Freesat sales top 2 million

**Chris** · 07-09-2011, 12:46

Quote:

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.

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.

danielf · 07-09-2011, 12:55

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.

**Chris** · 07-09-2011, 13:06

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.

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.

danielf · 07-09-2011, 13:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

Satellite dishes are still 'newfangled' to many and 'common' or 'tacky' to others.

They certainly are

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.

**Chris** · 07-09-2011, 14:12

I'd quite like a lovely Humax Freesat PVR ... my in-laws have one, as do some friends. It's very shiny.

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.

Kymmy · 07-09-2011, 15:22

So is my 1.2m dish a bit overkill??

**Chris** · 07-09-2011, 15:28

For a radio/comms enthusiast I'd say that's a little on the small side, surely?

Kymmy · 07-09-2011, 15:31

My partner wouldn't let me buy the one I wanted to buy.. Something about being too big?????

danielf · 07-09-2011, 15:38

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.

**Chris** · 07-09-2011, 15:56

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.

**Chris** · 07-09-2011, 16:37

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.

**Chris** · 07-09-2011, 16:55

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.