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Old 22-05-2019, 17:34   #398
RichardCoulter
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Join Date: Jan 2008
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Re: One or two new channels coming to Freesat.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cheekyangus View Post
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.
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.
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