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Saturday, February 26, 2011

ESPN Free Weekend - March 2011

ESPN’s Free Weekend

From 6am on Friday 4th March and running until 6am on Monday 7th March

ESPN, ESPN HD, ESPN America and ESPN America HD will be available to all Sky TV viewers.

(The wording says "Sky Viewers", so I would assume this means those who have a Sky subscription, and this offer will not be available to "freesatfromsky" viewers...but you never know!)

It will also be available to all Virgin Media and TalkTalk viewers in the UK

There will be :
live Barclays Premier League (Manchester City vs Wigan)
Serie A football (Juventus vs AC Milan)
Aviva Premiership Rugby (two matches with Gloucester v Bath live on Saturday at 12:15pm, and Exeter v Northampton Saints on Sunday at 2:15pm.)
World Rally Championship, - second round live from from Mexico for the Rally Guanajuato on Sunday afternoon.


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

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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

CBS Action and Vintage TV frequency change

CBS Action frequency change
CBS Action has changed it frequency to 11222 H 27500 2/3

Vintage TV frequency change
Vintage TV has changed it frequency to 12523 H 27500 2/3

Sky box users will not have to do anything as the Sky boxes iwll automatically update.
Freesat box users may have to perform a scan to update their channel list.
"Generic" satellite reciever users will have to perform a scan (full or single transponder) to update their channel list.


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

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Saturday, February 19, 2011

TV in Spain, Frequency changes

It is being reported that some of the TV channels in Spain, on the digital TDT TV system, will, on or around the 1st March, will be changing their frequencies.

TDT is the Spanish version of the UK Freeview TV service, and allows the reception of around 30 to 40 SPanish digital TV chanels via a TV aerial.

This should not pose any real issues, but may require you to perform a rescan on your TDT set top box or TDT TV integrated receiver.

For the atest on TDT TV in Spain and potential new chanenls and frequency changes, visit the TDT TV in Spain section on our forum








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"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 sky channel 108


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.