Back in February of 2018, it was announced - with just 2 days’ notice - that Channel
4 HD would no longer be available on Freesat, due to a disagreement between Channel 4 and
Freesat over carriage fees, which are the fees paid by channels to be featured as a
Freesat channel and for a spot in the Programme Guide.
This just means that, at the time of making this video, Channel 4 HD no longer appears
as a channel in the guide, but with just a tiny bit of tinkering in the settings it’s
still possible to receive Channel 4 HD for free on your Freesat box, so I’ll show you
how to do just that... coming up.
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The channels which make up the Freesat lineup are all broadcast by the group of Astra satellites
up in space at 28.2ºE, exactly the same satellites which broadcast TV services to Sky customers.
A selection of the “Free to Air” channels which are broadcast by the Astra satellites
are made available with no subscription via the Freesat service, which is partly funded
by carriage fees paid by broadcasters to have their channels included in the service.
So, when Channel 4 and Freesat fell out over money, all that happened is that the HD version
of the Channel 4 channel was removed from the on-screen Freesat EPG - it’s still being
broadcast in exactly the same way and it’s still a free channel which isn’t encrypted,
so it’s perfectly legal to put your Freesat box into “Set Top Box” or “non-Freesat”
mode, scan the airwaves to find the channel and watch it.
To do this, just press Settings on your Freesat remote, and then select System Settings. Scroll
down to STB mode and then across and select Change to non-Freesat mode. You’ll see a
message which says no channels are available. Press OK to search channels.
This will take you to the non-Freesat channel search screen, and here we just need to dial
in the correct settings in order to tune in to Channel 4 HD. By default, the Transponder
option will be set to All, but if you leave that highlighted and press OK on your remote,
you can select User Define instead. Here, we can enter the specific settings for Channel
4 HD.
Under Frequency, type in 11126. For Polarization, select Vertical. For Symbol rate, select 22000
(twenty two thousand). Leave Transmission as DVB, and for FEC select 5/6.
Don’t worry if you don’t know what any of that means - I haven’t got a clue either!
Press Save, and then back on the non-Freesat channel search screen, press Next. Leave the
other channel search options as they are, and then select Start channel search.
Almost straight away you should find the two channels which exist at that frequency - one
of which is the one we’re after, Channel 4 HD! Press Save channels, and BOOM - you’re
now watching Channel 4 in lovely, glorious High Definition again.
On newer Freesat boxes, you can’t record non-Freesat channels unfortunately, although
on some older ones you can so if you’ve been a Freesat viewer for longer then this
will work even better for you. Whilst in non-Freesat mode you can’t see any other channels unless
you’ve tuned them in as well, and you can’t access the TV guide, so to switch back to
watch other channels simply press Home, and then select Freesat Mode, and your box will
change back into normal mode again and let you view the tv guide and all the other channels.
So, now you’ve got Channel 4 HD saved all you need to do next time you want to watch
it is press Settings, scroll down to System Settings, scroll down to STB mode and press
change to non-freesat mode. That will take you straight to Channel 4 HD, and then to
switch back just press Home, then Freesat mode. Once you get the hang of it it’s very
quick to switch between the two and whilst it’s not the same as having it appear in
the guide alongside the other channels, hopefully this will help you in the meantime until Channel
4 and Freesat hopefully kiss and make up... one day.
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