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5* and 5USA coming to Freesat by Christmas

The extra capacity provided by the new Astra satellite is going to allow Channel 5 to provide their two extra channels on Freesat by the end of 2011.

The extra capacity provided by the new Astra satellite is going
Published on by on UK Free TV
Good news for Freesat viewers, two popular Freeview channels will be launching on the free-to-air satellite platform.

Channel 5 have confirmed to UK FREE TV that "work is already under way to introduce unencrypted versions of both 5* and 5 USA to the (BBC and ITV) Freesat service, following the creation of extra narrowbeam capacity".

With regard to the dates for the start of these two services, Channel 5 says that they "anticipate that these will be broadcasting before the end of the year, but are unable to confirm specific dates at present."





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Mark Aberfan Aerials
Friday 14 October 2011 1:42PM
Great stuff, It will be most welcome in freeview lite areas like the valleys (my home turf) as it will give access to this channels without having to deal with sky. However the flipside is if they drop the encrypted feeds, many expats will lose access to these channels.

Mark Aberfan Aerials
Briantist
Friday 14 October 2011 1:43PM
Mark Aberfan Aerials: I am wondering if the new feeds will be in HD...
Mark Aberfan Aerials
Friday 14 October 2011 2:33PM
Hi Brian,

That would be good, along with the +1 versions.

Mark Aberfan Aerials
Briantist
Friday 14 October 2011 3:36PM
Mark Aberfan Aerials: Once the new satellite is up I think we might see quite a few services, +1 and all.
Peter Henderson
Friday 14 October 2011 4:57PM
It's really good news for anyone living in a Freeview Lite area post DSO.

Only really a few channels missing on Freesat that are on Freeview now. Just Dave, Yesterday, and Pck TV and with Sky News being free to air it should be available under non Freesat mode.

With all the extra channels along with far more +1 services, Freesat is beginning to look like more sense !
wayne
Friday 14 October 2011 5:31PM
Is Box Nation on sky available on Freesat. If it's non fresat any one know the transponder details please.
NottsUK
Friday 14 October 2011 8:28PM
wayne:
Box Nation is on Eurobird 1,
Frequency 11585,
LNB Polarity Horizontal,
Symbol Rate 27500,
DVB Standard DVB-S,
FEC 2/3.
Briantist
Friday 14 October 2011 11:22PM
Peter Henderson: Well, just C4's 4Music, Sky's Challenge, UKTV's Dave, Sky's PICK TV, Discovery's Quest, UKTV's Really, S4C Clirlun, Sky News, MTV's VIVA and UKTV's Yesterday.

www.ukfree.tv link icon Compare Freeview and Freesat TV | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
TV Trade
Saturday 15 October 2011 4:01PM
Great news, a welcome addition to the FTA TV line up. Making Free TV more attractive day by day for the masses.
wayne
Saturday 15 October 2011 8:55PM
thank you Nottsuk :-)
Dave
Sunday 16 October 2011 12:10AM Brighton
Does this new sat mean more HD on freesat ?

I think quality should prevail more than quantity !
Briantist
Sunday 16 October 2011 8:44AM
Dave: It is down to the broadcasters, but I think ITV will probably move ITV 2 HD, ITV 3 HD and ITV 4 HD to the new satellite.
Dave
Sunday 16 October 2011 10:40AM Brighton
You mean for Freesat ?
Ash
Tuesday 18 October 2011 9:31AM
Great news!
Bill Kocher
Tuesday 18 October 2011 10:53AM Newhaven
I live in Newhaven where the Freeview (when we get it in May) will be the cut down service, not the full one. The only way to get a full Digital TV service here is satellite. It would be good to see all 'free-to-air' broadcasts on Freesat, without us having to give our hard earned cash to the Murdochs!
I was facinated by your other post showing most people using Sky are mostly paying to watch free-to-air broadcasts!

P.S. I am not much of a sports fan, so can live without Sky!
Mike Dimmick
Tuesday 18 October 2011 3:05PM
Dave: Yes, for Freesat. The assumption is that they're only currently encrypted due to rights issues, that they can't broadcast free-to-air across the whole of Europe without paying a lot more money. If that assumption is true, it follows that if they move to a British Isles footprint, it's because they want to go free-to-air.

ITV2, 3, and 4 HD are currently on Astra 2A's north beam - the footprint is at https://sat.ses.com/webservice/images/7405753 . The current Freesat channels are on Astra 2D, which only covers the British Isles - see https://sat.ses.com/webservice/images/7405243 . Astra 1N's expected UK footprint is https://sat.ses.com/webservice/images/7405209 .

The new satellite has 52 transponders which could mean capacity for up to 200 new (or moved) HD channels, though a lot of the frequencies overlap with those already in use on one of the other satellites already in the cluster. We don't know how flexible it is, how many of the transponders can use the UK spot beam and how many can only use the pan-European beams.
Adam
Wednesday 19 October 2011 11:55AM
Mike: The ITV HD channels are encrypted because ITV signed a pay TV deal with Sky so they receive some of the money people pay to watch HD channels on Sky. ITV clearly said at launch these were pay TV channels, so I doubt they will go FTA any time soon:

www.itv.com link icon Press releases | Programme press releases | ITV plc 2010 Interim Results - ITV Press Centre
Julian
Saturday 5 November 2011 4:21PM Bury St. Edmunds
Will 5, 5* and 5USA be available on old Sky boxes without a viewing card as well as Freesat?
Briantist
Saturday 5 November 2011 4:27PM
Julian: Yes, the channels will be free-to-air.
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