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Sunday, September 12, 2010

Live NFL - American Football back on Channel 4

It's coming home! Channel 4 to show live American football again on Sunday nights



Channel 4 will show American football again this season, bringing back a mountain of memories for long-time supporters of the sport.
The channel will screen the late Sunday match live every week, with coverage beginning at 1am and the matches at 1.20am.
The first match will be between Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys on September 12.

Almost three decades after first appearing on Channel 4, the NFL is returning to its original station in a new deal to broadcast Sunday Night Football.

The NFL was first shown back in 1982 on Channel 4, with its 'American Football' show. The coverage evolved into a mixture of live, highlights and magazines shows. For many fans, the channel will always be seen as the natural home for the sport on British televison.

The NFL was first introduced to the UK on a weekly basis when newly-launched Channel 4 began airing its 'American Football' show in November 1982. The station's coverage evolved into a mix of live, highlights and magazines shows and continued until January 1998, when the Denver Broncos beat the Green Bay Packers in the last game to be aired on the channel.

Alistair Kirkwood, managing director of NFL UK, said: 'This is very exciting news. Not only does this deal ensure that the NFL’s biggest game of the week and the sport’s most exciting stars are available on free-to-air television in the UK, but it takes the league back to the station that many of our fans grew up watching all those years ago.'

It was only a few years back that interest in the sport seemed to be in terminal decline in Britain.

But with the BBC screening the Super Bowl, and two live games on satellite broadcaster Sky every Sunday, together with the Monday match on ESPN, there has never been more opportunity to watch the action.



What else was happening when Channel 4 launched their coverage in 1982?

A pint of beer cost 62p
Culture Club were number one in the charts with 'Do You Really Want to Hurt Me'
The first commercial CD was produced
England went home early from the World Cup finals (some things never change)
Daley Thompson was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year
Among the most popular shows on TV was Fame - the era's version of Glee
The mullet was the new men's hairstyle of choice
ET and Bladerunner were among the year's big movie releases


The deal with Channel 4 completes the line-up of NFL broadcasters for the 2010 season, which kicks off on Thursday September 9th:

Sky Sports - two lives games every Sunday (6 p.m. and 9 p.m.), plus Thursday and Saturday night games throughout the season and every playoff game live, including Super Bowl XLV from North Texas, on Sunday February 6.
Channel Four - Sunday Night Football every week.
ESPN - live Monday Night Football every week (1.30 a.m.)
BBC TV - Super Bowl XLV live; weekly playoff highlights; Wembley game highlights on October 31.
BBC Radio - weekly live game commentary (9 p.m.) on 5Live Sports Extra.


Sunday Night NFL Football fixtures:

1 Sunday, September 12 Dallas @ Washington

2 Sunday, September 19 NY Giants @ Indianapolis

3 Sunday, September 26 NY Jets @ Miami

4 Sunday, October 3 Chicago @ NY Giants

5 Sunday, October 10 Philadelphia @ San Francisco

6 Sunday, October 17 Indianapolis @ Washington

7 Sunday, October 24 Minnesota @ Green Bay

8 Sunday, October 31 Pittsburgh @ New Orleans

9 Sunday, November 7 Dallas @ Green Bay

10 Sunday, November 14 New England @ Pittsburgh

11 Sunday, November 21 NY Giants @ Philadelphia

12 Sunday, November 28 San Diego @ Indianapolis

13 Sunday, December 5 Pittsburgh @ Baltimore

14 Sunday, December 12 Philadelphia @ Dallas

15 Sunday, December 19 Green Bay @ New England

16 Sunday, December 26 San Diego @ Cincinnati

17 Sunday, January 2 TBD @ TBD


Sunday Night games in Weeks 11-16 are subject to change as part of the NFL's flexible scheduling policy.

For more information please visit:

The Sat and PC Guy - Digital Satellite and Terrestrial Installations and Maintenance for the Costa Blanca

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Friday, September 10, 2010

Reports: La Sexta to start two more channel on TDT in Spain

Later this year, La Sexta will start a second free channels on TDT, and also start another pay channel on DTT.
This was confimed today by Jose Miguel Contreras, CEO of La Sexta, in the presentation of the 2010/11 season.

"We want to complement La Sexta,which has a very specific audience." Contreras said

On the third pay channel on TDT, the CEO said he hopes to launch in October. Thus, the La Sexta Group will have two open and two payment channels on TDT in Spain.

High Definition Television (HDTV) is also one of their most desired goals "We want to be the first private channel to have HDTV broadcasts."

For more information please visit:

The Sat and PC Guy - Digital Satellite and Terrestrial Installations and Maintenance for the Costa Blanca

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Canal + Football HD on Spains satellite Tv

High Definition is growing day by day in Digital +, Spain Pay TV satellite operator



From today, the platform incorporates Canal + Football HD, a new way to watch the best football in the world in detail, with the clarity and sound that High Definition television technology can offer.

With the addition of CANAL + Football HD, Digital + HD has now 15 channels of all genres, such as Canal +, Eurosport, Fox, AXN, National Geographic , Disney, and MTV.

Digital + has a special section within the Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) for the HD channels (from 110 to 124 of the platform).

This HD selection will continue to grow and is designed to provide its viewers with more convenient access to the best content from television and the best quality picture and sound.

The proposed new HD Canal + FĂștbol priority is a weekly live broadcasts. Highlights of Canal + HD football matches include three major championships from Continental Football League: English Premier League, the Italian Calcio and the Bundesliga.

Along with matches from these leagues, Canal + HD Football will also show games from what is today considered the best league in the world, La Liga Spanish football.

For more information please visit:

The Sat and PC Guy - Digital Satellite and Terrestrial Installations and Maintenance for the Costa Blanca

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The Sat and PC Guy FORUM - Digital Satellite and Terrestrial Installations and Maintenance for the Costa Blanca

Monday, September 6, 2010

ESPN to offer free weekend

ESPN has confirmed plans to offer a free weekend of sport later this month, including Scottish Premier League games and Aviva Premiership Rugby action.

From 6am on September 10 to 6am on September 13, ESPN and ESPN HD will be available without charge to all customers on Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk TV and UPC. However, this offer may, like previous offers, only be available to Sky veiewers with a sky viewing card, and may not be available to viewiers wihout a sky viewing card.


The weekend will include matches from the Italian Serie A and German Bundesliga, but no action from the English Premier League.

Highlights of ESPN's free weekend include:

September 10

Bundesliga: Hoffenheim vs FC Schalke (7.30pm)

September 11

Scottish Premier League: Hamilton vs Rangers (11.30am)
Aviva Premiership Rugby: Leicester Tigers vs Exeter Chiefs (4.45pm)
Serie A: Cesena vs AC Milan (7.45pm)

September 12

Aviva Premiership Rugby: Saracens vs Sale Sharks (2.15pm)
Bundesliga: FC Koln vs FC St. Pauli (5:15pm)
Serie A: Napoli vs Bari (7.45pm)

ESPN EMEA vice president of TV channels Jeroen Oerlemans said: "Fans give so much to sport over a season, with their passion, dedication and commitment. This is a fantastic opportunity for ESPN to give back to fans."

For more information please visit:

The Sat and PC Guy - Digital Satellite and Terrestrial Installations and Maintenance for the Costa Blanca

or the forum

The Sat and PC Guy FORUM - Digital Satellite and Terrestrial Installations and Maintenance for the Costa Blanca

Sky Sports for free - for a day say reports

According top reports all 5 Sky Sports channels will be FREE on Sunday 26th September.

This is billed as Free Sports Day.


At the moment I do not know if this is free to air (ie no sky card - highly unlikely), free to view (sky card required - likely), or free to all sky subscribers (ie anyone with any sky subscription - likely)

That Sunday has TWO LIVE English Premier League football matches

Wolves v Aston Villa (2.00pm)
Newcastle v Stoke City (4.10pm)

For more information please visit:

The Sat and PC Guy - Digital Satellite and Terrestrial Installations and Maintenance for the Costa Blanca

or the forum

The Sat and PC Guy FORUM - Digital Satellite and Terrestrial Installations and Maintenance for the Costa Blanca

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Sky Sports Red Button Match Choice

I have received an email about the Sky Sports Red Button Match Choice, and thought it would be useful to share the information.

This is a services used by Sky Sports for allowing the viewing of multiple matches, either tennis or football, that are not available on the main Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 2, Sky Sports 3 and Sky Sports 4 channels.

During the US Open Tennis, the match choice allows the viewers to watch the matches on other courts - a bit like when the BBC have Wimbledon on their Multiscreen Sports Interactive streams.

For football, Sky have Match choice, when they show highlights of the days Premier League matches. Although all matches are shown on the main channels, you can still select which of the days matches you want to watch.

Reception of Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 2, Sky Sports 3 on the Costa Blanca are easily available on a small satellite dish - say an 80cm satellite dish.

Sky Sports 4 (and Sky Sports News) are on a north beam frequency of the Astra 2 satellites. These north beam frequencies are weakest in Spain around 5pm in the afternoon, and even some big 2.4m satellite dishes may struggle to get these Astra 2 satellite frequencies all day.

And the Sky Sports Red Button Match Choice channels are also on these weaker Astra 2 satellite north beam frequencies, and so may not be available all day - especially on small (80cm and 1m) satellite dishes.

For more information please visit:

The Sat and PC Guy - Digital Satellite and Terrestrial Installations and Maintenance for the Costa Blanca

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Saturday, September 4, 2010

Sky Satellite Default Transponder Frequency Settings For Sky TV in Spain

"What to do if you receive the message "NO SATELLITE SIGNAL BEING RECEIVED" on a Sky digibox receiver?"

"What to do if you are receiving a No Default Transponder message?"

"What is the best Sky Default Transponder frequency setting to use on the Costa Blanca Spain?"

"What is the best Freesat Default Transponder frequency setting to use on the Costa Blanca Spain?"

"My Sky digibox is showing a "searching for listings" message?"



When a Sky receiver / digibox is turned on the first time after being disconnected from the power, the box tries first tries to download approximately 6 hours of EPG information from a specific default frequency (or Transponder) from the satellite. The Sky digibox must have this information to start to work and allow you to watch Sky TV.

Unfortunately, the default frequency (transponder) that the Sky box is initially set to look for (11778) is one of the weaker signals in Spain and the Costa Blanca, especially during the afternoons, even on a 2.4m dish!

So sometime if your digibox is disconnected from the power, your Sky digibox may be unable to find this important frequency and fail to boot up, and display the on screen message "No Satellite Signal Being Received".

Therefore, to assist the digibox to receive the bare minimum information it requires boot up its "default frequency" must be changed to another frequency to enable the initial information download.

The best / most popular default transponder frequency for the Costa Blanca Spain is 12.129, although you can use any of the many frequencies that you can actually receive at the time. Yes ANY frequency will work, as long as you can receive the particular frequency!

In most cases, after a successful download the default transponder frequency will return to 11778. This is normal, and you should not really expect the digibox to keep the default transponder you have manually input.

NOTE: No matter what other people or installers say, changing this default transponder frequency on a Sky box does not increase how long channels are available. It is only used to “assist” the Sky digibox to boot up.

For example if you change the default transponder frequency setting to another frequency setting, say 12129, then when you go to watch Sky News the Sky digibox will use the frequency 12207, the frequency for Sky News.

The default transponder setting of 12129 that you have manually input is not used and overridden.

You do not have to do this process for Freesat or Generic receivers, just Sky receivers.

For more information, including a video on the process of how to change the default transponder frequency" and a downloadable instruction sheet please click on Sky Satellite Default Frequency Settings


For more information please visit:

The Sat and PC Guy - Digital Satellite and Terrestrial Installations and Maintenance for the Costa Blanca

or the forum

The Sat and PC Guy FORUM - Digital Satellite and Terrestrial Installations and Maintenance for the Costa Blanca

Friday, September 3, 2010

ESPN to offer free weekend - September 10 to 13

ESPN has confirmed plans to offer a free weekend of sport later this month, including Scottish Premier League games and Aviva Premiership Rugby action.

From 6am on September 10 to 6am on September 13, ESPN and ESPN HD will be available without charge to all customers on Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk TV and UPC. However, this offer may, like previous offers, only be available to Sky veiewers with a sky viewing card, and may not be available to viewiers wihout a sky viewing card.

The weekend will include matches from the Italian Serie A and German Bundesliga, but no action from the English Premier League.

Highlights of ESPN's free weekend include:

September 10

Bundesliga: Hoffenheim vs FC Schalke (7.30pm)

September 11

Scottish Premier League: Hamilton vs Rangers (11.30am)
Aviva Premiership Rugby: Leicester Tigers vs Exeter Chiefs (4.45pm)
Serie A: Cesena vs AC Milan (7.45pm)

September 12

Aviva Premiership Rugby: Saracens vs Sale Sharks (2.15pm)
Bundesliga: FC Koln vs FC St. Pauli (5:15pm)
Serie A: Napoli vs Bari (7.45pm)

ESPN EMEA vice president of TV channels Jeroen Oerlemans said: "Fans give so much to sport over a season, with their passion, dedication and commitment. This is a fantastic opportunity for ESPN to give back to fans."


For more information please visit:

The Sat and PC Guy - Digital Satellite and Terrestrial Installations and Maintenance for the Costa Blanca

or the forum

The Sat and PC Guy FORUM - Digital Satellite and Terrestrial Installations and Maintenance for the Costa Blanca

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Hallmark Channel to rebrand as Universal Channel on Sky TV

Universal Networks International has today confirmed plans to rebrand the Hallmark Channel as the Universal Channel in the UK.

On October 18, the pay-TV channel and its high definition variant will become the Universal Channel and the Universal Channel HD on Sky and Virgin Media. The Hallmark Channel +1 will also take on the new branding.

To celebrate its launch, the Universal Channel will give UK premieres to cop show Rookie Blue and legal drama Facing Kate in the autumn/winter season. It will also air Shattered, which stars 24's Callum Keith Rennie as a homicide detective suffering from multiple personality disorder.

For more information please visit:

The Sat and PC Guy - Digital Satellite and Terrestrial Installations and Maintenance for the Costa Blanca

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The Sat and PC Guy FORUM - Digital Satellite and Terrestrial Installations and Maintenance for the Costa Blanca

Friday, August 27, 2010

Live English Premier lEague Football and more on GOL TV this weekend

SATURDAY AUGUST 28

On Saturday, GOL TV will begin the day's best football with two live spectacular clashes in the English Premier League.

The first one is the Blackburn vs. Arsenal, at 13:45

and the second Chelsea vs Stoke City at 16:00.

SÁBADO 28 DE AGOSTO SATURDAY AUGUST 28

PREMIER LEAGUE: BLACKBURN vs. ARSENAL (1345) LIVE

PREMIER LEAGUE: CHELSEA vs. STOKE CITY (16:00) LIVE

LIGA BBVA: HÉRCULES vs. ATHLETIC (18:00) LIVE

LIGA BBVA: MÁLAGA vs. VALENCIA (20:00) LIVE

LIGA BBVA: LEVANTE vs. Liga: Levante vs. SEVILLA (22:00) DIRECTO SEVILLA (22:00) LIVE



DOMINGO 29 DE AGOSTO SUNDAY 29 AUGUST

On Sunday, GOL TV will offer the Premier League match between Bolton and Birmingham, at 14:30.

DOMINGO 29 DE AGOSTO SUNDAY 29 AUGUST

PREMIER LEAGUE: BOLTON vs. BIRMINGHAM (14:30) LIVE

LIGA ADELANTE: BETIS vs. GRANADA (17:00) LIVE

LIGA BBVA: RACING vs. FC BARCELONA (19:00) LIVE

LIGA FRANCESA: GIRONDINS vs. O.MARSELLA (21:00) LIVE


LUNES 30 DE AGOSTO MONDAY 30 AUGUST

On Monday, the good football continues to GOL TV with the Portuguese League game between the Naval and Sporting Lisbon at 21:15 hours.

LUNES 30 DE AGOSTO MONDAY 30 AUGUST

LIGA PORTUGUESA: NAVAL vs. SPORTING (21:15) LIVE

For more information please visit:

The Sat and PC Guy - Digital Satellite and Terrestrial Installations and Maintenance for the Costa Blanca

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The Sat and PC Guy FORUM - Digital Satellite and Terrestrial Installations and Maintenance for the Costa Blanca