Possible to get Freeview without an aerial?

OldFoggies22

We've just bought a house and have realised that we cannot get Freeview TV due to trees blocking the signal. We have reached out to the council who have said pruning the trees or removing them is a big 'No, No'. We've had an aerial installer out and after spending 6 hours trying to find somewhere to install a TV aerial, he says that is a 'No, No' as well!

We've had a satellites dish engineer out who, you guessed it, also said it's a big 'No, No'.

Luckily, we do have access to G.Fast broadband at a steady 300Mb/s so for a lot of stuff we have been able to opt for a NOW TV subscription. Sadly, not everything we want to access is on there! We like to listen to the radio and the station we have always listened to is too far away for FM or DAB. We have Freeview Play on our SMART TV but again, this is limited to a few channels.

We have noticed there are some devices that are hacked so you can watch live TV over the internet but we would prefer to do it the legal way. Sadly we can't seem to find any legal way that we can access all the channels we can't get on NOW TV or Freeview play!

Does anyone know of any way we can get access to Freeview / Freesat channels without having an aerial or a dish? We've looked at TV from broadband providers like BT TV, TalkTalk TV etc. They all still use an aerial for the Freeview channels. Virgin Media is also not an option as the area is uncabled!

We're not interested in getting access to pay to view channels, just the free to air ones over the internet somehow.

Neil_Jones

You can watch the terrestrial channels on their appropriate apps - iPlayer, ITV Hub, All4 and catch up on My5.  This can all be done through a web browser on your computer (or you can get them through the Apps on NowTV).

Are the trees on your land?  Assuming they don't have protection orders on them, you could just chop them down if that's the case, though pruning may be a better solution.  Realistically if trees are bigger than the house then they're going to be ripe for pruning I would have thought by now.  You must have a lot of trees if there is seriously no wall or anywhere on the property to mount a dish that's pointing in the right direction.

Do you know if the trees are  deciduous  or not? (ie would they lose their leaves when the colder months come round?)  If so the problem should fix itself temporarily until the following spring, but that's the ideal time to trim them.  Its the leaves that cause the issue, not the branches, but if you trim the branches the leaves can't grow.

If the problematic trees are in on a neighbour's property, it's most likely game over because as daft as it sounds you have no legal right to receive a signal, only a licence to operate a receiver.  You might have to ask the neighbour to prune his trees, and you should expect to be told where you can go and multiply, so to speak.

pphillips

Have you had a look at the Roku streaming stick?

[Deleted User]

Can you get cable?

You ain’t missing much not being able to get live tv. Most stuff is available on catchup. 

mobileron

You need a firestick 4k and broadband, all u need is on there.there is also a freesat app and many more,get onto youtube will show u how.

Mister_G

Deleted_User said:

Can you get cable?

You ain’t missing much not being able to get live tv. Most stuff is available on catchup. 

From the OP
"Virgin Media is also not an option as the area is uncabled!"

Cornucopia

Can I suggest that you say which channels it is that you cannot get, and then people can recommend ways of getting them?

Your Smart TV should be able to install Radioplayer or Tunein Radio, both of which carry lots of stations.

Norman_Castle

OldFoggies22 said:

We've had an aerial installer out and after spending 6 hours trying to find somewhere to install a TV aerial, he says that is a 'No, No' as well!

 We like to listen to the radio and the station we have always listened to is too far away for FM or DAB. We have Freeview Play on our SMART TV but again, this is limited to a few channels.

6 hours to decide you cannot get a signal? I'm surprised you cannot use satellite tv.

FM and probably DAB radio signals can often be improved with an external aerial. I stayed at a friends recently and used their Amazon Echo dot for the radio. Check if your station is available online. Its probably also cheaper to run than the tv.

Neil49

We don't have an aerial connection for our kitchen tv so use a Now tv (Roku) stick to watch a wide range of channels including all the BBC, ITV, 4 (various) and 5 (various) for example all connected by wifi. Catchup is also available as well as a vast selection of box sets. Do you want YouTube (it's there), Sky (available by subscription) 

What else do you want to watch?

Just to add that you don't need a Now tv subscription to use the Now tv box. All the main channels I've listed above can be viewed live. I really can't see what you are doing wrong. For radio get an Echo dot or similar and get access to more radio stations than you can imagine including local BBC etc. 

DCFC79

Where is it you would listen to the radio ?

If in the kitchen (and the tv isn't there) then Echo Dot or an internet radio.

callum5

You could try an app called TVPlayer, it gives you Freeview channels with an option to purchase more for £6.99 per month. The only downside is that you don't get the regional versions of BBC and ITV.

https://tvplayer.com