Freesat From Sky has been available for a number of years and provided the BBC / ITV digital channels (excluding BBC HD), which were already Free to Air, and Channel 4 and five using a Free To View Card (I think you had to subscribe to a Sky package to get More 4 and E4) along with some other FTA channels. Because Channel 4 and five (and five US and five Live) were encrypted you could only use a Sky STB to view them. The BBC and ITV channels (and about another 350 FTA channels) could be viewed on any satellite box or PC DVB-S card but only a now and next EPG was transmitted which was not much good for a PVR. BBC HD could be received on any suitable FTA satellite box or DVB-S card since it was launched in May 2006.
When the BBC / ITV Freesat launched (I believe the BBC actually hold the right to use the Freesat brand) a number of changes occurred:
- Channel 4 (and More 4 and E4) went Free To Air
- ITV HD launched
- A 7 day EPG was transmitted for about 80 of the 350 FTA channels
- Free To Air satellite started to be marketed (as understandably Sky have not been keen to promote theirs)
From a UK user using DVB-S on MediaPortal I would guess the main change has been Channel 4 and Linked Channels (excluding Film 4 and Film 4+1 which have been FTA for some time) going FTA.
I have heard that ITV HD is transmitted as a H.222 data stream which is not viewable at the moment in MediaPortal. I have not heard reports yet whether the Freesat EPG can be used by MediaPortal.
Mew