No Stations at all! Not even RTEs

qwert2

Hi. About 2 months ago I disconnect from NTL. I wrote the required letter that's needed to terminate the contract. I have however continued to receive the basic tv stations, that is until yesterday. I checked all connections and everything is in working order. So how come I have no stations? Is it to do with my disconnected from NTL 2 months ago? Am I wrong in sayng that once you pay a TV license you can receive some channels even if you don't have an account with NTL, SKY etc? Thanks in advance

Ranicand

There are no free channels on cable.


If you want to get the Irish channels you must use and antenna.

As for satellite the Irish channels are not free you must subscribe to Sky.

watty

There 1000s of free satellite channels (at least 40 decent ones at 28.2E Freesat/Sky/UK)

NTL/UPC has no obligation to supply any channels if you don't have a subscription.

The four irish channels are available free via aerial only.


A TV licence does NOT entitle you to get Irish TV free. A Tv licence is the reverse, it is something you must have (a tax on viewing) if you have ANY channel, not even Irish TV, free or pay Tv.

If you have no TV, don't bother with TV licence

mike65

qwert2 the same has just happened to me, I cancelled a little while back and stuck up an FTA box/dish. They cut the analogue off on Friday so they are tidying things up, loads of peeps are going to buying ariels over the next few weeks I'd say.

bk

watty wrote: »

NTL/UPC has no obligation to supply any channels if you don't have a subscription.

However, personally I think this is wrong, they should be required to carry these for free, as should sky (more complicated).

Many EU countries, including the UK require this. Personally I think the Irish government and regulators are far too soft on TV service suppliers here.

danois

Maybe a really stupid question so forgive me if it is but is there a way to tune your upc box so that all the English free to air channels are picked up? or do you need to have a satellite

thanks

RTE 1 is FTA on UPC.

MarkK

bk wrote: »

However, personally I think this is wrong, they should be required to carry these for free, as should sky (more complicated).

Many EU countries, including the UK require this.

Not the case in the UK as far as I know.
In some places there is a local agreement in place with the local authority or housing association to provide the free channels to non subscribers but it is not universal.

watty

cisk wrote: »

RTE 1 is FTA on UPC.

Rubbish.

It's not encrypted. It's forbidden to watch cable without a subscription. Free to Air only applies to Satellite and Terrestrial via TV aerial in most countries. There are exceptions, but Ireland and UK are not among them.

watty

bk wrote: »

However, personally I think this is wrong, they should be required to carry these for free, as should sky (more complicated).

Many EU countries, including the UK require this. Personally I think the Irish government and regulators are far too soft on TV service suppliers here.

Cable is a closed payTV platfrom.

Satellite is available to anyone with a dish. Sky don't block any FTA satellite, nor are they allowed to. They do however only provide EPG for Irish Subscribers for either channels that pay them, or channels they choose to list. The "other channels" is to meet their legal obligation and under €70 anyone can put up a dish and have all FTA channels. Or add a Freeview receiver to their existing dish.

You can get about 22 satellites with a Motorised Dish.

On cable the connection and gear belongs to UPC.

On satellite, even with a Sky sub, you own all the gear from day1.

It is contentious that Sky+ / SkyHD recording/playback does not work with free channels without a sub. They should be censured for that.

RTE / Irish TV can't be FTA on satellite and the Irish broadcasters won't pay for a FTV card scheme. The UK investigated sky and decided the FTV charges were reasonable. I don't agree, but using non-Sky FTV cards is a non-starter and the EU is not going to interfere with the UK judgement, especially now that FTV is almost irrelevant in UK. Sky is UK based foreign owned Platform, so expecting or insisting they do anything regarding Irish broadcasting is pointless. We blew our chance at having an Irish Sat service 15 years ago.