It seems hard to find information in one place that gives an overview of the different free satellite TV options available in the UK, so here is our guide entitled ‘choices between freesat receivers, skytv, digiboxes or digital TV tuner card’ to try to give you an overview of the options available and their initial costs. We try to cover all the options open to you for UK digital TV reception from the main group of satellites serving English language programming. The guide is aimed at the UK marketplace, although many free to air channels can be received across most of Europe with the correct hardware (normally just a larger dish).
In the UK your best bet is to go for Free satellite TV services, the Terrestrial digital services have much less channels. In the UK free TV comes from the satellites at the orbital location of 28.2 Degrees East. This is where both skytv and freesat channels are broadcast from which gives you the added benefit of being able to switch between free satellite TV (freesat or freesat from skytv) and Pay TV (skytv) without having to move the satellite dish and incur the costs of an engineers visit.
Packages on offer
SkyTV subscription service
Freesat from SkyTV
Freesat
If you dont mind paying for your TV, then SkyTV offers a huge variety of channels on their subscription service. Normally there are incentives to sign up (as a new customer or a returning customer) along the lines of free installation, equipment or vouchers for other companies (such as Marks & Spencers).
If you dont want to pay for satellite TV services, your options in the UK by far are freesat or freesat from Sky. The two different freesat offerings are basically the same service with a very similar channel line up, however Freesat from SkyTV offers four extra channels compared to the regular freesat service; Sky 3, Channel 4 HD, Fiver and Five US.
Equipment
Does your house/flat already have an old SkyTV dish on it? Then the hard part is done already! You just need to decide your provider between Freesat or Freesat from SkyTV, then make a decision on equipment. If you are going with Freesat from SkyTV, you will need SkyTV branded digiboxes and an official SkyTV card (a disconnected card works just fine!), using a Freesat set top box or a digital TV tuner card will only work with the regular Freesat service and will not work with the Freesat from SkyTV service! This is because the Freesat from SkyTV service requires that old/disconnected viewing card in order to receive the encrypted Sky 3, Fiver and Five US channels.
If you dont have a dish on your house/flat already, then you will need to get one installed. While a DIY installation is very possible, I have found it much easier to just pay the 80 to 100 pounds for a professional to do it, which will usually give you the best signal strength and quality.
The zero cost route to Subscription free TV
If you are an existing skytv customer and are paying for TV service, you can easily switch your existing dish and digibox into a freesat from sky system at zero cost to you. Simply cancel your existing subscription and you will automatically get the Freesat from SkyTv service. It wont cost a penny and after Skytv have disabled your subscription, your card and digibox will automatically become a freesat from skytv system with the 250+ channels on offer.
What about Sky Plus
If you have Sky+ (record/rewind live TV) functionality on your SkyTV digivbox, this will stop working when switching to Freesat from SkyTv. While this functionality is very capable of working, SkyTV cripple your hardware when you dont pay them the 10 pounds per month Sky+ fee. I’m not sure how they get away with breaking hardware that people own (the skytv digibox is yours once your subscription contract period is over), but they seem to be getting away with it just fine. Imagine the uproar if, back in the 80’s, the BBC or ITV had rendered every VHS video recorder useless unless you paid them 10 pounds per month? That’s basically what SkyTV are doing when you stop paying them the 10 pounds per month to allow your digiboxes to work to the technical capabilities that they have.
What about Hi Def HD TV?
There are three free English language HD / Hi Def channels available on the satellite itself, ITV HD, BBC HD and Channel 4 HD. BBC HD and Channel 4 HD are available on Freesat from SkyTV, with BBC HD and ITV HD available on regular freesat. It is expected in the future Channel 4 HD will move to regular freesat when capcity is made available.
Freesat
If you do not have any SkyTv digiboxes / viewing cards to receive the Freesat from SkyTv services, then the regular Freesat service (from the BBC & ITV) has a great channel line up and very reasonable hardware costs. I use a digital TV tuner card to get Freesat onto my media server at home which allows me to record any program being broadcast, as well as stop/rewind live TV (Basically Sky+ functionality without the Sky+ subscription fee). The media server also allows me to watch Live TV or watch previous recordings on any networked PC (or media player connected to my TV) in the house – just like having Sky multiroom which works not only on TVs, but on PC’s and is completely free from subscription costs
Of course, you can get a Freesat DVB-S compatible satellite receiver (ranging from 20 pounds upwards) and use that to receive the freesat service. There are also many freesat PVR (similar to Sky+) systems out there.
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