In article , Fredxx
writes
On 21/07/2011 13:35, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article
,
Man at wrote:
UKTV. Half owned by the BBC (OK, the worldwide arm) so all the more
reason it should be FTA, or at least those progs originally funded by
license payers.

They are FTA via FreeView. And there is an extra cost for transmitting via
satellite. Either requires a decent external aerial. The problem with
making it available free on satellite is it then becomes free to many who
don't pay any UK licence.


If you think how many kWHrs are used to power terrestial transmitters, I
doubt they're much cheaper than leasing a satellite transponder.

The Astra 2D has a very tight footprint over the UK, and while you can
get Freesat in neighbouring countries you need a somewhat larger dish.

Isn't the problem that that one has no spare capacity so it has to go on
the wider footprint one and so it has to be encrypted for content
reasons?

When spare capacity becomes available it can be moved and become FTA. I
think I saw plans for this mentioned in uk.tech.digital-tv but can't
remember any specifics.
--
fred
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