Free satellite TV service begins

[Wizzo]

A free satellite TV service offering high-definition channels and backed by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 has launched in the UK.

Freesat is available through high street and online stores such as Currys and John Lewis and will initially offer 80 television channels and radio stations, rising to 200 by the end of the year.

Customers will pay a one-off charge for a satellite dish, a set-top box, and installation with no monthly subscriptions.

If your home already has a satellite dish, then it should be suitable for receiving Freesat according to the company.

BBC Vision's head of HDTV, Seetha Kumar, promised that the BBC's High Definition channel, BBC HD, would have plenty of content in the forthcoming months, including the Olympics, the Chelsea Flower Show and Euro 2008.

As satellite broadcasting doesn't rely on TV transmitters, it will be immediately available to 98 per cent of the country at launch. This means it covers more of the UK than Freeview, which only about 80 per cent of the UK can currently access.

More information at www.freesat.co.uk

[Steven Roy]

I saw this advertised today and I don't understand it.  It is anything but new.  My mother has had it for a year and it has been around for a while before we came across it.  Sky don't publicise it because they don't make a lot on it.  The website was in place last year as well.  As far as I can see the only thing that is new is that they are advertising it.

It is an incredibly good product for the money.

[John S]

 I think this free to air satellite service was pushed through by the BBC, a couple of years back, as part of the deal for allowing their channels to be on Sky.

 The analogue signal to aeriels will be switched off progressively from now on and with the aeriel based digital Freeview only reaching 70 to 80% of the country, if that, it means they need something extra to bridge the gap and they need people to know about it. The Beeb has been challenged in the past about over doing the advertising of Freeview on their own channels so they have probably had to wait for the partners in this satellite deal to be ready

 This new blast of publicity means, no doubt, that Sky has just now figured out a plan, which will be revealed soon, to persuade new free to air satellite viewers to take some of their extra services, for a price naturally.

[Steven Roy]

Part of the low Freeview figure is actually a false figure.  People like me cannot receive it now because the frequencies it works on are currently used for the existing terestrial signal.  In areas like this as soon as the terestrial signal is switched off we will get Freeview.

[Slugger]

This is something new to what has been available through Sky. I had the free service from Sky years ago which gives you free channels including BBC and ITV. This new service is not through Sky it's a joint venture by the BBC and ITV and includes their HD broadcasts free of charge, something that you have to pay £10 a month extra for from Sky as well as something ridiculous like £400 for the HD receiver (last time I looked).

I will definitely be getting the new freesat service as soon as the recorders are available. At the moment I can only find receivers.

[Alianora La Canta]

According to the postcode data, my house shouldn't receive Freeview over aerial even after switchover. Still, with a massive booster aerial and booster box, we are managing to get some channels - when it's dry and not too cloudy at home or the place where the aerial signal comes from.

[Steven Roy]

Those post code things are hopeless.  I spent a couple of years working on the south coast and did a check to see if I could get Freeview.  I couldn't.  I then spoke to someone I worked with who said I could.  So I decided to risk £25 on a box and never had a problem with it despite the post code search telling me I wouldn't get any reception.