August 2011

A new satellite was launched just before midnight on Saturday 6 August and joins, temporarily at least, the other 3 satellites in the 28.2șE system. It's the Astra 1N. As the other satellites are Astra 2A, 2B and 2D, its name suggests it's an odd one out. And indeed it is. Eventually it will move to its permanent location at 19.2șE.

Meanwhile however, there is an urgent need for more spot beam capability for the UK. The public service broadcasters desperately want to remove themselves from Sky's encryption system to save money. But their programme suppliers, mainly but not exclusively the big American studios, insist that signals which spread widely across mainland Europe must be encrypted in order to prevent those naughty foreigners from having free access to English-language programmes.

Of course it's all nonsense. The vast majority of French people want their programmes in French (even if it's dubbed badly), Germans want theirs in German, and so on. But try telling that to the Yanks who can't understand why anyone wouldn't prefer English.

But there it is and the Astra 2D satellite, currently the only spot beam satellite serving the UK, is fully loaded with the likes of the BBC, ITV, etc. Because there's no further capacity on the 2D a number of other channels, even including some regional variations of ITV1, have had to remain encrypted on the wide beam satellites such as Astra 2A and 2B. The Astra 1N has a far greater capacity than the 2D and will therefore be able to carry many more TV channels.

Three more satellites are now being built for the UK service but won't be ready for some time. Building and commissioning new satellites is a very lengthy process and these 3, Astra 2E, 2F and 2G won't be launched until late 2012/early 2013 at the earliest. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that Astra 2D is nearing the end of its design life and will have to be decommissioned within the next 2 to 3 years, leaving only a slim window for replacement. Utilising the 1N in the meantime will help to plug the gap if any of the other 3 are delayed for any reason.

So, what effect will the 1N have on viewers in Britain and beyond? For a while it looked as though it would have a tighter footprint than the 2D but SES, the satellite operator, has now published the official footprint map for the 1N and it looks very similar to the 2D. This means that if channels on the 2D were to be transferred, you'd still be able to pick them up throughout France with a 60cm dish. The problem comes with channels that are currently encrypted because with a Sky digibox and viewing card, they're visible across most of Europe. Once they're transferred to the 1N they won't.

So freesat users will be the big winners - they stand to gain many more free channels than they have at present, including more HD. Expats and caravanners in southern Europe will, I'm afraid, lose out.

Astra 2D

Astra 1N

The figures shown on each map are not directly comparable. On the 2D footprint map, they are displayed in terms of the dish size, from 50cm in the middle to 120cm at the outer edge. On the 1N footprint map, they are displayed in units of dBW which are a measure of the signal strength at ground level. They correspond to dish sizes as follows:

54dBW (inner area) = 45cm, 52dBW = 50cm, 50 dBW= 60cm, 48dBW = 60cm, 46dBW (outer boundary)  = 80cm.

Note that the boundaries shown on the maps are conservative to ensure reliable reception throughout the coverage area. In practice you should get somewhat better reception in the marginal areas, much as you do now with the 2D.

The 'blob' showing the 1N signal going out over Portugal does in fact also exist in the 2D signal although it's always been undocumented. SES seems to be acknowledging its existence with the 1N.

Updated news (end November 2011)

The Astra 1N is now operational and Channel 4 HD was the first channel to begin transmitting from it.  At the moment the satellite is lighting up the whole of Europe (which I don't think was SES's intention!) so viewers in southern Europe are getting a bonus.  freesat users will also start to notice their choice of available channels increasing, with all the Channel 5 stable except C5HD joining freesat at the beginning of December. Users of generic free-to-air receivers might notice that some channels have disappeared, requiring a rescan of frequencies to bring them back again.

As for which other channels we can expect to switch to the 1N, again it's all speculation at present. We might see one or more of the Channel 4 channels such as Film4 and E4 in high definition on freesat. Unfortunately ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 in HD are less likely because ITV is on record as saying it wants to experiment with subscription revenue from those channels.

(February 14th)

Several channels have now transferred from the Astra 2D satellite, which will make them easier to receive in the more marginal regions of Europe - good news for expats. They include ITV1 (various regions), ITV2, 3 and 4, Channel 4, E4, More4 and Film4.