BBC Satellite Television Channels Costa Blanca Spain

BBC Satellite Television Channels are transmitted from two satellites in the same "constellation". On both satellites they are available for free, with no viewing card. They are classed as free to air channels.
The BBC channels are split between two satellites, one has a vey strong signal for the Costa Blanca, and the other has a weak signal.

The channels on the stronger signal satellite include BBC News, BBC Parliament, the BBC Sports Interactive streams, BBC Radio 1,2,3,4 and many other radio stations. This signal can be easily received on an 80cm satellite dish around the majority of Europe., and why you can receive them even when you have lost the main BBC1 channels.

On the weaker satellite, Astra 2D, there are two "beams", vertical and horizontal. The channels on the vertical frequencies tend to be much stronger than those on the horizontal frequencies . Most of the BBC1 regions (apart from BBC1 London) tend to be on the stronger vertical frequencies . BBC2, Cbeebies, CBBC, BBC Three and BBC Four are all on the weaker horizontal frequencies. Hence why you can get BBC1 Channel Islands for more hours during the day than BBC2!

Reception of the frequencies on Astra 2D are the ones that require a "big dish". All of the BBC TV regional variations are available for free on satellite.

These are the BBC TV (and regional variations) channel frequency settings for Sky TV and Freesat TV.

The regions for BBC1 and ITV1 on a Sky box channels 101 and 103 are determined by the postcode of the address that you Sky viewing card is registered at.
With no sky viewing card inserted your Sky box loads up BBC1 London and ITV1 Central as the default BBC1 and ITV1 regions for 101 and 103. With the insertion a Sky viewing card, the box then reloads up the EPG so that the 101 and 103 regions will be as per the address of the Sky card.

The only way you can change your 101 and 103 region is by getting a Sky card that is registered at an address in the desired regions of the UK.

Note that all BBC1 regional variations are available on the Sky and Freesat EPG.

BBC 1 Region                         Sky EPG Channel Number
BBC1 Scotland                                     971
BBC1 Wales                                         972
BBC1 Northern Ireland NI                    973
BBC1 London                                       974
BBC1 NE & C                                        975
BBC1 Yorkshire                                     976
BBC1 Yorks & Lincs                              977
BBC1 North West                                 978
BBC1 West Midlands                           979
BBC1 East Midlands                             980
BBC1 East (E)                                        981
BBC1 East (W)                                      982
BBC1 South East                                   983
BBC1 Oxford                                         985
BBC1 West                                            986
BBC1 South West                                  987
BBC1 Channel Islands                           988
BBC2 Scotland                                       990
BBC2 West                                            991
BBC2 Northern Ireland (NI)                   992

Most ITV1 regions can be manually added to the Sky and Freesat EPG.

BBC TV Channels:

  BBC One (BBC1 until 1997) is the primary television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular public television service with a high level of image resolution. It was later renamed BBC tv until the launch of sister channel BBC2 in 1964. The channel has an annual budget of £1,200 million. It is currently the most watched television channel in the United Kingdom, ahead of its traditional rival for ratings leadership, ITV1.

BBC Two (BBC2 until 1997) is the second major terrestrial television channel of the BBC, aimed at a wide range of subject matter and interests, and specialising in intelligent yet popular programme genres. It was the second British television station to be launched by the BBC (starting in 1964), and Europe's first television channel to broadcast regularly in colour, from 1967, envisaged as a home for less mainstream and more ambitious programming.

BBC Three (BBC 3) is a television channel from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel is described by the BBC as an outlet for 'New drama, talent, comedy, films, and accessible news'. The channel is on-air from 19:00 to about 04:00 each night, in order to share terrestrial television bandwidth with the CBBC Channel[citation needed]. Unlike its commercial rivals, 90% of BBC Three's output is from the United Kingdom and other European Union countries. 80% is original, covering all genres, from current affairs, to drama, to comedy to animation. BBC Three has a unique '60 second news' format. This was adopted so that operation of the channel could be completely automated, without the complication of dealing with variable length live news broadcasts

BBC Four (BBC 4) is a BBC television channel available to digital television (Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable) viewers in the UK. BBC Four launched on 2 March 2002 being the successor to BBC Knowledge. BBC Four transmits from 19:00 to the early hours of the morning. On Freeview it time-shares with CBeebies. It shows "a wide variety of programmes including drama, documentaries, music, international film, comedy and current affairs ... an alternative to programmes on the mainstream TV channels." BBC Four has an annual budget of £67m (£49.8m on content, £2m distribution, £15.2 infrastructure) which is only 4.7% of that of BBC One (but 1.8% of the audience) and consequently has a schedule dominated by repeats.

BBC News (also referred to as the BBC News Channel or BBC News 24) is the BBC's 24 hour rolling news television channel in the United Kingdom. The channel launched as BBC News 24 on 9 November 1997 at 17:30 as part of the BBC's foray into digital domestic television channels, becoming the first competitor to Sky News, which had been running since 1989. Since then, with several relaunches, an increase in funding and resources from the BBC and improvements in digital television technology, the channel has been able to diversify content, with two minute looped bulletins available to view via BBC Red Button, BBC News Online and the BBC's mobile website, alongside individual weather and sport bulletins. In May 2007 the channel became available for UK viewers to view through the BBC News website through a live stream. In April 2008 the channel was renamed "BBC News" as part of a £550,000 rebranding of the BBC's news output, complete with a new studio and presentation.

BBC Parliament is a British television channel from the BBC. Its remit is to make accessible to all the work of the parliamentary and legislative bodies of the United Kingdom and the European Parliament. It broadcasts live and recorded coverage of the House of Commons and House of Lords, Select Committees of the UK Parliament, the three devolved assemblies, being the Scottish Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Welsh Assembly, and occasionally from the General Synod of the Church of England. The channel also broadcasts reports from the European Parliament and the yearly party conferences of the main UK political parties and the Trades Union Congress.

Before being taken over by the BBC, the channel was known as The Parliamentary Channel, at first operated by United Artists Cable and funded by a consortium of British cable operators. The Parliamentary Channel launched as a cable-exclusive channel in 1992. The channel was purchased by the BBC in 1998, retitled 'BBC Parliament', and relaunched under the new name on 23 September 1998. It now broadcasts on cable, satellite, and Freeview.

The CBBC Channel is a BBC television service aimed at 6 to 12 year olds. It complements the CBBC programming that continues to air on BBC One and BBC Two. Launched on 11 February 2002, it broadcasts from 07:00 to 19:00 on Freeview, cable, IPTV and digital satellite, occupying the same bandwidth as, but a different channel position from BBC Three. CBeebies is its sister service for younger children.

CBeebies is a television channel produced by the BBC aimed at children 6 years and under. First launched on 11 February 2002, it is broadcast as both a free-to-air domestic British television channel, and as international variants supported by advertising, subscription or both.

BBC HD is a high-definition television channel provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007. The first HD originated programme to be shown on the channel was Planet Earth, shown on 27 May 2006. The broadcasts are generally six to nine hours per day, and include simulcasts with other BBC channels, such as Michael Palin's New Europe and Hustle, and replays of HD programmes such as Planet Earth, Bleak House, Torchwood, and Hotel Babylon. Live coverage of events such as The Proms, Wimbledon Tennis Championships, the Eurovision Song Contest, the FIFA World Cup, and the Concert for Diana have already been shown, with the first live event to be broadcast being the opening World Cup game between Germany and Costa Rica on 9 June 2006. When high-definition programmes are not being shown, the channel broadcasts a looped preview containing clips from BBC HD programmes.

BBC Red Button (known as BBCi until 2008) is the brand name for digital interactive television services provided by the BBC, and broadcast in the United Kingdom. The services replace Ceefax, the BBC's analogue teletext service, and is only available via digital television receivers. The service can be accessed via Digital terrestrial television (DTT - Freeview), satellite television (Freesat, Sky) and cable television.

BBC Sports Interactive Service Streams

To watch the BBC Sports "Red Button" Interactive service stream on Sky boxes

BBC News (Sky channel 503)
Red Button
3001
Select

or

BBC News (Sky Channel 503)
Red Button
Sports
Sports Multiscreen

To watch the BBC Sports Interactive service stream on Non Sky Boxes

Select from the channel lists
Stream-0
Stream-1
Stream-2
Stream-3
Stream-4
Stream-5
Stream-6

These streams are available on satellite frequency 12441 polarisation v symbol rate 27500