Suggestions please!

Technoteze

We're looking to cut back on costs at home and the tele has come onto question.

We're currently with Virgin and pay a fortune for tele we don't actually watch. The little lad watches Nickelodeon and Nick Jr and we use Netflix. The odd occasion we'll watch something on one of the Irish channels.

Ideally I would like to pick up a freesat box (we have an existing satellite) to give us all the free channels. Possibly integrated PVR so the missus can record her soaps and watch them when I'm not around lol.

Preferably Android based so we can load Netflix.

The kicker is Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. I'm happy to pay for the service if there was somewhere I could pay for them only.

Roku have a Nickelodeon channel you can add but it needs to be linked to a provider. How do I do that?

Can anyone suggest a box that that would do the above? Any suggestions on how I could arrange a service for Nickelodeon and Nick Jr only?

Much appreciated guys.

Former Former

Technoteze wrote: »

We're looking to cut back on costs at home and the tele has come onto question.

We're currently with Virgin and pay a fortune for tele we don't actually watch. The little lad watches Nickelodeon and Nick Jr and we use Netflix. The odd occasion we'll watch something on one of the Irish channels.

Ideally I would like to pick up a freesat box (we have an existing satellite) to give us all the free channels. Possibly integrated PVR so the missus can record her soaps and watch them when I'm not around lol.

Preferably Android based so we can load Netflix.

The kicker is Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. I'm happy to pay for the service if there was somewhere I could pay for them only.

Roku have a Nickelodeon channel you can add but it needs to be linked to a provider. How do I do that?

Can anyone suggest a box that that would do the above? Any suggestions on how I could arrange a service for Nickelodeon and Nick Jr only?

Much appreciated guys.

https://www.nowtv.com/ie/kids-tv - it's not great value at €7 per month but it will give you what you want.

Technoteze

Former Former wrote: »

https://www.nowtv.com/ie/kids-tv - it's not great value at €7 per month but it will give you what you want.

You are a legend my friend... Thank you very much. I suppose I would need to pick up a now tv box?

I'll see if there is an Android version I could install along side Netflix on an Android box. This would certainly get me closer to where I want to be.

The service is pricy but still cheaper than what we're paying.

Thanks again.

Any suggestons on Android freesat boxes?

danm14

If other foreign channels were of interest, perhaps for sports (such as Boxing and Formula 1 which are free on German TV) - Nickelodeon Germany and Nickelodeon Austria are both free-to-air on Astra 19.2 (a European satellite) - both have an English language audio stream listed as well as German. Wouldn't be even remotely worth doing for Nickelodeon alone, but if the sports were of interest, kill two birds with one stone.

Alternatively if your kid is young enough to forget about the shows they can't see any more, or old enough to understand that the channels are a waste of money, there are plenty of free kids channels on Astra 28.2 (the UK/Ireland satellite)

Technoteze

danm14 wrote: »

If other foreign channels were of interest, perhaps for sports (such as Boxing and Formula 1 which are free on German TV) - Nickelodeon Germany and Nickelodeon Austria are both free-to-air on Astra 19.2 (a European satellite) - both have an English language audio stream listed as well as German. Wouldn't be even remotely worth doing for Nickelodeon alone, but if the sports were of interest, kill two birds with one stone.

Alternatively if your kid is young enough to forget about the shows they can't see any more, or old enough to understand that the channels are a waste of money, there are plenty of free kids channels on Astra 28.2 (the UK/Ireland satellite)

Thank you for the suggestion danm14. Would what you have suggested be available as part of the freesat service?

How could I go about doing as you've said?

danm14

No. The foreign channels are on a different satellite. You'd need a larger dish with one LNB (the box at the end of the dish where the cables go in) for each satellite, and a box capable of supporting more than one LNB (i.e. not a Sky or Freesat box).

Do not do this for Nickelodeon alone, the equipment would pay for a year of Now TV Kids.

There are next to no free English language channels on the European satellites, apart from news channels that are also on Freesat. Astra 19.2 has MTV and Nickelodeon. Hotbird 13.0 (the other common European satellite) has nothing.
The main benefit would be the free Sports if they were sports you were interested in. This most certainly doesn't include Premiership football or anything like that - Eurosport, Formula 1 and the pay per view boxing are all I'm aware of and none of these would have English commentary (do without or use a radio).

Tigerandahalf

Freesat is your best bet but you won't get Irish channels.
Cbeebies and the various other cartoon channels will fill any kid's needs.

Remember Netflix also has a kids section. Netflix is on the humax 1100s freesat box.

There is also a subscription app on it called tvplayer plus. It gives you the discovery channels, eurosport plus nickleodeon etc. (£5.99 p/m)

So virgin is a waste of money if you have a satellite dish. Put up a uhf aerial on the roof to receive the saorview channels. I presume you have existing satellite cables running into the house. If you have, the saorview signal can be sent down the same cable. You will have an initial cost of 3/400 euro for the freesat box and uhf aerial but after that no bills unless you want to pay the 5/6 quid a month for tvplayer.

https://tvplayer.com/plus

Edit to add:
I don't use the above and haven't heard of others on here using it so there could be a possibility that the app is geoblocked to the uk. You would have to check that out by emailing them if you really wanted it.

I use Netlix on it. It also has youtube.

Johnboy1951

TVPlayer ........ UK Only.

Tigerandahalf

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

TVPlayer ........ UK Only.

I was thinking it could be. The Rakuten tv app is also restricted if you set up the account previously in Ireland.

Netflix seem to be the only ones that allow some bit of border free streaming. I guess making your own content allows for that.

I see itv now have a service for subscribing abroad.
Itvhub+ it is called.