It has been well known that the Five channel was not able to launch on freeview due to programming rights issues, and possibly being “locked into” a contract with Sky.
Although it has only been available through Terrestrial TV, Freeview and Sky, the official Freesat website has always stated that it would be joining Freesat at some time in 2008.
It is rumoured that Five, Fiver and Five US will all be joining Freesat in 2008.
We will update you when we know more.
Freesat, today announced the addition of six new radio and television channels launching this Friday, the 5th September.
The newest additions to the Freesat roster particularly strengthen the platform’s radio line-up, including from the Republic of Ireland RTE’s Radio 1, RTE 2fm, RTE lyric fm and RTE Raidio na Gaeltachta. This means that RTE Radio 1 is broadcasting for the GAA All Ireland Hurling Final this weekend, and the All Ireland Football Final on 21 September.
Also new to the platform are the three time-delayed services from Channel 4, including Film4 + 1, More4 + 1, and E4 + 1. All channels will show identical programming to the originals, but time-delayed by one hour.
The Channel 4+1 stations are already free-to-air and will join Freesat at a later date.
All channels and variants will automatically be added to the set-top boxes, so viewers will not need to take any action to view the new services.
