Page 1 of FreeSat

Forgive my ignorance.What is FreeSat?

It`s the scheme for purchasing an FTV (Free To View) card from $ky and a receiver (or the card alone for 20 quid).
If you had a $ky card within the last 2 years or so (the one with the yellow house on it) then this does the same job as the freesat card.
No card is needed for the true FTA (Free To Air) channels which includes the BBC channels. Currently the ITV channels are FTV and not FTA , so they need a card as does Channel 4 and 5.

Chris Muriel, Manchester.

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Forgive my ignorance.What is FreeSat?

Four words

A f***in rip off :)

As posted in another topic you can spend half the amount that Sky want and get more channels by simply installing a cheaper digital satellite system.
If you bought a system similarly spec`d to the Comag SL55 you would pay about £60- to £70 for the whole system .
After maybe an hour or so, providing you are able to do the job yourself you will have a system that is far more flexible than the Sky digibox. Not only will you be able to pick up almost every channel that Sky is touting in the Freesat package.
Not only will you be able to tune in to a shed load of foreign channels, plenty footie on the good old German channels, but you will have hundreds of radio channels as well. Difficult choice then eh :) I know that the Comag SL55 system I bought from Lidl last year was a great wee system. I took down the dish supplied with the set and simply connected the receiver up to the Sky+ quad LNB which gives me the best of both worlds regarding radio and television channels.

Choagy FFCUK The SPL :)

The official site is here http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/

But have to say I agree with the others, unless you`re into shopping channels (or can`t receive Freeview) it doesn`t have a lot to offer

This item was edited on Monday, 24th January 2005, 17:00

The main point of Freesat is to give viewers a chance to get BBC,ITV,C4 and C5 on DSAT.
Although anyone can buy it,its being targeted at those areas with poor Freeview coverage.
Sky are trying to stem the flow of viewers to Freeview by supplying them with Sky boxes,as any digibox viewer is a potential future subscriber.
Satellite wise,ITV 2 is now FTV instead of being part of the sub package,and ITV3 is FTA so anyone with any DSAT box can watch it.
Negotiations still seem to be ongoing between Sky and ITV at the moment about the future of ITV on Sky.While going FTA would save ITV lots of dosh,Sky claim the only way to maintain viewers receiving their local ITV on 103 is via encryption,as a similar system to the one being used by the BBC is not ready for ITV just yet,so if ITV pull out of encryption they risk losing local ad revenue as Sky claim this will mean ITV London on 103 for the whole country while other regions will be elsewhere on the EPG.
Sounds like Sky may be telling porkies

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ITV 2 is now FTV instead of being part of the sub package,and ITV3 is FTA

Do you need the freesat card for this, or just a digibox without a card?

What`s the difference between FTV & FTA?

Cheers

---

The 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California, less than 100 were made. My father spent 3 years restoring this car.....it is his love.....it is his passion....."it is his fault he didn`t lock the garage!"

This item was edited on Wednesday, 26th January 2005, 07:44

Channels that are Free-To-Air (FTA) are broadcast "in the clear" with no encryption and can be picked up by any suitable digital satellite receiver without the need for a viewing card. Free-To-View (FTV) channels are encrypted and require a viewing card to descramble them.

To clarify,ITV3 is available on any DSAT box,while ITV2,though no longer included in any sub package does need the FTV card to see it,just as ITV1,C4 and C5 do.Whether this remains the case,or ITV changes completely to FTA is yet to be decided.One suspects that a Freesat service will not truly take off until all 5 main channels are FTA(if they ever are-C5 has some years of its deal to go)