With the demise of
the Telemicro service on the Costa Blanca, many people were left
stranded with little or no English TV. This system was always prone to
shutdown even though it was sold as legal. If companies start again
with the microwave system, be very careful before purchasing, they
cannot legally retransmit sky channels. You may be lucky
and get 12 months TV but its always possible that they could be shut
down almost immediately, leaving you with nothing but a hole in your
bank balance. Luckily, there are some other options for watching
UK TV down here on the Costa Blanca.
The Options
To receive the
channels you probably want to watch including BBC, ITV etc you will
have to have a dish between 1.9 and 2.4 mtrs in diameter depending on
your location, the dish has to point at the Astra2 satellite which is
in geo stationary orbit at 28 degrees east. Strangely, the
further south you are the smaller the dish size required. Always ask a
local installer the size of dish needed in your area because the
signal strength can vary enormously over a relatively short distance.
With the correct dish size and suitable satellite receiver you will be
able to watch almost everything you could back in the UK with the
exception of BBC2,3 and 4.
Some FAQ's
(frequently asked questions)
I Can't Have A
Large Dish, What Else Can I Watch?
If you are limited
to the size of dish you can erect, you will only be able to watch
certain channels from the Astra2 satellitebut plenty channels
from other satelliteswhich I'll mention later. Using a
dish size of 1mtr pointing at the Astra2 satellite there are probably
around 100 TV channels plus a lot of radio stations you can
receive. There is a lot of rubbish but also quite a few channels
worth watching. Rather than trying to list them all here, check
out Lyngsat, this is the best satellite reception facility on the
internet.
This is a link to the section for the Astra2
28.2 channel frequencies. Look down the list of
channels, and in the column marked beam, look for "fixed", "S1",
"2A South" and "2B South"
Which Sky Channels
Can I watch With A 1Mtr Dish?
If you want to know
which channels in the sky package you will be able to watch, go to the
sky package page
here and again look down the
column marked beam for "fixed", "S1", "2A South" and "2B South"
you should be able to watch all these channels providing you have a
suitable sky subscription. You will see that all the channel 5's
use the newer Astra 2C satellite, these are also channels you will be
able to watch but you will need a sky free to view card which will
cost you about £20 on ebay. Only the channels that have the letter "F"
in the column marked "encryption" are free (no card required)
Do I Need A Card
For The Channel 5's ?
Yes, the channel 5's
still require a card outside the UK using satellite. The card you need
is called a sky free to view card which you can usually find on
Ebay for about £25
click hereand enter "satellite cards " into the
search box. 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 can sometimes get these cards from satellite dealers here but they
charge astronomical prices for them. My mum was quoted £120
by a dealer so I told her to go on ebay and have a look, she got one
for £19. Remember that this card will only let you watch the
channel 5's not the full sky package. To watch the sky package,
you have to pay a subscription. Most dealers down here can
arrange that for you but shop around.
Live BBC/ITV On
Your Computer
If you have a
computer with a broadband internet connection and a suitable proxy
server, you can watch the following English channels online.
CHANNEL
SERVICE TYPE
STATUS
COST
BBC1
LIVE
OK
FREE
BBC2
LIVE
OK
FREE
BBC3
LIVE
OK
FREE
BBC4
LIVE
OK
FREE
BBC NEWS
LIVE
OK
FREE
CBBC
LIVE
OK
FREE
CBEEBIES
LIVE
OK
FREE
BBC PARLIAMENT
LIVE
OK
FREE
BBC IPLAYER
CATCH UP FAV CHANNELS
OK
FREE
ITV1
LIVE
OK
FREE
ITV2
LIVE
OK
FREE
ITV3
LIVE
OK
FREE
ITV4
LIVE
OK
FREE
ITV PLAYER
CATCH UP FAV PROGRAMMES
OK
FREE
CHANNEL4 OD
CATCH
UP FAV PROGRAMMES
NOT WORKING
FREE WHEN WORKING
CHANNEL5
CATCH
UP FAV PROGRAMMES
OK
FREE
*SKY
CATCH UP FAV & LIVE
OK
FREE
SETANTA
LIVE AND CATCH UP
OK
£7.99 month
*Note about Sky
Only the following channels are available on Sky Player-
National Geographic, British Eurosport, Disney Channel, Sky
Sports News, Sky News, MTV ONE, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr, Sky
Sports 1, 2, 3 & Xtra
If you are a Sky satellite subscriber with Sky Multiroom or
Sky Broadband Max, you can watch live TV on Sky Player at no
additional charge, all other Sky customers can subscribe for
£9.75 a month. Note that in all cases you can only watch the
channels that are already included in your Sky package.
Those without a Sky satellite subscription pay between £15 and
£34 a month depending on which package they choose.
To do be able to
watch the above channels online in Spain, you have to use something
called a proxy server. The link below is to a company who will
provide this service for £10 per month £27 for 3 months or £100 a
year. The service is easy to set up with online support. It only
takes about 10 minutes to get started.
I'm amazed how few
people over hereknow
about these great little gadgets . For anybody who hasn't heard
of them, they enable you to watch all your favourite satellite
channels or dvd's anywhere in your house without any cables. You
can watch satellite on your balcony, in the garden or just about
anywhere you've got a power supply. I've had one for years.
They only take about 15mins to install. You get a transmitter
and a receiver. The transmitter connects to a scart or a/v
socket on your satellite receiver or dvd player and the receiver
connects to a scart or a/v connector on your TV. Some older
portable tv's don't have scart connectors so if you have one of these,
you'll need a video sender with an RF output which connects to the
aerial socket (click
here to email me if you want more informationabout
this). You only need one transmitter and you can buy extra
receivers, so you could watch satellite in the bedroom, kitchen and on
the balcony for instance. You can even change the channel by
pointing your satellite remote control at the video sender. If
you wanted to send the signal from more than one source i.e a
satellite receiver and a dvd player, you would need two transmitters,
one for each. I haven't seen them for sale over here but maybe
you can find them. Again, Ebay is one of the best sources for
video senders. Always check that the seller will ship to Spain
(most will) Below you can see the current ebay auction for video
senders. I really can't recommend these highly enough. If
you need any help buying one,
let me know.
Free Music Online
From Spotify
I know this isn't
related to satellite tv but I'm so impressed with a music site I've
found, that I thought I'd share it with you. Spotify is
a brilliant new site for playing all your favourite tracks online.
Its completely free unless you choose the premium service which blanks
out a few audio ads. The ads only play about once every 20 minutes and
don't spoil it. If you hook your PC up to a your hi fi system,
the sound quality is great, you can play just about any track you can
think of. This isn't a download site so its 100% legal to use.
The only disappointment for me is that there aren't any Beatles tracks
available (something to do with copyright issues) but apart from that
its superb.
Is There Anything
Else I Can Watch With A 1mtr Dish?
Well actually yes.
Not many people realise that there are lots of satellites
transmitting signals which can be easily received on the Costa Blanca
and with the correct equipment, you could have access to about 4,000
channels. When I say correct equipment, its really only down to
which satellite the dish is pointing at.
Most digital
satellite receivers (with the exception of the digibox and freesat box
) will allow you access to these channels. Before you get too
excited, I must point out that the majority of the channels are
foreign. There are however quite number of completely free
channels which show English films, football, soaps, news etc. It's
just a matter of knowing where to find them. Being so close to North
Africa, it is very easy to pick up signals from the two main Arabic
satellites Arabsat and Nilesat. There are a number of free english
language channels on both these satellites including five or six
channels showing recent films, action and american sitcoms There are
also a lot of pay tv packages available which are similar in line up
to the Sky package. To watch these channels, you need to
purchase a card and the correct conditional access module or "cam".
Its possible to watch TV from many satellites with a motorised system.
A motorised system allows the dish to move to the correct satellite
depending which channel is selected.
Installing Your
Own Motorised Dish
If you'd like a
motorised system, you could always install your own. Providing
you follow instructions carefully it isn't too difficult. I've
installed three motorised systems over the years. It's a great
feeling when you've got everything lined up properly and all the
satellites are coming in. The video below shows you how to
install a motorised dish using what is called a usals motor. The
installation is basically the same whichever motor you use.
I like the horizon to horizon motors because they turn the dish
extremely quickly. I wouldn't recommend a disceq motor, they are slow
and prone to failure if it gets windy. Most modern
receivers don't have provision to drive 36 volt motors directly so you
need something called a VBox which powers the dish motor and is
controlled by the receiver.
If you want to spend
some time to find out what's available use the
Lyngsat site.
Lyngsat show all the available
satellites and what's on them. They also have charts for
every satellite which shows you the size of dish you require for each
one and whether the channels are encrypted (scrambled) Look at all the
satellites in the Euorope and Atlantic sections, you'll be amazed at
what's available. If you're confused about any of this, you can
email me here and I'll try and
answer any specific questions you may have.
Sky TV
Until recently, Sky
TV had a monopoly on all the English TV we could watch. Sky
owned the rights to broadcast the likes of BBC and ITV by satellite
and because their service was encrypted they were able to transmit
many of the popular channels on the Astra 2B satellite which was
receivable with a relatively small dish on the Costa Blanca. Sky's
encryption system "videogaurd" allowed anybody with a sky box and
card, access to these channels and because in theory only
viewers in the UK were able to buy cards, there were no copyright
issues. Sky were charging the BBC and ITV huge amounts of money
to use their encryption facility and even if you only wanted to watch
the "free" BBC and ITV channels, a card had to be purchased.
When their contracts with sky ended, the BBC and ITV decided not to
continue encrypting their signal on sky but still wanted to be
included in the sky electronic programming guide or epg. This
meant that BBC and ITV became free to air and no card was required but
because the signal was no longer encrypted and to comply with
copyright issues the channels had to be broadcast from the Astra 2D
satellite, which meant that only viewers in the UK could watch via
satellite. People on the Costa Blanca lost their BBC and ITV
almost overnight.
Where There's A
Will, There's A Way
The Brits are
renowned for their stoicism and weren't going to let this situation
beat them. Before long, some enterprising UK satellite
installers discovered that by using an extremely large (2.4mtr) dish,
reception of the Astra 2D satellite was still possible. These
monster dishes began to spring up all along the coast and are now
commonplace. As previously mentioned, for some people, fitting a
dish of this size isn't feasible and watching TV from the UK is
limited to some channels on the sky package but notably not ITV or
BBC. So the BBC and ITV along with a host of other
channels are still available on the Costa Blanca using a digital
satellite receiver and a large dish. Most satellite installers
on the Costa Blanca can supply you with all the necessary equipment
for receiving the sky package including subscriptions but shop around
for the best prices or better still ask people who already have it
installed for recommendations.
Freesat
In May 2008, sky's
monopoly of UK TV via satellite came to an end with the introduction
of Freesat. Freesat is a new satellite based service owned by
the BBC and ITV which transmits all your favourite UK channels via the
Astra 2D satellite. No subscription is required and the majority
of the channels can be received here on the Costa Blanca providing you
have the correct equipment.
Click here for the latest freesat channel line
up.
Sky and Freesat
With the exception
of ITV HD, all the channels available on freesat are also available on
sky .
Which Service Is
Best Sky Or Freesat?
There are advantages
of sky over freesat and vice versa. At the moment if you buy a
sky digibox, you will be able to watch anything you can watch on
freesat with the exception of ITV1 HD. If you bought a freesat
only box, you wouldn't be able to watch any of the channel 5's or
channel 4 HD and as freesat only boxes have no provision for a sky
card, you wouldn't be able to watch any of sky's subscription package.
Another problem with the freesat only boxes is that you may have
problems with ITV1 breaking up after 9pm or in bad weather, depending
whereabouts on the Costa Blanca you live. Whichever system you choose,
if you want to receive High Definition channels, you must purchase a
special HD version of the receiver.
High Definition
If you've got a flat
screen TV which is true HD, you can find HD satellite receivers really
cheap on ebay. If you haven't seen a real HD signal, the
difference is unbelievable. A lot of people think that because
they've got a high definition TV, that everything they watch is high
definition. It isn't. To watch HD television, you have to
have a high definition signal. This can be from a blue ray dvd
player or a high definition digital satellite receiver. You can
watch BBC and ITV HD channels here on the Costa Blanca with any
digital HD satellite receiver. To watch sky HD channels the best
option is a sky HD box.
Recording
Video tape recorders
are now a thing of the past. Today, you can buy satellite
receivers with built in recorders. These are basically hard
drives, similar to what's in your computer. To record standard
definition programmes a hard drive of about 300gb would be suitable
for most people. This would store a lot of programmes. For
HD, you would be better buying a receiver with about 500gb. If
you're looking for a satellite receiver which has recording
capability, look for the term pvr which means personal video recorder.
There are also receivers available which will transfer your recordings
on to a dvd.
Find A Satellite
Receiver On Ebay
There are literally
hundreds of satellite receivers sold daily on Ebay and you can pick up
some fantastic bargains. Below you can see a few of the
receivers available now. If you're considering buying something but
aren't sure if its going to be suitable over here
send me an email and I'll try and help you.
Do You Loose ITV1
After 9pm?
In parts of the
Costa Blanca ITV1 is weak and sometimes cracks up in bad weather. and
in a lot of areas, the signal disappears completely after 9pm. There
are however some channels from ITV areas which are still part of
the sky package and have a stronger signal than all the others. These
rarely crack up but to view them you have to have a sky free to view
card which I mentioned earlier. Make sure the
seller will ship to Spain. With one of these cards and a sky
digibox or a digital satellite receiver with a cam slot (conditional
access module) and a suitable cam, you will be able to watch ITV1
without the signal cracking up after 9pm and also be able to watch the
channel 5's which aren't currently available on freesat. These
are five, fiver, fiver+1 five U.S and five U.S+1. If you want to know
how to receive the stronger ITV1 signals and BBC1 on a digibox, click
here.
I know that a lot of
people have no idea about satellite TV and a lot of unscrupulous
dealers are happy to take advantage of this. Satellite TV has been my
hobby for 30 years and I'm happy to share my knowledge with you.
If you have anything you'd like to ask you can
email me here and I'll try and
help.