View Full Version : Freesat sales top 2 million
More than 2 million people now have Freesat, the free-to-air satellite TV service, the company has said. The company also claimed that 47% of its users had defected from BSkyB, cementing Freesat's position as the fastest growing TV platform in the UK.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14820044
... and yet part-owner ITV is still nobbling the service by withholding the HD versions of ITV2, 3 and 4. :rolleyes:
Even so, this is an encouraging sign that a significant number of people see satellite as the way forward for receiving free-to-air TV, especially as Freesat's own studies suggest that they pick up a lot of viewers who are cancelling their Sky subscriptions. It looks as if people want to keep using the dish rather than reverting to a terrestrial aerial.
Why would anyone want to revert to an aerial when there is less bandwidth on Freeview?
The only advantage I can think of is that it's easier to split the signal to multiple receivers on Freeview.
Thanks to Sky's work-at-height policy, most dishes aren't more than 8ft off the ground these days, so it's not a major hassle to swap out an LNB for one with more terminals. Having said that, mine's right up on the chimney breast. Sitting up there on a roof ladder isn't very much fun. :erm: :D
The reason people go for Freeview over Freesat is that the Freeview brand is more pervasive and persuasive - it has been around for longer and uses familiar technology. Satellite dishes are still 'newfangled' to many and 'common' or 'tacky' to others.
Nevertheless, you're right, Freeview is already out of bandwidth and much shoe-horning has already gone on to try to wring more out of what they have. Meanwhile out in orbit at 28.2E, Astra 1N is about to go commercial, offering tonnes of narrow spot beam capacity to the UK.
Satellite dishes are still 'newfangled' to many and 'common' or 'tacky' to others.
They certainly are :D
When I make the transition to Freesat (that'll be when I can justify replacing my lovely Humax Freeview PVR), the dish will be going on the chimney breast at the back of the house (facing front) where it can only be seen from my attic window. That's partly because I live in a conservation area and I can't have it on the front of the house, and partly because I don't want a wok on my house. :p:
I'd quite like a lovely Humax Freesat PVR ... my in-laws have one, as do some friends. It's very shiny. :D
Our black dish has faded to a similar shade of grey as the render on our chimney so its not hugely visible. On the other hand, the dishes need to be a little bigger up here than they do in most of the UK.
So is my 1.2m dish a bit overkill?? :p:
For a radio/comms enthusiast I'd say that's a little on the small side, surely? :erm: :D
My partner wouldn't let me buy the one I wanted to buy.. Something about being too big?????
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/09/52.jpg
You'd need an awfully big chimney for that...
nashville
07-09-2011, 15:48
That was a great picture. Funny too
---------- Post added at 15:48 ---------- Previous post was at 15:41 ----------
I am really happy with Freesat, I just hope I have no problems on a very windy day with the dish moving.
Your dish shouldn't move ... it should be very firmly anchored in place, ideally to a brick or stone wall. If it moves more than the merest wobble you will suffer interference on some channels.
nashville
07-09-2011, 16:36
Thanks Chris. So far so good.
Did you get your dish with Freesat, or is it an old Sky installation with a Freesat box attached?
nashville
07-09-2011, 16:51
I got it with Freesat & I also bought the recorder box. Which is good, as I always like to record programmes.
Ah, right. I'd quite like to have a recorder myself. We have a basic Freesat box in our guest bedroom upstairs, and an unsubscribed Sky box downstairs. They're both attached to the dish Sky installed for us, 7 years ago, although I swapped the mono-LNB on the dish for a quad-LNB, so I could run two boxes now, and with a view to upgrading ours to a recorder later (that requires two attachments to the LNB).
Apparently a new generation of internet-enabled Freesat boxes are due to start appearing in 2012, so as long as my venerable Sky box keeps on chugging, we will stick with it and keep bringing the computer through to the lounge to watch catch-up TV on iPlayer.
nashville
07-09-2011, 17:09
You seem to be quite clever, I still have virgin tv in one room, because I was still with them for broadband & phone, although it is only a medium package it came in for free. It is good as a stand by, I miss catch up, but I just watch it on the net.
I don't know about clever ... :blush: ... I just like tinkering, egged on by certain other posters on here, especially the ones with an interest in satellite dishes. :rofl:
---------- Post added at 17:16 ---------- Previous post was at 17:12 ----------
Incidentally, Freesat's 2 million units amount to fewer than 400,000 SD boxes and more than 1.6 million HD boxes, PVRs and integrated TVs.
Its success seems to be driven partly by people cutting back spending on Sky subscriptions (Freesat claims that 47% of its sales this year have been to ex-Sky households), and partly by recognition that Freesat is a better platform for HD than Freeview. Someone needs to point this out to the idiots at ITV that still have their channels 2/3/4-HD locked behind Sky's subscription wall.
nashville
07-09-2011, 17:39
I don,y know much about sky. I just cut down from virgin as my bill was getting to much each month. But I have no complaints about them,
<snip>
Its success seems to be driven partly by people cutting back spending on Sky subscriptions (Freesat claims that 47% of its sales this year have been to ex-Sky households)<snip>
I had NTL/Telewest before moving out of a cabled area about 3-4 years ago. I decided to get Freeview and spend the money saved on a PVR. I don't think I'll ever go back to pay TV. I've never missed the couple of channels that VM offer that aren't on Freeview, and I'm not sufficiently interested in Football to justify a sky subscription. I do occasionally watch PPV Champion's league matches online, but generally speaking, I'm still wondering why I was paying VM for a TV package at all...
nashville
07-09-2011, 17:58
You are right there, I feel I have saved a lot of money each month, My husband is not into football too much, if it is a big game on sky, he just goes to the local pub, or he watches in on the net,
telegramsam
27-09-2011, 15:59
I also have Freesat hd pvr and like others wondering why ITV2,3,and 4 hd channels aren`t on here yet. Mind you I`m still waiting to get the ITV player on my Goodmans box! The message I keep getting on the screen is it`s coming soon. Well so is the second coming but I`d rather not wait that long for the ITV player! Incidently anyone know when the new satalite platform is launching? It`l certainly be interesting to see if it does well.
nashville
27-09-2011, 16:15
I think ITV player is there if you have a PC connection. ( I maybe wrong.) But that is not convenient for everyone to set up. Never heard about the satalite platform. I miss my catch up too. But I have the recorder box which helps. Anything else I catch up on the net.
I also have Freesat hd pvr and like others wondering why ITV2,3,and 4 hd channels aren`t on here yet. Mind you I`m still waiting to get the ITV player on my Goodmans box! The message I keep getting on the screen is it`s coming soon. Well so is the second coming but I`d rather not wait that long for the ITV player! Incidently anyone know when the new satalite platform is launching? It`l certainly be interesting to see if it does well.
Astra 1N is in orbit right now and should be just about to start commercial operations, if it hasn't already. After that it's up to broadcasters to sign contracts to use it.
That's not what's been holding up ITV 2/3/4 HD though. ITV has decided it's more lucrative to have the channels encrypted and take a cut of Sky's HD charge. That's why those channels are on Sky but not on Freesat.
nashville
27-09-2011, 16:37
I expect this will mean we would have to pay for it then.
telegramsam
28-09-2011, 16:00
I think ITV player is there if you have a PC connection. ( I maybe wrong.) But that is not convenient for everyone to set up. Never heard about the satalite platform. I miss my catch up too. But I have the recorder box which helps. Anything else I catch up on the net.
The pc connection is there,I can get BBCi player okay,it`s just ITV player that I can`t get. Apparently it`s only curently available on Humax boxes. What I don`t understand is why not on all Freesat boxes?
---------- Post added at 16:00 ---------- Previous post was at 15:56 ----------
Astra 1N is in orbit right now and should be just about to start commercial operations, if it hasn't already. After that it's up to broadcasters to sign contracts to use it.
That's not what's been holding up ITV 2/3/4 HD though. ITV has decided it's more lucrative to have the channels encrypted and take a cut of Sky's HD charge. That's why those channels are on Sky but not on Freesat.
This is typical of ITV these days,sheer greedy. Years ago they made a bad investment (ITV digitals football deal) and ever since they`ve been trying to make up the loss through the viewers.
vBulletin® v3.8.11, Copyright ©2000-2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.