Freesat and Freesat from Sky
 

Can anyone tell me what differs between free sat and the free sat sky offers?

Re: Freesat and Freesat from Sky
 

There is very little difference between the channel line ups. There may be one or two channels on FSFS that are not on Freesat but none of the main ones that you would notice. The main difference is that you can't use a Sky+ box with "Free"SatFromSky, unless you pay them (I know).

FSFS was launched by Sky as a response to the threat posed to its business by Freesat. What you get is a standard Sky box, with the Sky EPG, with all the channels listed exactly as they are if you have a paid Sky subscription, ie. every channel listed whether you can receive it or not, and a nag screen on all the non-subscribed channels inviting you to phone up and order them. If you already have an old Sky box, you can phone them up and get a FSFS card to shove in it for £25. But, if you have an old Sky+ box you would have to pay them £10 a month, in addition to the one-off £25 charge to get the card, to be able to record on it.

The only advantage to having FSFS is if you think you might want to upgrade and get a Sky subscription at some future point, but to be honest in that case you would be better off actually subscribing to Sky and getting a free box, dish and installation rather than getting FSFS which you have to pay for.

Freesat, on the other hand, only has channels in its EPG which you can actually view, so it makes the EPG much easier and cleaner to use, and of course you can channel hop up and down as much as you like and never see a nag screen. You can take your pick from a range of different STBs and you can run a PVR without having to pay for that part of the functionality to work.

Re: Freesat and Freesat from Sky
 

Freesat also has some minor "flavours"...
Freesat standard
Freesat+ recorder
Freesat HD
Freesat+ HD
And more advanced, Freesat with Freetime, brings the Youview style EPG (go backwards for catchup)

The least good kind of "freesat" is FTA Sat - if it's not Sky and does not carry a Freesat logo - then it will only have "now & next" as it does not use the Freesat EPG (some may have an internet based EPG) - this kind of system has turned up in the discount supermarkets.

Re: Freesat and Freesat from Sky
 

As for the EPG I had an FTA box with 7 day EPG ;)

It depends on the firmware. Linux based boxes can get the full EPG with a software add-on where others can not. The main problem with FTA is that if you want just UK channels then you have to spend a few hours in the channels list sorting it all out ;)

Re: Freesat and Freesat from Sky
 

The whole point of Freesat was to bring the same easy to use digital experience to satellite, that was in the process of being rolled out for terrestrial, in the form of Freeview, and to head off the likelihood that digital terrestrial broadcast coverage might never quite extend as far as analogue did. Freesat ensures that there is a permanent, universal, free-to-air TV service in the UK.

Satellite enthusiasts were of course able to get free-to-air channels for some time prior to that, however the faffing about you describe really did relegate it mostly to the realms of hobbyists and determined caravaners.

Re: Freesat and Freesat from Sky
 

i may look into this further thanks guys.