The news that many expats in Portugal have been dreading, the commissioning date for the new Astra2E satellite has been posted by SES Astra on its social media pages.
The text below is from today's SES Astra's Facebook pages and warn non-UK viewers, which included those in Portugal of course, that the changeover date, and hence the loss of signal for UK programmes receivable in Portugal, will be in early February 2014.
“As part of the SES ongoing fleet renewal programme, we will be transferring all the UK Spot Beam transponders currently operating on ASTRA 1N across to ASTRA 2E.
This move at the 28.2/28.5ºEast orbital location will take place over several weeks beginning early February 2014.
The transfer will have no adverse implications for viewers in the UK and Ireland as the affected channels will continue to operate on the same frequencies and will be broadcast at the same, or slightly improved power levels, across the UK and Ireland.
TV viewers outside the UK and Ireland may see an impact and may not be able to receive channels from ASTRA 2E UK Spot Beam, which has a smaller footprint than ASTRA 1N.
The new footprint on SES' replacement fleet has been designed to meet the requirements of UK and Irish broadcasters who target their channels for distribution in the UK and/or Ireland.
UK and Irish broadcasters hold broadcasting rights only for the UK and/or Ireland but not for other countries.”
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For more information see www.expat-tv-portugal.com
