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Sky? Freesat? Generic free-to-air? What's it all about Alfie? |
| For many years, virtually everybody in
the UK assumed, if they thought about the subject at all, that satellite
TV meant Sky and therefore involved a monthly subscription. There were a
few sad individuals such as myself who knew there was a free alternative
but we were lone voices crying in the wilderness. Effectively Sky had a
monopoly in the mindset of the British public. In May 2008, that changed with the launch of Freesat. More accurately it ought to have changed - paradoxically it only muddied the waters. People are now confused about the choices available. I hope this page will help you to choose. So to start with, let's just make the point that across the Channel, this confusion simply doesn't exist. In mainland Europe, there's no Sky and no Freesat. People simply get on with watching satellite TV. Generic satellite receivers are the norm; it's just us Brits, brought up on a diet of Sky to believe that satellite is something special, who get confused! So what is Freesat? Freesat (a registered trade name, incidentally, owned by the BBC) is a branded 'platform' just as Sky is. Both receive the same signals from the same satellite system but they present them is different ways. They're also fundamentally different in the way they're run. Sky is a commercial profit-making company; Freesat is a 'not-for-profit' company jointly owned by the BBC and ITV: its purpose is to increase the choice for people wanting free digital TV after the analogue switch-off. Not everyone can receive Freeview, the terrestrial digital service, and not everyone wants to pay Sky for the privilege of watching television. Freesat is there to fill that gap. Sky and Freesat differ slightly in how they handle the signal. With Sky for example, you'll get a 7-day programme guide that has information about each programme. If you have a Sky+ box, it can be set to record any given programme simply by selecting it from the guide. Freesat (and Freesat+) works in a similar way but the display is different - neither better nor worse necessarily, just different. At programme level, both are identical - if you tune to BBC1 or ITV1 for example, you'll see the same picture on either type of receiver. There is also, just as on the continent, a wide variety of generic free-to-air receivers that don't conform to either platform - they simply scan the satellite frequencies and give you a list of all available channels; it's then up to you to decide how to use them. Unlike Sky/Freesat, you can usually remove from the list all the channels you're not interested in, and/or sort the channel order into one of your own choosing. (Think of it like tuning a car radio - it will scan all available frequencies but it's up to you to choose which ones are of interest to you and which button to allocate to each one.) Generic satellite receivers generally don't have all the programme information that you'll get from either Sky or Freesat - you'll normally only get a now-and-next display of what's on. Freesat and generic boxes will only give you the free channels of course. Sky will do the same in non-subscription mode, but gives you many more channels if you're prepared to pay for them. The important thing to remember is that regardless of which receiver you use, all the signals come from the same satellite system. You just have to choose which type of receiver you want to use to collect and process them. It's a bit like buying gas or electricity. The raw material is supplied by National Grid Transco, and it's supplied along the same pipe or cable, but you're then free to decide which retail company (British Gas, npower, Scottish Power, etc) you want to buy from. So what is the difference between the 3 options? Well, Sky gives you the widest choice with hundreds of channels available, though many are only available with a Sky subscription. Having said that, a subscription is not essential and a Sky receiver will pick up all the free channels perfectly well without one. You don't even need a viewing card, a question for which I wish I had a pound for every time I've been asked it! (Actually come to think of it I do - unfortunately it's a pound weight, not a pound coin!) But please note that a Sky+ box does need a minimum £10 a month subscription for the recording features; a Freesat+ box on the other hand does not. At present (April 2009), Freesat offers around 140 TV and radio channels. Broadcasters have to pay for their channels to be included on the Freesat EPG (electronic programme guide) and some of the smaller ones have to weigh up whether it is cost-effective in terms of viewer share (Sky charges a lot more but reaches a far bigger audience). Nevertheless, Freesat offers twice as many channels as Freeview, the terrestrial digital channel, including BBC HD and ITV HD. Both Freesat and Sky are platforms as I said above. That means they present the available channels in a formalised way, with a 7 or 8-day EPG and information about each programme. If you prefer, you can opt for a generic free-to-air receiver. They are made by many different manufacturers, with the same model sometimes being badged differently for various retailers. These boxes just log all the available channels and create a simple list for the viewer to choose from. They don't have a 7-day EPG, being limited to just a now-and-next display of what's on. But if that's all you want, fine. You'll often find them at very low prices and at some surprising outlets such as B&Q, and for caravanners there's even a camping kit comprising a receiver, dish and mount, cable, and compass or signal meter, all packed into a neat carrying case. You'll find it at Maplins and various caravan accessory shops at around £100 all in, and occasionally at the Lidl and Aldi supermarket chains at under £50! Please note that generic free-to-air receivers are emphatically not Freesat. Nothing wrong with that, far from it, but as I said at the start, Freesat is a registered trade name and only boxes carrying the Freesat logo can legitimately be called by that name. From my main page, you can choose which set of instructions to go for, depending on which type of receiver you're using. If you use this page in conjunction with each of those, you should get a reasonable insight into the choices available. One final point - because the signals all come from the same satellite system, one dish can be used with any receiver without alteration. Indeed at home using a dish equipped with a quad LNB, you can mix and match different receivers in different rooms. Which is what we do; we have a Sky+ receiver in the lounge and a basic Freesat box in the kitchen, both running from the one dish! (We also have a terrestrial Freeview+ receiver in the second lounge, but that's another story!) |
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