Satellite

[Zapparocks]

I put this on my facebook page and another local forum so thought I would add the full update

Many newbies to the island are unaware of the Nilesat satellite, it's free to air and any cheap dish and box will do. I have other customers not using their sat box who don't realise many channels haven't vanished but simply changed frequency, it's for this reason I always recommend doing an auto scan every six months or so, something anyone can do themselves. Even for those with the internet it's still handy as a good backup with modern 24hr film channels, mostly American content. So if you have it rescan and add these to the favourite list.

Dubai One, also now in HD a mixture of films and series, all English
Kuwait TV 2 HD, films, series, including Aussi reality shows, English
Mickey TV, cartoons and kid's film, many in English
Scare  TV, horror and thriller films
MBC 2, 24hr films, all English
MBC 3, kids films, series, sometimes in English
MBC 4, series, films, mixed language including English
MBC Max, 24hr films, all English
MBC Action, series, sport and films, nearly all English
Mix Holywood, 24hr films, all English

News channels, all English
BBC World
CNN
Press TV
NHK
Al Jazeera
France 24

Sports, normally in the language of the country of the sport shown
AD 1,2,3 and 4 HD

Dubai Racing 1, 2 and 3, Events and shows concerning horses, dogs and even camel racing
Dubai Sports 1, 2 and 3 
Depending on dish size and whether it is focused on west or east Africa, there are other sports channels too but seem very regional, none have premiership fta

Worth mentioning the other sats which are the BBC Satback system which just has the main British channels but the box bought here can be expensive and requires a large 1.2m dish

Or just the fta channels that don't need a Sky box on the Astra 28.2 sat with a 80cm dish minimum

Hope this helps

[Zapparocks]

I use Nilesat myself in preference to the Astra sat which does have more channels and without the Arabic subtitles which I forgot to mention but the film channels are far superior on Nilesat, though the Astra does have the free Sky news which is very popular but in that case a small 60cm dish can be added to that system to get both sets of channels which also a popular and best option here

[Spitfire58]

Denby (ZappaRocks) has just done an installation for us to get away from Internet TV. A 1.2 metre dish to pick up the BBC satback channels & an 80cm dish for the Nilesat ones. Great guy, great service. The difference is like night & day. No buffering & we have approx 40 channels. His number is :+34 680883544
Highly recommended. Anyone wants any other info, just PM me

[Zapparocks]

Thank you so much and a pleasure to have met you in person at last, do rescan now and again as new channels pop up from time to time

[Pho]

Do check first as it is being reported that the BBC satback satelllite is being scrapped in two months time, and no-one yet knows if the feed will be transferred to the replacement satellite

[Spitfire58]

I was told that but also that this was first noted about 5 years ago & never materialised. Just have to wait & see I suppose 😰😰

[Zapparocks]

Yes that was someone posing to be connected from Arquiva on another forum, they certainly weren't. They were adamant it was to go down and I knew it wouldn't but the disagreement got picked by a sat blogger in Spain and it spread.

What we do know they sent up what's called an MEV to extend the life of another satellite being moved into it's spot, as yes it is due to be scrapped and at the end of it's life but I think that already has been replaced

It's a backup system in case the main terrestrial transmitters go down that feed the network of smaller transmitters across the UK but as always nothing concrete. I might stem from them rolling out a new 3g sat system called BGAN in the first quarter of this year or even because they sold off their cellular network at the end of last year to pay down debt, who knows 

Rumours abound as always but the MEV was to extend the Satback system for another two years at least, so if anything happens before then and if you've heard it's tech related then it's probably false, unless they start changing the codes again which hasn't happened in years now