Do most hotels and/or apartments have English TV channels available? After a busy day, we enjoy relaxing at "home" in the evening, and particularly like those British comedy and mystery shows.

Hi Barbara. We only saw CNN being offered when we were there. But of course, it was only the one stay.
Outside of Lisbon we were able to watch Six Feet Under at the apartment wwe rented.
Mostly, we received news programs.

I don't know about the BBC, but most Hotels 3-star & up offer Cable TV on which you should be able to see two or more CNN Channels (one in English) and Sky News (British?) Channel.

I don't know about SitComs & Mysteries (I mainly watch for the News). Some Cable TV Shows you'll see Brit movies with Brit actors speaking Portuguese (dubbed).

Ned. Did you see the message I posted about the US Airways sale to Lisbon?

Many channels are available - it just depends on what service the hotel or apartment owner is willing to pay for.

(We stayed in a hotel in Estoril that had at least 8 english channels.)

mytraveler: do you remember the name of the Estrodil hotel with all the English TV? We are still planning our itinerary and have given some thought to the coastal area outside Lisbon.

Nedsireland, sorry to contradict you once more (nothing personal) but there are no Cable TV Shows where you'll see Brit movies with Brit actors speaking Portuguese.
The only situation where eventualy that could happen is in films like the King Lion, with a target audience below the school age. Even in those situation, there are sessions with the Portuguese version and other sessions with the original sound track to give a choice to the attendants.
CNN is CNN international, not exactly the same as displayed in US.

Barbara, the BBC channel you're most likely to get is BBC World, which is the international, mostly news, channel that's the British equivalent of CNN. It's rather repetitive but will at least keep you in touch with world news. They don't tend to show drama/entertainment programmes. The CNN you get will probably be CNN Europe.

Lobo_mau, are you saying that Portuguese TV doesn't show dubbed British (or for that matter, American) films? They'd be the only country in Europe to not do so! (Aside from some Northern European countries, obviously, who prefer subtitles).

yes Kate, I am. Neither in TV nor in Cinema (except children movies as I said before).

Can't believe I've only just found this thread...

Thank God for no dubbed films although having to sit through Chicken Little in Portuguese with my daughter was rather mind numbing...

CNN, Fox, Fox Life, AXN (Sony group) BBC Prime (for your drama and comedy), BBC world, SKY News, Travel Channel, and so on: surf through and you should find something you like.

Sorry - I don't - it was 4 years ago - and a business trip tht I didn;t arrange - so I'm sure it was 5*. They had CNN, BBC, Sky News, Sky Sports and all sorts of other things - was working so didn;t have much time for TV - but there were lots of channels.