Costa Blanca Satellite News

Your best source of satellite information and news for the Costa Blanca, Spain.

News Update – 1 April 2009

Sky has officially confirmed today that they will be issuing new sky viewing cards. they have updated the messages on the sky information channels (999 and press red), and state that new viewing card will be issued during April. If you have a sky subscription, then the new viewing card will be sent to the UK address (or your installers / agents uk address). If you bought a new FSFS card in the last 3 years then these should also be replaced. it is expected that ex subscription cards and fsfs cards bought over 3 years ago will not be replaced. it is expected that all existing "blue house" cards will be switched off by May.

For what this means for expats in Spain click on the links on the menu on the left.

More information on Sky channel 999 and press red.

This is official confirmation of the news we brought you back in October 2008, and further to that in Jan 2009!

News Update – 26 March2009

CLARIFICATION: This recently was printed in a local newspaper, which has been the cause of many confused people contacting me about possible reception issues.

Channel Five The Satellite Astra 2c will be moving from its present position at 28.2° to 31.5°. The good news is that its only occupant, Channel Five plus Fiver, Fiver+1, Five USA and Five USA+1, have been relocated to Astra 2a. This Satellite has a very strong signal and this means that Channel Five and its associate programs will be available on small dishes (80 cm). Owners of big dishes (1.8 m plus) will not notice any difference but viewers with Sky boxes using 1.3 m dishes and smaller will have the channel 24/7. Five remains an encrypted channel and requires a Skybox with a free to view card. There is no need to move your dish and the Sky boxes and freesat boxes will automatically update this change.

Given the amount of phone calls I have received since this article was published, with many people asking if they will be loosing Five, or if they need their dish realigned or if they will need another dish (as suggested in previous articles) I think I should point out that: All UK TV channels will continue to be transmitted from the satellites based at 28.2 to 28.5 degrees. You do not have to have your dish aligned to those satellites at 31.5degrees. You do not need other dishes installed to continue receiving Five. Your Sky box should automatically update itself with the new frequencies (it may need a reboot though) The article is confusing in saying "viewers with Sky boxes using 1.3 m dishes and smaller will have the channel 24/7." as both old and new frequencies have been and will be easily available on an 80cm dish. They have been available on an 80cm dish for the past few years. And to answer questions I have been asked, this is NOT Astra reducing the footprints of all satellites and therefore reducing the reception for all UK TV channels...and no this does not affect BBC or ITV.All astra are doing is moving one of the 5 UK TV satellite to another location that requires it services. A new satellite will be launched later in 2009 populate this "vacated UK TV slot".

Hope this helps clarify a few misunderstandings caused by this article.

UPDATE: Some Sky boxes are not updating correctly with the new FIVE frequencies. This should be able to be resolved by unplugging the box from the power, and reinserting the plug, and rebooting the receiver - note you may have to go through the default transponder frequency process to boot your box up, but hopefully this will update the FIVE frequencies in the box.

News Update – 26 March2009

CHANNEL CHANGES: TV channel Trouble will close down on the 1st April. The EPG slot will be replaced by  to be replaced by Living TV+2.

And the UKTV channels will continue their rebranding programme. UKTV Style and UKTV Gardens will be relaunched as Home and Really as the next step in the broadcaster's plans to rebrand its entire portfolio of channels. Gardening output will be shifted to Home when it takes over from UKTV Style on April 30, with Really to be positioned as a "zeitgeisty and noisy female brand",

News Update – 17 March2009

SOLARIS REBROADCASTER CLOSEDOWN?? A few forums around the torrevieja area are reporting problems with their Solaris rebroadcasting system. They have no TV signals. This may be due to reports of the Guardia visiting their premises and removing transmitters and equipment. I can only assume this is due to them rebroadcasting channels without the required permissions from the channel owners.

News Update – 17 March2009

NEW SKY CARDS: A few weeks ago I mentioned that the new sky cards may not work in generic receivers like the darkboxes or dream boxes. One report suggested that Sky have developed a method so that the new cards will not work in any non sky receiver, due to how the card readers are designed. However, until the new sky cards are in circulation and been tested on "generic" receivers it is difficult to ascertain if this is correct or not.

News Update – 13 March2009

FIVE IS MOVING: Good news for us expats in Spain. FIVE and its channels have moved from Astra 2C. It is now on Astra 2a South Beam, which is easily accessible on an 80cm dish. So for the time being it looks like uninterrupted FIVE viewing.

FIVES new frequency is 12422 H 27.5 2/3.

If you have a Sky box then you do not have to do anything - your sky box will automatically update. This does not affect freesat boxes either.

News Update – 10 March2009

FIVE IS MOVING: I heard about this happening a few weeks ago, but it is confirmed that the satellite (ASTRA 2C) that FIVE (and the various other FIVES channels) is being moved to another location. This means that FIVE is being moved to another satellite that serves the UK, Astra 2a, 2b, 2d or Eurobird. You will not need to move your dish - all sky and freesat boxes will self update with the new frequencies.

 I do not know what satellite it is being moved to, or how this will affect reception, but this will happen very soon. Lets hope it does not go to Astra 2D as many people with smaller dishes will not have and more FIVE!

News Update – 10 March2009

Sky HD: Several thousand Sky HD receivers have received their new EPG...and first reports are that it is stable, not crashing and FANTASTIC!

News Update – 7 March2009

Sky HD: Sky has confirmed that it will begin deploying its new electronic programme guide software for Sky+ HD boxes in the next few days. The new guide has been in development for a number of years; it was first announced in November 2007. Last month, Sky revealed that the release was "imminent", and it now appears that customers with recent versions of Sky+ HD boxes manufactured by Thomson will be the first to switch to the new guide. The Sky+ HD team explained: "As you may know we’ve been busy developing the all new Sky+HD Guide exclusively for Sky+HD customers. Over the next few months we’ll be gradually rolling it out to our HD customers. If you’ve got a Sky+HD box we will send you an information pack a few days before we automatically upload the new Guide to your box, so look out for it in the coming months." So far Sky customers with Thomson boxes of versions 4E300E and 4E3011 - both recent models without component outputs - have reported receiving the information pack.

It is understood that the new software will be downloaded to those boxes at 4am on Tuesday, March 10, with other boxes scheduled to get it over the coming months. "The roll-out will be phased to ensure that there are no disruptions to your HD experience," the Sky+ HD team said. "The first group to receive the Sky+HD Guide will be made up of some of our customers with Thomson Sky+HD boxes." The new guide features an optional 1/8th size mini TV screen, so that viewers are able to browse the full guide without interrupting the programme being watched; a new version of the now, next, later banner that displays full data about forthcoming programmes in the next 12 hours on any channel; the ability to record and series stack without going to the planner; the visual grouping of stacked series in the planner so that all recorded episodes are displayed together; and an improved search feature that includes genre and sub-genre filters.

News Update – 2 March2009

Spanish Digital TDT: The Spanish Government has been making a few changes regarding television. Amongst the new laws was an obligation for the national DTT broadcasters to put together their contents for at least one satellite distributor so those citizens who cannot access terrestrial coverage can do so via satellite. This means that all TDT channels must be made available via satellite - and therefore paving the way for a Spanish version of Freesat. No dates have been confirmed for these changes.

News Update – 19 February 2009

Channel Name Changes. In the next few weeks some channels will be changing their names. Recently UK People  has become "Blighty" and Five US is now "FIVE USA".

On March 2nd UK History will become "Yesterday"

On 6th April The Paramount Comedy channels will be rebranded as Comedy Central UK

News Update – 15 February 2009

SKY HD+ Pace receivers: Up to 90,000 Sky+ HD boxes are to be replaced after a manufacturing fault was identified in a batch of units manufactured by Pace, it has been confirmed.

The problem first came to light when some Sky customers reported being called by the pay TV operator and advised of a fault that could impact the long term performance of their Sky+ HD box. When contacted Sky's high definition team said "Pace has told us about a manufacturing fault that can affect around 90,000 of the first boxes supplied by Pace. The fault was resolved in Pace’s subsequent supplies of boxes. To be 100% clear, it’s nothing to with a faulty component; the problem relates to the way that some of the boxes were assembled. It doesn’t raise a safety risk or prevent them from being used as normal until we exchange them, but in the longer term it could lead to the failure of the box. We’re proud of our Sky+HD product and we’re not happy about customers having boxes that don’t meet our quality standards."

The issue does not affect ALL Pace SKy HD receivers, only certain models. The affected boxes have version numbers 9F3002 and 9F300 (available via Services 4,5 (System Details)

Boxes bought in the UK via a Sky HD installations will be swapped by for free and the customres will be given 3 months free HD subscription. If you have bought a Pace HD box in Spain you are advised to contact your installer who should be able to offer you a FREE replacement receiver.

Further details about the precise nature of the fault have not been released by either Sky or Pace, but i will try to keep you up-to-date.

News Update – 12 February 2009

FIVE USA: Channel Five's American channel FIVE US, will, on the 16th February be rebranded as FIVE USA. The relaunch will include new programmes and schedules. The channel number will remain the same.

News Update – 7 February 2009

Sky card change: Is this the new Sky card with the new Sky logo on it?

Here is a link to a site set up by Sky, regarding the imminent Sky viewing card change over, with a nice FAQ about the change over (bearing in mind that answers are aimed Sky UK clients only!)

http://www.skyviewinghelp.com/index.html

It shows the process about how to replace your existing Sky viewing card. It looks totally legit, as it has BSkyB all over the sites registration, has the Sky phone number and has the new card with the latest Sky logo.

UPDATE: 17th Feb: Some Sky agents in the UK have received official notification of a Sky card change.

News Update – 6 February 2009

Just been reading something that makes interesting reading for all those people using multicam receivers to read their Sky card. It is said that he new Sky cards will be using the same version of NDS encryption used by Sky Italia. The Sky Italia viewing cards have so far only been able to work on Official Sky Italia receivers, and not on and multicam receivers. Even some programmable CAMs have not been able to be reprogrammed yet to read them. So with the card change expected this March and April, you may find that your Darkbox, Dreambox or other nonsky receiver may not be able to read your new Sky card. We shall have to wait and see what happens!

News Update – 6 February 2009

Premier League Football: Sky have won FIVE out of the six packages to screen Premier League football matches, with Setanta winning just one package. Therefore MORE football matches will be screened on Sky Sports than ever before, in excess of 100. Highlights will remain on the BBC and Match of the Day.

Sky now has the rights for the Monday night matches, previously owned by Setanta. Setanta keep the rights for the late Saturday evening kickoff.

These new rights come into effect for the 2010 / 11 season.

International rights, currently held by TVE for Spain and Showtime for the Middle East until the end of the 2009 / 10 season, are also being put up for tender, with an announcement later this year. Current rumours are that AlJazzera will take on Showtime  and that Digital+ will take on TVE for the rights for their countries. This may mean no Premier League football on TDT, but we shall have to wait until the winners are announced later this year.

News Update – 3 February 2009

BBC PRIME : BBC Worldwide Channels will be making changes to the BBC Prime service in March and April 2009. These changes will require customers to adjust the position of their satellite dish from Hotbird 6 to Eurobird 9, and existing smart cards will be replaced. In order to ensure that the service remains unaffected whilst customers make the changes required, BBC Prime will be available on both satellites for a short period of time prior to switching off the existing feed. Please do NOT adjust the position of your satellite dish now. BBC Prime are in the process of contacting those customers who have a direct subscription with us should expect further details and instructions in the post in due course.

News Update – 11 January 2009

SKY CARDS: Further to my post on the 29 October 2008, where I first mentioned this, it now does seem extremely likely that Sky will be issuing replacement viewing card. It looks like it will take place this coming April 2009.

If you have a Sky subscription at a UK address "you control" and you know your full account details, then the new card will be issued to your UK address. You then need to arrange for the card to be sent to you in Spain

If you have a Sky subscription at a UK address that you don't "control" (or don't know) then you may not get your replacement viewing card. You should contact your card supplier / installer and see what arrangements they can make for you. If you cannot get in contact with your supplier / installer then you may have to source a new card yourself, or find another supplier / installer.

If you have a FreesatfromSky card which is an ex-subscription card then it is likely that you will not be getting a replacement card.

If you have a FreesatfromSky card which is has been supplied by an supplier / installer then again it is unlikely you will be getting a replacement card.

Your current viewing cards will eventually stop working. If it is anything like last time you will get a warning message displayed on the TV screen informing you that your card is going to expire.

As discussed on this site (in the Freesatfromsky card section) it may well be that the Freesatfromsky cards are no longer issued. We shall have to wait and see.