Channel Five, Channel 5 +1, 5 USA and 5* to join freesat, and be free to air

[satandpcguy]

Channel 5 have announced that Channel 5 +1, 5 USA and 5* (plus their +1 timeshift channels) will all be joining the Freesat platform in December.

Channel 5+1 will launch on Freesat on EPG channel number 128 on Tuesday 6th December.
Presumably it will also launch on the Sky EPG, but no Sky channel number has yet been mentioned.

5* and 5 USA, as well as their relative +1 services, will also launch on Freesat on Thursday 8th December. The relevent Freesat EPG channel numbers wil be as follows:

129: 5 USA
130: 5 USA +1
131: 5*
132: 5* +1

So, it looks like with 1N available, the fives will be available free to air, with no sky card on a small dish for the next few years.

No mention of Five HD, but it is expected to also go Free to air and available for free on Freesat HD and Sky HD boxes mid 2012. It is only currently available on Sky HD boxes with a sky card

[satandpcguy]

This evening Sky boxes were remapped and told by Sky to use the new frequency of 10965 h 22 5/6.

This could well mean the Five channels, Five, Five* and Five USA could go free to air very soon, and maybe be free to air before they launch onto the Freesat chanel list.

Some people havebeen experiening issue with the chanel five channels on Sky boxes this eveing. Sometime a Sky box reboot (disconnect power, wait for 30 seconds, reapply power, reboot the digibox) has corrected the issue. In other cases, manully adding the fives on their new frequenc via the services, add channels, has been the solution.

[satandpcguy]

On a sky box Channel 5+1 is on channel 177, replacing Five*+1 which is now on Sky channel 236

[satandpcguy]

Channel 5, Channel 5+1, Five USA, Five USA+1, Five* and Five*+1 are now all free to air.

On Freesat the channel numbers are:

105: Channel 5
128: Channel 5+1
129: 5 USA
130: 5 USA +1
131: 5*
132: 5* +1

On Sky boxes the channel numbers are:

105: Channel 5
174: 5 USA
175: 5 USA +1
176: 5*
177: Channel 5+1
236: 5* +1
Five HD: 171 (free to view - and still requires a Sky Card to view)