FreeSat TV service goes live across the UK
We knew it was coming, and after waiting for quite some time for FreeSat to go from concept to reality, television viewers across the UK can finally indulge. If you'll recall, a recent survey found that just 5-percent of Europe's HDTV owners actually bothered to tune into HD programming, but now that number is likely to change. Effective today, 98-percent of the UK can fork out a one-time fee of £49 ($96) to £120 ($234) in order to acquire a FreeSat set-top-box, and after an £80 ($156) installation, users will have subscription-free access to BBC HD, ITV HD (coming soon), Channel 4's digital service and around 70 other TV / radio channels. Better still, that number is slated to rise to 200 before the year's end, and unsurprisingly, the launch is expected to boost available high-def offerings in the region. Anyone across the pond have their equipment set up already? How's the service?[Thanks, Ivan]
Filed under: Industry, OTA, BBC HD, New content
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chad @ May 6th 2008 10:39AM
I'm moving to UK. This would be great. I'm sure you don't get any movie channels, but that is what netflix is for.
Ivan @ May 6th 2008 11:00AM
The thing is that there is no Netflix in the UK. Sure there are other services, but nowhere as near dominating and format-war-influencing as Netflix in North America.
Actually, the platform does bring movie channels with it: Film4, Movies4Men (not that kind of movies), True Movies and True Movies 2
DrXym @ May 6th 2008 12:39PM
Movies4Men and True Movies are absolute garbage. Their output is almost exclusively made for TV trash, with the odd badly dubbed foreign movie tossed in.
FilmFour is okay but it shows far too many repeats.
I hope that when Freesat establishes itself that we might see some better quality channels go FTA on Astra. Astra has a lot of channels, but so many of them are unwatchable junk.
maty @ May 6th 2008 11:42AM
A few of my friends are very interested in this. Personally I have fibre cable TV already which offers all of that, plus on-demand (not HD stuff, its £75 one-off for me to get that), so its not worth me transferring.
Good for people in non-cabled areas and beats paying rip-off charges Sky throw at you.
calpecci @ May 8th 2008 3:58AM
Is this available for Spain
salt909 @ May 9th 2008 8:39AM
Disagree. movies4men show hardly any made-for-TV films, unlike the poor True Movies that is full of cheap American women's TV-drama junk. movies4men is one of the better channels out there with westerns, kung fu and obscure trash; quality flicks like Django Kill and The Big Sky has been on C4 and BBC. If you want new Hollywood films or reserved classics, then you're just going to have to pay for Sky.
james guballa @ May 26th 2008 3:24PM
I am from the philippines, we have a tv channel here, can you carry our channel there in UK for our church members, relatives and Filipino people can receive it there? this is a religious channel. you can email me at: james_guballa@yahoo.com
Thank you so much. God Bless!