I don't believe that BBC on satellite is provided by Sky. The BBC pay Sky for their position on Sky's EPG and regionalisation via the Sky cards but I think that is all. The BBC would pay the operators of the Astra satellite for use of the transponders much as Sky do for the ones they use.
The BBC has been broadcasting FTA on Astra 2D since 2003 (and ITV since 2005) so I think the issues about these channels had being FTA were sorted out long ago. Astra 2D has the tightest footprint over the UK but there is still overspill and the signal can be picked up with varying degrees of success in other parts of Europe. The further away you go from the UK the larger the dish you need. I guess is has been accepted that people in other countries can receive a signal in much the same way that parts of Holland and Belgium could receive the analogue UK signal.
One thing of interest (well to me anyway) that I have read is that Channel 4 is currently broadcasting on Astra 2D FTA. The channel is apparently labelled 8350. Speculatation is that this is ahead of the Freesat launch. A copy of a Freesat brochure that someone posted a scan of on a forum mentioned that five may not be available at launch but did not mention Channel 4. A poster to another forum also said that he believed that the remaining encrypted channels were due to move off of Astra 2D in the next week or two so that E4, More 4 and five could move onto Astra 2D. This is all still specualtion but hopefully we should find out soon (well, before the end of spring anyway, maybe).
Mew |