Is this too good to be true?

Mr.Nice Guy

Anyone know anything about this site and whether or not it's legitimate?

Bye Bye TV Bills

SATELLITE TV WITH NO MONTHLY BILLS

Bye Bye TV Bills is a business dedicated to the roll out of free to air television in Ireland.

We offer a range of services to consumers and businesses within Leinster. Services include: Free to Air Satellite Installation, Aerial Installation, Combination Package, Sky Migration Package and many other services.

FREE TO AIR SATELLITE

What is Free To Air?

Freesat / Sat4Free is a new Free to Air Satellite service which was launched in May 2008. This service offers you over 130 digital TV and radio channels including a number of Free HD channels also. The on screen TV programme guide makes it easy for you to choose what you want to watch.

Free to Air Satellite is a term to describe satellite signals which you can legally receive without a subscription. Free to Air Satellite programming is encoded with MPEG 2 but is not encrypted and, therefore, freely available. Hence the term Free to Air.

There's a leaflet which I've got offering over 100 channels for under €300 and apparently no monthly bills. My family are thinking about getting this done but to me it sounds a bit too good to be true?

Anyone have more info on this?

fintonie

im sorry I don't, but its possible the channels may be from abroad, it does sound a bit to good to be through I would find out what the channels are they are suppling. Sorry about the sore head.

tvnutz

fintonie wrote: »

im sorry I don't but its possible the channels may be from abroad it does sound a bit to good to be through I would find out what the channels are

My head hurts when trying to read this...

Mr.Nice Guy

These are the channels they say they can show:

http://www.byebyetvbills.ie/channels.html

I just went on to Wikipedia and with regards to free-to-air TV in Ireland it states:

The Republic of Ireland's TV broadcasters are encrypted exclusively for BSkyB subscribers in Ireland. These channels are not even Free to View and require a Sky subscription. RTÉ state that this is to protect their broadcast rights for sports and imported programming but as RTÉ will not even consider a Free to View scheme for their channels there is speculation that RTÉ are restricted by a secret deal with Sky for the conditional free carriage of their channels on the Sky platform.

I'm not sure what this means exactly but it leads me to doubt this other website. I don't want my family forking out on something that's dodgy.

Would love to hear from someone more knowledgeable on technical stuff like this.

fintonie

No boder I was trying to say it might be fixed, hope you get it sorted be lucky.

byte

This sort of product has been available for ages. Most satellite installers offer something like this in some shape or form. Some retailers will be offering such a package for less than that, so shop around.

It's just FTA signals from Astra 2, which includes most of what's quoted in the link (some channels like Bubble Hits and Fight Network have ceased).

Note that you'll need a TV aerial of some description (depending on location and local transmitter) for your Irish channels - RTE1, RTE2, TV3 and TG4, as these are encrypted on satellite (mentioned above).

Mr.Nice Guy

Cheers for that, byte. Didn't want to potentially end up acquiring some 'magic beans' so to speak.

paraicr

its not too good to be true, free to air satellite has been around for a good while.

Regards the price, i picked up a dish, reciever and all the extra bits up in an electricla store for €100 and installed it myself. Its fairly straightforward.Maplins is probably the best place to go. If you dont fancy doing it yourself i've seen leaflets with the same offered for €200.

You'll get all the channels listed on your link for free.


Theres a sattellite forum on boards where you'll get more info on free to air.

fintonie

byte wrote: »

This sort of product has been available for ages. Most satellite installers offer something like this in some shape or form. Some retailers will be offering such a package for less than that, so shop around.

It's just FTA signals from Astra 2, which includes most of what's quoted in the link (some channels like Bubble Hits and Fight Network have ceased).

Note that you'll need a TV aerial of some description (depending on location and local transmitter) for your Irish channels - RTE1, RTE2, TV3 and TG4, as these are encrypted on satellite (mentioned above).

N1 thanks for that, I will be looking into this myself Ill get it if its not a scam.

jhegarty

All looks legit to me.

The stations are transmitted free, for anyone to pick up.

timmywex

Looks legit here aswell, receive alot of them on a free to air system in my house already

Expresso Bongo

tvnutz wrote: »

My head hurts when trying to read this...

two through.

ScumLord

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

The Republic of Ireland's TV broadcasters are encrypted exclusively for BSkyB subscribers in Ireland. These channels are not even Free to View and require a Sky subscription. RTÉ state that this is to protect their broadcast rights for sports and imported programming but as RTÉ will not even consider a Free to View scheme for their channels there is speculation that RTÉ are restricted by a secret deal with Sky for the conditional free carriage of their channels on the Sky platform.

That's pretty discrasful if true. You shouldn't need to get sky ontop of your tv license just to watch digital versions of RTE.

Mossy Monk

ScumLord wrote: »

That's pretty discrasful if true. You shouldn't need to get sky ontop of your tv license just to watch digital versions of RTE.

Would you rather they didn't broadcast on satellite at all? RTÉ isn't free via cable either. Is that disgraceful also?

Ludo

Mossy Monk wrote: »

Would you rather they didn't broadcast on satellite at all? RTÉ isn't free via cable either. Is that disgraceful also?

Yes actually it is. It should be free to view on all mediums for license payers.

mehmeh12

Why not just watch the tv you want online? Instead of viewing one episode of a series at a specific time on networks, i just watch the whole series of something all in one go.

Mossy Monk

Ludo wrote: »

Yes actually it is.

Really? So i can go to a house that has not signed up for UPC, connect my tv to socket in the wall and watch digital feeds of RTÉ free of charge? Great.

Dr. Nick

Wouldn't a diy kit from Lidl @ €80 do the same??

Hate to see rip-offs.

Ludo

Mossy Monk wrote: »

Really? So i can go to a house that has not signed up for UPC, connect my tv to socket in the wall and watch digital feeds of RTÉ free of charge? Great.

hmmm...that reads like you are making out I am saying that is the way it is...I meant it is a disgraceful that rte isn't free via cable also.

I believe if you have cable in your home from UPC (a former subscriber for example like myself) then the RTE channels should be unencrypted on it and viewable without a decoder or having to continue paying a sub. It should be a requirement of any tv carrier in the state that they provide space for the national channels for free and after that they can add on whatever else they want at whatever price. Never going to happen of course.

Aren't sky forced to carry the national channels in the UK at the top of the EPG and people are entitled to a free (maybe once off tiny payment) card for viewing them if they don't subscribe to sky? Similar concept.

Mossy Monk

Ludo wrote: »

I believe if you have cable in your home from UPC (a former subscriber for example like myself) then the RTE channels should be unencrypted on it and viewable without a decoder or having to continue paying a sub.

This is not the case though. You know this, Iknow this but not everyone does. I have lived in a house that had no free access to the Irish channels via cable. You had to pay a subscription for the connection to become active. This is the very same as Sky Digital. Regardless of what package you have RTÉ is available to you.

RTÉ will never be free on satellite in the same was as the BBC is free. Why? It would cost them an absolute fortune in programming rights.