jdanjoux

Hi all,

My dad has an apartment in Casares Del Sol in Costa Del Sol. We are returning for our annual holiday, I have heard that you can no longer receive british TV via satellites anymore. Currently we have a Bush SD freesat box, will we still be able to receive British TV?

We also have Sky TV with subscription here in the UK. Also our apartment is in a block, so we have a communal satellite dish.

If it helps, we have internet but it is a hotspot and not a physical broadband connection, and is really slow (2mb)

Jamie

amideislas

Only if you have a really big dish (2+ meters?). "the guy" can probably tell you more specifically.

And by the way, any satellite receiver can receive free to air UK TV if you have a large enough dish. Full HD receivers are widely available for €50 or less here.

The alternative is internet TV, like Filmon, but suitable internet speeds and reliability are elusive in Spain, internet TV doesn't offer all the channels, you need a computer or internet TV box, the quality isn't quite as good, and it's more of a PIA to use, at least when compared to satellite.

jdanjoux

Yes I believe it's around 2 meters in length

I have a picture of it somewhere.

mikelincs

Is it pointed at the correct satellite though?

jimenato

I believe at Casares del Sol you will need a much bigger dish than 2m. No-one around here can get 'normal' channels by satellite. The sky subscription channels should be OK.

The Guy will know much more. For his info, Casares del Sol is between Estepona and Gibraltar - you can't get much further south.

amideislas

There's really only ONE reason to have a 2m dish in Spain, so I think it's a pretty good bet that it is (or was originally) pointed at the UK satellites (unless it's been blown out of alignment by winds).

I'm only guessing, but I bet you'll only be able to receive a subset of UK channels - the beebs will likely be gone, but perhaps a few ITVs, More>Movies, Channel 4 (HD), channel 5, and the +1's, Sky News, CNN, a few useless junk shopping channels, some Sky movie channels (if you have a sky box & subscription) ... ??

For this reason it's better to have a "generic" satellite box (HD boxes have the best tuners), because different regions of ITV and others have different signal strengths in Spain. Your "freesat" box is likely tuned to a specific region without the ability to check other regions for better signal strength.

Still, better than nothing

jdanjoux

Shall I take my SkyHD box just in case?

Its just a multiroom box and has one turner as same as my 'generic' freesat box.

NEWCOMO

I use an internet box to receive all UK channels, and it comes with all sport, 60000 movies, 2000 TV series (Castle, NCIS etc)... as an alternative. PM if you want to know more. I had problems with sat in both Spain/Italy so I had a backup via internet (2MB only needed).

Rosemary

As Concierge for the Spanish section of BE I would like to say hello and welcome.

BE is a very large expat website, so if you have problems finding your way around we have concierges who will try to direct you. The moderators for the Spanish forums are Mitzyboy and Fred James, moderators are there to ensure that the site runs smoothly within the rules of BE. Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderador who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge of the issues of living in Spain. At the top of the page you will find a quirkily named thread called Free Beer which is full of important and useful information. Hope you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary

amideislas

How much for the box, and how much per month? Can you also offer internet that works reliably enough? I have 8Mb internet, and the speed test proves it, but I still can't get an uninterrupted 2 hours on any internet "channel" with any box.

But I am fortunate enough to have satellite, so I refuse to pay for that which I already get for free. Others may be interested though.

jdanjoux

Yes the satellite dish is pointing towards a british Astra satellite. It receives freeview channels, BBC 1 BBC 2 ITV ETC... But read that channels are jumping to a new satellite as of Feb 2014.

The coverage of the new satellite is to the UK and north of France. Spain is not covered.

So essentially I've been told that Sky channels remain on the old satellite as well as the new satellite.

Can anyone on this forum, see if they are still able to receive british channels through satellite. As the media streaming box will not be a benefit as we don't have good internet speed and we can only have one user using wifi at a time otherwise the other will drop out of the connection.

Thanks

jdanjoux

Thanks Rosemary for a warm welcome to the forums. I've been on a lot of forums and find they are very useful. I hope to find any concerns regarding Spain resolved on this forum, should I have any.

Many thanks

Jamie

jimenato

We live quite near there and you will not be able to receive UK channels via satellite unless the dish is huge - which it almost certainly isn't.

This includes BBC 1,2,3,4 ITV 1,2,3 Ch4's, FIVE's and all the plus one hours and other derivatives.

You will be able to receive Sky news and a few other channels like Pick, minor movie channels, food network, CBS reality and (I'm told) some of the soft porn stuff.

We don't have SKY subscription channels but I believe you will still be able to receive them if you bring your box.

jdanjoux

How many metres is a huge satellite dish considered as?

Jamie

big wheels

I have just had a look and can receive the following mainstream UK chans using a 1.3m dish in Seville province.

I would expect you should be able to get the same using a 2m dish a bit further south with your skyHD box.



ITV2HD
ITV3HD
IITV4HD
CH4
CH4+1
E4
E4+1
E4HD
More4
CH5HD