A Spanish/Portuguese movie channel called Canal Hollywood is available in many Portuguese hotels. It shows Hollywood movies, as the name suggests. 99% of these are in the original language, ie English - only the ads between the movies and the occasional kids' cartoon are in Portuguese. http://canalhollywood.pt/ Just check with your chosen hotel whether they have it.

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To Rob Morton etc - I can easily use filmon.tv from a Portugal IP to watch BBC, ITV etc but subscription sports channels are not available. There are though a myriad places you can find free streams of these, but getting one up and running can be a bit of pain because of the hoops you sometimes have to jump through, plus the need to use adblockers and also avoid spurious attempts to get you to 'register' your credit card ie steal your money.

I live in Portugal and have local cable TV channels. it costs me €9,99 a month extra to watch all the Premier League matches I like, including the ones Sky cannot currently show on Saturday afternoons. In a fixed location it is much easier to get UK sports channels via various means, but even last night we were watching the darts and the streams frequently froze completely for several seconds every so often.

But for the tourist with his or her mobile or tablet, some patience is needed plus a reliable internet connection which is so often not available.

We always take some DVDs, or now some DVDs ripped to a hard disk, and then watch them on our laptop, or an alternative player.

We prefer that to live TV, because we can start when we want, rather than when the broadcaster wants.

I fully agree that the best way to spend time is out of the hotel room, but we like a short bit of TV late evening to help us wind down for the night.

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Cable TV will be Portuguese TV services. They do offer English language channels include several film channels. CNN, BBC World News, BBC Entertainment, National Geographic, Discovery, History are all available in standard packages. They also offer BBC's main national radio channels, except for Radio 5, and a few others.

In Portugal, on all channels, any film or TV series made in English is shown in English, except for chidlren's programmes. You can check the various offerings at the TV websites of MEO, Vodafone TV and Optimus.

Funchal is too far south for UK channels via satellite, but as you will have read there is a roaring trade in IPTv boxes of various types but a good internet connection is a pre requisite.

Brilliant response...thank you... now I know all I need. Cheers!

Madeira only have NOS MADEIRA and MEO as Cable TV providers. Vodafone and Optimus are not operating in Madeira for TV.

I use NOS MADEIRA and have the following ones in the Basic Package:

Discovery Channel (Cience, Nature, Health); National Geographic (Documentary); Eurosport; Fuel TV (Sport); VH1 (Music); MCM Top (Music); MCM Pop (Music); Euronews; CNN International; Sky News; BBC World News; CNBC (News); Bloomberg (Financial); World BNT (Children); Disney Channel (Children - ajustable to the desired language PT or EN); Disney Junior (Children - ajustable to the desired language PT or EN); Cartoon Network (Children - ajustable to the desired language PT or EN).

Extra Package but included in the basic subscription rate (some with PT subtitles):

Hollywood; BBC Entertainment; AXN; AXN White; AXN Black; FOX; FOX Life; FOX Crime; FOX Movies; FOX Comedy; TLC; AMC HD; TV Kitchen; Odisseia; Motorvision; MTV Music; MTV Rock; MTV Dance; SYFI; National Geographic; Travel Channel; Crime Investigation; Discovery Showcase; Afro Music Channel; Baby First.

Thank you! Ouch! Much less than I am used to in France, where I can follow both French and English channels. I wouldn't need any kiddie or ado channels but would hope to find more than just news or discovery channels (addicted to crime series, for instance!). Oh well, we shall see...

You can receive UK channels via satellite well into France, but down here in mainland Portugal and obviously further south in Madeira that is not generally feasible.

MEO carry the Fox Crime channel which is mostly US series.

If you want to watch British TV channels in Madeira, you will have to obtain an IPTV box or similar and be prepared for service interruptions. There is a running battle between the TV companies and those who wish to watch TV streamed 'illegally' via the internet. It's all down to copyright and the wish to of the TV companies and rights owners to sell their programmes (especially sports programmes) to other countries and not have people watching them for nothing, including not having a UK TV licence if that's the case.

Here you pay the equivalent to the TV licence with your electricity bill.