BBC Satback UK TV service on Intelsat 901 at 27.5 West – users in South of Spain, Costa del Sol and Portugal reporting signal loss

British Expats in the south of Spain (Costa del Sol / Malaga areas) and Portugal areas who use the “Satback” service on Intelsat 27.5w have been reporting a loss of their UK TV channels, like BBC and ITV, that are on the “Satback” service.

Satellite forums, Facebook groups, and my own email has been inundated with people asking “what is going on” and “why have we lost the signal”, with reports of the signal loss occurring at about 1500 today, Thursday 4th April 2024.

The video below is summarising the switch off of BBC Satback on Intelsat 27.5w

Click to view video about this loss of channels

The “Satback” service on Intelsat 901 at 27.5°W is a back up service for the UK Freeview service. It is used when the relays to the Freeview transmitters fails, and they use this satellite service to feed the Freeview transmitter masts in emergencies – such as when a Freeview transmitter caught fire recently, and many repeaters had no signal to repeat, so a large are of the UK had no Freeview signals, until they set up satellite dishes at the repeater sights for the Intelsat Satback service. The main channels from the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are available on the Satback Intelsat 907 at 27.5° West.

Some people referred to this system as the “Gibraltar satellite service”. I have also seen that some installers have said that the signals come from Gibraltar. The service has nothing to do with Gibraltar at all. The signals come from a satellite over the Atlantic Ocean, not Gibraltar. It was not used to provide Gibraltar with UK TV, as Gibraltar is not part of the UK (it is an Overseas Territory) and so the UK broadcasters have no onus to supply it with UK TV.

This could be just a temporary “blip”, like has happened in the past – the service has been known to go down for a few days in the past. The last time was about a year ago for three days. So it could be a case of “wait and see”.

Or, as per my “speculative” post back in January 2024, has the service been discontinued on Intelsat, and has now transferred to the new satellite at 15W.

If it has then this will mean a loss of this service in the South of Spain and Portugal areas, as the beam the service was testing on makes the service unavailable in the South of Spain and Portugal areas. (Basically, there are a number of beams on the new satellite, and each beam covers a certain area. The beam the new “Satback” service is on, the North Sea beam, is, according to the reception maps, not available in most of Spain, as the signals from the “Med West”” beam that covers Spain prevents the signals from the North beam being received.)

And it is doubtful the satellite company would issue any sort of public statement about a service that is not intended for public use anyway!

Update 1800 : I have also had a few people email me, as they have lost the BBC ITV channels on their paid IPTV services. So it seems that some pirate IPTV services were also using this service to provide channels to paying clients.

(Ray : It would be nice if you link and give credit to this page, rather than just copy and paste my information to your FB page without credit! Cheers!)

The Rumours Start

There is some speculation that the service was removed today, the 4th April, as it is the last day of UK accounting for the financial year. So payment / contracts ending today, and not renewed, so the service has been removed? Just a speculation.

Some users of the SATBACK service have been told the satellite has crashed, and this is why there has been a loss of the UK TV satellites. Of course this is totally incorrect.

Some users of the SATBACK service have been told that “It shouldn’t have gone off for another few years but there was a malfunction on the ageing satellite so the channels have been moved.”. OF course this is incorrect. The satellite was coming to its end of life, in about the next year or so, which was publicly known after the MEV mission a few years ago.

Reception Reports for BBC Satback on Telstar 15 Vantage

Update : 5/4/24. People in Central Portugal reporting they can not get reception of Satback service on the new 15W satellite on a 1.4m dish. Suggestions, but not confirmed, that a larger 1.8m dish may get the channels.

Update : 6/4/24 : Reception report from South Portugal (exact location unknown), that a 110cm satellite dish can only just pick up the 15W signal, but not on a stable basis, and only at certain times of the day.

Update : 7/4/24 : Reception report from the Malaga area says that a “1.3m” dish is not picking up the signals on the new 15W satellite.

Update : 13/04/24 : Reception report from Santarém, near Lisbon, in Portugal suggests a 110cm dish (does not say if that is 100x110cm or 110x120cm), just about locks onto the new Satback signal.

Update : 20/04/24 : Reception report from Aveiro, central-west Portugal reports a 180cm prime focus dish locks onto the new Satback signal at 10db.

Update : 01/05/24 : Reception report 1.2 metre dish Vélez-Málaga no signal for Satback on 15w.

Satback Intelsat Alternatives.

As the signals from the new satellite are unavailable in Spain or Portugal, then users of the Satback service may have to look for alternate methods of receiving their UK TV.

Such as using a VPN (like NORDVPN ) or SmartDNS service ( like SmartDNSProxy ) and access the official apps for BBC iPlayer and ITVX on various devices, like a firestick.

Or use a pirate IPTV service, and accept the increasing risks of fines for viewing content on these types of services. (Italy have new laws where users of illegal IPTV services can be fined up to 5000euros. And reports are that Spain is close to bringing in something similar.)

Update : One further option would be to use the Kabelio satellite TV service from Switzerland. This pay package includes all the main UK TV channels ( BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC 4, ITV1, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, Channel 4, Channel 5). Reception is easy in Spain and Portugal as it has good coverage from the Hotbird / Eutelsat at 13°E. Although getting a viewing card could be tricky as these are generally only assigned to Swiss addresses.

This video explains the Kabelio service for those people who were using the now non receivable Satback service.

Click to play video

How to add BBC iPlayer to your Amazon Firestick when outside the UK (Amazon Appstore Version Feb 24)

And this video will show you how

Click to view video

How to add ITVX to your Amazon Firestick when outside the UK (Official Amazon Appstore Version Feb 24)

And this video will show you how

Click to view video