UK TV in Spain - British TV in Spain - Sky TV in Spain - Freesat in Spain

Saturday, February 19, 2011

"I heard recently that the EU says I can use my Sky card in Spain?"

One of the most asked questions that I have been asked in the last few weeks is "Can I use my Sky card in Spain? I heard on the news the EU says I can!"

A lot of these questions have been asked since it was reported in the last few weeks, that a pub landlady in the UK in in court for using a non Sky card in the UK for watching live UK football in her pub,and that the EU has rules that you can use other pay tv viewignc ards in other Eu countries.

This is not the case and there has, as at February 19th, no offical or legal ruling on this case.

Some of this has been covered on our forum

Pub landlady vs Premier League and TV Broadcast rights across Europe

but still I get send emails and phonce calls saying "It is now OK to use a Sky crd in Spain!".

Well, firstly, nothing has changed at all with these recent reports.

It is still against the terms and conditions of your Sky contract to use a Sky card outside the UK and ROI. Sky will, if they know that the card is being used outside the UK, turn the card off. But many expats and holiday makers do bring their cards to Spain to use.

You can still bring and use your UK Sky card in another Sky receiver Spain. All Sky cards will work in ANY Sky receiver for the "6 mix" channels, however you will not be able to watch the Sky Sports and Sky Movie channels, as these are sky box specific and will only be available on the sky cards "home" box. This is one of the times you may see the on screen message "This is the wrong card for this set top box"

This is not really a problem if you dont have the sports or movie channels, although there are some non Sky boxes that do, at the moment, read and open the Sky Sports and Sky Movie channels.

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Monday, February 7, 2011

Pub landlady vs Premier League, TV Broadcast rights across Europe

For more on this story see:

Pub landlady vs Premier League and TV Broadcast rights across Europe

But a UK newspaper (not owned by News Corp!) suggests what I suggested a few days ago.

The EU, based on the verdict in a few months time by the ECJ, has a simple choice. Sell TV rights on a country-by-country basis, or a pan-European basis.

It could be that thre European court opts to creating a single, pan-European market for TV rights deals in the future.

And who is the most powerful pay-TV broadcaster across Europe? Could it be News Corporation/Sky, that has Sky Germany and Sky Italia as well as Sky UK.

If you want a comparison, look at how concentrated the US media market is – a single market dominated by a handful of integrated media groups, Disney, Time Warner, News Corp and all.

It is easy to forget that this issues is about ALL media rights, from books to films.

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Friday, February 4, 2011

Sky Atlantic in Spain

Sky Atlantic is available on Sky channel 108.
Sky Atlantic is availabel to Sky subscribers only.
Sky Atlantic is available in Spain.
Sky Atlantic is NOT available to Freesat or Freesatfromsky (or Freeview as some satellite instrallers incorrectly call it!)

Sky Atlantic frequency (for Standard definition) is:
Frequency: 12285
Polarisation: V
Symbol Rate: 27500
FEC: 2/3

Sky Atlantic frequency (for high definition) is:
Frequency: 12343
Polarisation: H
Symbol Rate: 29500
FEC: 3/4

Both Sky Atlantic SD and Sky Atlantic HD are on "south beam" satellite footprint, and so shoul dbe available to Sky users in Spain on small satellite dishes. An 80 cm satellite dish should be enough to be able to receive Sky Atlantic in Spain.

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Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Channel 4 HD coming to Freesat in April (ie free to air and not free to view as it currently is)

Channel 4 and Freesat have announced that Channel 4 HD will launch on the subscription-free satellite platform in the spring.

It will be availabe Free to Air on freesat HD receivers from April 2011.

Channel 4 HD will become the fourth HD channel on Freesat, joining BBC One HD, the BBC HD channel and ITV1 HD.

Channel 4 HD launched on Sky in 2007 and has since become available on Virgin Media in summer 2009 and the Freeview HD platform in April last year.

It is unknown at the moment what the reception of C4HD will be for expats in Spain and the Costa Blanca, or if the Sky C4HD service will contimue.

The current C4HD service is available with a Sky card and even on a 80cm satellite dish here in Spain.

It is currently unknown if the freesat free to air version of C4HD will be the same (unlikely!), as per BBC1 and BBC HD (big satellite dish required and should be 24/7 coverage), or as per BBC2 England (partial coverage on a big satellite dish)

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Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Sky Channel Changes and New Sky channel information

For all the news and details for the Sky Channel Changes and New Sky channel information happening on the 1st February 2011 go to:

Sky New Channels - Sky Atlantic numbers and frequencies, Sky Guide Channel Number Changes

The post details where Sky 3 has moved to and its new channel number, details on MTV and Sky Arts changing Sky Subscription packages, and details for the new Sky channel Sky Atlantic, whoich is only available to Sky customers. Sky Atlantic will not be available to Freesat, Freeview, or Freesatfromsky users.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Sky Channel Changes 1st February 2011

Sky Channel Changes 1st February 2011
Here are details of when the Sky channel changes will happen. They will he happening during the day of the 1st February at various time, but mainly during the early hours of the morning to try and not disprut and viewng or recordings.

Eight Sky TV channels will be off the air from around 2am until about 4am while Sky prepare for changes to the channel numbers in our entertainment line-up. During this period, there will be brief outages and you will see a placeholder banner advising you that no programmes are being broadcast. You do not need to adjust your TV set or Sky box. The following channels are affected:

Living
Living HD
Living ROI
Living+1
Livingit
Livingit+1
Challenge
Challenge+1

And Channel One, formerly Vigin Channel on Sky will close down.
At 6am, Channel One on Freeview will close, to be replaced on Freeview by Challenge.

HD channel changes: once the changes have taken place, the channel numbers on your TV listings for Entertainment and Music will have changed. HD customers will notice that some HD channels now have the same channel numbers as their standard definition counterparts. The Living channels: Living, Living HD, Living ROI, Living+1, Livingit, Livingit+1 become "Sky Living." Sky Living moves to channel 107 for both HD and standard definition.

At 9pm the new Sky channel, Sky Atlantic, will launch on channel 108 in HD and standard definition.

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Saturday, January 29, 2011

Freesat boxes gets full Red button service

Freesat launches in 2008, helping providing digital TV to areas of the UK that were unable to receive the terrestrial Freeview service.

The BBC Red Button Interactive service on Freesat was never as complete as the service offered on Sky, Virgin Media and Freeview.

However, all Freesat boxes are now able to receive a fuller and more complete "red button" service, and can now have access to the more of the video content that was made available on Sky, Virgin and Freeview.

This will include the BBC Sport Multiscreen service.

Other services will include the new Being Human spin off, Becoming Human, available from 30 January, along with more exclusive content from comedy show Episodes.

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Friday, January 28, 2011

More Sky Package channel changes - Sky Arts and MTV to join variety pack

With the Sky channel number changes, and new sky channels liek Sky Atlantic comoing soon (1st Feb 2011) there are a few additions to the Sky Pay TV packages also.

Sky customers with the variety pack will have MTV, Sky Arts 1 and 2 added to the varierty pack for no extra cost.

Could be down to how Sky are compensating for the loss of Bravo from Sky channels?

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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Bravo channels TNA Wrestling will return to Sky TV on Challenge

According to Sky TV, TNA Wrestling will return to UK TV soon.

From February Challenge TV (on Sky channel 125), will be showing TNA Wrestling programming, including all the episodes that have not been show in the past few weeks.

Times and schedules to be announced soon.

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

UK TV in Spain - British TV in Spain - Sky TV in Spain - Freesat in Spain - Satellite TV Installers

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