Football fans on a tight budget, get freesat!

Coady

Hi, I'm in the situation of many football & sports fanatics in the UK, who cannot afford the luxury of a monthly charge for sky sports, ESPN or Europsort, etc. I just thought I'd take time to recommend freesat, the free tv service via satellite dish. I use this service now & find it to be the best free tv service for sports fans on a budget. In addition, their record boxes allow you to record for free, unlike sky's Freesat option which demands a £10 fee to record on the so called free service.

Freesat from BBC & ITV has over 150 channels from TV & radio, and as a sports fan in particular I have found great reliability & service from freesat, unlike freeview where signal is completely unpredictable at times & unavailable as a full service in many areas. This means people with the 'freeview light' service miss out on the best free to air sports coverage from channels such ITV4. Another advantage I have found with freesat is the number of +1 channels, this is an option not offered on freeview to due limited space & is incredibly useful when european games kick of at 6pm or go to extra time when another game directly follows on another channel. The list showing almost all freesat channels can be found at -

freesat.co.uk/what-you-get/our-channels (I had to leave the www out as I'm not allowed links)

To the football coverage, freesat is pretty well equipped in general. There are usually 4 or 5 live games a week, at least 3 of which are top level football matches.

The ITV channels have many matches & highlight shows from the FA Cup & FA Youth Cup, Champions league & Europa league, all England Internationals, some Brazil games, African Nations Cup & a weekly Bundesliga highlights show among others.

BBC have weekly highlight shows such as Match of the day & the Football League show, as well as highlights from the League cup. They also cover major international football tournaments from most continents alongside ITV.

Another key advantage to me is the offering of many regional variants of the terrestrial channels. This leads to even more good sport on freesat. BBC Scotland, for example, show many scottish cup & league cup games (including the finals) & Scotland's away internationals. S4C shows cup games featuring Welsh sides, as well as a weekly offering from the Welsh Premier League. There are also highlights of Welsh & N.I. internationals on their respective BBC channels.

I have just started posting a list of all live football matches available on freesat channels, which is updated every 7 days to keep viewers up to date. This weekly list can be found here -

community.freesat.co.uk/t5/TV-lounge/All-live-football-matches-on-freesat-channels-updated-every/m-p/5890#M96 (I had to take out the www as I'm not allowed links)

BBC one, BBC two and ITV1 are all in HD on freesat, so only ITV4 games would be in SD (this is the same on Virgin media & freeview customers anyway).

With rumours of Channel 5 moving back in the market for football coverage next season, as well as Liverpool FC TV potentially joining freesat in the next year.
I am a very satisfied customer of freesat & it appears that there will certainly be a lot more exciting football on freesat next season!

dresdendave

Could you tell me how many live EPL and SPL matches I can watch on Freesat?

Also will I be able to watch other sports such as live test cricket?

Coady

There are no EPL matches on any FTA channels as Sky sports & ESPN have them all. However, ITV HD have first choice on FA Cup games & English teams in champions league and europa league games, meaning many top premier league teams feature heavily throughtout the season. The final of all 3 tournaments are live on ITV too, as well as all England international matches.

In terms of the SPL, BBC Alba show 3 live games each season, with full delayed coverage of a further 35 (shown at 5.30pm just after the games finish). The scottish cup & league cup are shown on BBC1 scotland throughout the season.

All World Cups & European Championships are also on BBC1 HD/ITV HD. African Nations Cup live on ITV4.

In terms of other sports, there is a plethora of live coverage, I will highlight from the top of my head below.

9 live races from the F1 season on BBC One HD, with extended highlights of the other 10.

The Open Golf Major live on the BBC HD channels, with day 3 & 4 of the Masters major also live.

Live coverage from every day of the French Open Tennis Grand Slam on ITV4 (finals on ITV HD). Full live coverage from Wimbledon Grand Slam on both BBC HD Channels.

Every game from the IPL cricket tournament on ITV4, 2 games back to back every day. Live highlights of every England home test match on Channel 5.

Boxing matches from Hennessey sports live on Channel 5, featuring Tyson Fury, James DeGale & Chris Eubank Jr.

The Grand National is live on Channel 4!

Live Rugby from the six nations, Pro 12 & Rugby World Cup. Every race from the tour de france is on ITV4. The 3 biggest snooker events of the year all on BBC2 HD & another ranking tournament on ITV4. Darts players championship also on ITV4. Live Greyhound racing is on 'Information TV' most Thursday evenings & wrestling usually features on Challenge. Many track athletic events are live on BBC Channels too!

This is all just from the top of my head, I'm sure I've missed many more great sporting events from freesat channels.

penrhyn

Most folks can get all the above channels on Freeview, without the need to buy a dish or set top box.

Coady

I disagree with this to be honest, as over 20% of the country still can't get the full freeview service & only get a bare 20 channels through a freeview 'light' transmitter.

In addition to this, you can only get your regional variant of BBC channels on freeview. For example, here in England I only get my local BBC & channel 4. Therefore, on freeview I would miss out on all Scottish games shown on BBC Scotland or BBC Alba. In addition, S4C shows live games featuring Welsh teams, a weekly game from the Welsh Premier League & lots of Pro 12 Rugby featuring Welsh sides. This channel is also unavailable to freeview viewers outside of Wales.

This is why I say it is the biggest advantage of freesat to have space for all the national variants of BBC, ITV & C4!

Aside from sport, once Viva launches on freesat next month only the 4 UKTV channels & 4music will be missing from popular channels on freeview that aren't on freesat. This is in contrast to the near 100 less channels freeview has overall. Although not all of these are good popular channels, Freesat has over 10 well known music channels & over 10 news channels, all of the CBS channels, 6 movie channels & many strong +1 timeshifts that freeview does not, in addition to the national variations. Not to mention that freesat has 2 added HD channels in comparison to freeview, Russia Today HD & NHK World HD. I really believe it is a far stronger service.

Finally, many houses are finding they need indoor aerial boosts or upgraded roof aerials anyway, so the cost is not necessarily more in those cases. For others like myself, who moved into a house with a satellite dish already installed, you just need to buy a cheap box then you're done!

scotsbob

Coady wrote: »

However, ITV HD have first choice on FA Cup games ...........Live Rugby from the six nations, Pro 12 .

The FA cup games are not shown on Freeview in Scotland and the PRO 12 rugby is only shown in Scotland on Alba with a Gaelic only commentary.

The point the OP was making is that by viewing on Freesat you can view another region and have a wider selection.

In addition to the above you can also get a wider choice of films, because ITV frequently show different films in different regions.

You can also bypass a lot of the localised party political broadcasts and conferences. For example BBC Scotland showed a whole afternoon of a Scottish political conference while the rest of the UK had sport. With Freeview you have no choice but to watch your own region, with Freesat you can view other regions.

Coady

Exactly, wherever you are in the UK, you will lose out on football from the other UK conutries on freeview. Freesat has every regional & national variant of BBC, ITV & C4. This provides a surprsingly big increase in live sport available on freesat. I have had both in the past & even had full freeview at my old house. Even then, I would still suggest that freesat is the far better and more reliable service.

May I also add more great coverage on freesat, that I have just discovered thanks to another forum. On CNBC News (Channel 210), which again is not available on freeview, highlight coverage from rounds 3 & 4 of US PGA Tour Golf Tournaments is shown between 1-3pm on Saturday & Sunday. I thought Sky sports had all PGA Tour golf that wasn't on BBC so am delighted & surprised to see this! Watching the final rounds from players like Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy & other top players surely provides another advantage over freeview for freesat? I'm very happy to see this as a golf fan!

Coady

There is another huge week of sport on freesat next week as many big events take place across the available channels. Although this isn't the busiest week of the football calendar on freesat, there is more than enough top sports coverage to make up for this! I'll start as always with the live football.

Saturday 13th April
Scottish FA Cup Semi Final
Hibernian v Falkirk
12:30pm KO
BBC 1 Scotland/HD

Saturday 13th April
Welsh Premier League
Aberystwyth Town v Newtown AFC
15:45pm KO
S4C

Sunday 14th April
FA Cup Semi Final
Chelsea v Manchester City
16:00pm KO
ITV/ITV HD

Friday 19th April
FA Youth Cup Semi Final 2nd Leg
Chelsea v Liverpool
19:45pm KO
ITV4

Sunday 21st April
Scottish Premier League
St Johnstone v Ross County
16:05pm KO
BBC ALBA

In addition to these live football matches there are the usual highlight shows, including an FA Cup highlights show on ITV HD this Saturday evening at 22:50pm for all the highlights from the first FA Cup Semi Final (Millwall v Wigan Athletic).

Also, do not forget the first live F1 offering from the BBC1 HD team in the 2013 season is this weekend. Qualifying is at 7am today, with the race starting at 8am on Sunday 14th April. Furthermore, live coverage from the final 2 rounds of the Masters at Augusta are on BBC2 HD this weekend, from 7.30pm on both Saturday & Sunday evening I believe.

The exciting start to the new IPL season continues on ITV4 every day this week, with live games from 3pm every day. Some days also offer a double header, with the coverage starting at 11am on those days. Next sunday (21st) the World Championship Snooker starts on the BBC Channels, with Ronnie O'Sullivan back to defend his title this year!

A great week of sport to look forward to, I hope you enjoy it! I wrote this weeks post with no aid, other than the TV Choice listings magazine.

scotsbob

Not forgetting 5 hours of the Melrose Sevens on BBC2 Scotland and 10 hours of the US Masters on BBC2 and the live Pro Rugby on BBC Alba

[Deleted User]

Coady wrote: »

I wrote this weeks post with no aid, other than the TV Choice listings magazine.

So are you making this a weekly update to promote Freesat?
Do remember that people who pay for the premium Sport channels will get this free stuff in addition to their subscriptions.

And really;

Coady wrote: »

Aberystwyth Town v Newtown AFC

That's pretty minority interest.:D

shortchanged_2

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

So are you making this a weekly update to promote Freesat?
Do remember that people who pay for the premium Sport channels will get this free stuff in addition to their subscriptions.

And really;

That's pretty minority interest.:D

Yes, but to be fair you have to pay normally (discount free) at least £40+ a month to get Sky sports.