If you have already a Sky mini-dish attached to your house and pointed at the Sky satellite, you can use the same dish for receiving Freesat.

Just plug the cable coming from the dish to back of your new receiver. That’s it. No need to get a new dish or upgrade anything.

Freesat and Sky are broadcast from the same satellite. So the same dish size and dish direction can be used.

There is no point in trying to get Freesat on a Sky digibox. All the channels on Freesat (except ITV HD) are on Sky anyway, so you wouldn’t notice a difference.

The Sky receivers have their own EPG (Electronic Programming Guide - this is where you select your channels). The channel line ups are fixed, you can’t move or delete channels. The free channels are somewhere in between all the subscription channels which makes using the digibox a pain for free channels only.

And that’s the reason why you would want to get Freesat, so that you can sort the channels the way you want. And of course to get ITV HD and maybe use a PVR receiver to record and pause channels without paying extra fees.

A lot of people are asking which system to get, Freesat, Freesat from Sky (I call it FreeSky to avoid confusion) or Freeview. My answer is if you can get Freesat then get that one.

I’ll tell you why:

Freeview has no HD.

FreeSky is awful to use as the EPG is set in stone, so you can’t delete the channels which need subscription. Zapping is nearly impossible (it’s a bit better if you mark all free channels as your favourites), and you need to remember which channels were free and which not since there is no indication whatsoever on this. The digiboxes are made for Sky subscription. Period. Using them for the free channels is impairing your TV experience.

Freesat has exclusively ITV HD (but no Ch4 HD) plus all the main channels. You can record channels with a PVR receiver. You can use any FTA set top box you want (except for ITV HD which must be a Freesat receiver). You can shuffle things around, add or delete channels, move your dish to another satellite and see what’s on in Europe. You’ve got more freedom and joy with Freesat.

With the launch of Freesat, some people might decide to get a second satellite dish installed (e.g. in order to get the Freesat exclusive ITV HD channel). The problem is that you need to get a planning permission for a second dish if the building you live in is less than 15m in height (this applies probably to most terraced houses) and the smallest dish is larger than 60cm in any direction.

There are also some other requirements for designated areas, listed buildings, dish sizes and dish locations. A handy interactive guide or the full guide can be found on the Planning Portal Site.

With the launch of Freesat, E4 and 4More are now free-to-air, i.e. they can be viewed without any subscribtion and therefore are not part of Sky’s packages anymore.

However, it seems that the two channels are now being broadcast from the Astra 2D satellite which has a much tighter footprint on the UK, making it more difficult for people living on contintental Europe to receive these channels (together with the BBC and ITV channels).

Freesat from BBC and ITV has officially launched today. Similar to Freeview which is available through a terrestrial aerial, Freesat is a free digital service available through satellite.

Initially it will have over 80 radio and TV channels plus BBC HD and ITV HD. The latter will be exclusive to Freesat meaning you won’t be able to receive that channel with FTA receivers other than Freesat receivers. Over the next few years, the number of channels will be likely to increase to over 200.

Freesat covers 98% of the UK but a clear line of sight to the satellite is required in addition to the equipment (receiver, satellite dish and cabling).

With the imminent launch of Freesat this afternoon, the question is whether you will be able to receive the service at your location. Freesat has 98% coverage across the UK and only if you don’t have a clear line of sight to the satellite, will you not be able to get it. So, how do you check the clear line of sight? Just go to DishPointer, enter your address (street address rather than just postcode as the second part of the postcode is omitted) and then select 28.2E Astra from the satellite list. A satellite image map of your house should show up with a marker and a line indicating the direction of the Freesat satellite signal. You need a clear line of sight along this line. The big marker can be moved by clicking and dragging it to the exact location of your dish. The small marker is to calculate the maximum height of any obstacles along the line without interfering with the signal. “d” stands for distance to the obstacle and “h” for the maximum height it can have.

Example
There is a tree right on the line not far from your dish. You’ve dragged the marker and got “d” = 20m and “h” = 10m. Your dish is on the roof at a height of 8m.
This would mean that the tree is 20m away and that the tree must not be higher than 10m from the base of the dish or 18m from ground level. If it’s any higher than you’d have problems with the signal reception because there wouldn’t be a clear line of sight.

There is also a satellite help section on DishPointer.

The first time I heard about satellite broadband was about 15 years ago. I liked the idea of connecting my satellite dish to my pc and surf the internet. The good thing was, at that time, the high download speed and that it was immediately available - who knows when I could ditch my dial-up internet and get ADSL through BT or any other broadband ISP.

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For all the US and Canadian visitors, here is your chance to win a FTA Receiver. I’m running a competition on my satellite calculator website - you just need to drop a line to enter, ends March 16th.

And for the UK visitors, I’m hoping to run something similar soon. I’m just in talks with some sponsors, so keep checking this spot.

This is a FAQ about FreeSatfromSky, for the newly launched FreeSat from BBC and ITV see the articles on the main page

What is Freesat?
Freesat is a name for all the UK satellite TV and Radio channels which are availabe for free in the UK. No subscription is required and no monthly fees charged in order to access to the service.

What do I need for Freesat?
You need to have a satellite system installed. This includes a satellite dish with an LNB pointing at the Astra 2 satellite, the cabling, the satellite receiver such as a Sky Digibox, and - if you want to watch C4, Five, Five Live, Five US and Sky Three - an FTV card. The FTV card is available for a one-off payment of £20 and there are no further monthly or subscription charges.

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