Satellite
TV in the UK 
Want to know more about Satellite TV in the UK ...... hope this site helps Help this Site to Continue .....
Some Very
Frequently
Asked Questions
(Last Updated 6th
May
2008)
FREESAT
- launched on the 6th May
2008, by BBC and
ITV (and
Channel 4 have made their channels available by making them FTA).
Can
I get FREEVIEW with a Satellite set up
Several Pay Subscription Channels
on Sky are
FREE on Terrestrial Freeview
but are not Free To Air (FTA) (or Free to View (FTV)) on
Sky Satellite - UK
History, Dave, Virgin 1, TMF, The Hits and Sky Sports News are all free
on Digital Terrestrial but are pay channels on Satellite and
are encrypted (E4 and More4 are now FTA, they were
subscription on Satellite BBC
News article about More4 'Free' confusion).
Can I get
FREEVIEW with
a Satellite dish and If I cancel my Sky
Subscription do
I get the FREEVIEW channels
How to get a Free To View (FTV) card Now direct from Sky
What other Channels are Free to Air (FTA) with a Sky Box
What
channels do I get without paying a Sky subscription
Pay
Channels on Sky Digital which are available elsewhere FTA
Adding
all the ITV1 Regions To Sky Digibox
(note ITV London now on EPG 963)
Adding
Extra TV Channels To Sky Digibox
Adding
Extra RADIO Stations To Sky Digibox
What
Channels are Free to Air (FTA) with a Sky Box
What
Channels are Free to View (FTV) with a Sky Box and Card but no
Subscription - How do I order a FTV Card
What
Channels are available with a Sky Subscription in England, Scotland,
Wales and
Northern Ireland
What
Channels are available with a Sky Subscription in the Republic of
Ireland
How Do I Get
Into The Installer
Menu
Is the Card
Tied to
the Digibox
Can I add
Channels from
the "Other Channels" into the EPG
Sky Interactive
/ Text /
Subtitles Doesn't Work
Can I receive
the German
channels I used to get on Analogue
Why does my Sky
Box need
to be connected to the phone line
I added channels
to the
"Other Channels" and now they have gone
I added channels
using the
"Add Channels" but I can't find them
I've got an
item in the
Personal Planner which I can't seem to delete
I stored a
channel in the
"Other Channels" and it now says "Call to Upgrade Your
Subscription"
"Programme
Synopsis
is not available"
Can I add the
BBC 1
Regions in the same way as ITV
No Signal
Received on
SOME Channels (ITV1, ITV2)
Can I add ITV1,
Ch4, Ch5,
ITV2 in Southern Ireland
Can I use the
slot around
the back of my Sky Box ....
What different
makes of
Sky Digibox are there
The EPG Doesn't
work
correctly with my Sky Box and FTV Channels
What is the
minium period
you can subscribe to Sky for
Does the
Digibox Output
Stereo Sound?
Digital
TV Artifacts and Blocking effects
This channel
is not
available - Sky Sports Extra
Can I view the
Irish channels
RTE, TV3 TG4
Is it
possible
to view American Channels in Europe (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, WB, HBO etc )
Not So Frequently Asked Questions
Extra
Channels available with the Old Sky Analogue Dish
Extra
Channels available with another Satellite Dish
Non
"Sky Digital" Satellite Stuff
News and key Dates
in UK Satellite timeline
Channel 4 (except ROI version) now
"permanently" FTA, after a period of shuffling Ch4 regions around,
Ch4+1 still FTV, August 2008
E4, More4 and E4+1,
More4+1 versions go FTA, 6th May 2008
Freesat official
launch, 6th May 2008
A FTA version of
Channel 4 appears on 10729 V 22 named "8350" for Freesat, Apr 2008
Five Life renamed Fiver, May 2008
Channel
4 adds Ch4 +1 channel - Note it is on a frequency 12480 which some DECT
phones can interfere with, Aug 2007
Five add plus one hour versions of Five US and Five Life adds two more Free to View (FTV) channels, Aug 2007
Where have my Sky channels gone from cable tv ?
ITV2 and ITV3 now have +1 channels (Jan 2007) Free To Air (FTA)
Two new Five channels "Five
US" and "Five Life" (Oct
2006) adds two
more Free to
View (FTV)
channels
Film 4 and Film 4 + 1
become (2006) Free
To Air (FTA)
Sky launched HDTV
services May 2006
ITV1
and ITV2 become Free
To Air (FTA) (1 Nov 2005), were previously Free
to View (FTV)
channels
Sky
Three launched Free to View (FTV)
(31 Oct 2005), the FTV card that enables Ch4 & five also decodes
Sky Three
Men
and Motors becomes Free
To Air (FTA) (1 July 2005), was a pay channel, now free
Motors
TV Encrypted - no longer Free To Air
(FTA) (31 Feb 2005), now a pay channel in the
Sky "Family Package"
ITV2
No longer a pay channel, now Free
to View
(FTV) (22 Nov 2004), the FTV
card that enables Ch4 & five now also decodes ITV2
ITV3
Launches Free
To
Air (FTA) EPG channel 119 (1st
Nov 2004), No FTV card
required to
view ITV3
Free To View (FTV) cards available
(Oct 2004) this time direct from Sky
TCM becomes Pay channel and no
longer FTA (6th
Jan 2004), Joins other channels that were previously
free when in analogue on Astra1 Eurosport, CNBC etc
BBC Regions Broadcasting and in EPG (July 2003)
BBC channels
go Free To
Air (BBC1,2,3,4,CBBC, CBeebies, News 24) (July 10th 2003)
BBC more difficult to receive in Southern Europe (moved Satellites) (May 2003)
Boomerang
becomes a subscription pay channel and no longer Free
To Air (FTA) (14th
April 2003), now a pay channel in the Sky "Family Package"
Sky News Analogue closes on Astra 1 June 2001
Sky Digital was officially launched on 1st October 1998
More news can be found at :-
Digital Spy http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/
More Sky Related Talk in the
Usenet Groups
or
Please note that this web site is
just a
little hobby, and due to the massive number of e-mails I get with
questions
relating to Sky Satellite TV I am not able to answer all e-mails.
Please don't be offended if I
don't reply,
as I may not know the answer to your particular question.
Counter from
http://www.digits.com/
Short Frequently
Asked Questions
1. How Do I
Get Into The
Installer Menu
Press Services
Press the four buttons below
quickly
4 0 1 Select
You can do various things,
including
changing the frequency of the RF output (useful to reduce interference)
with
option 4, and get a signal strength meter up for a particular frequency
using
the "Manual Tuning" option 5.
2. Is the Card
Tied to the
Digibox
"Series
2" Card - The
current Sky digital viewing card released early 2003
"Series
1" Card – The later Sky logo on the “Series 1” Sky digital viewing card
Earlier "Series
1" Card - The first Sky digital viewing card with an earlier logo
The card and box need to be
"married" together for the Premier Sky channels (it also used to be
true for the BBC Channels before they went free to air)
If you put a card in a different box it won't allow you to watch
the following channels :-
- Non
"Family Pack" channels, Sky Sports Channels (Sky Sports 1,2,3 xtra), Sky Movie
Channels)
- Extra
subscription channels such as MUTV, NASN
It will display a message
saying
A miss-matched card and box will allow you to watch :-
- Channel 4 and the 3 five channels
- Sky Family package channels including Sky One, E4, Discovery, MTV
etc
it is
possible to have multiple cards simultaneously registered against the
same Sky
Digibox, but a card can only be registered to one box.
Only Sky can pair the cards when
you phone them, you can not do it through the installation menu,
Sky seem to refuse to help you if you don't have a Sky subscription, or
if you buy a second hand Sky box, the person I spoke to on the phone
almost went as far as saying my box must be stollen if I bought it
second hand, they don't seem to reaslise the box is the customers to
sell if they so wish,
3. Can I add
Channels from
the "Other Channels" into the EPG
It is not possible to add programs
which
have been added to the "Other Channels" list into the Electronic
Program Guide (EPG).
Only programs in the EPG can be
added to the
"Favourites", so it is not possible to add the "Other Channels"
to the favourites either.
Sky control which Channels are
included and
who is allocated which numbers (101-105 had to be BBC1-Channel 5).
4. Sky
Interactive /
Digital Text / Subtitles Doesn't Work
If you don't get a Sky Active
button on Sky
News/Sky Sports Interactive etc, or the Text doesn't work, or Subtitles
are not
working then you need to power the digibox off at the mains, leave for
10
seconds and power back on.
5. Can I
receive the
German channels I used to get on Analogue
Unfortunately the German channels
are not
broadcast on the Satellites that the minidish is pointing at, you have
to move
the dish (obviously you can not pick up the "Sky" channels then), or
use an additional dish
see Extra
Channels available with the Old Sky Analogue Dish
A few extra Channels are available
that are
not in the EPG see Adding Extra Channels To Sky
Digibox
6. Why does my
Sky Box
have to be connected to the phone line
If your box was subsidised (you
just paid
for installation), then you are supposed to keep your box connected to
the
phone line for one year.
They want you to order Pay Per
View Movies
and buy stuff using the digibox, when you do it phones out.
The digibox is also asked to phone
back on
an 0800 number about once a month by an over the Satellite signal.
If you disconnect it Sky don't
seem to ask
you to reconnect it, the box will work fine (epg and software updates
are done
via the Satellite) but you won't be able to use your remote control
handset to
order Sky Box-Office movies.
Sky never phone the box, it always
phones
Sky.
If you have the mirrored Sky sub
with two
boxes at one address, both boxes have to be connected to the phone line
as part
of the contract to make sure you don't go and use one box at another
address.
If you get Sky+ you also seem to
be required
to connect to the phone line for the first year as part of your
contract.
The Sky+ box does monitor your
viewing
habbits, nobody seems to know if Sky collect this information.
7. I added
channels to the
"Other Channels" and they have gone
Unfortunately the Sky Box is prone
to losing
all the "Other Channels" - this can sometimes be due to a over the
air software upgrade. In a year I have lost them three
times. All I
can say is make a note of the settings, you may have to put them back.
8. I added
channels using
"Add Channels" but I can't find them
You add extra channels by pressing
the
"Services"
button on the Sky Remote, choose option
4 "System Setup" and option 4 "Add Channels" see Adding Extra Channels To Sky Digibox.
BUT to access these channels you
have to
press "Services"
and choose "Other Channels"
They do not appear along side the
Channels
in the Electronic Program Guide (along with 101 BBC1, 106 Sky One etc)
You can not add them to the EPG
(see Can I add Channels from the "Other
Channels"
into the EPG)
You can paint a Satellite dish to
help it
blend in, it shouldn't affect the performance at all, keep it matte and
non
metallic.
Somone suggested red oxide primer
for brick
colour, below is a well painted dish near my house
.
Don't use a really shiny white finish paint as it might reflect the
suns rays
to a focal point at the LNB when the sun is in a certain position and
cook it, or at least split the plastic cap which would let the water in.
Don't use a paint with metallic finish it "may" disrupt the reflective
properties.
You might want to wait until it is
out of
warranty, I can imagine the average Sky Engineer blaiming the painted
dish for
all sorts of problems.
Section on "Hiding Satellite
Dishes" on http://www.analoguesat.co.uk/
10. I've got
an item in the
Personal Planner which I can't seem to delete
Since a recent software upgrade
the
following procedure is said to delete unwanted items in the planner, it
may
also remove favourates :-
take card out and reinsert upside
down
switch box off at wall for 20 seconds or so
switch box on and leave in standby mode for 60 seconds
press sky button it will come onto 998 with an error message about your
card
remove card and reinsert properly
The Old Fix (Reported Not to Work
anymore)
:-
If you have got an item in the
Personal
Planner which you can't seem to delete, perhaps the date/time setting
is
nonsense, or it might say something about it not being possible to
delete the
box office event then
Switch box off at mains - take
card out -
wait 20ish seconds - switch on - wait for prompt to insert card - put
card in
The item should have gone it has
done for me
everytime, if not try
Switch box off at mains - take
card out -
wait 20ish seconds - switch on - wait for prompt to insert card -
switch box
off at mains again - wait 20ish seconds - switch on - wait for prompt
to insert
card - put card in
11. I stored
a channel in
the "Other Channels" and it now says "Call to Upgrade Your
Subscription"
You get a "FOR YOUR INFORMATION
and Call
This Number to Upgrade Your Subscription" box on the screen, but the
channel mentioned doesn't match the one you stored.
The channel you stored is currently not transmitting anything or it is
scrambled in a way our subscription cards can't deal with.
The Sky box "feature" is that it defaults to showing
information about a channel in the normal EPG when there is no other
data for
it to show.
If you saved this channel in the first Other Channels position, it will
give
information about BBC1 as thats first in the UK EPG, if the channel is
in the
second other channels position, then you will see subscription details
for BBC2
etc, remove your card on the appropriate EPG channel and you will see
the same
message.
12. Why can't
I get ITV2 (Old, for hostoric Information only)
ITV2 was a PAY CHANNEL on a SKY
Digibox (Like
E4), it is now free like ITV1.
A Series 2 "FTV" Card will now
un-encrypt ITV1 AND ITV2,
if you don't have the SKY FAMILY
Package you
used to get the following screen on ITV2
If you get "No Signal Received"
when trying ITV2 click here.
13.
"Programme
Synopsis is not available"
If you press 'i' and get the
message
"Programme Synopsis is not available", then press the interactive
services button, let it start up Sky Active then come back out, this
seems to
reload the Programme Information.
14.
Interactive "Red
Dot" - The New
Logos
Sky One, Sky Sports, Discovery,
and now the
BBC have started sticking a digital "Red Dot" or " i PRESS
RED" on our screens. You can press "Backup" to get rid of
the dot for a while, but it comes back after an Advert break if not
before.
There is no option to permanently
turn this
off.
There is a work around. You
can add
the offending Channels e.g. "Sky One" or "Sky Sports" into
the "Other Channels" and accessing it that
way to get rid of the dot, this is a good way of doing an unattended
recording
without the red dot returning, but its not very convenient for normal
viewing,
and the Personal Planner cannot access channels in the "Other
Channels".
For details of the Channel
frequencies see http://www.lyngsat.com/dig/skyuk.shtml.
I sent Sky an e-mail concerning
the
increased use of these Interactive Logos, and the use of "ALL NEW" on
screen logos, here is the rather standard
reply
|
|
Links |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
15. Can I add
the BBC 1
Regions in the same way as ITV
YES - The BBC have started their
BBC1
English variations see here - They added
them at the end
of July
2003
They BBC Regions are in the EPG in
the nine hundreds, 971 to 988
- It
is also possible to view the 16 regional ITV1 Channels by adding
them. Also
ITV1 London is on EPG 993 if your 103 region is not
- It
is also possible to view the other three BBC 2 variations on EPG 990, 991 and 992,
16. No Signal
Received on
SOME Channels (ITV1, ITV2)
If you get "No Signal Received" on
ITV, ITV2, Disney, Sky Travel, Eurosport News or Hallmark
It may be that you have a 22Khz
switching
problem, as you may or may not know the LNB has to swap between two
bands of
frequencies, most Sky Channels are on the high band (22Khz tone on) but
the
ones I listed above are on the low band (22Khz tone off).
It could be a problem with the LNB
on the
dish arm or the Box (if the box is a Panasonic they can have
compatibility
problems with some Cambridge lnb's, some Grundig lnb's also are
problematic). Best way to check is to take your Sky Digibox to a
mate
with a Sky Dish and try it.
Check your settings in the installer
menu (Press "Services 4 0 1 Select" quickly to get into the
Installer setup menu then Option 1 LNB Setup)
If you have a standard one box one
dish
installation then your setting should probably be
Low band LO Freq 9.75, High Band
LO Freq
10.6, LNB Power ON, 22 KHz Command ON
See this usenet post LNB Problem for more information.
Satcure also sell a kit to solve this problem.
Been asked quite a few questions
about programming the
Remote recently, its
fairly straight forward to do although you may have to try several
different
numbers before you find the correct one for your model of TV, see the
links
below
More Sky Remote Information - Including "Key Magic Codes"
Quite a few places stock replacement Sky Remotes
such as Argos
and Maplin
Electronics.
The Sky and Sky+ remotes
apparently are
incompatible so you can use both a Sky and Sky+ box in the same room.
18 Can I add Ch4, Ch5 in
I believe Sky subscribers in
Ireland get BBC1
and BBC2 on EPG numbers in the two hundreds as part of the Sky Package.
You can add all the ITV channels using the Other Channels method listed
on this site.
If you add the channels Channel 4
or five channels to the Other Channels they will probably be encrypted,
and
all you will
see is a blue screen like below.
You need to have a Sky card or FTV
Card
registered to an address in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern
Ireland for these Channel 4 and five channels
to be available. I have had it confirmed that it is possible to have
two cards
simultaneously registered against the same Digibox.
Sky sell FTV cards for twenty
pounds at the time of writing see Free To
View cards available again Oct 2004
It is no longer possible
to get a bought FTV Card from the Ch4/five funded FTV Card Registration
anymore
SEE HERE
It is no longer possible to get a
FREE
FTV Card
from the BBC funded FTV Card Registration anymore SEE HERE
Only route is to by a one off card
from Sky
at the
moment.
20. Sky +
Loses Channel 5
Entries
I had been informed that Sky are
aware of a problem
where Channel 5 programmes on the Sky + box don't record.
"They regurlarly tend to disappear
from
the planner before the programme has been recorded. I contacted
the Sky+
technical help line and they tested if for a week and then came back to
me to
say that it is a recognised problem and it is down to Channel 5 to fix
it not
Sky. They suggest users complain to Channel 5."
".... it seems that at around 7am
every
single day Channel Five reload their schedules for the following 3 days
and
this wipes out any settings people alread have." from Digital Spy
21. Can I use
the slot
around the back of my Sky Box ....
I have been asked if the slot
around the
back of my Sky Box can be used to add a CAM to receive other (foreign)
encrypted channels. Unfortunately not, the slot is an "expansion
port", it is there to add functionallity such as Dolby Digital 5.1 out,
but no such upgrade has been sold at this time.
In 1999 there was talk that there
would soon
be a "Sidecar" module this would allow you to receive "On
Digital" Terrestrial Transmissions (now ITV Digital) on your Sky
Digibox,
they were supposed to be available "later in the year", they never
appeared.
22. What
different makes
of Sky Digibox are there
5 Manufacturers of the Sky
Digibox :- Panasonic Pace
Grundig/Thompson Amstrad Sony
1 Manufacturer of the Sky+ Digibox
:- Pace
See the Sky Digibox models here
I haven't used either, but these
links may
help you decide :-
Compare TIVO vs Sky + http://www.tivoportal.co.uk/TIVOvsSKY.htm
Sky + Info: http://www.hummer.co.uk/sky.htm
Sky+ bugs: http://www.hummer.co.uk/skyplus-bugs.htm
TiVo bugs: http://www.tivobugs.co.uk
24. The EPG
Doesn't work correctly
with my Sky Box and FTV Channels
I recently had several e-mails
from people
saying a forced software update fixed problems they had with their EPG
(BBC
Channels not appearing) and Programme Guide on boxes used to receive
the FTV
channels, I have not tried this but here is the e-mail I received,
"somebody suggested I do a software download to the digibox by power
cycling it
whilst holding down the backup button on the front panel. The box
the takes
about 10 minutes to update its own software / firmware levels. The PACE
2200
box went from something like version 6.8 to version 8.0. Suffice to say
I can
now recieve the programe guide."
25. What is
the minium
period you can subscribe to Sky for
You have to give Sky one months
notice to
cancel, so if you only want to subscribe for the minimun 12 months then
you need to cancel in the
11th month.
They will send you a
nice letter like they did me.
Hold down the BACKUP button on the
box (not
the remote) while powering off and on the digibox, you may see this message on the TV.
The Sky Digital box doesn't output
NICAM
stereo which is why it doesn't trigger the TV or Video "Stereo
Indicator".
It outputs stereo from the scart
socket and
the red and white phono audio sockets at the back. If you connect to
box to the
tv via scart leads then it will be stereo even though the nicam light
is off,
if you connect using the coax/aerial loop through lead then it will be
mono.
The END of BBC in Southern Europe ?,
The BBC Channels MOVED
Transponders to Astra 2D on the 22nd
May 2003
This means it is harder to receive
over
southern Europe because these transponders are aimed at the UK.
More
Information about Satellite Footprints
Reported Dish Size requirements are being logged here
-
http://www.astra2d.com (previously .co.uk)
The BBC Channels WENT Free To
Air July
10th 2003, this means you no longer need a FTV card to view the BBC
Channels
BBC
Press Statement "BBC and BSkyB announce agreement on digital satellite
distribution"
Series 1
Cards
switched off (old
information for historic reasons only)
Note Free To View
cards are available again (from Oct 2004)
Series 1 Cards
The FTV
Series 1 Cards above
started showing the message below on ITV1, Channel 4 and
five during August 2003 if I remember correctly :-
Series 2
Card
If you already
have a dark blue Sky card (series 2) then your viewing of ITV1,
CH4 and
five will probably continue for the next couple of years until
Sky issue
new cards.
If you
have a light blue card
(series 1) then CH4 and five will not be
unscrambled anymore.
If Terrestrial
Digital TV (Freeview) is available in your area then this may provide a
way of
receiving ITV1, Channel 4 and five see http://www.vowles-home.demon.co.uk/Sat/FreeviewFTA.htm
Another way of
getting a dark blue Sky card is to re-subscribe to SKY for a minimum of
a month
(if you have been a previous customer) or a year (if you have not been
a Sky
customer before), once you cancel you can keep the Dark Blue card and
it should
continue to decrypt Channel 4 and five.
This
Programme is
not available
The series one FTV cards have
started
displaying the 08 message instead of the "To Subscribe" message on the
Sky Pay Channels (22 Aug 03).
It seems to be that channels that
are
postcode protected such as Sky Sports Extra show the following
screen
(BBC One was also protected in this way before it went free to air)
If you subscribe to Sky Sports 1,
2 and 3
you should also get Sky Sports Xtra (was Sky Sports Extra), if you seen
the
screen below phone Sky and get them to update your postcode
information, it
should then come on.
Can I view the
Irish
channels such as RTE
The only way to
receive the four Irish channels RTE One/Network 2, TV3 and TG4 is to
subscribe to Sky
from an
Irish address.
I am unable to
help you
subscribe from an address in Ireland.
There was a
channel called
Tara on Sky containing programming from RTE but it closed due to
financial
trouble 4th Apr 2002.
Free
To View
Card service (old information left for historic reasons)
UPDATE Free To View
cards are available again from Oct 2004 but this time from Sky directly
During
Oct 2003 to Jan 2004 It
was possible again to obtain Free To View cards allowing access to the
ftv channels which were at the time ITV1,
Channel 4 and five without paying a Sky subscription – Channel 4
and five then stopped this service in Jan 2004 and Sky took over in
October 2004, between Jan and October 2004 it was not possible to
get
a card.
The
cards were offered from ch4 and five for a
one off charge of £23.50 at http://www.free2view.tv
or 0870
054 1800
Can I
get
FREEVIEW with a Satellite Dish
and/or If I cancel my Sky Subscription do I get the FREEVIEW
channels
Many people
incorrectly use
the term FREEVIEW to refer to the channels you receive on
Satellite
without paying a monthly subscription
FREEVIEW is the name for the non subscription
(although TV Licence
required) Digital Terrestrial Television channels which are received
through an
Aerial and a digital terrestrial receiver (also known as a Freeview box
or a
set top box) - this has nothing to do with signals from a Satellite at
all, the
signals come from a TV mast.
Satellite FREE
TO
AIR Channels include
all the BBC and ITV
Channels you receive through a
Satellite dish and any Digital
Satellite Receiver (inc. Sky Digibox), no card required
Satellite FREE TO VIEW Channels are Sky Three, Setanta
Sports News and
the "five" channels you receive through a Satellite
Dish and
with a Sky Digibox and a Free To View card
You CAN NOT connect a Satellite
dish to a
Freeview box, and
You CAN NOT receive channels on a
Sky
Digibox without connecting a Satellite dish (there is an Aerial but
that is
just a loop through)
The Channels you receive without a
subscription on Digital Terrestrial TV (Freeview/DTT) and Digital
Satellite
(Sky Digital) are different, for example you receive the channels Virgin 1, UK
History, TMF and Sky Sports News for
free on Digital Terrestrial but not on
Sky Digital, they are pay
channels on Satellite and are encrypted.
However, there are also channels
that are free on Digital Satellite (Sky Digital)
that are not carried on the Digital Terrestrial TV platform
(Freeview/DTT) such as CNN,
Reality TV, Travel Channel, EuroNews, Chart Show, NME TV etc (FTA)
and Setanta Sports News (FTV).
So FREEVIEW
Channels you ONLY receive through an Aerial and a
Digital
Terrestrial TV (DTT) Receiver (which is also known as a set top box or
Freeview
box) NOT SATELLITE.
On the 6th May 2008 BBC, ITV and
Channel 4 have made things a little more complicated by launching a
"rival" to Sky Digital without a subscription called Freesat.
If you think of a Freesat set top box as a Sky Digital box, but without
a subscription card slot and a different user interface then you get
the idea.
Freesat - launched on the 6th May 2008, by BBC and
ITV (and
Channel 4 have made their channels available by removing the encryption
and making them FTA).
The BBC and ITV
have made the choice of getting Digital TV via an aerial (Freeview) or
satellite (Sky Digital) a little more complicated by launching a
"rival" choice of satellite TV service (actually a rival specification
of set top box / EPG data) to the Sky Digital offering which they
have called Freesat http://www.freesat.co.uk.
If you think of a Freesat set top box as a Sky Digital box, but without
a subscription card slot, and a different user interface and remote
control then you get the basic idea.
These Freesat boxes receive
exactly the same signals via a dish from
the same satellite that the Sky Digiboxes do. The television
channels can do this
because they rent the Satellite transponders on the SES Astra 2 /
Eutelsat Eurobird satellites directly, and not as many people think via
Sky.
The lack of a card slot
in the Freesat box means you won't be able to currently receive certain
channels such as Five, Five US, FIVER, Setanta Sports News or
Sky Three as they require a Sky supplied Free To View (FTV) card and
the only compatible boxes are Sky Digital
set top boxes. It also means you will not ever be able to add any
pay
channels to your line up.
Just like the Sky service, TV
channels
have to pay to get their
channels included in the Freesat channel line up, and to have their
program
data included in the electronic program guide (EPG) which is controlled
by
Freesat. It will be a while before we see how many channels
choose to
pay to be included in the Freesat lineup as well as the Sky Digital
lineup. Like Sky Digiboxes you may be able to manually add extra
additional
"other channels" to a Freesat box which the Freesat
service has not supplied to
your EPG, it is reported that you can do this with the Humax HD Freesat
set top box.
The BBC High Definition (HD)
channel is available with
a suitable HD Freesat set top box, although cheaper non HD (SD) Freesat
boxes are also available for viewers without HD Televisions.
Although the Channel 4 HD channel will not be included at launch
(possibly because of contractual agreements with Sky), but they say
they plan it to be added at a later stage to the Freesat EPG. BBC
HD and ITV HD are also available on Sky Digital without a subscription,
but it is thought that ITV may
wish to make their HD channel only available to Freesat (by technically
making the service
incompatible with the Sky Digibox somehow), this would give the Freesat
service an advantage over Sky Digital. Another advantage to
Freesat is that a non subscription rival to the Sky + PVR (personal
video recorder) will be available from suppliers such as Humax in a
similar way that they currently are for the Freeview service.
To
further the confusion, at the time of writing Sky are also continuing
to use the name "Freesat from Sky"
to promote their completely different offering which consists of a Sky
Digibox and a Free To View (FTV) card http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/.
On the Freesat launch day there
were many channels not
available on Freesat which are available on the "Freesat from Sky" such
as Travel Channel, CNN, Sky News. The Freesat BBC and ITV venture
will surely be wishing that more TV channels and radio stations pay to
be included.
The main reason for Freesat (via a
satellite dish)
would seem to be to make most
of the channels available on Terrestrial Freeview available to viewers
who can not receive Freeview (via an aerial), although several Freeview
channels such as Dave and Virgin 1 are not available on Freesat because
they are still encrypted pay channels when delivered via
satellite. On the
flip side there are some channels available on Freesat which are not
available on Freeview such as Zone Thriller, Zone Romantica, Pop, Tiny
Pop, Movies4Men, True Movies, Scuzz, Chart Show TV, Euronews.
Is
it possible to view American Channels
in Europe
(ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, WB,
HBO etc )
Sorry it
is NOT possible, they generally don't reach to Europe due to the
footprints of
the Satellite and the curve of the earth which means many of the US
Satellites
are below the horizon.
The
American Networks ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, WB, HBO etc are not
retransmitted on any Satellites serving Europe except for occasional
feeds,
about the only channel retransmitted is Fox News which is
included in
many European pay channel line ups.
Almost
all the programming made by American Networks are sold to European
channels, so
for example Channel 4 in UK show programmes like HBO made Sex
in the
City, NBC made Friends, HBO made Sopranos etc, Channel five in the
UK
shows CBS made CSI and NBC made Law and Order, ITV2 shows CBS Late
Show
with David Letterman (often repeated sometimes only a day delayed)
and
CNBC show NBC Jay Leno Tonight Show and Late night Conan O'Brien,
Sky One and
Channel 4 in the UK have the rights to the FOX made Simpsons.
Free To View cards available From
October 2004 to present
Sky are now
selling
the dark blue FTV cards to
enable the FREE TO VIEW channels for
20 quid, Telephone 0870
6061111
They are also
offering Sky
box, Dish, installation and a FTV card for 150 pounds http://www.freesatfromsky.com/
.
If the information on this site,
or any info
I have sent to you in an e-mail has been useful then why not help me
fund the
internet connection and the news feed that makes it possible by sending
a few
quid to me using PayPal and I will raise a pint of beer to your
generousity,
remember a standard Sky engineer call out is often 60 quid and their
"Technical Support" Phone Line is a 08702 National Rate number.
e-mail
me (sorry unlikely to get a response at the moment)
If it wasn't perfectly obvious
this site has
nothing to do with BSkyB , but I wonder if they find it useful ?