ronan collins
4th October, 2013, 10:27 PM
One of the biggest changes in satellite TV delivery to the UK and Ireland for many years is under way.
Dishes pointing towards 28.2? east receive UK satellite channels from two operators: SES Astra and Eutelsat.
Up to now, bands of frequencies have been distributed between the two rivals.
SES claimed that Eutelsat's licence to use some of the these expires on 4th. October 2013.
SES went to the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris to try to prove it had a right to use the bands in place of Eutelsat. After a year's legal battle, and following a court ruling in Germany, SES announced it would take over the disputed frequencies of 11459 - 11700 Mhz and 12500 - 12750 Mhz after 4th. October. This claim has been hotly disputed by Eutelsat, which has operated the bands since 1999, though it appears to have now conceded defeat.
Channels broadcast in the contested 500Mhz of spectrum will change frequency over the next ten days, with some 300 channels moving to Astra's satellites.
The switch will be in two phases. Some channels are moving temporarily to Astra 1N's Europe beam by 3rd. October, then moved in phases to Astra 2F's European beam (footprint map right, with dish sizes in cm) over the following seven days.
Principal channels affected by the change include:
BT Sport 1 & 2, BT Sport 1HD & 2HD, TCM, The History Channel, National Geographic, Fox News, Sky Living It, Comedy Central, Nick Jr, Al Jazeera English, Kiss 100 Radio, Magic 105.4FM Radio, Jazz FM, Absolute Radio, XFM, Capital FM.
Viewers with Sky and Freesat receivers need take no action, these boxes will update automatically.
Free to air receivers have no way to auto update and will need retuning.
Some in fringe areas will see better reception, some in eastern Europe will lose channels completely.
It's probable SES Astra anticipated that they would win the battle some time ago: this may be the reason Astra 2F has been kept largely empty of channels until now.
Dishes pointing towards 28.2? east receive UK satellite channels from two operators: SES Astra and Eutelsat.
Up to now, bands of frequencies have been distributed between the two rivals.
SES claimed that Eutelsat's licence to use some of the these expires on 4th. October 2013.
SES went to the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris to try to prove it had a right to use the bands in place of Eutelsat. After a year's legal battle, and following a court ruling in Germany, SES announced it would take over the disputed frequencies of 11459 - 11700 Mhz and 12500 - 12750 Mhz after 4th. October. This claim has been hotly disputed by Eutelsat, which has operated the bands since 1999, though it appears to have now conceded defeat.
Channels broadcast in the contested 500Mhz of spectrum will change frequency over the next ten days, with some 300 channels moving to Astra's satellites.
The switch will be in two phases. Some channels are moving temporarily to Astra 1N's Europe beam by 3rd. October, then moved in phases to Astra 2F's European beam (footprint map right, with dish sizes in cm) over the following seven days.
Principal channels affected by the change include:
BT Sport 1 & 2, BT Sport 1HD & 2HD, TCM, The History Channel, National Geographic, Fox News, Sky Living It, Comedy Central, Nick Jr, Al Jazeera English, Kiss 100 Radio, Magic 105.4FM Radio, Jazz FM, Absolute Radio, XFM, Capital FM.
Viewers with Sky and Freesat receivers need take no action, these boxes will update automatically.
Free to air receivers have no way to auto update and will need retuning.
Some in fringe areas will see better reception, some in eastern Europe will lose channels completely.
It's probable SES Astra anticipated that they would win the battle some time ago: this may be the reason Astra 2F has been kept largely empty of channels until now.