Having temporary loss of UK satellite TV signals in the morning? Dont worry, it is just the biannual solar outage time (March 2021)

It is that time of year again when the sun can affect the power of satellite signals your satellite dish is receiving, resulting in a loss of some of the more weaker UK TV channels via satellite. Particularly BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Fives, Quests and SD Discovery channels, and SD UKTV (Dave, Drama, Yesterday, Gold, Eden, W) channels.

Don’t panic – it is the bi-annual sun outage and normal this time of year.

This happens in March and October for a couple of weeks every year, around the time of the Spring and Autumn equinox. In the northern hemisphere, sun outages occur before the March equinox (February, March) and after the September equinox (September and October).

These solar outages occur when the sun is directly behind the satellite and the suns energy swamps the signal with interference.

This “satellite solar outage” happens at around 10.30 – 11.30 am and can last for up to 20 minutes and can take place up to 15 days.

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The 2021 Six Nations takes place between 6 February and 20 March 2021.

The BBC have had live coverage of the Six Nations since its inception.

However, in 2016 it was announced that the BBC had renegotiated its deal and would start to share UK TV coverage of the Six Nations with ITV, for the next six years. Under this deal all England, Ireland and Italy home matches will be live on ITV; all Wales, Scotland and France home matches will be live on BBC: all Wales matches live on S4C.

The current UK TV deal ends with the 2021 Six Nations Championship.

And there are growing concerns that the Six Nations 2021 could be LAST available for free on BBC and ITV as Sky Sports and Amazon eye a UK TV rights bid. Continue reading »

Today saw the closing of three channels operated by Discovery.

This will affected Sky and Virgin TV customers

‘Home & Health’ has now been removed Continue reading »

ITV1 has had a SD / HD channel swap today.

This swap has seen Sky and Freesat box users allocated ITV1HD on channel 103 (this should be automatic for Sky and Freesat box users).

This may means that some people may have “lost” ITV1 on 103, as they have been allocated Continue reading »

Over the past week or so ITV have been changing and adding their ITV1 HD channels and regions.

These changes have meant that all but two ITV1 regions now have their own HD regional variation. The two ITV regions without their own HD regional variation are ITV Border Scotland and ITV Channel TV.

With these changes, some of the ITV1 HD regions have moved to different frequencies. And two of these new frequencies are very weak in the Valencia / Costa Blanca area. Continue reading »

Satellite Solar Outage Time Again – October 2020

It is that time of year again when the Sun / Solar Outage can affect the power of satellite signals your satellite dish is receiving, resulting in a loss of some of the more weaker UK TV channels.

This is information for people who may be experiencing this for the first time, and a nice reminder for those that have lived here before

This occurrence happens in March and October for a couple of weeks every year, around the time of the Spring and Autumn equinox. In the northern hemisphere, sun outages occur before the March equinox (February, March) and after the September equinox (September and October).

This “satellite solar outage” happens at around 10.30 – 11.30 am and can last for upto 20 minutes.

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Sky Arts, Sky Tvs dedicated arts and culture channel, will become free for everyone in the UK from September.

The decision to make Sky Arts free to air is, Sky says, a move to support and champion the arts at a vital time for the cultural sector. It puts artists and creatives centre stage on a channel that everyone across the UK can watch.

Sky Arts will be available subscription free on Freeview (UK only, since Freeview is not available in Spain!), Freesat, Sky, and other free to air satellite receivers. Continue reading »

SkyEspaña is set to close its internet based TV service on 1st September

SkyEspaña launched in 2017 in Spain in order to compete with HBO and Netflix, but appears to have lost that battle for subscribers.
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