Free-to-air satellite television in Germany

I want to get English-language satellite TV for my home but don't want to pay the Murdoch capitalist shilling to Sky.

All I want is BBC, ITV, etc., just like at home. These should be free if all the articles I read are correct. I especially want ITV - the missus can't miss her Corrie, and I'm into F1. So far as I can see I need a card - my wife has a friend who gets BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, and says her friend definately has a Sky system and card but definately does not pay money to Sky. I called Bavaria Satellites, which is where my wife thinks her friend got her system from, but the duffer there said that there is no such card and I can only buy Sky from them. Are there any other satellite TV companies in Germany that can do this? It doesn't necessarily have to be totally kosher - I don't mind a little risk in my life.

If anyone has any ideas, or can provide some insight, I'd appreciate it.

LeftWing

You don't need a card for BBC1 and BBC2 - just a well installed dish and a digibox. You'll also get loads of other free (and mostly rubbish) channels. Not ITV, Channel 4 or 5 though.

You need a big dish. The standard dish is too small to pick up the channels since they moved transponder. I rekon you're looking at an 80cm dish at least for the Munich area.

I have an analog box and there's a dish for my whole apartment building. Does that mean that if I invest in a more expensive dish I'll get these free channels? I thought that I'd have to go through the crap of getting a Sky card with someone else's UK address and paying Sky £50/month.

Yeah, I have an 80cm dish in Munich and that works fine except during really nasty weather (still get Sky, but not the Beeb or ITV). I'm not sure if a card exists that lets you pick up just ITV and ITV2 - your other option would be a really cheap Sky package - thing is, you're lining Murdoch's pockets then - but as an F1 fan, you're lining Ecclestone's pockets as it is - one more tyrant won't hurt, surely?

There once was a card, that was free, and got you BBC, ITV, c4 and 5 - called a Free to View card, and anyone paying their TV license fee could get one (albeit, from Sky who issued the cards)

Since BBC went Free to air (not scrambled) this card no longer exists. Wanna get ITV? Well, apart from the fact that it really is the biggest load of shite, and on a par with German telly in watchability you NEED a basic Sky card, meaning a minimal Sky subscription. There are loads of great reasons to get Sky, but watching cars drive around THE SAME FUCKING TRACK 50 times, accompanied by a whining noise more annoying than somebody vacuum cleaning is not one of them.


Doubt it'll help ya. The dish will no doubt be pointing to the wrong satellite (and won't have any clever lnb work done on it to get signals from both) and secondly.

Analogue box won't help, I think you'll find that it's all digital now. So you'll need a new box and a large dish, I have a 1.0m Gibertini one (sitting on the patio/terrace) and I get everything (including ITV2) but you only really need the Beeb, ITV is shite. For F1 watch it on local tv with the sound down and listen to the commentary with R5.

I have all the joys of SKY TV thanks to help from Bavaria Satellite.

However when deciding on packages I gotta say that the MOVIE channels are the biggest pile of cack ever. I cannot believe that SKY manage to dig up 8 channels of unwatchable garbage with such consistency.

But as a man who was originally restricted to just BBC1 and BBC2 when I got here I must say you do need the others UK channels. Ironically Channel 4 works for me more than ITV...I love all the programmes about Brits moving abroad etc.

ITV is on a different satellite beam or something. C4 is on one with a larget footprint or summink. Wierdly, Discovery H+L works for me fine, but the Discovery H+L +1 channel is a bit hit or miss. No idea how or why..

When I say "it works for me" I was using figurative language to express my own personal tastes.

Hi All,

over the past few days I've been doing some research on free-to-air channels! Europe Satellites shows the available satellites in Europe.

If I have a dish installed at my home, and I move it slightly as per the angle of the satellite, will I be able to receive all free-to-air channels?

I actually want to know that if I buy a dish antennate (Sat receiver), then will I be able to watch all free-to-air channels beamed in Germany? Of course, I need to rotate the direction of the dish everytime. But is it practically feasible?

It depends on the channels you want to watch as different channels on different satellites have different coverage areas. If you click on the link you provided, then choose a satellite, link, then click on the "Beam" link (second column from the right) for the channel that interests you. In most cases this then shows geographical coverage and/or dish size for that particular channel.

BavSat

I get the bleed over from Eurobird on my computer sat card, but only partially on my digital receiver. How can I get the bad/matinee/true movie channels as well as the Nickalodeon Swedish channel, POP and Tina POP?

What do you mean "bleed over"? - the channels you mention have distinct and indivudual frequencies on the same satellite. See the Eurobird channel line-up, and in particular the frequencies 11.343 and 11.426

YL6

I mean bleed over from 28.5 to where my LNB is pointing at 28.2. My computer scanner picks up many of them and so does one digital receiver, but the other receiver doesn't see any of them.

As far as you (we) are concerned, these satellites are co-located, as they are so close together. If your dish can see them, then so should all your receivers. Sky use Eurobird for many of their FTA channels (see my link above) so all Sky subscribers can receive many of the Eurobird channels, despite them not being on Astra 2A/B/D, 0.3degrees around the corner.

Check your scan settings on the receiver that is not finding them...

YL6

Yeah, I fugured that the presettings are not allowing it to pick up most of the signals. My computer can scan ranges, but the receivers are bit more particular. I sort of wiped one clean by accident and now it is the one that picks them up. I had looked at that website, but didn't see the TP settings until now. I guess I will have to input each to be scanned and then run them. I may just add a "new" sat so that I won't pick up all the other crap again from Astra 28.2°. Several free channels still show as pay so I have to run FTA+CAS to be able to pick them up. I only have FTA, no Sky pay package.

Most digital receivers have pre-set transponders for each satellite. Transponders infrequently come and go so the receivers don't get the updates (unless, in some cases you update firmware). As you say, you probably need to enter the specific transponder data for the channels you need and perform a manual scan for ALL channels of all types on that transponder... Don't forget that some only transmit at certain times of day, so you may need to be sure they are online before you start hunting...

YL6

Are the channels via the Astra 2d satellite available for free, or is there a monthly subscription?

BBC channels and a few other TV stations and almost all the radio stations are completely free (Free to Air = FTA). You can use any digital receiver to get them from the Astra2D satellite.

The ITV channels, CH4, CH5 and a few more are Free to View (FTV) - this means you need to have a SKY Digibox and a FTV card. This card has no subscription, Uk residents pay a one-off fee to get it. Old SKY subsscription cards also work as FTV cards.

The rest (SKY One, SciFi, Sky Movies, Sky Sports, Discovery & similar, MTV & similar, ...) are subscription channels for UK residents. You can get details of all these and the various packages at www.sky.com

If you look through this forum, you will see all the issues relating to receiving UK TV whilst in Germany discussed at length in various threads. It is likely that all your questions (including some you might not have thought of yet) will already have been answered.

I'd like to see BBC1,2 & ITV without going in to the whole Sky contract thing - is this possible?

My landlord says no problem to installing a dish so what do I need?

Any help - much appreciated.

Thanks

Topics merged by admin

Just to clarify, do you need a dish to receive the BBC channels? And BBC Prime also? Or is the receiver-box enough? And they´re all free, you only pay for the box?

If you´re assuming I haven´t got a clue, you´re quite right.

I think you can buy a digi box from ebay also a old sky card which you dont have to pay for simply get it delivered to an english family house and get them to send it over all you need to do then is get a dish cost us about 200 euros to get it fitted and we get all the free channels including 1, 2 ITV 1, 2, 3 and 4 channel 4 and 5.

check out english ebay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sky-digital-box-Pace...tem160059685138

I have a Pace digital Sat box, 80 cm dish, "NO CARD" and i receive, BBC 1 2 3 4, ITV 1 2 3 4, Sky News, BBC News24, Film4, all the kids channels associated with the above, and many, many more. O.k no channel4 or Five, no big loss! I bought my box from eBay, and have no problems at all, even in bad weather. So in my experience all this card business is just bollocks!

bollocks maybe, but necessary if you want to watch five, channel 4 and a few others.

Why the fuck would you want to watch BBC Prime?

We have an 80cm dish. Together with a cheap digital sat reciever from media markt it is enough to get bbc1234, and ITV123 and CBeebies etc.
From my understanding if you want more then you need to get the sky box and card.

I'm living in Munich and recently gave up Sky TV and now receive "free to air" I think it's called. I get BBC, sky news, CNN and some others worth watching but does anyone know if it's possible to tune in and get ITV or channel 5 for example ? i'm pretty ignorant on this topic and would appreciate any further information from anyone. many thanks.

Topics merged by admin

UK free-to-air works perfectly in Hesse.

All BBC, ITV, Sky News, Teacher's TV, Horse & Country (a family favo(u)rite), and tons of cheesy movies on Movies4Men(2), True Movies and Zone Whatever.

EUR200.

If you are using the same ("Digibox") receiver you used to use to receive Sky services, then it should work fine for all BBC and ITV services from the UK as well as most radio channels and many more TV stations including Sky News, Film Four and lots of more trashy (e.g. shopping) channels... If it doesn't, and nothing has changed since, then you have another problem with dish or hardware. Channel 4 and five need a card, but this has a one-time charge, not monthly, like Sky.

Thanks a lot. No I got a new receiver as the sky one was bust and tuned in manualy to the BBC frequencies but have had trouble getting the other channels that I mentioned. For instance i'm not getting ITV or film 4.

Then you simply need to scan ALL frequencies (i.e. all transponders) on the satellite (and not just the ones that may be pre-programmed into the receiver) for the full service list. This is usually an advanced function in the receiver setup but depends on the make/model. RTFM!

FREE British TV & Radio Overseas

http://cgi.ebay.de/Sky-Digital-Channel-4-F...1QQcmdZViewItem
Here is the link to German e bay with a free to view card going cheap

Is there a service rep that installs dishes here in the Hannover region? I know it was available in Munich, but now we moved to Hannover and one advantage is I can finally install a dish on our house and subscribe to British TV :-) -- banned in our Altbau building in Munich. Thanks for any hints!

As far as I have seen here so far, no one has mentioned the "freesat" possibility. If you can get you hands on a freesat receiver (sold only in UK), and point a 100cm dish at Astra 2C, I believe this should allow you to get all (or most) of the channels you want! The receiver costs from 70 pounds from Argos, currys, etc.
I'm in the process of trying this method out...will get my freesat box in July! Till now, getting BBC and ITV through Astra 2C with a digi box I bought from Aldi! No C4, C5 though...

You only need a 65 cm dish in Baden W for astra 2..

You should be able to get Ch4.. have you re-scanned for new channels?

How do you rescan for new channels??

i though that C4 and C5 are not FTV and are not part of freesat??

Well.. You know what thought did...

ok C4 is freesat but no C5