Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Your welcome :)

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Could the UKTV & Virgin Media dispute be good news for Freesat customers?

When the current UKTV/Sky contract comes to an end, I am wondering if Sky may take the view that UKTV could not afford to lose another shed load of customers taking their pay channels and that they too will push for reduced carriage costs as VM did (allegedly by 50%).

UKTV may well decide that they are better off making all their channels FTA on satellite, which would obviously benefit Freesat customers. Just a thought!

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

The above dispute has now been resolved, so no longer relevant.

Social Media post from Vintage TV:

Vintage TV We won't be coming back to Freeview. We're in talks to come back to Virgin and we'll be back on Sky before the end of the month.

Looks like it won't be coming back to Freesat, but viewers will be able to tune it in via Non Freesat mode.

In the meantime, some people have been accessing the stream and casting it to their TV as a workaround:

http://watch.vintage.tv

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Looks like Sony Movies is preparing to go FTA and join Freesat.

In the meantime, Freesatters can tune the new FTA frequency in manually on 11426V SR 27500 FEC 5/6. It is currently labelled as 52515.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

I thought Sony Movies was already FTA? (at least, even if not on the Freesat guide)

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

FTV ie encrypted and a viewing card needed to be purchased, but no subscription required.

FTA= Free To Air and able to be viewed on a Freesat box, even if not on the Freesat EPG.

FTV= Free To View and encrypted, therefore not able to be viewed on a Freesat box.

The only main channels now missing from Freesat that I think could afford & are likely to join are the timeshifted UKTV channels, but the UKTV Player was added recently, so this isn't as useful as it once was.

If the proposal to split up the UKTV channels between the BBC & Discovery goes ahead, this would be a financial blow to Channel 4 who currently earn tens of millions from the ad sales for the UKTV channels, whereas Discovery use Sky. Perhaps this would lead to cost cutting and prevent Channel 4 HD from returning to Freesat??

Rumour that Sports Channel Network might be joining Freesat too.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

True Movies on channel 302 will rebrand to True Christmas on Monday 24th September:

http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/new...hristmas-2018/

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Gosh ... that seems to get earlier every year :eeek:

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

I agree, three months is far too early IMO.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

For some reason this encrypted again before going FTA along with its +1 timeshift. I believe that it's now correctly labelled as Sony Movies and imagine there will be a very good chance that these will now join Freesat along with the rest of their channels.

AFAIK the only remaining FTV channels left now that are likely to join Freesat are Insight HD and Yesterday +1.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Freesat data was been added to Sony Movies and Sony Movies+1 today.

Only 'Sony Movie Ch' is in the SDT at present; allocated to LCN 307.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Thanks Richard, ;)

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

You're welcome. A slight change to the info I posted, Sony Movies is due to start on Channel 302. Looks like Sony are having a bit of a change to the order of their channels.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Sony Movies is due to start tomorrow :)

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

This might be quite a good station Richard ,

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Yes, i've seen one or two decent films on it. They aren't the most recent ones, but i'm now finding that most modern films don't appeal to me :D

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

So, the new EPG line up is:

Sony Movie Channel has launched on channel 302

True Movies (True Christmas) has moved to channel 303

True Movies+1 (True Christmas+1) has moved to channel 304

Movies4Men has moved to channel 305

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Cheers, Richard

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

You're welcome.

There could be some good news for you nashville, a new country music channel is said to be coming:

http://www.chriscountry.co.uk/music/...018/?preview=1

According to this, a new country channel called "Total Country" will launch on November 1st, possibly replacing Massive R&B.

I believe that Massive R&B is FTA, but I don't know if it's on Freesat. If it is on Freesat, let's hope that it does a straight swap with Total Country :)

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

This sounds very interesting as the Keep it Country Channel has so much interference at present sometimes it is not worth watching, Please keep me up to date, Thanks Richard,

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Will do. The signs are that it won't be on Freesat, but you should be able to tune it in manually, which we can go through if need be :)

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Thanks Richard ;)

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

I would get your dish & connections checked as any problem like this will only get worse over time. Even a slight misalignment will cause problems with some channels.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

This is not really very good news for those who enjoy conventional scheduled pay TV. While it is nice that more people are getting access to more channels, all the time the advantage that is provided to subscribers to conventional pay TV channels are being eroded, putting pressure on the cablecos.

They will turn more and more to the streaming services, with wholesale deals that are cheaper, contain more watchable content on demand and will spell disaster for the remaning traditional pay TV channels.

However, in the end, this may spell better value for money for satellite and cable subscribers. Only the diehards who refuse to adjust will be disappointed.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

There are now only 2 music channels left on Freesat.

The Vault on 501, & Keep It Country on 516. All the rest have now abandoned the platform.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

The last two that left closed down completely, it's a dying genre as most now use YouTube etc. Most can be tuned in manually though if they really want them.

Apparently, even The Vault shows entertainment programming in the evening, so there's effectively only Keep It Country at night!

What music does The Vault play during the day?

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

There's now little chance of Vintage TV returning to Freesat or anywhere else unless somebody buys it, which I think is unlikely. They have been gone into administration after owing money to HMRC:

http://www.datalog.co.uk/browse/business_for_sale.php

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

New channels may be allowed to show listed events:

https://www.a516digital.com/2018/10/...vents.html?m=1

Should be useful for Freesat users.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Those using a Welsh postcode may like to know that 'BBC Two Wal HD' has been added to the test region on LCN 979.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Drama +1 is currently testing on satellite, I imagine that this will be added to Freesat when testing is complete.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Total Country launched today with this programme line up:

8:00am - Welcome to Total Country!
9:00am - Total Access! Ward Thomas
10:00am - Chris Country's Hot 10
10:40am - Welcome to Total Country!
12:00pm - Baylen's 20 Breakup Songs
1:30pm - Welcome to Total Country!
2:00pm - The Ultimate US Road Trip!
4:00pm - Today's Hot Country!
5:00pm - Total 2010s!
6:00pm - Chris Country's Hot 10
6:40pm - Real Good 00s!
7:00pm - The Shires' 21st Century Artists
8:40pm - Welcome to Total Country!
9:00pm - Total Access! Lindsay Ell
9:45pm - Welcome to Total Country!
10:00pm - 60 Minutes with Blake Shelton
11:00pm - Total Access: Una Healy!
11:40pm - Welcome to Total Country!
12:00am - The Perfect First Dance Song
1:00am - CMA Award Winners! - Top 25
3:05am - First Dates & Heartbreaks!
5:00am - Music Till the Cows Come Home!

To tune it in on none Freesat mode:

11582H SR 22000 FEC 5/6

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

How do you tune into none freesat mode?

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Which Freesat box do you have?

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

HDR 1105 Humax

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Most of these guides (top 3 apply to your box) are pretty straightforward:

https://www.google.com/search?q=huma...w=1716&bih=947

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Cheers nodrogd.

Let us know how you get on nashville :)

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Looks to complicated for me. ;)

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

I'll see if I can get you some help :)

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

If it’s the same as mine you can search and save all satellite channels by pressing home on the remote, then navigating through menus in this order:

Settings > system settings > STB mode > change to non-Freesat mode ... after that you don’t need to specify frequencies or anything, you can just have the box scan and save every channel it can find. You’ll end up with a pile of channels you can’t watch (the sky ones) but any free-to-view ones that aren’t in the Freesat EPG should appear in that list as well.

Unfortunately you can’t add non-Freesat channels to the regular Freesat listing so you need to use those same menus to swap between Freesat mode and non-Freesat mode depending on which channel you want to watch.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Cheers Chris, I believe that with some of the older boxes you could customise the Freesat EPG to include non Freesat channels so that they could be recorded etc.

Does that help nashville? There's a country & western programme featuring Kacey Musgraves on tonight on BBC4 at 01:35 btw :)

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

11.171 H SR 22000 FEC 5/6 DVB-S QPSK - SID 51110 (MPEG4/HD)

This FTA signal has been spotted testing what appears to be the Smithsonian Channel who show science, nature and pop culture programming.

No idea if this will end up on Freesat, but i'm sure a new HD channel would be welcomed.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Discovery have closed the Food Network, Fine Living and Travel channel in the Netherlands and Belgium, so it looks like they are now closing any former Scripps channels that overlap with their own brands.

I imagine that they are waiting to see what they end up with after UKTV is split between themselves and the BBC, but at a minimum the UK versions of Food Network and Travel Channel look ripe for closure :(

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Thanks Richard.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

The Fight Network will start next month on channel 161.

It appears to be moving from Showcase to CITV from 7th January so will once again be available on Freesat from 9pm onwards.

This is a PPV channel, but on 20/1/19 at 11pm, you can see 'Bound for Glory 2018' for free.

Two other fights (Redemption & Slammiversary) are also available for free on 30/12/18 & 6/1/19 respectively. For these you'll need to manually tune them in, I can provide the details if anyone is interested :)

#IMPACTUK!

---------- Post added at 14:46 ---------- Previous post was at 14:40 ----------

Channel 4 look to be getting a taste of their own medicine with an advertising agency now refusing to pay the increasing advertising costs :D

https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...dience-dispute[/quote]

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

The Smithsonian Channel is currently testing on satellite and may be coming to Freesat:

http://www.axiommedia.co/smithsonian_channel.html

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Best Wishes to you for 2019 Richard and thank you for all your advice through the year,

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Thank you Nashville, I hope you have a good 2019 too :)

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Cheers

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Technical changes suggest that DMAX is to go FTA and join Freesat:

https://www.discoveryuk.com/tv-guide/dmax/

Been told that Showcase is to return to Freesat on channel no 161 early next week.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Now officially confirmed DMAX and DMAX +1 are to join Freesat on 16/1/19. It's believed that DMAX will be on channel number 150:

https://www.tvwise.co.uk/2019/01/dma...comedy-archer/

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Keep it Country TV is also expanding its coverage on Freeview from 21 January 2019:

https://www.facebook.com/82493565094...type=3&theater

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Whilst the move from the temporary mux will increase coverage, it won't be to 90% of the population as they claim because they won't be available in Wales.

Keep It Country have form for exaggerating things ie they said they were going HD on Freeview simply because they were broadcasting on an HD mux! Also, they claimed to have more viewers than Sky Sports during a popular football match :D

Still, having said that, they must be doing alright if they can afford to go onto a more expensive permanent mux.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Wales only has 4.8% of the UK population

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countr..._by_population

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

They are supposedly taking the ex True Entertainment capacity on COM4 which excludes Wales, as E4 is carried there. So people in South Wales especially (Wenvoe) will actually lose the service rather than the coverage increasing. Their ads seem to be created by people with very little technical knowledge.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

My Keep it country is just a shambles on 516". Always comes up no signal or poor signal in my area of Rutherglen Glasgow, Used to be great, I miss it,

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Then the answer is simple. If you have a TV with Freeview built in then as long as you can get a signal too it (rooftop or if you are lucky set top aerial) you should get KIC without any problem from next week.

If you have a DAB radio, Chris Country Radio has just joined the Glasgow local MUX as well.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

That sounds like your dish is misaligned.

Ideally a dish should be positioned in the best compromise position to get signal from all the satellites utilised by channels in the Freesat EPG. Over time, especially if exposed to high wind, the dish can shift, weakening its reception from one or more of the satellites while at the same time strengthening reception from others.

A quick visit from an aerial installer should fix it.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

How much will they charge to come out ,?

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Don’t know, depends on how much local competition there is, but I had a local company from north of Glasgow come out to me a couple of months back and it was around £75 IIRC. It probably depends how accessible your dish is as well, mine is chimney mounted but we live in a dormer with a steep roof so one long ladder straight from the ground was sufficient. Chimney mounted on a full 2 storey house might be more, wall mounted less than 10ft up might be less.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Ok It on wall about two story flat up ;)

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Eros Now - a subscription Bollywood film/TV/music service - has been added to the Freesat VOD section.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Showcase has now been added to channel 161.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Thanks Richard

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Not sure what's on it though as we don't get it on Virgin Media! I think it's used to see if new channel ideas work or not before they commit to opening a channel of their own and also where people can rent a few hours a day to put something that they want to onto television.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

It does what is says on the tin. Prospective channels pay for slots to "test the water". Keep It Country TV started this way with just one programme a week on featuring on Showcase. They ended up taking over the whole channel for a while.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Apparently, the launch of Showcase has been delayed until 4/2/19.

The forthcoming Smithsonian Channel will be on channel 175. There's some information about what to expect here:

http://www.smithsonianchannel.co.uk

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

The Smithsonian Channel will join Freesat next Tuesday from 6am on channel 175.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

truTV isn't closing as speculated, but is rebranding to True Crime from tomorrow. It's exactly two years since Sony bought the channel, so it looks like the licensing agreement to use the name has come to an end.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Thanks Richard ;)

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

You're welcome 😃

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

This HD channel is now testing and expected to join Freesat:

https://m.cgtn.com/channel/en.do

Tuning details are:

11.225 V, 23.000, 2/3, DVB-S2, 8PSK (SID is 53151).

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

CNBC HD has now launched FTA on Sky, the tuning details are-

12.012 V, 27.500, 2/3, DVB-S2, 8PSK

Hopefully it'll launch on Freesat in due course, but as it's owned by Comcast who now own Sky, it may not do.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

From the Freesat facebook page:

Demand 5 is no longer available on Freesat.

"As much as we hate goodbyes, we do love to say hello! We're excited to announce the arrival of My5 on 28th March, so keep your eyes peeled...

My5 starts on Freesat on Thursday 28th March 2019".

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

That just sounds like a branding exercise, like when 4OD became All4.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Thanks Richard ;)

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Coming soon:

Paramount Network
https://www.cableforum.uk/images/local/2019/04/3.jpg


Currently allocated LCN 132.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Good.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

It's been a long time coming, I don't know why they didn't add it from launch. All I can think of is that Viacom started penny pinching with regards to Freesat as they removed one of their timeshift channels after Freesat restructured their charging structure last year (5* +1).

Maybe it's not doing as well as they had hoped and they need the extra viewers to appease advertisers??

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Main channels often do 8x (rough guess based on memory) better than their +1s, so maybe they will replace another +1 on FreeSat.

I looked at comparative ratings a week or two ago and Paramount Network isn't doing awful, and it's early days. Here's March's Barb ratings summary list.
https://www.barb.co.uk/viewing-data/...ewing-summary/

Just looking at it 5Select (previously My5) is 0.26 and Paramount Network is 0.21 last month. The former channel has been around longer than the latter, so PN isn't doing badly, relatively speaking.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Thanks for the info. It doesn't look like Paramount is being added to boost eyeballs onto a failing new channel then, so let's hope that this means that Viacom have found new faith in the platform. Maybe 5* +1 will return??

AFAIK, there aren't any other FTA Viacom channels missing from Freesat.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

I think it's more likely if they removed 5STAR+1 for fees vs ratings ratio reasons, they are more likely to remove another +1 from FreeSat and use the money from that SD channel toward Paramount instead. That is probably why 5STAR+1 was removed. A quick search seems that people speculated it was directly to reduce fees, but I saw one comment that suggested they use the EPG space for 5Spike, and it's now on FreeSat, so it seems that's what they did (that post lists the other spin off C5 channels, so I can infer that was the missing one at the time).

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

I just saw someone tweet that Paramount Network UK is now on 132 on FreeSat. Not been able to confirm myself yet.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

And they didn't remove a +1 to add it, so good news all round for Freesatters :)

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Retro Movies have stated that they hope to join Freesat 'within the next three months'.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

If it happens I hope they give it a number that allows the Film section to have a logic to it. And by this I mean there are a few +1 film channels that might launch on FreeSat and the closer they are to their main channels the better, in my opinion. Film4 and its +1 are side by side but the other film channels are numerically next to each other, so if they added their +1s they wouldn't be able to replicate that logic without a reshuffle.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Keep It Country TV is to change its name to Spotlight TV, to reflect that the channel is also featuring a lot of programmes that are not country oriented.

CEO Phil Mack has assured viewers on his weekly show that the core format will remain as country music, but the name change will reflect the fact that increasingly popular non country shows are also now also attracting large audiences to the channel.

Courtesy of nodrogd.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Data for Freesports HD to join Freesat has appeared today:

SID 52575 on 11426V (no video/audio testing as yet).

I wonder if the SD version will be removed when this starts? I know that a lot of people are disappointed at the quality of the SD feed.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

I am just receiving Keep it Country, after months of no picture, but sometimes near midnight it starts to be a distorted picture. But I am glad to have it back Richard.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Though I'd lose it in one room due to having an antiquated ex-Sky box I think they should. They had said it was coming to Freesat/Freeview prior to the VM deal and on Freeview it would certainly replace ithe SD one, since HD equipment is required to receive that multiplex anyway.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Freesports said ages ago that they wouldn't be going HD on Freeview due to the cost, hopefully the VM deal might mean that they can now afford it.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

I think they've said both at different times. I think there may be an element of telling the customers what they want to hear.

Given the coverage of those temporary Freeview HD multiplexes has dropped already I wouldn't be surprised if the cost has reduced. Al Jazeera English has added an SD version today on Com6 multiplex because of this.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

I'm glad it's returned for you, maybe your dish has slightly moved or your wiring has got water in it?

---------- Post added at 13:40 ---------- Previous post was at 13:39 ----------

Yeah, they're probably covering themselves. I can't think where the space on Freeview has come from though.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Well maybe if AJ English is going SD because of the coverage drop for the temporary HD multiplexes, maybe AJEng are going SD-only on Freeview rather than run two versions? Freesports simply might use their HD space. Daft as it might seem, maybe they will run two versions themselves so not to lose their low EPG number. If Freesports went HD-only on Freeview they'd probably have to give it up as all HD channels on Freeview are in the 100 range on the EPG.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

The Freesat data for Freesports HD has now been removed (could possibly mean that Freesports have done an encryption deal with Sky).

As the SD service is set to close once the HD service starts (as per a reliable source), this would mean that Freesports would no longer be available FTA on satellite :(

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

I don't believe that would happen, it would hardly be Free then. I doubt Premier Sports would want to complicate matters. It's not like there are rights issues, it would have the same coverage as the SD channel, the test transmission was on the same transponder as I understand it.

I've not seen a set of user numbers to know how many Freesat From Sky boxes are in use (i.e. mostly people who haven't renewed their subscription), only the BBC/ITV run FreeSat release numbers, but that's for their boxes. I mention this as the numbers would show whether being FTV rather than FTA would be worthwhile.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

I hope you're right and yes, it would make a mockery of the channels name! Having said that, it's not free on VM as it's encrypted.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Yes, but everyone with a TV box on VM's network is paying for TV, so it's irrelevant. Everything but the main 5 Public Service Broadcast channels are encrypted on VM because they don't want people hooking up unauthorized/old equipment, it can have knock-on effects for the service provided to paying customers. The PSBs are only unencrypted due to the law I believe.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

I believe that it's a condition of the franchise agreements that VM cannot encrypt channels 1 to 4 (1 to 5 in some areas). I assume that Channel 5 isn't included in certain areas because the cable franchise award predates the start of Channel 5. In practice, VM don't encrypt Channel 5 in any areas.

The last time that I could check which channels were FTA (I simply took my card out of the box, but can't do this any more due to the introduction of virtual cards) there were many more eg all BBC channels apart from BBC Parliament IIRC, all radio stations, ITV2 +1, ITV3 +1, ITV4 +1 etc.

I've since read that every TV channel is now encrypted (apart from 1 to 5). Don't know if they bothered to scramble the radio channels.

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

The radio stations aren't encrypted on VM.

Back on Freesat topic, I don't think there are any significant FTV channels left, they've all disappeared (e.g. Motorsports TV) or went FTA, usually by moving to a transponder with a narrower spotbeam to solve any rights problems with overspill into other countries. Some +1s may be FTA but not on FreeSat EPG e.g. I know Sony Movie Channel +1 isn't on FreeSat EPG, but I can't see it still being FTV given the main channel is FTA..

Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.
 

Sony Movie Channel +1 went FTA last year, but as you say, Freesat viewers have to tune it in in non Freesat mode.

The less popular channels don't tend to put their +1's onto Freesat (and to a certain extent VM). I think it's because these platforms have less viewers than the Sky platform and the extra cost of another EPG slot must outweigh any extra ad revenue received for the relatively low extra viewers that the timeshift channels attract.