How To Tune In The Stronger ITV1 and BBC1 Signals On A Sky Digibox

There are six ITV1 regional channels which are still part of the sky package, they use a satellite transponder which has a stronger signal here on the Costa Blanca and rarely break up after 9pm.  In order to watch these channels, you need a sky free to view card. Sky free to view cards are often listed on ebay click here and enter "satellite cards " into the searchbox.  Look down the list of cards and find a card with a picture of a yellow house on it.  It should say something like sky free to view card or sky free card you should get it for a bid of about £25.  Make sure the seller will ship to Spain.  Don't buy one of these cards from a dealer over here, they can charge up to £120.  With one of these cards and a sky digibox or suitable digital receiver you will be able to watch ITV1 from  different regions  without the signal cracking up after 9pm and also be able to watch the channel 5's which aren't currently available on freesat only boxes.  These are five, fiver, fiver+1 five U.S and five U.S+1.

To receive the stronger ITV channels on a digibox you have tune them in using the "add channels " feature.  To do this use the following steps.

1. Press "services" on the remote control.

2. From the menu which appears after pressing services, scroll down to 4 "system set up" and press the button marked "select"

3. In the next menu scroll to 4 "add channels" and press select

4. In the section marked frequency enter the number 12402

5. Choose V for vertical polarity

6. For Symbol Rate or S/R enter 27500

7. For fec enter 2/3  then go to search and click "select"

This should bring up a list of 6 ITV channels from different areas including Meridian and Anglia.  Highlight one of these channels to store using the yellow button (it doesn't really matter which one unless you're particularly interested in the regional news from one of them, you can store them all if you like) then click select.  Use the back up button to get back to watching tv. To watch the new channel(s) you've stored, click the "services" button on the remote and then scroll to "other channels" press the select button on the remote. Choose one of the new ITV1 channels you have stored and press the select button again.  These ITV1 channels don't normally break up later in the evening.

Some people also have problems with BBC1 breaking up later in the evening. If you tune into BBC1 from the Channel Islands this is a slightly stronger signal and is usually watchable when the other regions have disappeared.  To tune in BBC Channel Islands use the same method as for ITV above but for frequency, enter the number 10847 for symbol rate or SR enter 22000 and for FEC enter 2/3.  The polarisation is the same i.e vertical.