Join freesat

Want your thoughts and suggestions on the new Freesat platform to be heard? Then this is your opportunity. Freesat and their PR company regularly read this blog and see it as a valuable resource with a good level of customer interaction.

You may have seen the addition of a poll down the left hand column, this was introduced at the request of our readers, and Freesat have been made aware of it. Whilst it only offers basic voting functionality, it does give a good indication of what potential Freesat customers want, and we are confident Freesat are taking note.

We want to take it one step further, and are giving you the opportunity to get involved. We want you to post your comments below about what you want to see over the next 6-12 months. Freesat won’t be a success without a good level of customer interaction, so have your voice heard.

A few examples from reading comments on our posts include:

- Inclusion of FIVE, won’t buy Freesat until its available
- Inclusion of C4HD, its a free channel that should be on Freesat
- Waiting for a HD-PVR

Get involved, have your say, Freesat are reading.

Freesat’s PR company (fireflycomms) have contacted us in response to our post below to inform us of the following:

“Freesat is in fact working with manufacturers and retailers to make sure that more HD boxes will be in the shops within the next week, not the next few weeks as you say.”

“For those who want to purchase a HD box over the weekend some shops will reserve boxes for customers in-store, and Argos and Comet will take reservations online. All stores currently have standard definition Freesat receivers on sale.”

Our original post was information given to us over the phone with a customer service representative at Freesat, but we appreciate fireflycomms taking the time to contact us directly with a more official and accurate indication of available (thanks Helen).

Freesat have today confirmed that availability levels of all Freesat digital boxes remains low, and do not expect a significant change in availability for a few weeks yet.

Since Freesat’s launch on 6th May stocking levels have been incredibly low, with each retail store gaining a handful of boxes a week at most, with only a few hundred available for online purchase. Whilst Freesat claim this is due to ‘high demand’, we believe its more to do with the recall of Alba Group boxes due to software issues; this and the extra strain put on Humax, having the only available Freesat Digibox Box from launch.

It is suggested that there are only a couple of thousand Freesat Digibox Boxes in the country, although Freesat wouldn’t confirm these figures.

In terms of priority, “the big 4″ (Comet, John Lewis, Argos & DSG Group) are taking what little boxes do come through from the manufacturers, with none of the distributors dealing with independents yet to get any substantial numbers.

Rest assured that as and when stock becomes available online, we’ll put the information down the right hand side so you can purchase quickly, before they run out!

We’ve heard plenty of stories about the main retailers telling consumers in-store misleading and inaccurate information on the new Freesat service, but Currys have gone one further by publishing a product on their site that we just couldn’t ignore.

Currys have made available (albeit ‘out of stock’) an installation package for £79.99 plus £6.99 delivery. Fair enough you might think, but its what the package is and suggests that really got us started.

It seems that the package does not include a dish, LNB or cable; they simply come out and plug the existing cables into the Freesat Digital Box for you, as if thats so hard to do yourself. So what are you paying £79.99 for? Very little it would seem! All retaillers are meant to be offering a installation service, this isn’t one and hopefully Freesat are taking note.

Also, they make mention to you needing a Sky Digital dish; sure Freesat won’t be too happy about that, not apart from the fact there’s no such thing as a Sky Digital dish, merely a dish suitable for receiving channels through the Sky Digital platform.

Visit the installation product and see for yourself.

Update (16-May-08) - It would seem that Currys have now updated the product to include installation of a dish etc, in line with the other retailers. The link above now takes you to the correct product. 

Dixon’s have annouced they are now selling the Humax Freesat HD Digital Box (FOXSATHD) online. Not only that, but they are offering a 10% discount using code ‘FREESAT’ until Midnight 18th May 2008.

Its just a shame they have risen the price of the box by £10, but that could easily be due to shortage!

Visit Dixon’s to buy the Humax FOXSAT-HD Digital Box.

Published on freesat’s website today:

“Due to very high demand there is a shortage of freesat HD boxes in the shops at the moment. We are working with freesat retailers and manufacturers to increase supplies as soon as possible”.

“In the meantime some freesat retailers will allow you to reserve HD boxes for collection when stock comes in. The freesat website will continue to give you updates.”

Not so sure this is due to high demand looking at the distribution quantities but hopefully all will be sorted soon.

The Guardian have published an interesting interview with Emma Scott, Managing Director of Freesat.

Some interesting points made include:

“Freesat is a free platform and we want people to understand that. If we find there is an interest in pay TV services as a supplemental, then we’ll address it”.

“Sky is a pay-television subscription service and their primary aim is to deliver value to their shareholders through driving subscription income. Their core offering is around sport and movies. If that what’s you want, that’s brilliant. The free market is very different and I don’t think that’s a core market for Sky”.

“A version of the BBC’s iPlayer could be delivered to Freesat viewers within months”.

“Freeview will become the new analogue. You’ve got to pay at the other end of the spectrum with great choice and premium movies. We see Freesat sitting in the middle, offering more channels, more flexibility, more HD. It just offers more choice in the market for consumers”.

Read the full article here.

Setanta Sport, a pay-tv sports network presently available on Sky and Freeview, are currently in discussions with Freesat. They are considering allowing access to their channels through Freesat, free of charge, with income coming from advertising only.

This would be a huge boost for Freesat as Setanta is seen as an important package for keen sports fans, with a proportion of english football and world golf, plus many other sports.

Whilst an interesting prospect, Setanta will have to put significant investiment into making their channels available FTA on Freesat, whilst continuing to supply to Sky customers by subscription only.

The discussions are in very early days, there’s no way Setanta would take such a move now, but the future would certainly look interesting if Freesat can place agreements with such channels.

Leave you comments below, lets help push Setanta into making this a reality.

Argos have finally been given the go ahead to release the Freesat SD Digital Boxes for sale. We beleive these are the secondary batch without the problems encoutered with the first units.

You can buy now from Argos for store collection (stock limited) or delivery to you (next day available):

Goodmans GFSAT100SD Silver Freesat SD Digital Box (532/1571) £69.99

Bush BFSAT01SD Freesat SD Digital Box (532/1557) £49.99

We have unconfirmed reports that a request was made yesterday to all major retailers and distributors that the Alba Group Freesat receivers (namely Grundig, Goodmans and Alba) have been recalled and must be returned to the main wholesaler.

We don’t have specific details on the reason, other than ’software’ complications.

In an earlier blog it was suggested by Humax commercial director Graham North that they would be the only manufacturer to have a HD receiver available at launch. As time went by we were led to beleive this was wholly inaccurate, it would seem maybe it was spot on after all. Do we suspect a conspiracy? (just kidding!)

For anyone that managed to obtain an Alba Group receiver, we would suggest calling Freesat to check whether it needs returning or not. It would seem that if a recall is required, then its not just an easy ‘over the air’ software update to resolve.