Firstly, lets explain what Freesat & Freeview are, & what they both have to offer.

#Freeview, is a free to air digital television service broadcast in the UK. It was set up as a joint venture between BBC, itv, Channel 4, BskyB & transmitter operator Arqiva. It was set up in 2002.     An interesting statistic is that 90% of the television most people watch is shown on Freeview. There are 60 digital TV channels & 26 Radio Channels plus more…

In August 2013 it had some 60 DVB-T TV channels, 26 digital radio channels, 4 HD channels, 6 text services, 11 streamed channels, and 1 interactive channel. Some ten additional feeds, whereof five more HD feeds, are expected for the first half of 2014,  and up to 10 new HD channels are planned to be launched later in 2014, from a new group of multiplexes awarded to Arqiva.  The new HD channels were launched in selected areas on 10 December 2013 with a further rollout expected during 2014. Wikipedia

What equipment do you need to watch Freeview? To be able to watch Freeview you’ll need a TV Aerial pointing in the right direction and receiving a good clear signal. Next you will need quality shielded cable, This is because the signal can become compromised by interference from WiFi and other electrical signals. A Digital Television or a freeview digital receiver is also required. The benefits of Freeview over Freesat is that from 1 TV  Aerial you can feed every digital TV in the home whereas with Freesat, for each TV you,ll need a Freesat receiver for that Television. You cant just plug in the freesat signal into a TV (unless it has a built in freesat tuner in it).

FREESAT is a Free to Air Satellite service and you have to have a satellite dish installed on your property to be able to receive this service. It has a very similar channel list to that of Freeview, but on the whole it has more TV channels. To be able to watch it o your TV it will need a Freesat receiver for each TV (unless it has a built in receiver). This ends up more costly than the freeview option.

So, equipment wise, you need an aerial installation for Freeview & a satellite dish installation Plus a digital receiver for each TV if viewing Freesat. Having had both of these services I can say that if it was me choosing, for the cost and practicability of it I’d choose Freeview as it has most of the channels I watch and the extra channels you get with Freesat are in my opinion poor.

Type of TV Aerials used for the Blackpool region

One of the installs we carried out in Blackpool was to replace an old TV Aerial that had past its effectiveness. The customer had an old analogue style TV aerial which had probably been on his roof for a good 20+ years. His picture kept breaking up and was proving more and more frustrating to watch quality TV through. We suggested a new TV Aerial, a Log Periodic Wideband (digital approved) TV Aerial was installed with a out door splitter attached at the mast head. The signal we get with these type of Television Aerials is always good, but apart from the signal strength being good, we use these aerials because the signal quality is always better than from other aerials, due to the fact that it has not back balam, or back reflector.

Benefits of Being Local Installers

Have no back balam, or reflector helps to reduce the amount of interference picked up from the TV Aerial and helps to pull in a good quality of signal with reduced noise. Having installed the new digital approved aerial, and also replaced the old cable with new double shielded coax cable, our customer was delighted to be able to view his favorite TV programs gliche free. It was a nice day to be a in Blackpool that day with there being hardly any wind, and with the warm sun on our backs, plus another satisfied customer.

With the popularity of Freeview TV platform, there are more and more channels being added very year. As reported on DTG, there is a new free to air channel being launch over the next few months, with some pay to view to arrive after that.

TruTV, part of Turner Broadcasting, will air as a 24-hour channel in the coming months on free-to-view services with Pay-TV services likely to follow.

Already a hit channel in the US (with 93m homes tunning in) and some of it’s shows already available on UK TV, TruTV is home to shows like Container wars, Fear Factor and the US version of Impractical Jokers. As well as existing programming, the channel is expected to buy distribution from the likes of Endemol and Zodiak rights.

Turner UK general manager Anthony Lukom said “TruTV shows real-life comedy featuring incredible characters in real-life situations, a formula that is enjoying ever-increasing popularity worldwide,” he added.

Will I need to re tune to get new channels on Freeview?

Depends, sometimes the freeview system will automatically be updated , and fairly regularly, if left on standby rather than turning it off at the plug socket. Otherwise you may need to rune a retune to update your epg list. A TV retune, and software update can be performed by any reputable TV engineer for a small fee.

A report published today welcomes YouView’s implementation of accessibility features for viewers with visual and cognitive impairments but says not enough progress has been made in delivering a full text-to-speech solution.

However, in its response to the Trust’s review, BT said the service’s accessibility features “would not have developed as quickly as it has without BBC involvement.”

All seven shareholders recently signed a new funding agreement for YouView.

Today’s report reveals that the one condition of the BBC’s continued involvement, is that text-to-speech functionality providing remote control functionality and the ability to browse the EPG “must be implemented in 2014/15.”

One initial condition the Trust imposed was that the BBC must not favour YouView in its on-screen promotion of TV platforms.

Today’s report say there’s no evidence that this condition has been broken, nor of the BBC’s involvement “affecting the decisions of other public service broadcasters to make their programmes available to other platforms.”

Some stakeholders, including Channel 4, suggested the BBC was being overly cautious and “could do more to promote the platform across its different services”.

It also calls on YouView to “promptly” ensure channel owners can deliver content direct to users without having to go through BT and TalkTalk, two of the projects other shareholders who both use the service as the basis of their pay-TV services.

Such functionality is already planned and, in its submission to the Trust’s review, Sky confirms its intention to offer channels direct to consumers via its NOW TV brand.

Want to talk through your options for free to air TV such as Freeview or Freesat, then call our Aerial & Satellite Engineer for the best advice tailored to you.

article in DTG.org.uk

Point Topic said: “Eastern Europe reported the highest level of IPTV growth in Q1 2014 with net additions of 0.63m resulting in growth of 11.6%” and the East Asian IPTV market grew by 5.7% adding 2.58 million new subscriptions.

The top ten IPTV countries for Q1 2014 remained “broadly static,” according to the research. China led with 32.7 million subscribers, followed by France with 14.8 million, the US with 12.3 million, South Korea with 9.1 million and Japan with 4.5 million

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPTV

Although IPTV is a great alternative to the regional television broadcaster, its selection of TV programs is dependant on which iptv supplier you sign up to. In the UK the quality of programs is very high and unless you are after Free 3pm TV for football then the best service for UK residents is either Freeview which requires a digital TV aerial installed or Freesat, which requires a satellite dish install plus a set top box/receiver. With these Free to air TV services you will have available to watch 90% of the most watched TV programs available – Digitec-Aerials

From https://www.seenit.co.uk/freeview-confirms-plans-for-new-internet-connected-service/

The new service will be developed in partnership with Digital UK and give viewers easy access to broadcast and on-demand TV, including a range of popular catch-up players.

It will compete against similar offerings from Freesat and YouView, both of which offer subscription-free internet-connected boxes and are also backed by the BBC and ITV.

It really was only a matter of time before Freeview terrestrial Television services branched out into the internet aspect of the industry. Catchup TV is becoming more and more a part of our everyday viewing habits and if Freeview don’t want to be left behind this new service is long over due!

The BBC R&D-devised camera-mounted IP connectivity unit is going to be used at 15 local authorities working in london as ballots are counted.

“It allows one production team inside a studio to pay for 15 locations remotely, which wouldn’t be achievable or economically possible when we needed to distribute 15 outdoors broadcast trucks,” described Mark Scott-South, business development director for Stagebox sole licensee L2Tek.

Stagebox will convert the recording, audio, genlock, timecode along with other camera control information into IP packets for transmission to BBC Elstree within the Public Services Network, a government initiative hooking up local government bodies having a wide-bandwidth network and cloud.

“Local election counts can be quite boring, but there’s always an opportunity that the high-profile politician for example Nigel Farage might show up. Now we are able to exist to capture the outcomes,Inches stated Scott-South.

Stagebox is really a core area of the BBC’s intends to migrate live production to IP (ip address), that is considered less costly and much more flexible than conventional transmission by HD-SDI.

We’ve got the technology was utilized for Red-colored Button coverage of last year’s Glastonbury festival and will also be recycled in the Commonwealth Games in This summer.

US tv stations will also be testing the package. Within an approaching lab demonstration, 4K Ultra HD content is going to be moved over IP using four genlocked Stageboxes, using the 1.5Gbps feeds sewn right into a single image using special software.

This is viewed as medium difficulty key to 4K over IP, with HEVC encoders needed to compress the stream for native 4K work.

The top TV packages from Sky, Virgin Media and TalkTalk, which include all the premium content and best available broadband speeds, all now cost more than £1,000 (€1,251) a year.

According to media regulator Ofcom, the average revenue per user made by TV companies has “increased as pay-TV subscribers have taken up more premium products”.

Recent figures show that BT’s overall average revenue per user has grown 7 per cent year on year to £404. Sky’s has risen from £504 four years ago to £574, while Virgin’s is £588 a year – an increase 2 per cent year on year.

To watch all Premier League football matches, plus premium shows such as Game of Thrones, House of Cards and Extant, consumers need to subscribe to Sky Sports and BT, Sky Atlantic, Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video, respectively. Buying just those TV services directly – without them being bundled with any packages that include broadband or telephony – costs about £792 a year, or £839 in HD. That is on top of £145.50 a year for the BBC licence fee.

There are ways to drastically reduce the monthly cost of your TV packages. By choosing the Freeview service it is possible to get a vast majority of programs being watched throughout the UK. Then by choosing to pay for the Film and series packages from providers such as amazon or netflix, there is a way of getting the popular paid for TV programs and films which are very popular. The only way to really find what works for yourself is to browse the options before you decide to jump in with a subscription commitment. For Freeview TV, you will need a TV Aerial Installation of a quality digital aerial.

Customers will be able to watch exclusive BBC iPlayer programmes and discover content more easily. The refreshed look and feel offers new categories including comedy, arts, history and music.

In addition, YouView customers will be able to access an increased choice of video and streaming content across news, sport and weather via BBC Connected Red Button, which can be launched from BBC TV channels.

What to expect from BBC iPlayer:

• Watch programs going back 30 days using a easy to use home page
• View shows only shown on the updated BBC iPlayer such as Doctor Who Extra
• thumb through new categories such as docs, food & drink, Arts and History programs pls more.
• search using series, season, event or theme.

It has been a necessary upgrade from You View, and much needed. With the increased use of internet TV and the ability to access more of the TV programs when and where the viewing public want, it is the wrong time to be behind the curve with so many big players vying for the attention of hungry online Television viewers.

From DTG

Data from over 2.3 million TiVo STBs show that a fifth of all TV is now watched in a time-shifted format—either recorded onto an internal hard drive or watched on demand—and 43% of people mostly watched TV in this manner, with 20% tuning in to live TV only for must-see moments and only 30% predominantly watching live TV.

With our lives becoming ever busier the use of the live pause or record option available to most subscribers to both paid and free to air TV is becoming more of a requirement and less of a luxury. Being able to use these options makes it more likely that when you have time to view TV we will have at least a few recorded programs to choose from instead of aimlessly channel hopping. There is no need to be subscribed to a pay Tv service such as Virgin, Sky or BT Vision as there is that option for the Free to air TV providers such as Freeview and Freesat. All that is needed is a Digital receiver with the option to record and you to can feel like the privileged few and have your favourite programs recorded for you to watch when your good and ready