Losing signals on some UK TV Satellite channels?
Over the last week or two, after numerous phonecalls and emails and messages from many people around the Valencia and Costa Blanca area, it appears that the return of the summer heat and humidity is causing some loss of signals for some UK TV channels via satellite.
Primarily, channels operated by UKTV Group, like Dave, Drama, Yesterday, Gold, Eden, Watch seem to be most affected.
Back in late 2019, the frequency these channels were on was reconfigured. It allowed UKTV to cram all of its channels, and their “+1” channels, onto the same single frequency, saving them money by not having to pay for a second frequency. The result being this reconfiguration has resulted in the frequency / reception being weaker than before.
Heat and humidity can also cause a drop in satellite signal levels.
As can the signals from a neighbouring satellite, that is transmitting on a similar frequency.
For these channel problems it may not be an easy solve.
It may be that a small satellite dish realignment can help. Storm Gloria and the winds earlier in the year (remember that ?) may have shifted your satellite slightly out of alignment. Or maybe a new LNB may help, or a small minute change in its skews . Maybe even getting a slightly larger satellite dish. However, the problem does seem to be affecting most sizes of satellite dish, from the 1m to 2.4m dishes, used here in the Valencia / Costa Blanca area, so it may be something more to it than simply “get a bigger dish”.
Some Sky HD channels also now low on signals
Also back in February 2020, we reported that some of the Sky HD channels had moved from their “nice and easy to receive” European beam, to the “much harder to receive” UK beam . Again, the way these frequencies have been configured, this has meant some viewers of these channels in some areas of Spain getting “no signal” messages, as their satellite dish is now too small to receive those signals for these channels.
The channels affected are :
Sky Family HD
SkyPremiereHD
Sky Thriller HD
SkySuperheroHD
CNBC HD
Cartoon Net HD
Disney Chnl HD
STV HD (Aberdeen)
STV HD (Tayside)
Disney XD HD
National Geographic HD
Comedy Central HD
Nickelodeon HD
MTV HD
Alibi HD
STV East HD
Gold HD
It is not known how long these channels will remain on the UK beam, as historically Sky pay channels have been on the European beam. It may be that if / when the STV channels go free to air, and are released from their Sky exclusive contract, that the channels return to a Europeab beam, with those STV HD regions remaining on the UK beam. We shall have to wait and see.
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