Loading ...Whilst we are still 1 week away from launch and things are likely to change, we can confirm that the existing EPG listings is as follows (thanks to Andy H for these):
101 BBC 1
102 BBC 2
103 ITV1
104 Channel 4
106 BBC Three
107 BBC Four
108 BBC HD
113 ITV2
115 ITV3
116 ITV3+1
117 ITV4
120 S4C Digidol
122 E4 (presently encypted)
124 More4 (presently encrypted)
135 Zone Romantica
138 Zone Thriller
200 BBC News
201 BBC Parliament
202 S4C2
203 Al Jazeera Eng
204 Euronews
300 FilmFour
302 True Movies
303 True Movies 2
304 Movies4Men
306 Movies4Men2
402 Wedding TV
411 O’seasproperty
450 Men and Motors
500 Chart Show TV
501 The Vault
502 Scuzz
503 Bubble Hits
504 B4U Music
600 CBBC Channel
601 CBeebies
602 CITV
603 POP
604 POPGirl
605 Tiny POP
650 Teachers TV
700 BBC Radio 1
701 1Xtra BBC
702 BBC Radio 2
703 BBC Radio 3
704 BBC Radio 4 FM
705 BBC Redio 4 LW
706 BBC R 5 Live
707 BBCR5LiveSport
708 BBCR 6 Music
709 BBC 7
710 BBC Asian Net
711 BBC World Sv
712 BBC R Scotland
713 BBC RnGaidheal
714 BBC R Wales
715 BBC R Cymru
716 BBC R Ulster
718 BBC London94.9
800 QVC
801 price-drop tv
802 bid tv
803 Pitch TV
810 JML Lifestyle
951 BBC 1 Cl
954 BBC 1 East (W)
957 BBC 1 NI
960 BBC 1 Scotland
964 BBC 1 Wales
969 BBC 2 NI
970 BBC 2 Scotland
971 BBC 2 W
April 27th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Very unimpressive. No documentary channels, BBC Gold, Paramount Comedy, will have to do much better.
Peter WatersQuote
April 27th, 2008 at 11:47 am
only one hd channel thats a shame!
libQuote
April 27th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Is there any ability to have all the BBC1 and ITV1 regions in the EPG, or is it only the ones that your postcode allows?
Also, any sign of having DISEQC control of a positioning motor? If so, does it allow you to manually add channels on other satellites to the EPG?
TimQuote
April 27th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
I THOUGHT ITV HD WAS GOING TO BE AVAILABLE AT THE LAUNCH
bobby mQuote
April 27th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
very dissapointing line up(no fight network,nme tv ,zone horror,Zone reality,performance,travel channel,and many more fta sky channels missing)it will have to improve or it will be a flop up against freesat from sky
darnall42Quote
April 27th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Personally, I think this initial list is impressive. Once their respective contracts with Sky are up for renewal, I am sure we will see a mass exodus by the majority of the lesser channels towards this much cheaper broadcasting platform. Freesat will undoubtedly prove to be the most popular service in the UK.
AndrewQuote
April 27th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
According to freesat themselves Five and ITV HD are meant to be there on launch day ?
DaveQuote
April 27th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Doesnt look to bad so far i would expect more channels to show closer to launch like film 4 +1 and others.
garryQuote
April 27th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
I reckon they are still sorting the epg and will add other free to air channels before launch so anyone thinking this is should really keep faith cos there is no reason why u cannot watch any free to air channel
steveQuote
April 27th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Just a quick query about manually adding channels that aren’t on the EPG – does anyone know if it will work in the same way as a Sky box ie. having a separate ‘other channels’ section which don’t appear on the EPG, or will channels added by the user appear on the EPG, albeit with just a ‘now/next’ banner and no further info?
Hopefully it’s the latter option!
TonyQuote
April 27th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Well at least channel 4 is there, E4 is one I don’t care about.
All I really want is BBC HD, documentary’s and a few other programs in HD.
I have a working Freeview tuner built into my HDTV so I wont mis them, it’s all the HD stuff for me. ITV HD will come later though.
SKY HD costs to much.
Freesat HD = cheep
I am very excited about freesat.
SamuelQuote
April 27th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
“The BBC and ITV bring you freesat, a brand new digital satellite TV service offering free HD TV programming at no extra cost.” – http://www.freesat.co.uk
The site rave on about HD – but only 1 HD channel, disappointing.
If it want to compete with Sky they better decrease their Installation Charges and Increase the number of HD channels
CTXQuote
April 27th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Installation charges have nothing to do with Freesat, they are down to the installer.
TRonQuote
April 28th, 2008 at 10:17 am
No wonder they (BBC/ITV) are not making much of a song n dance about launch. For me, apart from Heroes, Damages and the odd football game the rest of the content on 108 is of no interest whether it’s in HD or not. Things can only get better eh…..
Barry SQuote
April 28th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
CTX says “they better decrease their installation charges”. Have you tried phoning aerial installation companies for a quote for dish and installation? I have and I can tell you that the cheapest I was quoted was £85, the dearest £175. So the oft quoted installation firgure of £80 sounds quite reasonable to me.
psyskiesmanQuote
April 28th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Has anyone read this from TechWatch?
“So it should be safe to say that the launch could be anytime soon, but with no word coming out from Freesat the delays could mean the wait going into the summer or beyond.”
I think they may be right.
BarryQuote
April 28th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
“very disappointing line up(no fight network,nme tv ,zone horror,Zone reality,performance,travel channel,and many more fta sky channels missing)”
This must be a joke, surely?
Virtually nobody watches this drivel it’s just padding to make the consumer think he’s getting a lot, when in fact it’s all a waste of space.
GeoffHQuote
April 28th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Al Jazeera – sounds like a hoot and a holla :-I
Where is Dave, MTV, VH1 Bravo.
They all carry adverts so shorly they can broadcast without us havving to pay (Sky) to get them?
As GeoffH says:
(Apart from BBC and other terastal chanles)
Virtually nobody watches this drivel it’s just padding!
(Well said GeoffH)
Pete in WeymouthQuote
April 28th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
well about ITV HD, I think they will launce on the day of the freesat.
“Is ITV involved in HD?
ITV has committed to launch an HD channel in 2008. ITV1 HD will feature the best of ITV sport and drama in stunning high definition quality. It will begin as a two-to three-hour peak time service that will extend its hours as HD audiences build.
HD is already capturing public imagination and industry forecasts suggest that the number of HD ready sets could reach 30 million by the end of switchover.
The launch of ITV1 HD will ensure that ITV is at the forefront of the HD revolution for our viewers and advertisers.
Freesat
A new digital satellite TV service from the BBC and ITV. Scheduled for launch in 2008, freesat has no monthly subscription, just a one-off payment for the digital box, satellite dish and installation. For more information visit the official freesat website. ITV HD content will be available via freesat.”
SamuelQuote
April 28th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
To Tron & psyskiesman reply : I was comparing the Sky’s Pay once watch forever to Freesat. They charge £75 which includes receiver, dish & installation (but no HD). As for installation companies charging £175, I don’t understand why people don’t just buy the £75 Sky Pay Once package and save themselve £100.
CTXQuote
April 28th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
I too am very disappointed about the line up at launch.
Definately needs some more HD services, why even broadcast any SD given that the boxes downscale?
Also needs;
1. Some natural history programming in HD eg National Geographic or similar
2. Something for the extreme sports fans eg Extreme Channel
3. A BBC sports channel in HD to give us HD football, rugby etc.
AlQuote
April 29th, 2008 at 12:48 am
Where are all the American chanlles that have been looking to come to the UK but not with sky?
I remember a few years age Time Warner looked like they were going to do a UK chanlle.
CBS, ABC, NIK, all missing.
A week ago Freesat looked fantastic now it is starting to look like a wet suqid.
Not many staff in the shope that are going to sell it from next week have evern herd of it – that says to me that the industry are taking it sereously.
I feel everyone has been hopping for this fantastic thing called freesat. Freesat has given little to no infomation up to now. This has led to everyone saying what they expect from it (Most of the things people expected it to do are quite reasonable if you know a little about saterlight and TV from around the rest of the world).
Now they are starting to release some infomation we realise at launch it falls well short of the mimamum of what most people were expecting/hopping for. I don’t think the cloke of secresey they have hid behind has done them any favers.
I sounds like it should grow into a fantastic service eventualy if it dosen’t go the same way as Digital Radio first and turn into a bit of a Dodo.
As they have poored so much money into this it baffles me to why they havn’t done any focus groops to find out what people want from
A- The equipment.
and
B- The programing.
I say this because looking on this and other Forums most people have been asking for the same things and reacting in the same way when they have found out what is happenning,
Pete in WeymouthQuote
April 29th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
l meet a tv camerman two weeks ago he said itv has no plans for hd channels
and that itv are short for cash. He could be wrong!
sky must be laughing there socks off.
libQuote
April 29th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Well all in all I’m not buying until:
a) There are PVR’s in HD out there that get top class reviews from reliable sites
b) They have a decent line-up sorted out with mostly HD programming
Otherwise I can see this going to the wall for lack of interest and those who bought equipment losing out.
AlQuote
April 29th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
I’m looking again at my terrestial options – could be a Televes DAT 75 with Margin Rising device if nothing changes.
AlQuote
April 29th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
All this is very technical (I’m not against that in itself), but I’ve only just found out about this new Freesat. As I’ve already got Freesat on Sky, will I be able to receive this new Freesat without getting any more equipment? If not, it’s going to be a bit confusing having two services with the same name.
JimQuote
April 29th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
No Islam Channel. No Peace TV.
BenQuote
April 30th, 2008 at 9:20 am
“b) They have a decent line-up sorted out with mostly HD programming”
Re HD, well that’s not going to happen for a while is it? Programme makers have only recently started filming stuff in HD. Like somebody said, it’s only going to get better though.
Freesat broadcasts the free-to-air channels, so channels like Nat Geo aren’t going to join. The service is mainly for people who want decent enough TV without paying the Murdoch dynasty anything, not for people who want the complete Sky package for free! People need to set their expectations a bit more realistically here
RichQuote
April 30th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Excellent to see the list of channels. Great job.
Would be nice to bring some foreign language channels on the EPG such these FTV ones:
RTBF-SAT (Belgian french general entertainment/news)
France 24 (English / news)
France 24 (French / news)
TV5 Monde (French general entertainment/news)
France 2 (French general entertainment/news)
France 3 (French general entertainment/news)
France 5 (French general entertainment/news)
Arte francais (French general entertainment/news)
Not that I am biased towards the French language
These are also on 5w, 19.2e and 13e.
In responce to another question:
A Sky digibox will receive all of these channels either already or may require the channels to be added manually (or through some sort of channel rescan) I do not know too much about the s/w on the Digibox but as these channels come from the same satellite as Sky bouquet then there ought not to be any serious obsticals.
I understand that Lidl sell an SL65 FTV satellite receiver. I use one for the moment. I won’t support the FreeSat EPG as far as I know but it works very well for viewing the channels. Its a rebranded Comcag / Silvercrest from a Germany company. They have other ones with CI slots and PVRs.
Simon ElQuote
May 1st, 2008 at 7:34 am
GeoffH Says:
April 28th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
“very disappointing line up(no fight network,nme tv ,zone horror,Zone reality,performance,travel channel,and many more fta sky channels missing)”
This must be a joke, surely?
Virtually nobody watches this drivel it’s just padding to make the consumer think he’s getting a lot, when in fact it’s all a waste of space.
Yeah but How many people really want channels like overseas property that are on the epg whilst the travel channels ,zone reality channels and performance channels (even cnn)are not on the epg(and virtually no radio stations apart from the bbc national ones) and with only one(or will itbe two)HD channel at present and no five channels for a while i cant see people dumping thier sky fta boxes and freeview boxes for Freesat yet
darnall42Quote
May 3rd, 2008 at 9:48 pm
I was looking forward to the launch, but the listing is short. Where are all the childrens channels, documentaries etc. Plenty needs to be done to bring this up to speed for a launch of a viable alternative to Sky?
JohnQuote
May 6th, 2008 at 8:57 am
I cannot believe all the negative comments. It is only launch day, what do you expect on launch day.
I can remember when Sky first launched and it was considered a JOKE. I can still remember comedians making jokes about Sky in its early days.
Let’s see what it is like in 6 months or a year, then make comments.
AlanQuote
November 19th, 2008 at 11:33 am
why is Radio BBC1/2/3/4 scrambled on my freesat ..Just rescanned and still no joy???
DaveQuote
May 6th, 2010 at 7:46 pm
This comment is addressed to the person who writes the EPG for ITV1. Tonight there is a prog called Separate lives:Tonight. When they wrote the blog for it they spelt separate as seperate.
What an idiot,they should go back to school.
GordonQuote
July 22nd, 2010 at 12:53 pm
How do you turn off the narration in programes. as I find this to be most annoying, hearing a women commenting in programes. I cannot find the option to diable this feature in the manule
How do you turn off the narrationQuote
November 24th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
Way is it, If freesat is part itv/bbc then has sky got itv 2 3 4 frst ? Sky is One big
con and sooner pepel wake to that.The better for all. Freesat we on side.
BarrieQuote
November 25th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
What The guy means Is. Sky Has got 234 Hd Before Freest and that Is not wright.
SatmanQuote