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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).

Ready for the start of the Barclays Premier League, Sky has announced two new initiatives to bring more sports action to mobile phones:

24-7 Football
Sky, The Sun and News of the world have launched the website 24-7football.co.uk with an on-demand service for mobiles to view video clips of football goals as they happen, and highlights after the whistle from every Barclays Premier League and UEFA Champions League game.

The service is available for a monthly subscription of %5 or on a pay per view basis (50p for a video clip). Users don’t need to have a Sky TV subscription to access the clips and they are available on all major mobile networks.

Sky Mobile TV
Sky Sports 1, 2 and 3 will be available on Sky Mobile TV from 11 August. Sky Sports Xtra will be added in the coming weeks. These new mobile channels will stream all of Sky Sports’ 92 live Barclays Premier League games and live matches from every round of the UEFA Champions League, as well as Coca-Cola Football League, Carling Cup, FA Cup and Euro 2008 Qualifiers. Not to mention live coverage of International and Domestic cricket, European Tour Golf and Guinness Premiership Rugby.

Sky does not charge at the moment to access the service but the mobile operators will charge for the data downloaded, so you better check your tariff before using Sky Mobile TV.

The Bourne Ultimatum starring Matt Damon tops the US Cinema Charts in its first weekend taking in $70.2 million and pushing The Simpsons Movie to the second place. The first two movies in the Bourne series took only $27.1 million and $50.5 million in the opening weekends, thus making the third one the most successful movie so far. But not only that, it is also the most successful movie ever released in August.
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Virgin Media and five other firms pulled their ads from the social-networking site facebook after the ads appeared on the facebook site of the British Nationalist Party (BNP). The firms have no control on where the rotating ads appear. To avoid a negative image by being associated with the political party, they decided to pull the ads alltogether.

With the football season starting soon, the question is where and how to watch the games. The BBC tries to answer this question in a pretty good article, listing all the available options including BBC, BT, Club Channels & Websites, Five, ITV, Setanta Sports, Sky Sports, and Virgin Media.

Here is the full article.

I read in the FT today, that Murdoch is buying Sir Alan Sugar’s company Amstrad for £125m. Just as background information, Amstrad was founded by Sir Alan M Sugar (AMS – Trading = > AMSTRAD) in 1968 and is producing home electronics including satellite receivers. Alan Sugar who reached fame in the BBC TV show “The Apprentice” is believed to be one of the richest men in Britain.

I guess this means, that Sky will try to install more and more Amstrad Digiboxes from now on.

With moving to a new server, I’m also updating the layout of the site. This will be an ongoing process till I’m happy with everything, so don’t get confused when things change a lot. If you have any comments or themes you’d like to suggest, let me know.

Until the 14th of September, Sky charges only £30 instead of their regular £60 for all new installations. In addition, the activation fee for broadband is dropped.

When ordered online , there is also a further £5 discount.