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It has been confirmed that the Business and financial news channel CNBC will be making its way to Freesat on Tuesday 23rd February 2010.
The channel moved from being an encrypted subscription channel on Sky’s news pack to becoming free-to-air (FTA) on 21st January 2010, leading to speculation that it might be launching on Freesat and now that seemingly has been confirmed.
Speaking of the launch, Mick Buckley, President and CEO, EMEA of CNBC, said;
Our decision to be available on Freesat, and to become a free-to-air channel in the UK, is part of our strategy to aggressively grow our distribution across EMEA in 2010.
Business and financial news remains very pertinent in today’s economy and this change gives consumers the opportunity to watch the best analysis of what’s happening in the financial markets in the UK and across Europe.
Last year CNBC significantly grew its upscale and affluent audience, as more viewers wanted to keep abreast of the dramatic changes in the economic environment. Our most recent EMS viewing figures showed that our daily audience was up 18% and our monthly audience broke seven million viewers,
The confirmed of the channel number slot will be 210 and will automatically be added via channel update some time on the 23rd.
This is good news that a another major broadcaster has taken what is an unusual decision to leave subscription only behind on satellite, in order to gain a potential wider audience (now 12 millions potential households); hopefully more will follow.
February 19th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
I wonder if they still carry the David Letterman show?
Another channel for Freesat meanwhile Freeview still has 50+2 channels unsuprisingly.
Richard CrichtonQuote
February 19th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Excellent news, fingers crossed for another HD channel soon, or i’d even be happy if the BBC HD channel increased it’s bit rate on freesat.
Lee BQuote
February 19th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
CNBC never showed David Letterman, but they do have The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brian on Saturday and Sunday nights at 8pm and at 11pm weeknights.
Hopefully Jay Leno will be back soon.
horslipQuote
February 19th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
I wonder how many more channels will come to Freesat with the impending launch of Freeview HD. Since the backers are the same, you think they’d launch on FreeSat at (almost) the same time.
Peter RQuote
February 19th, 2010 at 5:51 pm
Good news. Hopefully we’ll see a bit more channel activity this year. I gather Film24 *may* appear in the next few months.
Kevin McFarlaneQuote
February 19th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
@Peter R (nice name) – you would think so, but there’s just not enough space up there in the cloud (well…past the clouds into space actually) for any more UK HD channels on satellite with the licenses the broadcasters currently have. (correct me if I’m wrong here)
There are two satellites that broadcast very close together: Astra 2D and Eurobird 1. Astra 2D points directly at the UK, while Eurobird 1 covers the UK and most of Europe (as well as India if memory serves). Broadcasters (such as BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five) license shows not made by themselves to be broadcast to a certain country (usually the UK). This means that the shows should (legally) only be available to those in the UK. Therefore, they cannot broadcast the shows from the Eurobird satellite as other European countries could watch them.
However, encryption services (such as the one used by Sky) makes it impossible to legally watch a channel unless you have a card (which will only be issued to those in the UK). This allows channels to go on Eurobird 1.
Unfortunately, Sky has some of their encrypted channels on Astra 2D (not many though) and Astra 2D has no more capacity for additional TV channels. This means we can’t get any more channels, especially HD ones, unless they have licenses for Europe, India, etc and broadcast from Eurobird 1 or Sky moves their remaining encrypted stuff to Eurobird 1 leaving space for a few channels.
Alternatively, wait a few years for the new Astra satellite to be launched.
Peter SQuote
February 19th, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Good
The More The Merrier………………….
As long as we get no more shopping or god squad channels.
Not going to [again] debate the HD / transponder availability issues stated in earlier posts.
Just glad we have another and one that I will [occasionally] want to watch. Fox News would be good too. Awful, blinkered reporting, but worth it for the hysterical Glenn Beck. I love his show and – tragically, he makes pretty good sense, apart from his love of the NRA.
Maybe one day but I doubt it as Fox is a Dirty Digger brand.
Regards
Paul S WattsQuote
February 19th, 2010 at 11:51 pm
@Peter S, not really true that there is no space for HD channels on Astra 2D, it just requires some minor shuffling of channels on BBC and ITV transponders. The main move that needs to be made is Five to be moved from a BBC transponder to an ITV one, which would allow the two BBC Ones on the the BBC HD transponder to be moved off ready for a switch to S2 & stat muxing with ITV1 HD/Five HD.
MattQuote
February 20th, 2010 at 12:51 am
Thank god for Freeview, as it seems this is the only way we are going to get HD on all the main channels in the foreseeable months. I feel I have been sold a red herring with FreeSat with their advertising spill of 200 + channels most of which are to me not worth watching, I brought into FreeSat only for HD content, and now after 14 months since I brought my FreeSat box, all we have is still 1 and a bit HD channels and now they are saying there is not going to be any more HD content or even UK specific channels until 2012 because of the narrow beam issue!!!!!
oyodiQuote
February 20th, 2010 at 2:29 am
@oyodi
Not neccesarily so. As Matt says, a reshuffle of existing 2D TP’s carrying some SD and HD channels could provide enough bandwidth to launch C4HD on the BBC’s HD TP and switch to DVB-S2. In the short-term I think Freeview might get a head start but if we all have this conversation in two or certainly three years time it will be a different story as satellite will have so much more room for extra bandwidth. Once you’ve got your three HD Freeview channels enjoy them as your unlikely to get any more for the foreseeable future (5+years) unless they decide to start removing more SD channels and can’t see this as they are short of bandwidth as it is!
NeilQuote
February 20th, 2010 at 6:28 am
Anyone with a handle on English grammar care to check that story/?
fluffyQuote
February 20th, 2010 at 7:59 am
Good News
AlanQuote
February 20th, 2010 at 9:10 am
The narrow beam is just a smoke screen in reality; C4HD has had opportunities to launch FTA but the lucrative deal from Sky is keeping them FTV and will do until a time comes when C4 can be encouraged to allow access to all. Anyway, this is a post regarding CNBC, lets not take it down the same road again.
@fluffy
By all means let us know via email the imperfections with our grammar rather than post on here; I’m merely providing the news and don’t confess to be a writer!
adminQuote
February 20th, 2010 at 9:24 am
@Horslip
I remember watching David Letterman and Jay Leno shows on CNBC before they went encrypted on Sky.
Richard CrichtonQuote
February 20th, 2010 at 9:27 am
Admin, I think that comment about grammar was directed at post 9. Bought not Brought.
peter piperQuote
February 20th, 2010 at 10:00 am
Well if that is the case then apologies to fluffy
adminQuote
February 20th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
cnbc for most will only give you the jay leno show when it returns to nbc in the usa. at the moment they are just showing repeats of Conan 0″ brain who took over the tonight show. also if you like to see the nbc nightly news live from new york ,this can be found at 11.30pm. you wont ever see david letterman on cnbc because he works for cbs. it would be like seeing coranation street on the BBC
CNBC will fill a tiny bit of the day in for me as i like the Tonight SHOW and the NBC NIGHTLY NEWS but i would never sit and whatch the ticker tape going across the screen during bussiness hours. there our plenty of other channels to see on freesat
TerenceQuote
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
@Oyodi
No Freeview HD coverage where I live until Q2 2011 so I am glad I have Freesat HD.
When I buy a new television it will have Freeview HD as standard.
Freesat is doing a good job but more HD would be nice.
Richard CrichtonQuote
February 21st, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Does Freeview HD provide anymore HD content than Freesat? I’m guessing it’s the same time-limited BBC HD content, and the same budget-limited ITV HD streams? I don’t think they are even broadcasting C4HD yet, are they?
And does anyone know when the new Astra satellite is going to be available? It was going to be launched in Q4 2009, wasn’t it? Surely then we’ll be able to get C4HD – providing C4 haven’t done something daft like tie themselves into a another five-year contract wth Sky.
Brian DamageQuote
February 21st, 2010 at 11:01 pm
@19 – Brian
Astra 2E will launch in 2012, 2F in 2013, and 2G in 2014. These 3 new satellites will all carry multiple beams including narrow beams for the UK.
Therefore its going to be late 2012 before any appreciable extra narrow beam capacity becomes available – and it might be 2013 before EXTRA capacity becomes available – 2E will probably be the replacement for 2D which will be about life expired by then.
RossQuote
February 22nd, 2010 at 1:02 am
@Ross.
2012?! Ouch. I really thought I’d read a launch in late 2009, and broadcasting this year.
Well that’s Fressat HD done for, then isn’t it!
I wonder when there’ll be a dual tuner Freeview HD receiver in the shops. I think I read that Pace we’re going to produce a succesor to the Twinview. I just hope I didn’t imagine that too, like I seem to have imagined the new Astra satellite this year!
Brian DamageQuote
February 22nd, 2010 at 1:14 am
@Me!
Just found this:
“Ferdinand Kayser, President and CEO of SES ASTRA, said: “The move of ASTRA 2C demonstrates our strong commitment to develop 31.5 degrees East into an important position, especially for Central and Eastern Europe. At the same time our fleet flexibility allows us to redeploy ASTRA 2C at 28.2 degrees East after the launch of Astra 3B in order to serve the growth in the UK market, particularly coming from High Definition (HD) broadcast services.”
Atras 3B is due to launch Q1 2010, so hopefully 2C will find it’s way home again soon after that
Brian DamageQuote
February 22nd, 2010 at 1:17 am
March 24th:
http://www.arianespace.com/news-mission-update/2010/668.asp
Brian DamageQuote
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:30 am
Dont forget Astra 2C has ultra widebeams covering the whole of Europe which isnt going to help Freesat HD much unless you have channels which dont have rights problems (Fashion TV HD maybe??
).
RossQuote
February 22nd, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Aren’t there enough news channels on Freesat already? I think the absolute priority should be figuring out any means to get some more HD content, especially 4HD (if capacity issues can be overcome). There are 3 million of us who live in Wales who won’t EVER have the luxury of 4HD on Freeview when HD channels lunch here next month as we are going to be subjected to the welsh language channel S4C-HD instead.
AndrewQuote
February 22nd, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Getting a pre loved Sky HD box and viewing card may be the best way forward for people who must have 4HD now. I’m not sure how it all works on $ky. How does one get a valid viewing card? There must be a snag.
( Luxe TV HD, Channel 4 HD and BBC HD are available without subscription. Channel 4 HD requires a valid viewing card.)
Richard CrichtonQuote
February 22nd, 2010 at 2:45 pm
RE 26:
Having a $ky HD box (even with a viewing card to enable viewing of CH4 HD), will still leave the problem of being unable to record programmes, unless you pay $ky £10 a month for the privilege.
PaulB007Quote
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:29 pm
HD is great and more will come but I have never not watched somthing because it wasnt HD. If what I want to watch is HD then well and good, but to be honest, I am not bothered. My SD Picture is great on my Pioneer 5010.
Some complainers may well do beter by getting a better TV, or dare I say, even a life..lol
I am ducking now, Chris
chrislayerukQuote
February 22nd, 2010 at 10:12 pm
so after 28 remarks i take it no one wants to watch cnbc unless its in HD
TerenceQuote
February 22nd, 2010 at 10:26 pm
Just been onto the freesat information channel to see if its been updated with the launch of CNBC……Nada! The page was specifically for new channel launches. What is the point of it if thay can’t be arsed to upload the information??
saltydawgQuote
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:27 pm
I agree with Chris. All these people moaning about HD like its a matter of life or death. surely channels with better quality programmes is what we should all be hoping for. Im not gonna be more likely to watch a programe just cos its in HD.
castleboyQuote
February 23rd, 2010 at 7:13 am
we know the same old argument every time news gets posted on this, frankly great site. “more HD content!!” and i think we all would like more HD content but cant we discuss the news that is actually there?
cnbc joining freesat is great news, especially as it used to be a subscription channel. i guess freesat is doing something right huh?
peteQuote
February 23rd, 2010 at 8:04 am
When we do get more HD channels people will only whinge that the bit rate is not high enough.
JonQuote
February 23rd, 2010 at 12:59 pm
CNBC now on freesat 210
Mark SQuote
February 23rd, 2010 at 2:49 pm
@castleboy, well said.
Kevin McFarlaneQuote
February 24th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
its all business news fantastic just what i wanted *insert sarcasm another useless channel taking up space. having hd preview 40% of the time with bbc and itv sporadic hd service makes me feel cheated..was prommised much more from freesat.
johnQuote
February 24th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
@ Richard Chrichton Letterman is a CBS show and has never aired on CNBC.
@ PaulB007 As 80% of Freesat customers aren’t buying PVRs, recording HD doesn’t seem to be an issue.
derek500Quote
February 26th, 2010 at 9:33 am
CNBC will be handy for business news. Sky News would be nice too but I can see Sky witholding it simply on principle. It surprises me that no STB has implemented something akin to the Other channels option on a Sky box that allows people to manually scan & add channels to their lineup even if there is no EPG / recording capability.
lockaQuote
February 27th, 2010 at 8:55 am
@38 Sky News is available on Freesat in non-Freesat mode.
derek500Quote