Dished

Holiday home in Europe ?  Been taking advantage of the "free" in Freesat to watch BBC channels via a nice little dish ?  No longer, it seems.

Over the past few days, transmission of UK "free" channels, from the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, has been moved to a new satellite, Astra 2E.  It has a stronger, more UK-focussed footprint, which should improve reception on the South East coast of England, the north eastern fringes of East Anglia, the North East of Scotland and the Shetland Isles.

However, it means blank screens in many parts of southern and central Europe, where people will have to buy a bigger dish - or find another cute way of getting "free" UK services.

Read this litany from SkyinMadrid:

GERMANY BBC channels have disappeared from the north around Hanover through Munich and to the Austrian border. Previously, 60 to 90cm dishes were enough. Dishes of around 120cm may be needed. This is guesswork, no-one needed dishes this big before.
POLAND A 1.0m dish has lost BBC near the German border, 100km east from Berlin.
ITALY No BBC for most in the centre and south. 1.5m is OK in Verona, 1.25m in Milan. Between this area and Rome, 1.8 to 2.5 metres. Further south, in Potenza, Basilicata (well south of Rome), a monster 3.4 metre Prodelin dish is receiving the the UK Spot beam.
FRANCE Large scale losses from the southernmost quarter of the country. Typically dishes have been 80-90cm in the past. In some areas, a re-tune and a better LNB will get the signals back, but with little rain margin. A 120cm. may be needed. Near the border with Catalunya, the signal is worse. There is a report of a well-tuned 90 cm retaining the BBC between Cannes and Nice, but many reports of BBC loss in the region, roughly in a line drawn eastwards and westwards north of Toulouse.
GREECE Complete loss of BBC in all reports.
NORTH AFRICA Tunisia and Tangiers, loss of BBC on 2 metre dishes. Perhaps surprisingly, the BBC was easy to receive in N. Africa.
SWEDEN Losses on 1.2m dishes. 1.5 to 1.8m may be needed in most parts of the country.
NORWAY Dishes of 90cm used to be OK in the south, but not now. Upgrades to 120cm may be needed. CANARIES Dishes of 2.4 to 3.2 now necessary. A good quality, and expensive, 2.4m ChannelMaster type is needed with a top quality LNB. Reports of BBC loss on 3.2m dishes in Tenerife.
PORTUGAL From the centre of the country southwards, little or no signal is being received on dishes of 3 metres. In Coimbra, a 1.5m will give a just-about adequate signal with no rain margin. In Villa Real, in the north, 1.8m works OK. The Algarve is a BBC disaster zone. Nothing on any size dish, even 3 metres and up.
SPAIN The lower third of the country has lost all BBC. Dishes of 3 metres are receiving no signal in Costa Del Sol. Most dishes in the Málaga region are 1.2m (1.3m vertically) which will just get the Europe beam used by Sky's pay channels. However, no BBC, ITV, Channel Four and associated channels will be received, even with a Sky subscription. The only ITV channels which can be received are ITV 2,3,4 in HD as part of the Sky HD pack. The cut off point seems to be around Mojájar. To the north, some dishes are still working. To the south, there are no reports of any dish of any size still receiving the BBC. In Quesada, 1.8m is OK, as is a 1.9m in Alicante. In Benidorm, 1.2m is OK. Mazarrón seems to be OK with 1.8m. A 2.4m in this region gives good rain margin. In Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque country, many dishes have stopped working. 1.2m to 1.5m may now be needed. In León, a 1.5 receives nothing, as does an 80cm in Vitoria-Gasteiz. In the Balearics, many dishes are still working. Barcelona and Catalunya are now in a dead spot, with no measureable signal. Previously, 80-90cm dishes were used. The signal starts to appear again south of Tarragona, and north of the French border, but nothing in between.