Freesat Launch is May 6th, Sky are fighting back.
The launch of a new free satellite TV service developed by the BBC and ITV has been annunced for 6th May. The new Freesat service will start with 80 channels including HD channels from the BBC and ITV. Customers will be able to buy receivers made by Humax amongst others at outlets such as Currys and Comet from next week. The starting cost for a standard definition receiver will be about £80 and £160 for HD and there will be extra charges for installing a dish if you dont already have one. Like Freeview there will be no subscription charge. UPDATE: Dixons are now offering an HD Freesat package online, follow this link.
This long awaited service will be a strong competitor to Sky for customers who want basic digital TV without the specialised film and sports channels. Sky have in fact had their own Freesat service for years and have started a new promotion at half the former price, that's £75 for the receiver and dish. With Sky Freesat you get 200 channels compared to Freesat's 80, which is fantastic if you crave tele-sales, phone in competition scams and babestation. An even bigger incentive to choose the Sky option over BBC/ITV is that you get Sky package free for four months, so you have a chance to see if you really want the full Sky service or just the basic Freesat. If you are tempted then follow this link to a special offer hosted by Dixon, and use voucher code SKY10 to get an extra 10% off.
Viewers who have not yet gone digital will have to start thinking seriously about it soon because analogue services are now being phased out. At least they now have more choices for how to go about it. The options are
- Terestrial Freeview
- Freesat
- Freesat HD
- Sky Freesat
- Sky
- Sky HD
- Virgin Media cable
- online broadband services
So how to choose? Let's start by eiminating the broadband TV services which you can get from BT, Sky, Virgin and others. They will not work well enough until the UK broadband capacity is much improved and that is happening too slowly. Next ask yourself what level of TV service you want. If you want films and live sport then the free services are probably inadequate. You will need Sky or cable if it is available in your area.
If you want High Definition TV your choice is limited to Sky HD , Freesat HD or cable. Do not opt for Sky Freesat because it will not provide HD without an upgrade to an expensive Sky HD box. If you want HD for films and regular live sport then your only option is expensive Sky HD, but for other programs Freesat HD is a great new possibility. It will include big sports events such as the world cup and the olympics on BBC HD and ITV HD.
Otherwise, if you just want basic TV channels in standard definition but you want the option to record them, go for Freesat with a receiver that includes recording on a hard disk drive. Freesat from Sky does not include an option for recording. Even if you access Sky Freesat using a Sky Plus or Sky HD box (which do have a hard drive), the recording feature is disabled unless you upgrade to a suitable Sky subscription package.
Finally, if you dont need HD or recording then the Sky Freesat is a good choice for the extra channles and option to upgrade to Sky. If you dont have the pssibility of a satellite dish install then Freeview is the only option left.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Freesat from Sky vs Freesat from the BBC/ITV? ...
- Disadvantages of Freesat from Sky compared to Freesat from BBC/ITV:
- The Sky EPG is cluttered with hundreds of channels that cannot be viewed without a Sky subscription. These cannot be removed if you only have the Freesat service which makes channel browsing cumbersome. The Freesat service from BBC/ITV uses a new EPG which is dedicated to the Freesat channels.
- With Freesat from Sky there is no possibility for recording programs even if you are using a Sky+ or Sky HD receiver which includes the hardware for recording. A Sky+ or Sky HD subscription would be needed to enable the recording capability of the receiver. It is possible to buy a Freesat receiver for the BBC/ITV service which includes a PVR for recording without any subscription.
- Freesat from Sky includes HD channels such as BBC HD and Channel 4 HD but to view them you would require an off-contract Sky HD box. These are expensive and hard to obtain. The HD receivers for Freesat from BBC/ITV are relatively cheap and can be bought at retail outlets.
- If you have Freesat from Sky you are likely to receive unwanted phone calls and promotional material from Sky to persuade you to upgrade to a Sky subscription.
- ITV HD will only be available on freesat from BBC/ITV because it uses a codec which is not available on Sky receivers and because Sky and ITV cannot agree terms for inclusion. This may change in the future.
- With a top-of-the-range receiver you can use a motorised dish and specialised CAMs to receive many more channels from other satellites (mostly foreign language). This is not possible with the Sky receivers but it is possible with a good independent Freesat receiver such as the ones built by Humax.
- Advantages of Freesat from Sky compared to Freesat from BBC/ITV:
- If you choose Freesat from Sky you will have an easy upgrade path to a Sky subscription service without further setup costs.
- Promotions are available which give you a Sky service for a limited period if you sign up to Freesat from Sky.
- Freesat from Sky has about 200 channels compared to only 80 from the BBC/ITV Freesat service. Although most of these extra channels are low quality telesales, religion, foreign language and game phone-in channels of very limited interest, there are some good ones too. For now Channel 4 HD and FTV channels such as Five US are only available from Sky. There is also LuxeTV HD which is a lifestyle HD channel that is available from Sky without subscription. Freesat have said that they expect to increase their channel number to 200 to match Sky by next year. Actually, if you get a good receiver such as the Foxsat from Humax, you can do a manual search that will pick up most of those channels because they are FTA (Free To Air). Only a few FTV (Free To View) ones will be available from Sky Freesat and not from an independent receiver.