Official Freesat website online

Denethor

http://www.freesat.co.uk/


Freesat is a brand new, all singing, all dancing, digital satellite TV service from the BBC and ITV. freesat has no monthly subscription, just a one-off payment for the digital box, satellite dish and installation - so you pay once, and watch forever. It will even come with subscription-free, high-definition TV programmes. And because freesat is broadcast via satellite, it'll be available to almost every household in the UK when it launches in Spring 08.

No specific channel line-up yet

Tony

Thanks for the link

radiospan

Will this be available in Ireland? Any info on what satellite it'll be on?

Onikage

Some strong hints towards the main BBC's and ITV offering HD programming from the start Can't see this as being on anything other than Astra.

Tony

plazzTT wrote: »

Will this be available in Ireland? Any info on what satellite it'll be on?

It will be on Eurobird at 28.2 , if they remain Free To air as they are now then yes it will be available if normal wholesale channels are used to sell the boxes. My feeling is that standard free to air boxes will remain as they are now and the new Freesat box will give better epg and interactive features.

BowWow

Have had a good look at this site - its very strange......almost amateurish. Some of the phrase are funny e.g. you dont have to do a sausage - not very BBC.

TheDriver

Overall, this freesat thing could be great especially if C4 and all its offerings joins up for free, a decent epg wouldn't be a bad thing at all!

watty

It's basically the content you can get now on a FTA receiver today, but with automatic tuning of channels/ channel list, program guide and Interactive something like a Sky Digibox. Also slightly more future proofed as Satellite will change to MPEG4 even for SD channels. When €70 FTA sat boxes are €20 you'll know that they are clearing stock for the MPEG4/MPEG2 being entry level.

The "freesat" BBC/ITV box adds almost nothing to cost of MPEG4 FTA box as the difference is only some software.

It's awkward & expensive to get a Sky box for MPEG4 without a subscription.

TheDriver

when do u think our fta boxes will become obselete and must get mpeg4

Tony

Not for a long time yet

watty

4 to 10 years
depends on how fast Sky replace to Sky HD as standard and how fast the Freesat boxes roll out.

5h4mr0(k

Tony wrote: »

It will be on Eurobird at 28.2 , if they remain Free To air as they are now then yes it will be available if normal wholesale channels are used to sell the boxes. My feeling is that standard free to air boxes will remain as they are now and the new Freesat box will give better epg and interactive features.

From the FAQ page
"For the technically-minded amongst you, if you have a 45-60cm dish pointing towards Astra at 28.2° East or Eurobird at 28.8° East, you should be able to receive freesat. Note that these satellites are also already in use for existing UK digital-satellite television platforms."

Tony

Whats your point?

5h4mr0(k wrote: »

From the FAQ page
"For the technically-minded amongst you, if you have a 45-60cm dish pointing towards Astra at 28.2° East or Eurobird at 28.8° East, you should be able to receive freesat. Note that these satellites are also already in use for existing UK digital-satellite television platforms."

josh59

So it looks like an existing dish can be used but that the exising freesat received might have to be replaced in order to get all the bells and whistles - would this be a correct assumption.

Good news that C4 will be joining the line up - now if only RTE etc would jump ship from Sky we could ditch our NTL subscription or maybe proper digital terrestrial tv might finally arrive and that will carry the 4 Irish tv channels

Tony

josh59 wrote: »

So it looks like an existing dish can be used but that the exising freesat received might have to be replaced in order to get all the bells and whistles - would this be a correct assumption.

Good news that C4 will be joining the line up - now if only RTE etc would jump ship from Sky we could ditch our NTL subscription or maybe proper digital terrestrial tv might finally arrive and that will carry the 4 Irish tv channels

Yes thats a fair assumption, only way RTE can get on is if they introduce some type of encryption and its no advantage to them to have RTE on board.

TheDriver

The main advantage I see regarding all this is the possibility that C4 and maybe C5 will have to join in from the start and give us the full suite free, even with FTA boxes

DannyD

Tony wrote: »

Yes thats a fair assumption, only way RTE can get on is if they introduce some type of encryption and its no advantage to them to have RTE on board.

How much do Rte/Tv3 etc.. get from providing their channels to Sky?

Tony

DannyD wrote: »

How much do Rte/Tv3 etc.. get from providing their channels to Sky?

Nothing as far as I know although they get free carriage

Onikage

So Rte are using taxpayers money to buy/make programming and then giving it to sky (increasing skys value proposition) for free? It could be argued that extra ad revenue is generated by having more than one route into peoples homes but don't most people get Rte free on analogue?

I was under the impression that sky do a revenue sharing deal, albeit not a particularly favourable one, for the encrypted channels like c5, c5, e4 etc. and you paid extra if you wanted an fta channel with a place on the epg.

Tony

Onikage wrote: »

So Rte are using taxpayers money to buy/make programming and then giving it to sky (increasing skys value proposition) for free?

Thats my understanding at present, sky's interest was in pushing ROI sales. Makes a mockery of RTE's "sport free to air" advertising campaign. Sorry for taking the thread OT guys

TheDriver

Remember that ITV and BBS hasmostly home grown programme hence they own the rights and can broadcast where they want. RTE would have to pay outloads more to satisfy having it beamed into England too hence why it must be encrypted and hence why Sky have it as such.
Any sign of thatRTE international?

watty

UK x20 size of market. So even for RTE material they would have to pay a lot more.

watty

Onikage wrote: »

So Rte are using taxpayers money to buy/make programming and then giving it to sky (increasing skys value proposition) for free? It could be argued that extra ad revenue is generated by having more than one route into peoples homes but don't most people get Rte free on analogue?

I was under the impression that sky do a revenue sharing deal, albeit not a particularly favourable one, for the encrypted channels like c5, c5, e4 etc. and you paid extra if you wanted an fta channel with a place on the epg.

RTE did a stunningly bad deal. But you see:

1) They regard Satellite as Wireless Cable. They didn't appreciate that some people have satellite with no subscription and how much easier it makes it for Sky to sell. As much in Cities that have cable as Rural, for different reasons.

2) They regarded it as a zero cost to RTE favour for "Multichannel" subscribers.

3) Sky frightened them by quoting a huge price (Several Millons) separately for EPG placement and also for FTV card scheme. Result of UK regulator failing to regulate rip off prices charged to UK broadcasters. Essentially the EPG and FTV card schemes cost Sky almost nothing. They make a 99.999% profit on it.

Blaster99

So does this (ie the original topic) mean that BBC's and ITV's offerings on Sky will be in HD also?

Onikage

The website states the channels will be hd and free to air. Does it mean they'll be on the EPG? Couldn't say for sure. Worst case scenario, you pick them up through "other channels" on a sky hd box.