Satellite TV providers in the Hannover area

Hello,

i will finally be moving to my own hope -- which provides the opportunity to install a satellite dish to receive British TV.

Can anyone recommend a firm who carries this out in the Hannover region?

Thanks!

As I understand it, you can only readily get the unencoded BBC-related channels (BBC 1-4, BBC News 24, CBeebies, etc.), and even then I'm not 100% sure it works in the Hannover region (the Beeb's satellites are pointed at the British Isles, and the reception works in parts of northwestern Germany closest to the UK). I vaguely recall hearing that the border runs just to the east or west of Hannover, but can't remember which.

The private channels like ITV are all encoded, and to get the decoder, you have to have a UK address and buy the kit in the UK from Sky.

As far as getting the equipment you need, any of the big-box media stores can do it -- Saturn, Media Markt, Karstadt and so on. Personally I'd recommend Karstadt, not because of experience with satellite (unfortunately we can't do satellite where we live) but because of past experience with other electronics and appliance purchases there. The Karstadt store in Große Packhoffstraße is where you'd need to go. You just need a dish, set-top box and low noise block converter (LNB).

If your house already has cable (and especially if it turns out it doesn't work in Hannover), digital cable might also be an option, though unfortunately the package of English channels is still pretty minimal. Better than nothing, though.

Cheers,

Fairfax71

I looked into getting Sky here in Germany, and a company "German Sky" were offering a service.

Not sure how it works, or even if they're still operating (I just checked their website, and they're having some kind of problem).

German Sky

That's not completely true (any more). ITV 1..4 are free to air and since May 2008 Channel4, More4, and E4 as well. Also the BBCs.
But it may be possible that the signal in Hannover is low. A bigger dish will help. If you can afford a 100cm dish I am nearly sure that will work. PM me if you have questions.

But: if you need any of the pay tv channels I have no idea how to get them...

As it happens I just spoke to a friend who does have satellite and gets British TV (she lives on the southeastern edge of Hannover), and it does work there, so where ShippyM is living it definitely ought to work -- though I didn't think to ask what size dish she has...

Good to know about ITV, thanks. Makes me wish I had a house just to watch satellite TV.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, she said she apparently had rigged their dish so that they had two LNBs, each focused on a different satellite, so they can switch back and forth. Hadn't heard of doing that before...

Cheers,

Fairfax71