Satellite TV - BBC News outside the UK

[Hurricane]

Up until recently, BBC have been putting their News 24 channel out on the Astra South beam using a transponder that can be picked up across most of the Med. It has been a particularly strong transmission - in fact, I believe that engineers have been using the News 24 channel as a "kind of" reference channel whilst tunimg. For example, we have picked the channel up on our 60 cm dish as far south as Malta.

It seems that as of the 23rd September, BBC News 24 and a couple of other channels have been moved to Astra 2D beams which are mainly focussed on the UK.

This means that it will be difficult to pick up the BBC News channel in the Med.

Experience has shown that a dish of 80cms dia is needed to pick up the Astra 2D beam in our part of Spain (mainland Med coast between Barcelona and Valencia). Up until now, it has been possible to receive BBC News on relatively small dishes (even the smaller 45cm KVH/Raymarine dishes). But now, it seems that my 60cm dishes wont pick it up at night. I think there may be a chance in the daytime with a clear sky.

When we were in the SoF earlier this year, I was surprised that we were able to pick up the Astra 2D signals so anyone on the French Med coast might just be able to get the BBC News on a 60 cm dish.

The changes haven't (yet) affected the BBC Radio transmissions or any of the Sky channels which all still seem to be working fine.

This information might be useful to anyone in the Med who was wondering why their breakfast TV had packed up.

My favoutite Sat TV information web site ( www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk ) has a "Stop Press" notice that the change is permanent.

 

[Davy_S]

BBC news 24 swapped beams on the 26th Sep, I cannot get it on a 1 metre dish, so I have lost the red button interactive that allowed me to watch F1 and Moto GP. However, there is a work around that allows F1 to be watched, but Not bbc.
If you want bbc world news, it is easy to get on Hotbird 13 east.

 

[Hurricane]

Thanks - I can easily switch to Hotbird at 13 degrees east
I'll give it a try.
What transponder freq etc?
I'll have a look at Lyngsat in the meantime.

Thanks
Mike

 

[lefkasman]

BBC news 24 swapped beams on the 26th Sep, I cannot get it on a 1 metre dish, so I have lost the red button interactive that allowed me to watch F1 and Moto GP. However, there is a work around that allows F1 to be watched, but Not bbc.
If you want bbc world news, it is easy to get on Hotbird 13 east.

Astra 11954H 27500 will currently give five direct streams.
(this is the old BBC World News transponder)...basic Sky boxes may have an issue with sound, but generic sat boxes should be OK.
To get over the lack of sound problem switch the language choice to Welsh.
I was able to watch rerun's of the Japanese GP by following the above procedure

 

[Davy_S]

Lefkasman, yes I am not far from you, Kefalonia, I simply switch to French language and I have the sound as well, you can also get bbc news 24 with the six boxes (piccies) but they cannot be changed. The same numbers for the No1 interactive stream (red button) will also come up on a non Sky receiver, either from Astra 28.2, or Eurosat at 28.5, no need to alter dish angle as it will pick both up.

Hurricane, Hotbird 13 E is an extremely strong signal, very easy to pick up, I have not got frequencies to hand at the mo, i is in a bar! If you put in as for Astra 28.2 2700, 2/3 11778, it shoud get all the Hotbird free to air, bbc worldnews will be among them, If you have problems, post here, I will then check the frequencies and post them tommorow.
Hotbird is the easiest sat to get if you are outside the uk as there is not much near it.

 

[oceanfroggie]

The BBC iPad app seems to have replaced TV news for me. Doesn't solve the F1 problem but FilmOn TV app does and you can stream to TV via HDMI and Apple TV cube (streamed BBC1-4, ITV1-4).

 

[Hurricane]

Thanks guys
Very interesting.
I found BBC World News on Hotbird - had to look up on www.lyngsat.com - found the freq was 12597 - Vertical - 27500 3/4
Never seen BBC World News before so it will be interesting to see what is broadcast on the channel.

Back on Astra, I found those direct streams on 11954H plus two more.
I'll keep an eye on them over the next few days and see what they contain.

I have a Dreambox but all the above was done with an old Sky+ box.
The dish is a Raymarine 60 cm dome.
I also have an 80cm offset dish on a tripod which picks up most Astra 2D transmissions but thats cheating!!!

I wonder how all this is going to "pan out"???

Thanks again
Any more info would be useful
Mike