Are the Irish Channel 4’s on frequency 12480 about to move to the UK beam?

Channel 4 operate Irish variations of their Channel 4, E4, More 4 channels.
This is probably down to rights issues, where Irish broadcaster have the rights to some programmes that Channel Four have in the UK.
So these Irish versions of Channel 4 may at time have different programmes to that shown on the UK versions.

The UK versions of Channel Four are available free to air – unencrypted.

The Irish versions of Channel Four are available encrypted – Channel 4 being “free to view”, and E4 and More 4 being Irish Sky subscription channels.

Currently the Irish versions of Channel 4 are transmitted from frequency 12480, which is on the European beam of the UK TV satellites.

Some expats in southern Spain and Portugal use these channels, as they are not able to receive the UK versions.

The UK version of the channels are on the UK beam of the UK TV satellites, Astra 2e, Astra 2f and Astra 2g. The UK beam of these satellite is very weak in the southern areas of Spain and Portugal, and in some areas a very large satellite dish is required to be able to receive them. The size of the dish required for these may be restrictive (ie very large!), and so access to the Irish versions is a bonus.

However, today (25th Jan 2016), a duplicate of these Irish version of Channel 4 channels has started on frequency 12304 H. This is bad news for people watching these Irish Channel 4 Channels, as 12304 is on the UK beam.

So people watching the Irish Channel 4’s may find that they may soon lose access to these channels as well as the UK versions.