| As in the United States, Costa Rica has satellite cable
television, is available in most places in the Central Valley,
Liberia, Tilarán, San Carlos, Pérez Zeledón,
Orotina and in some beach areas such as Jacó and Quepos.
A variety of American television channels provide viewing
and entertainment at a low cost from Amnet (231-38380, 231-2811
or 231-3939 http://www.amnetcable.com), Cable Tica (254-8858)
or Cable America (238-1756). You will not miss much TV while
living in Costa Rica since these companies offer local channels
in Spanish as well as 38 channels in English including CBS,
NBC, ABC, FOX, HBO, CNN, ESPN, TNT, the Discovery Channel
and more. There is an initial sign up fee of about $25 and
a monthly charge of $23. If you want to hook up additional
TV in your house or apartment, you will pay only $2.50 extra
per month.
Since 1997, DirectTV (296-7681, Fax: 296-7684, E-mail: galaxia@racsa.co.cr,
http://www.directv.co.cr) has been available in Costa Rica.
With this system you can receive up to 100 channels. The cost
has dropped considerably. The basic cost is an $89 installation
fee and $23 monthly for the basic package. For the complete
movie package including movie and sports channels, the cost
is about $45 monthly.
DirectTV systems purchased in the United States will not
work with the satellite systems in Costa Rica or the rest
of Latin America. NFL and NBA sports packages are now available.
Members with DirectTV pay-per-view can now order more than
30 first-run movies per month for about $3 each. Call 201-7171
for more information.
Even better than Direct TV is Dish TV, offering digital alternative
programming. For a one-time installation fee and a reasonable
monthly rate, you get hooked up to digital TV viewing, a slice
of home so to speak. Some of the many programs offered include
Fox, Fox Sports, HBO (10 channels), Showtime (10 channels),
NBC, CBS, ABC, Sirius Music and more than a hundred more channels.
The programming is from the Dish Network in the United States.
You can view what they have to offer at http://www.dishnetwork.com.
We have several friends who have this system and rave about
the wide variety of programs. Feel free to contact Sun Sat
TV (249-0506 or 643-1039, E-mail: chatsbrats@ racsa.co.cr)
about any interest or questions you may have concerning satellite
TV and the latest technology available in Costa Rica. We have
had this system for several years and love it.
Local Spanish-language TV stations are Teletica Channel 7
(2322222), Repretel (280-6665) Channels 4, 6 and 11 and EXTRA
TV 42 (905-398-7288)
Most radio stations play Latin music. However, there are
four English language radio stations that play pop, oldies
and modern rock. Both foreigners and younger locals listen
to these stations since they play a lot of past and present
hits. Many of the bus drivers play rock music that the English
stations play. Radio Dos 99.5 FM plays top -40 music from
the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s. Radio 102.3 FM offers soft rock,
classics and oldies. Radio 107.5 FM, the country's only all-English
radio stations offers 100 percent rock from all decades. Radio
95.5 plays a great selection of tasty jazz and fusion.
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