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Freesat is a BBC-owned trademark for free to air digital satellite television services targeting the UK. It is used as a tradename by two, differing systems, one of which is not purely free-to-air. Both of these systems draw or will draw their signals from the SES Astra/Eutelsat owned Astra 2 and Eurobird satellites located at 28.2 and 28.5 degrees east of south respectively.

Contents 1 BBC/ITV Freesat 2 Freesat From Sky 3 References 4 See also 5 External links

The BBC and ITV revealed in September 2005 that they are working on a free-to-air (FTA) satellite service to complement Freeview. The BBC went free-to-air on digital satellite in 2003, with ITV moving their remaining Videoguard encrypted channels over on 1 November 2005. While the signals can be picked up by any commercial DVB-S decoder, a hardware specification for Freesat boxes is being devised, and is likely to cover a method for setting channel numbers, a 7 or 14-day electronic program guide (EPG), and interactive television, likely based on Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) or MHEG-5 . A similar situation exists with the Freeview EPG, channel numbers and MHEG-5 based interactive system. Due to the large market for FTA television in continental Europe, decoders equipped with digital audio, multiple video output formats, and personal video recorders (PVRs) are all likely to be available.

In July 2006 BBC Director General Mark Thompson announced that Freesat would be delayed until at least Autumn 2007.

On November 12, 2006 it was reported in The Mail on Sunday that Channel 4 had joined the venture^[1]. However, Channel 4 are tied in to an encryption contract with BSkyB until 2008. This means that none of Channel 4's channels, with the exception of Film4, will be available on Freesat until at least 2008.

Sky Digital also offer a non subscription based satellite service branded Freesat from Sky.

1. ^ Rees, Jon. "Channel 4 joins Freesat venture", Mail on Sunday, 2006-11-12. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.

• Free to air
• Free to view

• BBC News: BBC and ITV to start Sky TV rival
• BBC News: Q&A on Freesat
• BBC News: Free satellite service war begins
• Freesat Information