10 Facts Free-to-Air Satellite Installers may Never tell A Beginner

There are things to ask your FTA installer as a beginner before you proceed with your FTA satellite TV installations. For obvious reasons, Free to Air experts and enthusiasts may never tell you certain things. At least, they won’t tell you before you invest in satellite TV equipment. Don’t blame us because you may lose interest immediately if we tell you. However, I will spill some of the beans so that on your part as the customer, you can ask sensible questions to get the best advice from the FTA experts who would be handling your satellite TV installation. You may have some of the answers to these mysteries as a beginner in the free-to-air satellite business. I was also once in your shoes, and I learned the hard way.

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Things to ask your FTA installer Before you buy Your Satellite TV Equipment

In this section, I shall be discussing valuable tips on the things you need to ask your installer before investing in setting up a free-to-air satellite TV system.

• What Type of Installation are you Planning to Set-up for me?

Some installers will want to install an IKS/cardsharing solution for you under the disguise of FTA. The only way for you to know is that they will ask you to connect the device to the internet before it can open certain channels. Simply ask them if you will need a special account or subscription along with stable internet to enjoy the channels. Another way to know if you are about to pay for a 100% FTA, a pseudo-FTA, or a cardsharing is in the content. Immediate the satellite TV promises you live premium soccer matches for free, for a one-off payment or for a token, know that you are not doing FTA.

• Free to air Offers very few local Contents

Secondly, you will get more foreign content than local content. This is partly good news since most people can easily get local channels. Besides, local channels tend to be boring.

Furthermore, the foreign content you will receive on FTA is global. You can get channels from all the world’s continents, such as Asia, America, Africa, Europe, Australia, etc.

• In most cases, Some of the Channels are not in English

Let’s take some MBC FTA channels as our example. Some of them are not broadcast in English. As an English speaker, you will receive channels speaking in Chinese, French, Zulu, Arabic, Portuguese,  Hindu, etc.

That notwithstanding, you will still receive many of the channels in English. Sometimes, even if the audio is not in English, it will be subtitled. Come to think of it, If you can speak and read French, then you are at an advantage because there are several French channels.

• When you receive some channels in English, the commercial break may not run in English. This is nothing.
• Also, it is essential to note that some of the best channels have strange subtitles.

• You have a wide array of Religious channels on some satellite positions

Religious channels dominate some satellite positions. An example of a satellite position with many religious channels is Intelsat 20 68.5E. Some Christian religious channels you can receive are Sunna, Loveworld, Emmanuel TV, Starcross, and Angel TV, among others.

• At times, FTA Channels are Scrambled and for no Reason

Some channels are scrambled for no reason at all. Through lyngsat, you will be able to get to some of the TV station’s websites, and you will ask yourself why they are scrambled. For example, why is Walf TV from Senegal scrambled? They speak French in Senegal, so to an English speaker. In addition, signals of some channels might go off randomly

• The Bigger your dish, the more Premium FTA channels you will enjoy

Big C band dish needs a considerable amount of space to install. This is obvious. Read about the differences between prime focus and offset dishes here.  Also, read the difference between KU-Band and C-Band LNB here.

• You can’t Receive and watch Premium football Content reliably on FTA Packages.

For premium and reliable soccer like EPL, you must get a subscription from a pay-TV company operating in your region. Reliable Football content is not for free; you need to pay for it somehow, either legally or illegally.

• To Enjoy more FTA channels, you need to attach multiple LNBFs to your Dish.

This you will find out for yourself: You will not be satisfied with one dish only. The more, the better the satisfaction and the more an expert you will become. However, if you have a big dish with multiple LNBS, you can motorize it and receive channels on various satellites using your single BUD. Otherwise, you will need to install multiple dishes to enjoy enough.