We’ve a few days before the next race and Erol asked a few questions in a comment which I think are good for a wider audience:-
“I came across your site doing a Google search for Cycling coverage on TV, and am hoping you can spare a few minutes to provide me with some information. At the moment I currently receive British Eurosport 1 & 2 through my Sky box but I am fed up with having to pay for poor coverage of cycling events, especially when compared to International Eurosport which is also free.
From the google searches I’ve done it seems that Internation Eurosport’s English feed is only broadcast through analogue, whereas the digital feed for International Eurosport is in German. My problem is that I live in South Wales where analogue is due to be switched off next year so it won’t be very cost effective to buy all the analogue kit if it won’t work in 12 months time. Is my only realistic long term option to buy a dish that would allow me to pick up digital International Eurosport (plus a German dictionary!)?
By the way – fascinating stuff reading about all the foreign channels that show cycling. Are you able to recommend a good dish that could pick up these channels? I like the sound of the motor control too. I don’t fancy climbing up a ladder every other day to reposition the dish!
I’ll give the easy answers first: I believe pretty much any dish on sale in the UK should pick up the channels located at 28e and 19e from South Wales. 60cm or larger will also pick up 13e and 5w without much trouble and that’ll cover most of the cycling channels in the main European languages. 80cm will pick up a few more, but I don’t have listings for most of them, so don’t often cover them. I’m currently just over the water from you, in Somerset, using a 60cm solid dish which I think was Technisat-branded, but I’m not climbing the ladder to check today.
Usually, the biggest challenge is finding a place for the dish that has an unobstructed view of several satellite positions and not just Freesat’s home at 28e (which is all most people here care about, after all). There are online tools which can help, but nothing beats standing outside with a compass after using one of the satellite position calculators.
To watch several satellites, you can either use a motor or an offset bracket with several LNBs and a switch. A motor is better because you only need one LNB and can use a smaller dish; an offset bracket is better because I hear that it’s a bit simpler to install and offers near-instant channel-changing between satellites. I use a USALS motor bought a couple of years ago from Brymar, but other direct sellers like SatCure or high-street stores like Maplin have them too.
You’re quite right that the free-to-air Eurosport digital broadcast is only in German at the moment, while English is available on analogue. While that analogue signal will probably be switched off eventually (watch AnalogueSat for news), that’s not the same as the “analogue switch-off” or “digital switchover” (DSO) advertised on your local TV channels. The date given in those adverts is for terrestial broadcasts received through your aerial: around that date, the old BBC-1, BBC-2, itv, C4/S4C and five signals will cease and only Freeview will be broadcast. It has nothing to do with satellite TV: the main UK satellite TV system went digital-only years ago.
I’m not sure whether we’ll get Eurosport in English on digital after they switch off the analogue, but I don’t think they’ve even announced when switch-off will happen yet. AnalogueSat reports that some other analogue channels at 19e will switch off in 2011 and 2012, so you’ll probably get a couple of years of viewing. If you get a combined analogue/digital receiver, or a digital receiver with a “LNB pass-through” socket and a second-hand analogue receiver, you can run both from one dish and a single LNB very easily.
Eurosport 2 doesn’t seem to be free-to-air anywhere, but more of the cycling is on International Eurosport than Eurosport 2. I think I’ve read that Sky has a stake in British Eurosport, so I doubt that will ever be free-to-air, even if BBC+itv’s Freesat is successful.
Anyone with any more questions? Please ask in a comment and I’ll try to answer.
I agree with your comments. I collated information about the Tour de France back in 2004. I’m afraid the information is way out of date but some of it may still be of interest. I have provided a link to the relevant web page. Interestingly, in 2004, the shut-down of analogue satellite was ‘imminent’ and it never happened! So I think I’d give it two more years, as you suggest. The satellites will run out of fuel eventually but, as long as they remain up there, the broadcasts will probably continue.
Martin (SatCure)
Comment by Martin (SatCure) — 2008-06-02 @ 03:06+00:00
Many thanks for that comprehensive answer.
I’ve had a look at the satellite position calculator charts and most of the satellites I will need are positioned in the sky to the south and south-east of my house. As bad luck would have it there are some incredibly tall trees that dwarf my house to the south, located in my neighbour’s garden just 10 metres away. And when I say large, I mean that they dwarf my house! Are trees likely to cause poor picture reception or is it mainly large buildings that cause the problems?
Comment by Erol — 2008-06-02 @ 07:55+00:00
I’ve been fortunate enough never to suffer this one myself, but I might if a neighbouring tree keeps growing. As I understand it, trees in the way reduce the signal strength and more so when they’ve got leaves – which is when most cycling is on.
Are they definitely in the way? You’re aiming for satellites that are around 22 degrees above the horizon as we see it (if I remember correctly), so you don’t need to be very far away to see over an obstruction – roughly two metres back for every metre up. I’ve a 100m hill to the south of me with one of the steepest roads in England on it (yeah, I know, wimpy compared to Welsh hills) and my dish seems to clear it easily.
If they’re blocking your view, I think all you can try a larger dish to compensate for signal loss, put the dish as high as safely possible if it helps to clear the obstruction, ask your neighbour if they’ll cut the trees a bit and, if not, maybe ask your local planning department – if they’re that tall and to the south of you, aren’t they blocking your daylight too?
Comment by MJ Ray — 2008-06-03 @ 07:50+00:00
[…] the BBC – or some other national broadcasters in Europe – by satellite, I’m currently taking Questions About Cycling on Satellite over on my Cycling Fans […]
Pingback by MJR's slef-reflections: BBC website, TV and Technology — 2008-06-03 @ 09:47+00:00
I live in Bournemouth, Hnats and recently got a free to air system (technomate TM-5600 CI USB plus motorised 80cm dish). I have been able to view the Giro on Eurosport with English commnetary via the Hotbird satellite. As usual Eurosport dumps cycling coverage for tennis or football and it isn’t always easy to find out when highlights are going to be broadcast when they do this. The EPG is pretty useless for anything other than main BBC channels.
Comment by John Lewis — 2008-06-03 @ 05:20+00:00
Eurosport doesn’t broadcast EPG at all, as far as I can tell. On the German broadcast at 19e, their teletext schedule pages 301-303 are usually nearly right, but they will stay with the end of a tennis match before going to a cycle race and then cut away before the podium to go to another tennis match, which is annoying. They even cut the final podium off the Giro!
Hotbird at 13e also carries the RAI Sport Piu channel which covers quite a lot of cycling, but its schedule pages are on RAI Uno’s teletext (page 518) which seems odd.
Comment by MJ Ray — 2008-06-04 @ 07:59+00:00
On a related theme – I get the German analogue footprint from 19e (International Eurosport + the free German channels). Can I pick up other non-German channels which are also located at ’19e’? My system was set up by a local shop (now defunct) primarily to get Eurosport; is there ‘hidden’ stuff which I can pick up with some re-jigging?
Sorry if it’s a dumb question btw!
Comment by Dave — 2008-06-08 @ 12:53+00:00
For the Tour last year, I bought a 60cm dish and receiver (from Maplins) to watch the cycling on Eurosport. Since I only get it in German, I assume I have a digital package. I invested in a German dictionary and grammar guide, and am enjoying learning the language!
I did try swinging the dish around, but do not seem able to pick up 13e signal – much as I’d like to. Does anyone know if I need a bigger dish? I live in south London.
Comment by kate — 2008-06-08 @ 02:35+00:00
@Dave – yes, you should be able to get other non-German channels by hooking up a digital receiver if your dish has a universal LNB. CNBC is the only other non-German analogue channel in the list on http://www.analoguesat.co.uk/
@kate – I would have expected a 60cm dish to pick up 13e there, but it will be much fiddlier than 19e, but you could buy one of those whistling signal meters from Maplins. Note that the satellites appear to be in an arc over the horizon, so you’ll need to tilt the dish a little as well as swinging it round (which is why USALS motor poles are not vertical). From memory, I think you need to tilt forwards, but I wouldn’t swear to it.
Comment by MJ Ray — 2008-06-08 @ 06:23+00:00
Re #9 – thanks for the answer. I remember now the installer said it could be adapted for digital if the time came. I just pray analogue keeps going for as long as possible; I like the picture & there’s great pleasure to be had in finding a small race on a local German channel! Plus International ES has been pretty good cycling-wise this season IMO.
Comment by Dave — 2008-06-09 @ 12:24+00:00
Thanks for the advice, Dave – will give that a try!
Comment by kate — 2008-06-09 @ 02:14+00:00
Re the above: sorry, you’re M. J. Ray, not Dave! Many apologies.
Comment by kate — 2008-06-09 @ 02:15+00:00
to get eurosport international in english language, the analogue sat at 19deg astra 1 i recall has it, I have an old amstrad rx and put an lnb on it from a digital rx like sky and hey presto it works..
Comment by Vee — 2009-01-09 @ 03:49+00:00