Do you get the most out of your Digital TV?
[05/2009]
Freeview
Freeview is the easiest way to enjoy digital TV for free. You can get over 50 digital channels without subscription fee or monthly
contract.
To get Freeview, you either need to buy a special Freeview set-top box and connect it to your existing TV set, or consider getting a
new TV that has a built-in Freeview receiver.
To receive Freeview, you must be in range of a Freeview transmitter. To check this, enter your
postcode at www.digitaluk.co.uk/postcodechecker
Sky
Sky Digital currently offers the widest number of digital TV channels in the UK (over 250).
When you sign up to Sky, you need to select a number of channel packages you want to subscribe to - this will typically include some standard
"Sky packs", with optional "premium packs" (such as Movies or Sports channels). You'll also get a number of free-to-view channels as well.
98% of the UK is able to receive Sky's satellite signal. You'll need to have a satellite dish installed on the outside your home to get satellite TV.
Freesat
Freesat was set up to ensure that everyone can access the best of free digital TV, no matter where they live in the UK.
Freesat is a non-profit company owned by the nation's two most popular broadcasters, the BBC and ITV.
Without subscription, a number of free-to-view channels are available with a suitable dish and digibox.
Freesat offers over 140 free-to-view channels via a dish with no contract and no monthly bills.
To be able to watch Freesat, you will need a satellite dish as well as a set-top box. Prices of set-top boxes start at about £50 depending on
additional features such as built in hard drive.
Virgin Media
Cable TV is delivered to homes using under-street fibre-optic cables. It's only available in parts of the UK, typically areas of
high population. To find out if Virgin Media is available in your area visit its website.
If you're in a cable TV area, they offer a number of packages, the top one of which, 'Extra Large', offers over 165 channels. You can add extra
subscription services such as Sky Sports, Setanta Sport, and Sky Movies.
Virgin Media's digital TV offering also includes Virgin TV On Demand service, which offers on-demand viewing of over 500 movies, as well as
instant access to 1000s of TV shows and music videos.
BT Vision
Many see Television-over-Broadband (sometimes known as IPTV), or Video-on-Demand as the future of television, and BT has now
positioned itself as a big player in this market.
BT Vision is a digital TV service that's available only to BT Total Broadband customers. BT Vision offers digital TV (using Freeview via a TV aerial),
a digital video recorder and supports TV and video content you watch over a BT Broadband connection.
The standard service is subscription-free, or you can get extra on demand content on a pay-to-view basis, and a subscription-free digital TV service.
Top-Up-TV
With the Top Up TV service, you get the standard Freeview channels, plus a selection of TV shows from a number of other channels.
Note that, due to technical limitations, Top Up TV's extra content comes in the form of 'programmes', not 'channels'.
Top Up TV is a service that automatically downloads TV programmes over-the-air to a special set-top box, and lets you view the extra programmes
at a time to suit you.
Over the course of a week, you'll get up to 100 hours of programmes from a variety of different channels, which are downloaded automatically to
your set-top box.
The service consists of a special set-top box, the Top Up TV+ box, which contains either a 160 or 250 gigabyte hard-disk, and a subscription to
their service.
