constantly scouring the internet for new satellite codes, equipment modifications, and other silliness that is beyond the scope of this post. Most importantly, though, we were talking about a substantial equipment cost for a dish that could be stolen, or at least, hammered by the corrosive elements that are a constant part of your life when your home is two meters from the ocean. Eating the up-front cost, and then potentially having to replace all of the equipment every four to six months, led us to a contract with SKY, the local satellite service.

We went to Ricardo, a fluent English speaker who performs SKY contract setups out of his furniture store on the zocalo in Progreso. We went armed, as usual, with our pile of photocopies of everything from our passports to our deed to our electric bills, only to find that this was completely unnecessary. We paid $799 MXP for the installation, which would have been free had we chosen to pay for our service using a Mexican credit card. Most astonishingly of all, Ricardo informed us that someone would be out THE NEXT DAY to set up our service. We weren’t holding our breath.

Sure enough, at the appointed time, the installers arrived and took about an hour to get our service up and running. This kind of efficiency is simply unheard of here in Mexico, and we can safely say that this is the smoothest any new service contract setup has gone.

We were delighted with the ease and low cost of installation, but it all comes down to the service. We have been watching television for about two solid weeks now, and I am sad to say, that I am not blown away by my programming options. We selected the most expensive package, which gives you access to the maximum amount of English speaking channels, as well as a bunch of HBOs, a few Cinemaxs, and a handful of other movie channels. The box and menus can all be set to English, and several channels (such as Discovery and The History Channel) can have their audio tracks changed to English as well. My only complaint about the interface is that switching to English mode doesn’t necessarily mean switching the program names to English, which can prove confusing and tough to figure out what’s actually on using the on-screen guide.

I could get over this just to be able to watch MythBusters. The problem is variety. All of the shows that are on are from last season, again, something I can deal with. The problem is that the same channels show largely the same series every single night. This is fine if you’re me, and your tastes lean toward Scrubs, Miami Ink, Sunset Tan, and The Girls Next Door, but for Jillian (who tries NOT to make herself actively stupider with television every single day), this is not a great selection. And, unfortunately, the price you have to pay for the privilege of learning the stories behind other people’s tattoos is high; the most expensive package, which is the only way to get the vital “People and Arts” channel, runs close to a hundred dollars USD per month.

All told, SKY presents a good way to get your foot in the door with television here in the Yucatan. However, for the more hardcore couch-surfers among us, it will likely prove to be unsatisfying in the long term. For now, for us, it’s good enough…because, after all, we want to be out in the markets, sitting in the parks, eating the salbutes, and mixing it up with the people that make this place so special.