Freesat launches today

Don't worry, I did the same, until I clicked in where it would be playing.

I couldn't tell the difference between the SD & HD, not a good selling point at all.

And why have they used a awful representation of the itv logo, never mind itv hd logo at the start of the video.

That would be the same animation that's a template in Apple Motion with an ITV Logo slapped (badly) on top

Does anyone know if the new FreeSat will have all the BBC and ITV regions available in the high channel numbers and/or via an "Other Channels" menu, like Sky?

Or will you strictly only have your postcode-assigned region, in the main channel positions (e.g. channels 1 and 3)?

From what I can see on Digital Spy, not all of the regions will be available to begin with, and it looks like London will be on 101 and 103 with the others available on 900+ channels for BBC and behind a red button for ITV:

Cheers dvboy

There is a rather fabulous entry on the BBC Internet blog about the launch and infrastructure behind BBC HD.

Looking at the full EPG listings on DS, it's struck me how poor the selection of channels is. Even Freeview has a better choice.

Even if people buying Freesat aren't expecting Dave or Virgin 1 (which some will, and will no doubt be promised by gormless weekend staff in Curry's), I'm sure most will assume they'll at least get Five.

With the current lineup of channels, I just can't see Freesat taking off, especially if Sky decides to start promoting 'Freesat From Sky' more, which I'd say is very likely once Freesat starts advertising itself.

Seems a bit strange that there's ITV3+1 but none of the other time-shifted channels. Wonder why that is? Although there is a gap left between ITV2 and ITV3, for, one would assume, ITV2+1 to go.

I'd say Freesat's main selling point, for now, is probably the HD channels, something Freesat from Sky doesn't offer at the moment, rather than the extended coverage. And most of the people with an HD Ready TV will have Freeview built in, so the lack of those channels won't matter so much.

I think though at the moment it's more "HD channel" than "channels" - ITV HD will join BBC HD soon, but I think they need a good six or so HD channels to make it a viable selling point.


Once their contract with Sky HD ends C4 are probably in the best position content wise to offer multiple HD channels - an E4 and Film4 HD simulcast would offer a good chunk of HD content, but I doubt they have the capacity to do so yet.

If the BBC are serious about HD too a second HD channel is a must as well - though I can't see that being approved due to their attempts to be "platform neutral".

Granted the HD offering will attract some, but one of the main reasons stated for launching Freesat was to bring free digital TV to areas not served by Freeview.

Very true. But out of the possible HD channels, BBC HD is the biggest selling point, if only for their major events - surely the times around which sales of Freesat will peak. Events like the Beijing Olympics and Euro 2008 will be key to the success of the platform, in the early days at least.